Catalina Cherries
by Joe Butterman

 

Chapter 14: Vaya Con Dios

Roberto, Johnny, and I were painting the Astimendi house; we’d put two coats on the trim and the eaves and were now starting on the first coat on the sides.  It was coming along nicely.  I heard Johnny say, “Good morning, Ma’am,” and went around to the front where I saw the van der Leyden Chevrolet on the street and the Commander standing on the sidewalk in her khaki uniform.  I called for Roberto and went up to her and repeated Johnny’s greeting.  She smiled, “I just thought I’d let you know that Gary arrived safely in Japan.  He wished you could all be with him.”  Mercedes emerged onto the front porch.  Our street only looked sleepy, there was very little that actually went unobserved.  We introduced Mercedes to the Commander and the appropriate pleasantries were exchanged.  Mercedes excused herself, and returned to the house as she was cooking; I think that she was relieved to know that the Commander, an obvious representative of uniformed officialdom, was a friend and ally, nothing was amiss.  The Commander went on to say that the three of us were to continue to use the pool whenever she or Miss Jean were present.  I told her that we’d be happy to clean the leaves out as Gary had shown us how to do this, but I confessed that I didn’t know about the chemicals.  Not to worry – Johnny said that he’d take care of it because Gary had taught him how to do it.  The Commander was pleased and was preparing to depart, but now, Grand Belle was coming-up the sidewalk.  So we introduced the two of them.  Grand Belle always had this air about her of inherent majesty. So after the introductions were completed, the Commander immediately accepted her offer of a cup of tea, and the two of them walked off to our house.  Before they departed, I asked if we could swim this afternoon after we were finished with the first coat.  She smiled, “certainly,” and as she and Grand Belle walked off I could hear her assuring Grand Belle that we were always welcome in her home.

Mercedes called us into the house for lunch.  I’d never been in the Astimendi house before.  The first thing you noticed was the smell: there was an overlay of the pleasant smells of cooking from the kitchen; but beneath that, there was a musty smell of disuse that seemed to be receding before the onslaught of vacuuming, polish and cleansers, and then, very faintly, there was an acrid smell that I couldn’t identify.  The furniture was worn and sagging.  The carpet was threadbare.  Everything was clean, but faded and worn.  I noticed a portrait of Jesus Christ on one wall, a mountain scene on another, but my attention was riveted to a photo of a handsome young man in the uniform of the Great War.  He was smiling at the world with joy and hope.  Beneath the portrait was a display case in which a number of medals were on display.  I knew enough to know that these were meaningful, but didn’t know what they meant, so I memorized them with the intention of asking the Commander about them as soon as I could.  Mercedes had to call me into the kitchen for a second time.  I was last to the table.

We were back at work when I saw the Commander returning to her car.  I asked her if she could wait a minute, and got permission for her to come into the living room from Mercedes.  I showed her the medals and asked them what they meant.  She said that the important ones were: a Bronze Star, awarded for bravery; a Purple Heart, awarded for being wounded in battle; a Croix de Guerre, a French medal for bravery; and the World War One Victory Medal.  She then went into the kitchen to talk to Mercedes, and I went back to work.  About an hour later, she came out and called me over.  She thanked me for my curiosity and said that Corporal Astimendi was entitled to a number of Veteran’s Benefits that he was not aware of.  She had spoken to him at some length and was going to make some calls on his behalf.  I said that I was glad for Corporal Astimendi, but that I hadn’t really done anything.  She just smiled over my protests and gave me a hug and a kiss.

We finished the first coat of paint in about an hour and decided that we would take the Commander up on her pool offer.  We repaired to Gary’s house, announced ourselves to Miss Jean who provided us all with Seven Up’s, took a shower and plunged into the pool.  It’s really neat to relax around the pool after a hard day of painting.  A little later, Johnny suggested it was time for the dressing room.  We all smiled and followed him.  Johnny took a seat on the bench and beckoned us over. “I’m gonna do ya both,” he grinned lasciviously.  He started on us” he’d suck and fondle me for a few minutes and then shift to Roberto, and then back again.  This was way cool and he was taking his time and not getting us up too quickly.  Roberto and I kissed each other, in the mouth and on the nipples, while we stroked each other everywhere: everywhere, at least, where Johnny wasn’t.  I think that Roberto was more caliente than I, for when Johnny shifted from me to Roberto, Roberto put both of his hands on Johnny’s head and held him there. He started thrusting into Johnny’s face with increasing urgency.  I sucked on Roberto’s tongue because I knew that he loved it, and between the two of us, we brought him off in a shuddering frenzy of delight.

