Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2018 03:53:49 +0000
From: Douglas DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Aiden II  Chapter 7

Welcome back. In this chapter Aiden has an experience he will never forget.

Please remember this work is mine. Permission is needed to copy and post it.

Please give to the Nifty Archive. Keep the stories flowing.

CHAPTER 7
MASTER HORN BLOWER

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

When Phil's alarm went off at five fifteen, Aiden's first reaction was to
say "forget this shit", roll over on his belly, and go back to sleep. Phil
gave Aiden a little push on the side, which was enough to tell him to get
his little ass out of bed. Phil got up and Aiden followed him. Larry
grunted, closed his eyes, and was soon back to sleep.

"As long as you woke me up, I might as well stay up and get a good jog in,"
Phil told Aiden.

"I never woke you up," Aiden protested. "It was your alarm that woke us up,
not mine." Phil was too sleepy to argue with Aiden's preteen logic.

Aiden grabbed Horace and went upstairs to shower. Phil got out cereal,
milk, and orange juice for Aiden's breakfast, which Aiden gulped down as
soon as he got to the table.

Eric pulled into Aiden's driveway precisely at six o'clock. Aiden bounded
down the steps, ran around the front of the car and opened the front
door. "Hi, Eric," he said drowsily.

"Good Morning, Aiden. I know you know you have to sit in the back seat."

Aiden closed the door, opened the back door, and buckled into the back
seat. "You're as mean as my dads and Marty," he groused.

"I take that as a compliment," Eric replied as he backed the car out of the
driveway. "But, the law is the law."

"You don't have any kids, so how do you know?"

"Because I was a kid not all that long ago and my parents were as mean as
yours."

"Well, of I sit in the front seat or sit in the back seat, I'm excited. I
hardly slept last night."

"Your dads tell me you like trains."

"Yep. I think they're awesome."

"I got a couple of cab rides when I was a bit older than you. I went from
liking trains to loving them in an instant." The conversation stopped and
Eric could tell that his young passenger had fallen asleep. He wasn't
surprised; in fact, he'd planned on it. Better for Aiden to fall asleep in
his back seat than during his cab ride.

Eric woke Aiden when they arrived at the yard. Aiden was momentarily upset
about falling asleep and missing out on time with Eric. "Don't worry about
it, you didn't miss a thing," Eric assured him. "Highway 12 was the same
old highway it's always been."

Aiden nodded, shook the sleep from his head, and let the excitement flow
back into him. Before he knew it, Eric and the trainmaster were helping
Aiden climb into the lead of the two locomotives, SD-70s that were idling
with a load of 30 cars and a caboose.  Jeff, the conductor, and Bill, the
brakeman, would be riding in the caboose. Bill had little or nothing to do
with brakes and everything to do with helping with the switching
operations. The train had been put together in the yard the night before so
it would be ready for an early morning departure.

What followed was one of the greatest days of Aiden's life up to that
point—a day that stood above almost all others and a day he would never
forget.

He would remember the overwhelming thrill of Eric giving the horn two
blasts and hearing the roar of the diesel engine as the train started
up. He would remember watching through the windshield as the train snaked
out of the yard. He would remember watching out of the side windows at
cows, horses, trees, and the passing cars on Highway 12.

"How come the cars go faster than us?" Aiden asked. "I thought trains were
faster."

"Not on this little short line," Eric told him. "When I was your age a lot
of this line was 10 mile per hour yard limit, but it's been upgraded to 35
miles per hour over most of the line."

"And the speed limit on the highway is 55, but people go faster," Aiden
said knowledgably.

"Exactly."

"I don't care, though," Aiden said as they approached a grade
crossing. "Right here they all have to stop for us." Aiden listened to
Eric's horn blowing at the crossings: two longs, one short, and one long
blast, just like his dads had described it to him.

 But there were also stretches when the track strayed from Highway 12 and
paralleled county roads with slower speed limits. It was in these more out
of the way places, with the train making its way through towns much smaller
than Mayfield, that Aiden got to return waves, a couple of them from a boy
and girl around his age. Waving out of the locomotive cab made him feel
important and grown up.

