Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2020 15:55:14 +0000 (UTC) From: Albert Collins Subject: You were there -- Part 3 Disclaimer: This is a romantic love story about love between young adolescent boys. There will be some explicit sex scenes in the story later, in subsequent chapters, but they are not the main focus of the story. So if you are looking for a story with a lot of explicit sex action, you are in the wrong place. If you like to read a sappy romantic tory with occasional kinky sex scenes, then please sit back and enjoy! Of course, comments and constructive criticism are welcome! albert.c87@yahoo.com Oh, yeah, and please, donate to Nifty: Nifty Stories Archive Donation **************************************************************************** You were there -- Part 3 Diego descended the short wooden staircase outside and had his first look round. He saw two rows of mini-cottages, identical to the one he just exited, three cottages in a row. "Look, that's the dorm area, where all the boys live," Luke was explaining. "This place used to be a fancy motel or something, I think ... See, we all get like a separate little house, two boys per each one. Cool, right?!!" Diego nodded silently. "Come on," Luke grabbed Diego's hand and pulled him along. As they exited the dorm area, they came to a largish open basketball court. "Here we get to shoot some hoops," Luke declared and demonstrated dunking one of the basketballs lining on the ground into the basket. Next to the court Diego saw another area, with a bunch of monkey bars, a climbing net, a tire tunnel, a ping pong table and what looked like pieces of a parkour type obstacle course. Luke did not stop there and dragged Diego further ahead, to a back entrance of a large sprawling building of which Diego could only see a small part. "That's the main Green Oaks building," Luke said, "It's huge, man, like a freaking octopus. The main clubhouse, where we eat and stuff, is a part of it too. You'll see at breakfast. I just wanted to show you the gym real quick." Luke led Diego inside one of the entrances and turned on the light. Diego saw a huge open room, loosely subdivided into four areas. Most of it was occupied by weights and old-fashioned looking strength training equipment. There was also an area for stretching, with yoga-type mats and exercise balls. One side of the room was entirely taken by a climbing wall. "Most stuff here is kind of stone-age, like our phones," Luke was explaining. "No fancy schmancy cardio shit. But the coolest thing is this climbing wall that Mr Frank installed recently!" "See, I am Spider Man!" Luke run up to the climbing wall and jumped up with his hands and feet outstretched sideways. He fell down on the mat on his back, giggling and making a silly face. Despite himself, Diego found that he was lightly giggling too. Luke looked up at him from the floor, grinning, and then got up. "Come on, man, there's lots more stuff I wanna show you!" Luke declared, running out of the room. Diego followed him outside more slowly. As they exited the basketball court area, the boys passed through a dense grove of old oaks with long low-hanging branches. "That's probably what gave this place its name," Diego thought to himself. As they emerged on the other side, Luke stopped and Diego stood next to him. "Look, man! That's our domain!" Luke declared, sweeping his hand from side to side. Diego silently took in the view. They were standing at the top of a long green hill gently sloping south. At the bottom of the hill, to the left Diego could see some barn-type buildings and what looked like a soccer field further down. To the right there were some open green meadows and a few rows of trees. Looking further south Diego saw a long sprawling pond or a lake, with lots of little inlets and grass covered islands, and winding arms extending in various directions. The pond was surrounded by a dense looking forest. Turning his head and looking back to the left behind them, Diego saw portions of the large Green Oaks complex structure that Luke mentioned earlier. Diego looked at the pond and the panoramic view in front of him again. "Wow!" Diego said quietly. "Yeah ... See, told you!!" Luke agreed. "This place is the greatest!" "The bottom of the hill is where Green Oaks officially ends," Luke continued. "The pond used to be a coal mine or something, I think, and now it's a like an artificial lake. The pond is not really ours, but it sort of is." Diego looked at Luke questioningly. "See, the pond and that entire wooded area around it belong to some old wealthy Jewish couple, from New York, I think," Luke explained. "They