As soon as he’d softened just a little, Roberto pulled out of Johnny’s mouth and went down between Johnny’s legs and licked Johnny’s hand away from his boner. He started working on Johnny’s boner with his beautiful and talented mouth.  I bent down and kissed Johnny so that I could taste Johnny and Roberto; then I slid into position above Roberto and slid my boner into Johnny’s eager mouth.  He was sucking and being sucked at the same time.  It must’ve been good because it was over for Johnny in just a few moments; he was cuming in Roberto’s mouth while he moaned around my boner.  While he was cuming, he just kinda clenched around my boner, and I could even feel a hint of teeth, but it felt really great and there was no pain at all. When he settled down a little, he resumed sucking and tonguing on me and I resumed face fucking him with enthusiasm.  I was last, and when Johnny released me, I just slid down behind Roberto and draped myself over his back, just sort of relaxing and feeling the two of them with my hands and my whole body.

After a relaxing time in the dressing room, we showered again, and then thanked Miss Jean for her hospitality and rode home.  Roberto was staying at my house tonight and Grand Belle was cooking for all of us.  We had pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, an avocado salad, fresh peas, and cherry pie al la mode for dessert.  Roberto and I drank milk, of course.  During the meal, Bobbin was quizzing Roberto about orange groves.  Roberto knew nothing about orange groves, but said that his Father knew a lot about oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and a host of other agricultural products.  This seemed to be what Bobbin wanted to hear.  He said that he was thinking about buying some orange groves as an investment but he wanted to keep the groves in production for as long as possible. He then asked Roberto if he knew when his Father would be home.  Roberto, forthright like El Cid, said that he was home right now and they would be finished with dinner at about the same time as us.  Bobbin asked if he would be willing to introduce him to his Father after dinner and Roberto replied, “Certainly mi Patron.”

After dinner, the three of us did the dishes.  Then Johnny bid everyone a good night and went home.  Bobbin asked me to get the Packard out of the garage, and I dragged Roberto along so that he could witness the triumph of my driving.  This done, we all settled in the front seat, and motored over to Roberto’s house.  When we got there, Papa and Mama were sitting on their front porch.  I bid them a pleasant “buenas noches Papa y Mama,” and then stood by while Roberto formally introduced Bobbin.  Papa immediately began extolling the virtues of “su Carlos” and “su Roberto” as if there might be some question on the matter. But Bobbin smiled winningly and opined that we were both “excellent young men.”  Our virtue established, Bobbin went on to wonder if Mr. Celayo might be able to give him some advice in the matter of orange groves.  As soon as it was determined that this was a business call, and did not involve either of us in criminal, or for that matter, any other form of mischief, Mama excused herself, and bustled us into the house with her.  She quickly fixed lemonade, settled Roberto and I at the kitchen table with some flan and two cups of heavily creamed coffee, and took the two lemonades out to the front porch.  Mercedes told us how much Senor Astimendi had enjoyed the Commanders visit this morning.  When the flan was gone, Roberto and I went out and played catch in the twilight.

At length, we were summoned to the front porch, business was apparently concluded to the satisfaction of Bobbin and Papa.  There was soon to be another meeting.  We motored home.  Bobbin stopped the Packard at the beginning of the driveway. Left her running, and asked me to put the “machine” in the garage.  Roberto ran to the garage and opened the doors, then dashed back and got into the front seat next to me.  We slid majestically into the garage and buttoned the Packard up for the night.  Grand Belle was on her way to get us, as it was later than we thought.

The bath we took that night was the most sensual and loving experience of my young sex life.  We washed each other thoroughly and then lay in the sudsy water, our bodies loving the feel of one another, of intimacy without heat, of loving without having to say anything.  When we got to bed, we lay nudely entwined and I tried to recapture that feeling of loving bodies that we’d had in the tub.  But Roberto wanted to move things along a little, so he started gently stroking me erect which he followed by sucking me rock hard.  He laved my boner with saliva, and then with some lotion that I’d not noticed he had. Slowly, he rolled me onto my back, straddled me, and then began to take me into him.  Inch-by-inch he took me, slowly flexing and working his muscles all around me as he took me to his glory.  When I was firmly in, he stopped, leaned forward, and whispered of his love for me.  I ran my hands slowly over every part of him that I could reach, stroking him lovingly, and told him that he was “the greatest Cid of all” and the “apple of my little Dutch eyes” among other things that I invented as I went.  I started slowly thrusting into him.  Conversation trailed off as passion built in my loins.  I could no longer think of endearments to speak as Roberto enveloped me with his body and his love, I came shuddering in the embrace of the best of all lovers.  Roberto let me relax completely and slide slowly out of him; we lay alongside each other for a few moments and I could feel his manhood strong and firm alongside my stomach.  I fumbled around a little, searching in the dark for the lotion.  Roberto put it into my hand; I could almost feel him smiling in the dark.  I rolled him onto his back and then tasted of him, the spice of his pre-cum now on my tongue.  I lotioned him lovingly, I arranged the pillows behind Roberto so that he could sit-up against the headboard, and then I sat on his lap facing the foot of the bed.  I slid up and down his boner several times, and then positioned him for entry, and slowly took him into me.  I like this position a lot.  I can lie back into Roberto’s warmth and his hands can roam all over the front of me while in our centers, he is vibrant and strong.  I lay there and worked on Roberto with the muscles in my ass and then I started to pick-up the pace as I wanted to do for him what he had just done for me.  After he came shuddering, I lay there in his arms and completely relaxed and drifted toward sleep.  I was vaguely aware as he slipped out of me, rolled me onto my side, pulled the covers up and over us, cuddled against me, and then we slept.