Aiden remembered the waves and remembered Eric asking him if he wanted to
blow the horn for the next grade crossing. Aiden thought he was going to
faint with excitement—he could barely squeak out the word "yes." Eric
fought unsuccessfully to suppress his smile.

"Two longs, one short, and one long, right?" Aiden asked Eric, showing off
his knowledge and telling Eric he knew what was supposed to happen.

"Start blowing when you pass the black and white W sign," Eric said. "And
remember to hold the last long blast until we're crossing the road."

Aiden's technique on his first try was very good. The next one was better,
the next one was even better, and the next one was close to perfect as
Aiden started the first long blow of the horn at the W sign and was tooting
the last long blow as the locomotive crossed the dirt farm road. At that
point, Eric promoted Aiden to chief horn blower.

When they were about five miles out of Mayfield they crossed Highway 12. It
was the only place where the mainline of the Centralia, Clark Pass, and
Pacific crossed Highway 12 at grade, meaning at the same level as the
road. Aiden knew how important it was to get the timing of the horn perfect
as they approached the busy highway and figured Eric would take over the
horn blowing. His chest puffed out with pride when Eric gave him a look
that said, "It's your job is to blow the horn kid, so do it."

Aiden pushed the button for the first blast at the proper point and was
finishing the fourth blast as the locomotive crossed the highway. When he
looked at the dozen or so cars stopped at the lights and gates he felt a
surge of pride knowing the big machine he was riding in had the power to
stop all of those cars.

Between the western boundary of Mayfield and the feed mart, he had to
whistle for three grade crossings. As they approached the feed mart, he was
sad because he knew his ride was over. As Eric stopped the train, Aiden
started to thank him, but was stopped when Eric held up his hand.

"Didn't your dads tell you?" Eric asked. "You're going all the way to
Vickers with me. They'll be picking you up there."

"For real?"

"As real as it gets."

Aiden didn't have time to say much as Eric prepared to do some switching
work. He watched as Eric, conductor Jeff, and brakeman Bill worked together
to drop off five loaded grain cars and pick up five empty ones at the feed
mart.

As the train moved through the east side of town at a stately 10 miles per
hour Aiden saw Mason and the twins standing shirtless by the tracks on
Linden Street waving their shirts and screaming things that Aiden couldn't
understand. Aiden stood behind Eric's seat and leaned out of the open
window waving back. Eric gave the horn two long toots and waved as well.

The train climbed a berm and onto a trestle that crossed Highway 12. Not
long after they got to a second trestle and crossed Lake Road and the
hiking/bicycling path. He saw Gordy, Miles, and his dads on the trail,
their bikes set off to the side. Aiden looked at Eric who knew exactly what
Aiden was silently asking for. He nodded and Aiden pushed the button for
the horn, giving two of his best friends and his dads three long blasts of
the horn. Once again the wavers were on the engineer's side and Aiden had
to work around Eric to wave out of the window. He reveled in the
enthusiastic waves and shouts from the quartet on the path.

Gordy raised his arm and jerked his closed fist up and down indicating he
wanted to hear the horn again. Aiden obliged him with two more long
blasts. Eric had their speed up to 20 miles per hour now, but the
bicyclists were able to keep up for briefly, waving as they went.

The train pulled away as the four turned around and headed back in the
direction of Mayfield. When they reached Kentburg, Eric told Aiden they
would be dropping off some empty gondolas. "We're going to pick up some
full cars on that stub track on the way back," Eric said, pointing to a
stub track veering off to the left.  After leaving Kentburg, they crossed
the junction with the Mt. Rainier tourist railroad and started seriously
climbing into the Cascade foothills. Aiden enjoyed watching Eric deftly
manipulate the throttle and brakes as he dealt with the mountain grade and
curves. The digital speedometer in the SD70 was easy enough for Aiden to
understand but he had to have Eric explain the purpose of the other gauges
and controls in the cab.  Vickers was a small town about 15 miles east of
Kentburg, or close to an hour away for the slow-moving train. Vickers
School District had only Kindergarten through eighth grade students. The
high school students were bused to Kentburg where they attended Kentburg
High. The train would be picking up twenty loaded logging cars, which was
the biggest reason for this Sunday run.