gave Mr Frank and us Green Oaks kids permission to use that area, and there's nobody else that's allowed there or ever comes there. So it's really all ours." "What about them? That old Jewish couple, I mean? Don't they come here themselves?" Diego asked. "Nah, not anymore," Luke said. "I think them too old now. Holocaust survivors, I heard. So they got a soft spot for hard luck orphan cases like us ... Which works out great for us, dude! We get to fish in the pond and ride our dirt bikes there and explore and stuff, and just chill. There are like a thousand small trails there. Even I haven't checked them all out yet ... The whole area is fenced off, so you don't have to worry about wolves and stuff!" Luke smirked. "There are wolves here??!!" Diego exclaimed in shock. "No, doofus, I'm just messing with ya!" Luke laughed. "No wolves here. They only live much further North, in Canada somewhere, I think. There's some coyotes here, but they usually don't mess with people. Plus they can't get through the fence anyways ..." "Okay ...," Diego answered, still sounding a bit uncertain. "How big is it? The pond, I mean?" "Not sure, exactly," Luke replied. "It's about a mile long to its farthest point, but it got so many arms and tentacles and side pockets that the perimeter is probably like twenty times longer. There's the main trail that goes all the way around and I think it's about four miles long. Uses some bridges though. We've also got some row boats that we use for getting 'round it." Diego looked at the pond and forest down below again. "Can you swim in it?" he asked. "Nah, not really," Luke replied. "Way too many weeds. But it's great for fishing! And I keep bugging Mr Frank to build us a pool, so I think one of these days we'll be getting one too!" Diego stole a furtive glance at the tall muscular boy next to him. The cool morning breeze was lightly moving the wavy locks of Luke's brown hair. Diego could see Luke breathing in deeply they were taking in the view in front of them. Luke seemed so confident, so content, so happy, so together. Diego felt both wonder and comfort that a poor orphan kid could be this way and that he was apparently more than willing to share his happiness and his friendship with a scrawny gloomy weird boy he'd just met. Luke noticed Diego's glance and greeted him back with a wide friendly grin. Diego blushed and quickly stared into the ground. Luke threw his arm around Diego's shoulders and gave him a friendly squeeze. "Come one, dude, let's move! Lots more stuff I wanna show you!" Luke exclaimed. He grabbed Diego by the hand and pulled him along a footpath leading downhill. "This place is basically a small family farm. Come on, I'll show you the barn and the animals!" Luke continued explaining. In a few minutes they arrived at the barn area consisted of a yard and several buildings. As they approached, they were met by a large yellow lab who run towards them, wagging her tail, and jumped up and barked, greeting Luke. "Hi, Amber, hi, girl, did you miss me??" Luke leaned down to pet the dog and play with her for a few moments. "Diego, this is Amber, our barn guard dog, and a good friend of mine! Amber, this is Diego, a new friend of mine who has just got here. Come, Amber, say hello to Diego!" Diego squatted down with outstretched hands, and Amber run up to him, still wagging her tail happily. She quickly sniffed Diego's feet and hands, and started licking his palms enthusiastically. He petted her back and the sides of her head. Amber's lush coat felt wonderful underneath Diego's hands, and the feeling of touching another living and breathing being was even better. Diego closed his eyes and tried to stay in this moment. Then he moved closer, and Amber jumped up and started licking his face. For the first time since they met Luke heard Diego emit a giggle. "Amber, manners, please, don't be so forward!" said Luke in mock reproach. Inwardly, however, he was really happy that Amber brought out a moment of joy in Diego. "She really likes you!" remarked Luke matter-of-factly to Diego. "Okay, man, let's move on." They went inside the gated bard courtyard area. "Right, here we are, and let me give you the grand tour," continued Luke. "Here we have a chicken coop with our ten free-range chickens. We keep them for making eggs that Ms Margie sells at the market. And we eat some of them too! Here in this stall is Lady, our dairy cow. You can guess what she does. We get to milk her and also to take her to pasture. That other stall is for Beth, the breeding pig. Her job is to produce piglets for the market, but she is between cycles now. We do need to feed her