Author's Note:

Dear friends! This aim of this plot is to flesh out the relationships that my characters have with each other. Thus there is a moment of eroticism here, just not as heightened or explicit has it has been previous installments.

My health continues to suffer, and `Preacher's Son' has become a welcome escape. I have come to rely on it, and your constructive criticism always helps. Do we like where things are going? I'd love an approval rating for Dagwood.

As always, I am at agospelpipe@yahoo.com

I love you all.

And if you can, please consider donating here for the upkeep of this marvelous archive.

 

Preacher's Son VIII: Dagwood.

Let it never be said that Dagwood Pontius King cannot think quickly on his feet. The prospect of going to Resilience with Eli was irresistible, and I knew exactly how I was going to make it happen: The College of St. Vitus. St. Vitus' was one of those places you went to if you had shit grades but good money. You either did all your four years there, or you did two and then you transferred somewhere bigger. I would say that I wanted to tour the campus. Cousin Clarence goes there, so this wouldn't be hard to arrange, and Clarence can be convinced, too. He's annoying, but today he's useful, so...

"Plotting, I see," Violet murmured passing me by. "Setting up auditions for your boyfriend's beard?"

"Can we please forget I said anything to you?"

"No."

Violet turned on her heel and made her way to her reading chair in the living room. It had been several days of her walking by, hurling a prickly barb about how callous I was, and entertaining neither protest nor apology. I hated it. I missed talking to her. You see, I do have friends at school and on the track team, but I have always kept them at arm's length. I am not an asshole: I joke, I help, I go to school events. But I don't go on those joyrides with the guys on the team; the kind where we'll do shots of some kind of bathtub gin and then get sloppily vulnerable the way drunk dudes do. I didn't have to be sunny around Violet. I didn't have to be anything around Violet. We understood each other.

"You have no idea how much I miss you," I was sitting on the rug before Violet's chair, an old childhood habit.

"I do, actually," Violet's voice cracked though she didn't look up from her book. "It's probably about as much as I miss you. Lesser, but close enough. One standard deviation away."

"It's not a competition."

"One standard deviation."

"Fine."

"You gave that up easy."

"I don't want to fight anymore."

"No," she shut her book. "I don't either. I can't do what you've asked of me, Dagwood, but I can move past it with time. But—"

"That is more than I could have asked for."

"Dagwood, may I finish?" Violet sounded somewhat like her old teasing self again. "We may not be in best place with each other right now but thank you for telling me. About you. The gay stuff. You're my brother and I will take a flamethrower to anyone who makes you feel less than. But I am into Eli, too, and it burns me up that he chose you instead."

"Lots of fire imagery there..."

"What are you not saying? What are you hiding under a mid joke?"

"I..." This was going to be hard. "It's not fair of you to say that he chose me when you weren't even in the running.

"It's different for girls." An arid smile. "I saw him at church the first time, and of course, the body..."

"Goddamn, the body..."

"Please..." Violet rolled her eyes. "But it's more than that, isn't it? He's quiet, but I got the sense that he's sensitive. He was so uncomfortable at that deeply homophobic sermon that one time..."

"They're all homophobic"

"Fair. And God, how tough that must be for you. I am so sorry, Dagwood."

"Gotta get used it."

"I wish you didn't," she sighed. "But, yeah, he seems like a guy who'd stand up for the people he cares about. I remember thinking that him not punching you in the face when you called him a hayseed—and you would have deserved it—was him being a gentleman, not stooping to your level."

"HEY!"

"But now I know that he didn't want to hurt you. He let you hurt him because you needed to get whatever aggression out."

"There was no agg..."

"Dagwood, please don't pretend like we haven't grown up together."

"Fine," I conceded. I mean, she wasn't wrong. "How did you glean so much about him without even talking to him?"

"It's different for girls." That wan smile again. "And we have talked. He really likes poetry, evidently."

"He has a great memory for them," I couldn't help but smile.

"Do you know if he writes?"

"Well, I might find out this weekend..." I took a chance. "He wants me to come to Resilience with him."

"Oh." Violet was clipped. "Is that what the plotting face was about? I assume you have something?"

"I'm going to ask daddy to let me tour St. Vitus'."

"They're Catholics!"

"So?" I was taken aback by that oddly prejudiced reaction from Violet. "What do you have against Catholics?"

"Absolutely nothing, idiot!" She shook her head exasperated. "It's going to be a hard sell to Daddy."

"What does he have against Catholics? Besides Clarence goes there!"

"Daddy can be...adamant about how Scripture is interpreted."

"Ugh, you're not wrong..."

"Also, Clarence is a literal idiot, and I will bet you money that Aunt Sarah doesn't know a Jesuit from a cruet set." Violet fumed.

"Impressive rhyme, Sondheim!"

"Thank you." Violet took a deep breath. "I shouldn't be helping you. But I will."

"Huh?"

"I will keep your secret, Dagwood." She was solemn. "But I am not going to make it easy for you."

"What are you saying?"

"I still like him, Dagwood. I never was in the running before, but that changes now. And pretending to be his girlfriend gives me such a head start! I love you, Dagwood, but I intend to get mine for once."

"You can try." I said as I felt a smile of surety bloom across my face.

"I should check out St. Vitus', too, don't you think? College isn't all that far away for us..."

****************

"I am deeply suspicious." Daddy leaned forward in his chair, elbows on the table.