As the train eased into Vickers, Eric reached into his grip, took out a
package, and handed it to Aiden. Aiden gave Eric a questioning look.

"Just open it," Eric grinned.

Aiden tore off the wrapper and saw a baseball cap in the blue and green
colors of the Centralia, Clark Pass, and Pacific. It had CCP&P in block
lettering across the front. Aiden adjusted the cap to fit and placed on his
head. The glow of his grinning face lit up the cab. Aiden wrapped his arms
around Eric from behind and gave him a long, heart-felt kiss on his stubbly
right cheek.

"Thank you, Eric. I love you. This was one of the best days of my life."

"I loved having you with me. You can ride with me anytime." He put his hand
on top of Aiden's smaller hand. "And I love you, too, big guy. Now step
back—I have a train to run."

Phil and Larry were waiting for the train at the log loading area. When
they saw Aiden climb down from the locomotive they thought he just might
explode from all of the excitement inside of himself. Aiden ran over to his
dads and gave each of them a big hug, almost knocking his new hat off.

"I got to blow the whistle lots of times," was the first thing Aiden said
after breaking his hugs. "Eric said I was a born whistle blower." Larry and
Phil's grins got even wider as they tried not to laugh at Aiden's
inadvertent double entendre.

"I kept trying to tell him that a diesel locomotive has a horn," Eric
laughed, "but he loves calling it a whistle. I guess there is a bit of the
railroad romantic in the boy."

"And look at the cool hat Eric gave me," Aiden gushed. "It's the best
railroad hat in the world."

Eric got surprise hugs from Larry and Phil, who thanked him for giving
Aiden such a special day. "You've always been a special person," Larry told
him.

"That comes from good parents and a certain good coach who chewed my ass at
my first middle school practice in sixth grade," Eric said, referring to
Larry.

Their mutual admiration ended when Aiden wrapped his arms around Eric's
waist. "Thank you for taking me, Eric. I love you."

"Having you ride along made my last trip of the year very special. You're a
great kid, Aiden, and don't you forget it. Remember to do everything your
dads tell you to do perfectly."

Aiden looked aghast. "Everything? Nobody can do everything perfectly."

"Everyone can do their best to get there, though, just like you did with
blowing the horn." He then wrapped his strong arms around Aiden. "I love
you too, Aiden, Master Hornblower." Aiden knew about the Hornblower books
and gave Eric a knowing smile.

"I love you, too," Aiden said again. As he turned to walk to his dads, he
stopped, and looked up at Eric and repeated himself one more time with a
very special add-on. "I love you, big bro."

"Thank you, little bro."

Eric knew from his talks with Marty that Aiden had just placed him in
select company. As Eric watched Aiden walk away with his dads, he had no
doubt that when he and Noah got settled in their careers, they would need a
boy to raise—one as special as his new "little bro."

On the ride home, Phil and Larry knew that their best strategy was going to
be to let Aiden say everything he needed to say. Aiden's nonstop chatter
left no quiet moments for them to do more than utter a "yes" and a "yep"
and a "that was great" and the like all the way back to Mayfield.

That night after tuck-in and lights out, Aiden remembered something else
about the trip, mainly the little talks he had with Eric as they rode
together in the locomotive. He had asked Eric how he got to be such a great
student.

"Well, I was blessed with some smarts. But lots of guys are smart and don't
seem to accomplish much. I ended up adopting the three keys to success that
I learned from a certain baseball coach."

"I know what was those are," Aiden grinned. "Hard work, hard work, and hard
work. Daddy and Marty both told me that. Is Marty your best friend?"

"Noah is my very best friend as well as my true love. But Marty is tough to
beat as a best friend."

"And as a big bro, too."

Aiden asked Eric when he figured out he was gay. "I would say it was when I
was in sixth grade, although I had my suspicions before then."

"Was Noah your first boyfriend?"

"No, Scott was, way back in sixth grade."

"You mean Scott who coaches the ten and under travel team?"

"One and the same."

"You mean he's gay?"

"No, I don't think so." Eric was pretty certain that Scott was bisexual,
however.

"Is that why you guys quit being boyfriends?"

"Pretty much. He discovered girls. We stayed friends, but he wanted to go
in a different direction."