this morning." As the boys moved around the barn area, Luke continued explaining: "Here we have our milk goat, Sky. And in that other building we have our two horses, Gaia and Summer. They are both kind of retired horses, and Mr Frank bought them from some farms where they were used as work horses. Here they don't really do much, except eat, graze and take things easy. But we do ride them from time to time, and occasionally kids and visitors who come here for open house type events ride them too." Diego was basically a city boy and he was looking round the barn in bewilderment. He felt drawn to the horses' stall and he slowly walked closer. Summer was a rocky dark brown horse, and Gaia a taller slimmer back horse. "Wow, you can actually ride them?" asked Diego quietly. "Yep, sure thing, man," replied Luke, happy that Diego spoke without being asked first. "I can teach you how to ride, the basics are not that hard. These two are smaller than most regular horses, so that even kids our age can ride them easily. Plus they are pretty quiet, and not likely to do anything crazy, although they are not all that friendly." Diego stepped forward to Summer's stall and stuck his right hand inside, waiting for Summer to come and get acquainted. Luke quickly grabbed a cut apple and stuck it in Diego's left hand. Summer slowly approached Diego and equally slowly sniffed his hand. Carefully and still slowly he handed her the apple, and Summer quickly crunched it. Summer got closer and Diego scratched the side of her head with his hand. Summer made a slight satisfied whine. She moved forward stuck her head outside the stall and lowered it towards Diego. Diego raised both of his hands and hugged Summer around her neck. Luke was standing back, looking at the scene in amazement. With a sigh, Diego let go of Summer, stepped back and looked at Luke. "No way, dude, are you kidding me, that was awesome!" Luke exclaimed excitedly, giving Diego a quick warm hug. Diego did not say anything, but every time Luke hugged him, every time Diego felt the touch of Luke's skin, something dead and cold thawed a little inside Diego's heart, and he felt a little more alive. Luke continued: "Summer usually is really weary of strangers and even with us locals she is pretty standoffish. Are you sure you have never been around horses?" "No, never," replied Diego quietly. "But I always wanted to learn more about horses, and maybe even learn how to ride one." "Well buddy, you came to the right place, and you will definitely get your chance here. I'll make sure of that! Now, there's just one more resident whom I want you to meet. Come on, I'll show you, we have to go outside" Luke led Diego outside the courtyard, and a little further away they came to an enclosed corral made of large logs. "Hey, Winston, buddy, come here!" called Luke. In response to the summons, a large grey donkey walked towards them from the other end of the corral. "Diego, meet Winston, our resident donkey. Winston, meet Diego, my new friend!" Luke said, making the introductions. "As you see, Winston here is a donkey. He's basically a senior citizen in retirement. Ms Margie got him for free from some farm a few years ago and now he lives here. He was a working donkey and, as they say, pulled many a cart during his life. But now he doesn't do much, just grazes and chills out. We take good care of him, although I think he sometimes gets a little lonely. But Amber here does keep him company and they are kind of good friends -- it looks pretty funny when they play together." Diego listened to Luke's explanation quietly. Diego and Winston looked at each other pensively and Winston slowly approached Diego. Winston kicked the ground several times with his right front hoof, and brought his head above the fence of the corral, stretching it towards Diego. Diego started scratching Winston below his chin, and Winston brayed appreciatively. Diego stepped back, and Winston trotted off, continuing to graze. Luke looked on with a huge incredulous grin. "Man, oh, man, you definitely have a connection with animals!" he enthused. "Even the old grouch Winston likes you, and he doesn't like anyone!" Luke gave Diego another one of his trademark hugs, and this time he felt Diego hugging him back slightly. Luke did not show it but he was really psyched that the boy was starting to come out of his shell so quickly. "By the way, Diego, how did you know to scratch Winston under his chin? That's the absolutely best place to scratch a donkey when trying to befriend it," Luke asked. "Hmm, I am not sure," Diego replied. "It just seemed like that's what Winston wanted me to do, so I