Violet and I had gone to Daddy's office on the farm to plead our case. It was a cramped dusty remnant of what this place must have been like a long time ago before Daddy's loan from his father-in-law and our grandfather. Of course, that loan had paid off richly: the sugarcane that grew here proved to be sweet in all sorts of ways.

"Suspicious of what, sir?" Violet asked. "We just want to tour St. Cletus'..."

"Vitus." Daddy said, struggling not to smile.

"That definitely alleviates your suspicions, I'm sure..." I mumbled, pissed off. C'mon, Violet...

"Dagwood. Violet." Daddy now had his head in his hands. "I am very busy: be straight with me."

The need to snort-laugh was radiating from Violet like light visible only to me.

"Well, sir, the fact of the matter is that we need a change of scene." Violet said.

"And you have chosen Resilience because...?"

"It's a fun college town!" Violet had taken the reins on this conversation. "And we should start looking at colleges, anyway. Bonus: Clarence goes there! He can give us an honest insider's view of what it's like. C'mon, Daddy..."

"Your Cousin Clarence faced difficulty gettin' in the other places he'd hoped for, and I don't think your Aunt Sarah knows, even to this very day, that that place is run by Jesuits."

Violet treated me to a supercilious smirk.

"Do we not like Catholics? Did we decide this as a family? When was that meeting? Where was I?" I blurted out.

"I disagree with some of their ideas about Scripture," Daddy was matter-of-fact. "An intellectual disagreement; nothin' bloodthirsty about it."

"Okay, but can we go?" Violet.

"No." But it wasn't his usual stentorian no, the kind that killed further discussion. "Fine, just go now, okay? Let me do some thinkin'."

"How many business days are we thinking of thinking, because coach tickets..."

The look that Daddy gave Violet told her that she was pushing her luck.

"Dagwood, stay." Daddy said as Violet and I began to retreat.

Violet, in a surprisingly endearing gesture, squeezed my arm before she shut the door behind her. Daddy and I were alone. I didn't dare sit.

"Interestin' how the preacher's boy is from there. Resilience."

"I wasn't even thinking about that."

"Bullshit." Daddy's voice was quiet but he sounded dangerously annoyed.

"He's not going to be there, to my knowledge," I lied. "I don't understand what the problem is."

"Then why are you goin'? Don't say nothin' that school for rich rejects."

"Is it so wrong for me to want to walk the streets that he walked?" Even to me, that sounded mawkish...but it was kinda true, too.

Daddy chuckled.

"Didn't take you to be one for melodrama, boy."

"You may not believe me, sir, but I am seriously considering that school. Eli and I may not be able to be...anything here, but Resilience is his hometown, it's bigger, less uptight and not too far from here."

"You're ready to throw your future away for a boy?"

"I didn't think you to be melodramatic either," Great job, idiot. Agitate him some more. "Sir."

"Dagwood," Daddy's eyes bore into mine. "What part of "stay away from the preacher's boy" do you not understand, son?"

"But I am staying away from him! Can I not plan for the future?" What a snake I'd become. How easily I lied and manipulated.

"So far, your plans for the future are goin' to a school that you're too good, too smart for."

"Actually, I think I can excel anywhere," I said haughtily. "Also, with Violet and Clarence with me this weekend, I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Daddy just sighed. For the first time, he looked weary. Not tired, like after a day spent hard at work, but soul-spent.

"Go home, Dagwood."

 

 

****************

"Did he rake you over the coals?" Violet asked the moment I got home.

"Sure did," I answered. "He doesn't know you know or about this fucked up sibling rivalry thing you're doing."

"I'm going to ignore that," Violet said magnanimously. "Because you should thank me; I have successfully pled our case to our mother. She's on-board."

"Oh, Violet, that was low!" Daddy rarely refused Mama anything so evoking her would just push him over the edge into a yes. "Ingenious, though. My scruples wouldn't..."

"I think we both know how permissive your scruples are, Dagwood."

****************

Eli, you busy?

not for you.

Silly! Haha!

you blushin tho?
It was true. Even over text he held such sway over me. Too late to say this now, but I am so fucked!

Of course. Anyway, Daddy agreed.

wow...how'd you manage that

I said we wanted to tour St. Vitus.'

that's a Catholic school...

Did I miss a memo or something? About the Catholics?

idc but daddy has a lot to say bout em

So, Violet's coming along.

why

She knows.

fuuuck

I had no intention of saying anything about the surreal sibling rivalry we were now entangled in. Over him. Is that the right thing? It does not feel like the right thing.

She's cool.

k
you excited?

Obviously!

i'm excited too... [Devil emoji]

And what followed was a picture of his fat cock straining against his white briefs, the head clearly visible having rendered a spot in the fabric translucent. I did what any rational person would do in this moment: I dropped my pants, unbuttoned my shirt, and took a mirror selfie: the unbuttoned shirt, my snug package, as if I was waiting for him to finish undressing me. I liked that picture. The shirt covered my pecs, but not the line that divided them. My stomach was mostly flat, but thankfully the shirt concealed the love handles that managed to cling to me despite all the running I did. And the fucking, I suppose. It's a sweaty, heart-pounding business if done correctly.

ur killin me, Dag.
that underwear color is damn hot.

Jungle Red.

for real?

Why not?

take em off smartass show me that hole

I don't think so, Eli Remington.

wtf!

Show some resilience. Soon, we'll have all the time in the world.