"I wonder if I will have a boyfriend someday?" It was the first time Aiden
had asked that question aloud. He was surprised he asked that question to
someone who was almost a stranger. Then he realized somebody who was a
stranger would never have trusted him to take this ride in a locomotive
cab. He might not have known Eric for long, but decided Eric was like
Marty—a special player at Mayfield whom his dads loved and who were now
his big brothers. At that point Aiden silently gave Eric his complete love
and trust, just like he'd done with Marty.

That was what he was telling Eric when he named him his second "big
bro". When Eric called him "little bro" Aiden felt like he was going to
melt from the warm feeling that coursed through his body.

He rolled on his side and clutched Horace tightly. Anyone who happened to
look into Aiden's bedroom would see a beautiful boy who almost glowed in
his sleep from the love that now surrounded him.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

While Aiden was enjoying his cab ride with Eric, Larry and Phil had been
busy making arrangements for a big Tuesday dinner for some young people
they had become very close to. On the way home from Vickers, Aiden was
informed as to what the plans were. Aiden gave his complete approval, which
made the entire affair official in his mind.

When Aiden got to school on Monday, Gordy, Miles, Mason, and the twins
wanted to hear every detail of his cab ride. He promised he'd tell them at
lunch. His friends hung on every word and checked out the pictures on his
phone multiple times each.

Muddy acted like he wasn't all that interested even though he hung onto
every word. He was getting to the stage of puberty where he had to show a
carefully calculated disinterest—that is pretend that he was too grown
up to show interest over the things that excited his younger friends. It
was only September, and already Muddy was ready for middle school.

Aiden rode the bus home from school on Tuesday. Kalie waited for Aiden to
take his seat before she boarded the bus. She knew Aiden wasn't going to
take the empty seat next to her, because he never did in the morning. The
only way she was going to be able to sit next to Aiden, was to let him take
a seat first. To his credit, Aiden had yet to refuse the empty seat to her
the few times they'd ridden the after-school bus together.

"I heard about your ride on Sunday," Kalie told Aiden after they completed
their cursory greetings.

"Who told you?"

"Mason."

"Figures. Mason tells everybody everything. But then, it could have been
Miles, too. He's yaps about a lot of stuff, too, but not the way Mason
does."

"Was it supposed to be a secret?"

"Not really, I just didn't want everybody yacking about it." Aiden then
surprised himself by asking Kalie if she wanted to see his pictures. She
grinned and told him she would love to. They spent the ride to Aiden's stop
checking out Aiden's cab ride photos. Aiden was starting to like Kalie,
thinking she was an okay person for a girl. She was certainly easier to
like than Autumn was.

When Aiden entered the house he was greeted by the smells of dinner
cooking. Phil was busily making roast pork with mashed potatoes, steamed
broccoli, applesauce, and hot muffins. He had taken the afternoon off of
work to prepare the dinner.

"How do you keep getting so much time off?" Aiden asked his dad as he gave
him a hug in the middle of the kitchen.

"It's one of the perks that comes from having a lot of seniority," he
informed his son.

"It doesn't work that way in school," Aiden mused. "Even seniors have to go
to school."

"They do, at least until the week of their graduation when they get to
watch the rest of the academic world suffer in class."

Aiden decided his school clothes were good enough for company. Instead of
changing he went up to his room to get his homework done. Considering how
excited he was about the dinner, he managed to get it finished quickly and
accurately.

Aiden's daddy got home a half-hour after he did. Aiden finished his last
math problem and went downstairs for his daddy hug. He then went to work
helping his dads get the dining room ready for dinner.

By five, all of the guests had arrived and were all in the multi-purpose
(now the guest room) awaiting dinner. The guests were Eric and Noah, Marty
and Rich, and Scott and Connor. As they all sat together in the guest room,
neither Larry nor Phil could help admiring the rapidly maturing beauty of
the six young men – it seemed only yesterday that they had coached them
as teenagers. Aiden told Marty he thought he was supposed to be down in
Arizona.  "I might be good at reading a pitch coming in at 95 miles per
hour, but I need my husband to understand simple dates on a letter. I am
supposed to report next week."

Eric and Noah would be leaving for Palo Alto the next day. The semester at
Stanford started the upcoming Monday and they wanted to be settled in when
classes commenced.