did it." Luke gave Diego a sharp penetrating look but did not say anything. "Wow," Luke thought, "the kid has real magic and does not even know it!" "Hey, Diego, dude, look there," Luke directed pointing to the open grassy area adjacent to them further south. "That's our soccer field where we get to kick the ball and Winston gets to watch us, don't ya buddy?" Diego realized that this must have been the soccer field he'd seen from atop the hill. The field seemed to have been well used, with some patches of grass quite worn out. "The kids must play here a lot," Diego thought to himself. Kids playing. Himself playing, playing with other kids. The idea still seemed so strange, so foreign, so incongruous to Diego. He suddenly felt numbing darkness creeping up back onto him again and his body slumped a bit. But almost immediately after that a strong long friendly arm wrapped around Diego's shoulder. Luke's arm. Diego looked up and saw Luke's friendly grinning face again, with a hint of worry and concern. Diego weakly smiled back and Luke's grin grew wider. Without saying a word, Luke pulled Diego towards the barn again. "There's one more place here I really wanna show you, man," Luke said as they reentered the barn courtyard area. They walked to the far end, to a tall narrow hangar-style wooden building. Diego could not quite see how long the building was as they were facing its short end. The door was locked with a forbidding looking lock, and Luke proceeded to fiddle with it. "It's locked, isn't it?" Diego asked in surprise. "Well, we'll just have to unlock it, won't we!" Luke smirked. He got out a couple of paper clips and a pocket knife and started working them on the lock. "There're some benefits to having been a juvenile delinquent, he-he," Luke joked, as the lock opened. "See!!" "Wait, won't we get in trouble? ..." Diego asked uncertainly. "Nah, what Mr Frank does know ain't gonna hurt him. Besides, we aren't gonna do anything! I just want to show you a few things real quick and then we'll lock it again." Luke pulled reluctant Diego inside. As they entered the building, Luke turned on the lights, and Diego saw that the structure was even bigger than it seemed from the outside. The interior was taken by a single giant open floor, perhaps 100 feet long and 40 feet wide, with lots of different pieces of machinery and equipment. "Wow! What is this place?!" Diego asked, bewildered. "That, my friend, is our super duper workshop!" Luke declared. "Isn't it the coolest?!! Better than Santa's! 'Cause ours is real, dude!" Luke started bouncing around the place, excitedly pointing to Diego various tools and pieces of equipment. Diego saw carpentry benches, hammers, drills, pieces of plywood and lumber, and lots of things he did not recognize. "See, we've got a circular saw here, r-r-r-r-r!! And a power drill! And a hydraulic press! And some welding and soldering tools!" Luke was explaining. Luke grabbed a welding mask and put it on his face. "Ahh, beware, I am a mad mad mad serial killer!!" But he immediately broke into giggles. "Look, Diego, look, dude, here we've got some metal working stuff and a real forge!" Luke shouted, dragging Diego by the arm. "See, we have a forge, and a power hammer, and a grinder, everything! Most of this equipment is donated, and Mr Frank got this stuff from lots of places over the years. But now it is a-w-s-o-m-e!!" Diego was slowly looking around, in growing bewilderment. "Wow ... You guys really get to use all this stuff? ... " he asked pensively. "Yeah, man, absolutely, that's what I've been telling you, dude!" Luke almost screamed. "Of course, not by ourselves and only with 'adult supervision', but yeah. There are a couple of handymen from the village that come here and teach us. There's Mr Ellis, he is a master carpenter and he's got two assistants, Joe and Manny, they are not much older than us. One of 'em is here almost every day. And old Mr Jeff, he is mostly into metal working and forging. Oh, and there's one more thing I wanna show you here, it's the coolest!" Luke grabbed Diego's hand and pulled him to another area of the workshop. Diego saw several shelves filled with different kinds of ceramics and some strange pieces of equipment and looked unfamiliar. "See, that's where we get to make pottery!" Luke declared. "Here, that's a pottery wheel," he pointed, "and that's a kiln. Man, I love making pottery, it's the best!!" "Really, you know how to make pottery?!" Diego asked in amazement. "Sure thing, dude, I love it! You'll learn it too if you want! See, Ms Emily, she owns a gardening shop and she is a wizard at making pottery! Or is it a witch? Anyway, she