Scott and Connor lived in the area. Scott was currently working for the
Centralia, Clark Pass & Pacific railroad, while Connor drove a semi for the
McCall Trucking Company, which was owned by Noah's father. He also attended
Centralia College part time. Connor was married and had a pre-school
daughter and a two-year-old son.

Scott was working as a switchman at the Riverside Yard for the CCP&P. He
would be finishing his associate's degree in the spring and hoped to
transfer to Western Washington University in the fall. He wasn't married,
but did have a daughter with whom he had full visitation rights.

The two men were long-time friends and were also lovers. Connor managed to
reconcile his sexual relationship with Scott and his married life by
rationalizing that having sex with another man wasn't really cheating on
his wife. He suspected that his wife knew the truth about his relationship
with Scott and that at some time he and his wife would have to deal with
it. On the other hand, Scott would be leaving for a four-year school in a
year and Connor hoped they could keep their relationship where it was until
then.

Connor truly loved his wife and kids, but he loved Scott as well. It didn't
help matters that he found the sex with Scott much more satisfying than sex
with his wife—and his wife was quite good in bed.

While the other six men at the dinner table knew about the history between
Connor and Scott, Aiden did not. Since Connor and Scott would most likely
be Aiden's baseball coaches in the spring, there was a silent agreement
between them not to bring it up. As far as Aiden was concerned, they were
good friends going back to their days playing baseball together. Other than
that, they treated Aiden as a little adult, not as a little boy.

"Are you going to be our baseball coaches in the spring?" Aiden asked Scott
and Connor during the meal.

"Well, spring is a long way off," Scott replied, "but if life goes as
planned, then the answer is yes."

Aiden started to giggle but quickly got himself under control.

"What's so funny?" Eric asked.

"Nothing."

"Come on, bro, you can tell us," Marty grinned.

"It's you—you're funny," Aiden told Marty as he started to giggle again.

"Well, then, share the secret," Scott said.

"Marty told me that man plans and God laughs. I thought about that when you
said you'd be our coach if everything goes the way you planned."

Eric looked over at Marty. "Your little bro really does listen to what you
tell him."

"Which you're going to find out now that you're an official Aiden big bro,"
Marty told him.

"If I'm his big brother, and you're his big brother, does that now make us
brothers?" Eric asked Marty.  The two young men looked at each other and
smiled. As their eyes met, they both felt a memory – a memory of a
beautiful night they had spent together several years before. Marty had
prepared dinner, they had walked and talked together, cried and shared
secrets together, and enjoyed sex together. Marty had filled Eric to depths
he had never known before. It was their only date and they both knew and
accepted that there would never be another. But the power and passion of
that one night would live with them forever.  Marty closed his right fist
and presented it to Eric. Eric quickly fist bumped him as Marty said, "You
and I have been brothers since we were in middle school. Only a true
brother would have done the things that you did for me back then."

Aiden was very curious what it was Eric had done for Marty and was about to
ask when Connor changed the subject. "I hear you're a pretty good
ballplayer, Aiden."

"I dunno. You can ask my dads or Marty. They've all seen me play."

"He's not bad," Marty told Connor with a wink. "You just have to sit on him
at times."

"Sit on me? He's way bigger than me; he'll squash me."

"That's adult talk for getting you kids to behave and not think you can get
away with anything," Larry laughed.

Aiden thought for a moment and then flashed his signature grin. "If you're
my dads, and Eric and Marty are my bros, then you must be their dads, too."

"The family tree stops with the three of you. Your dad and I are what we
always were to them—their baseball coaches."

All six of Larry and Phil's ex-players turned their heads toward
them. Connor spoke first, saying the same thing all of them were
thinking. "You guys are way more to us than just coaches, and you always
will be. I don't know about my old teammates, but I know that I love you
both. And thank you both for a fantastic dinner."

And with that came emphatic words of agreement. Aiden looked around the
table and soaked in the love and admiration for his dads. It was one of
those moments where he couldn't help but feel that he was the luckiest boy
in the world,

It was obvious that somebody had to say something, and that somebody was
Aiden. It was as if his youthful outlook was meant to be the one to bring
the table back to earth.

"Gordy and Miles told me you guys are really good coaches. That you make
everybody work hard and teach them a lot and don't yell at people too
much."

"We appreciate the compliment," Scott said. "But, you guys on the team
decide the direction the team's gonna go. We just help by nudging it in the
right direction."

"Which means we might have to yell a few times," Connor laughed.

"Are you guys ever going to get married like everybody else here?"

"We're not gay," Connor told Aiden, even though he wasn't real sure about
where Scott stood. "I'm married and have two kids." Not to mention a male
lover, just to make things complicated, he thought.

"Oh. Well then we can all be ready for Eric and Noah to get married in the
spring." Aiden looked over at Eric and Noah and said, "Just don't get
married when I've got a baseball game."

"Hey, then maybe we could just get married at the ballpark." Eric and Noah
gave each other a quick glance that said, Maybe we have an idea there.

Dessert was blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The dinner, the
dessert, the conversation, the entire atmosphere of the evening was
positive and full of friendship and love.

That evening at dinner a lot of testosterone flowed through the eight men,
something they all sensed in each other and something Aiden was completely
unaware of. The evening created horny men who took care of that condition
later that night.

Eric and Noah were living at Eric's house. It was a bit more private than
Noah's house. Jeffrey was often there visiting Nick, and then there was the
usual flow of teenage boys that was a part of the homes of so many teen
boys. To keep Noah's parents happy, the two sometimes spent a couple of
nights at the McCall residence in Noah's room. For those who need to know,
Noah was usually the bottom and the sex this night was hot and satisfying.

Rich and Marty lived in Marty's apartment, which was part of the Bednarzyk
residence.  After getting home from the dinner party, they spent some time
talking about Aiden and what a wonderful young man he was becoming.

"Aiden is a virgin," Marty mentioned during their conversation.

Rich smiled, ran his hands over Marty's chest, and kissed his husband
gently. "And just what does that have to do with our bedroom?" he asked.

"It just seems to me after our wonderful dinner that we should do what
Aiden might do if he were being sexual with another boy tonight."

"Which is?"

Marty answered by taking the full length of Rich's six inches into his
mouth. Within seconds they were in a sixty-nine and enjoying intense and
satisfying oral sex.  Scott and Connor ended up at Scott's apartment. Both
Scott and Connor lived in Centralia. Their sex was quick, since Connor had
no excuse for not going home to his wife, but it was satisfying. For the
record, Scott was bottom. As Connor drove home, he felt the same pair of
gnawing feelings he always felt after leaving Scott – a twinge of guilt
and the undeniable pleasure he got from being with and having sex with his
lover and best friend. For now, he'd just have to deal with it.  Eric and
Noah had to keep their noise level low, but they knew Eric's parents would
not be bothering them. Phil and Larry had to be a bit more discreet than
their former players. Phil and Larry always ran the risk of Aiden bringing
Horace to bed with them. At least he knew enough to knock first. This was
also the reason they had become increasingly liberal in allowing Aiden to
stayover with friends on non-school nights. With the house to themselves,
they could let themselves go.

"We may be middle-age, but we're still horny bastards," Phil chuckled that
night.

"I wonder if any of our former players will end up taking care of their
partner tonight?" Larry thought aloud as the two men stripped naked.

"Jeez, my sweet man, they are barely in their twenties. What do you think?"

"I think I want to fuck you. That's what I think."

"Sounds good—just don't let the springs squeak too loudly."

That night, Aiden snuggled up with Horace. He thought about how far away
spring and baseball was. He also thought about how little he'd been jerking
off and messing around with his friends the past few weeks. He parked
Horace in a corner of his bed, surprised himself by conjuring up an image
of Nolan Moyer, and jerked off to a dry orgasm. It was his first in over a
week.

For Aiden and his friends, it was like they had taken care of their sexual
curiosity and were now satisfied they knew what it was all about—or so
they thought. But, other than Muddy, who was getting well into puberty,
Aiden and his friends were on the cusp of puberty. Their bodies and libidos
had gone into a state of dormancy as they prepared for the oncoming
onslaught.

Next: Changing Friendships

Please write at thehakaanen@hotmail.com

Dougals