really knows her stuff! She comes here at least once a week and teaches us, at least those of as that wanna learn. Me and Rafael, we are really good at it! Some of the stuff we make, Ms Emily sells at her shop, and the money goes to Green Oaks! See, this thing here is one of mine!" Luke pointed at a large duck-shaped planter sitting on the shelf. Diego picked up the heavy planter and put it on the table. He run his fingers along the edges and the sides, and marveled at the smooth elegant curves and at the fine and realistic detail of duck's head at the front. "This one's also mine," Luke pointed to a small figurine of a dog with big floppy ears and a goofy happy face. Diego picked up the figuring and run his fingers along it. Somehow it seemed so ... Luke. "Wow! ... It's amazing! ... Luke, you really made this?! With your own hands?!" Diego asked in awe. "Yep, dude, I sure did!" Luke replied, grinning proudly. "With these very two paws!!" Still grinning, Luke held up his two palms, as if two prove the point. Diego Looked at Luke's young athletic figure, and his open friendly happy smiling face, and his gaze drifted to Luke's hands. Luke's strong, warm, magical hands. His beautiful long strong fingers. These hands could chase away the demons. They could make beautiful objects out of clay. They could protect Diego, comfort him, bring him peace. Diego felt a powerful, almost overwhelming urge to run to Luke and to bury his face in Luke's hands. He needed to feel the warmth of Luke's hands on his face again so much!! Diego's eyes watered. Then, as Luke brushed past him, Diego felt Luke's breath, his smell, the touch of his hair, his presence, his energy. Diego exhaled with relief. He suddenly felt better. "Diego, come on, dude, we've got to get moving!" Luke called to him. Diego followed Luke outside the workshop. Luke turned off the lights and re-locked the building. "Okay, man, the fun part is over, and now we've got to do a bit of actual work before breakfast. Come on, I'll show you." Luke led Diego back to the main barn courtyard area. Luke and Diego changed the feed for the chickens and gave fresh food and water to Beth the pig. Then the boys then reentered the horses' stall. Luke grabbed a shovel and handed another one to Diego, who looked at him questioningly. "Okay bro, here is my pooper scooper, and here is yours!" Luke declared with a smirk. As they entered the stalls and the smell hit them, Diego made quite a face. "Come on, city boy, don't you quit on me now!" Luke laughed. "That's the sweet smell of horse manure, dude! It's horses, man, they don't use a kitty litter box, he-he! You'll get used to it, I promise, it's not so bad. And we do need to get this stuff out." Luke and Diego cleaned the stalls, shoveled away the manure and spread some fresh pine shavings on the stall floor. Diego helped Luke refill the horse feeders with fresh hay and fill the horses' buckets with fresh water. As the boys were working, Summer, who usually kept well away on such occasions, came close several times and sniffed them both. Luke was observing Diego closely during the work. He was impressed that Diego, although he crinkled his nose quite a bit, never complained and did his fair share of work. "Good, he's not afraid to get his hands dirty!" Luke thought to himself with satisfaction. Luke could tell that Diego was still down, still somewhere between being a zombie and a real boy. But Luke was happy to see more and more small signs of life, of positive energy coming from Diego. And the way Diego moved his arms and his body when he worked the shovel and the pitchfork! "Uu-uf!! The boy can make shoveling shit look graceful and sexy!" Luke thought admiringly. Luke had to fight the temptation to smother Diego in hugs and kisses, to ruffle the boy's hair, lift him up, press him tightly to his chest, to his heart ... But no, it wasn't time, certainly not now, not yet. He needed to help Diego recover, help him heal. Later, maybe, just maybe ... Luke sighed and continued working. For his part, Diego, who already started to think of Luke as his hero, tried to follow Luke's lead closely and was absorbing attentively everything Luke has been teaching him. When they finished and got outside, Diego slapped Diego's back playfully and hugged the smaller boy again. "Great job, Diego, buddy, well done! We'll make a farm boy out of you yet!" Luke declared with a warm grin. Diego smiled back at him shyly. "Okay, dude, we gotta head back to the clubhouse! It's almost time for breakfast. Come on, you'll meet the rest of the gang," Luke pulled Diego by the hand again and they headed out of the barn area.