I applied the Tom Sawyer method of whitewashing the next morning and let Roberto and Johnny do the work.  I sat in the Astimendi kitchen and wrote a letter to Gary telling how much we envied his adventure, but missed his presence. I didn’t say anything obviously sexy in the letter, but I did mention that his Mother had allowed us the use of their pool and that we were using it and that I really missed his diving.  I figured that he’d get it.  Next I asked Mercedes if I could make a local telephone call and she gave me permission.  The Astimendi’s was a party line like my Grandparents, so it took me three tries before there was no one on the line.  I called Emily and asked if we could bring Johnny over and introduce him to her and maybe see some of the paintings.  She was happy to hear from me and said that our “Greek” painting was all but finished, had been paid for by Walt, so she could give us our money for posing.  We agreed to come over around ten the next morning.  I reported these developments to the two painters, who thought it was a great idea, but I wasn’t able to do any painting as I wanted to mail Gary’s letter at the Post Office, for some reason, neither of them asked why I had to do this at the Post Office, rather than just letting the mailman pick it up in the regular was, so I didn’t have to use any of the elaborate excuses that I’d created about the letter going to Japan.  They continued to paint.

I biked off to the Post Office where I gave the letter to a clerk and asked him if I had to bring it to the Post Office since it was going to Japan.  He looked at the address, and told me that the “FPO” in the address stood for “Fleet Post Office” so I didn’t have to bring it to the Post Office, but otherwise, I would have had to pay extra to send it to Japan.  I thanked him and now had information for Johnny and Roberto that would sound official and justify my trip.  I rode over to my favorite used book table for a quick browse, as it was only a couple of blocks away.  There, I picked-up a small volume that was entitled Kitchener’s Mob.  I’m sure I picked it up solely because the title was meaningless to me.  It was an ex-library book as it had the Dewey Decimal code on the spine.  When I opened the book, there was a picture of the author, a handsome young man with a light moustache, in a uniform similar to Corporal Astimendi’s.  Someone had written “Abingdin High” on the title page; they had written this in pencil in an undistinguished hand.  I also noted that the vandal wasn’t even able to spell his own school correctly as the book was also stamped “Property of Abingdon High School”.  But what really caught my attention was the comment that had been penciled-in beneath the photo of the author.  It read, “is a queer.”  I knew what that meant now, so I had to have it, maybe it would have some answers to my many questions.

I reported back to Johnny and Roberto.  I was just in time for lunch.  Neither were particularly interested in my report on the Post Office, or in my new acquisition; it seems that Joshua had called Roberto’s house and had been given the Astimendi’s phone number, so he called, and Mercedes called Roberto in to take the call.  We’d been invited to visit Tony and Walt this coming Friday for a day at the pool.  Joshua would pick us up downtown as before. This would be fun for us and Johnny would get to know all of our new friends.  Lunch was excellent too.

We finished the house painting in the early afternoon; they actually got some work out of me this time.  We spent the afternoon at Gary’s pool and, of course, regaled Miss Jean with tales of our virtue in the matter of painting an entire house.  She was unimpressed.  She was, nonetheless, obviously happy to see us, and she even had soft drinks other than Seven Up for us.  We had a great time, and took several sexy showers, but we didn’t do anything because we would be eating at Roberto’s tonight and then sleeping together in the back yard.

I awoke in the gray of dawn, birds racketing all around; I had ended-up in the middle after last nights sex, and was entangled with Roberto and Johnny, I gloried in the feel of them on either side of me, their warmth, like their love, cocooning me.  It was great to be alive and in love.  I closed my eyes thinking I might be able to go back to sleep; but that wasn’t going to happen, so it seemed only right to me that everyone should be awake.  Roberto was lying on his side, to the left of me, and Johnny was lying on his back on my right side. Both were breathing deeply and quietly.  One for each hand I thought, and reached for them at the same time. They both had semi-boners when I felt them; they both murmured something in their sleep as I began to stroke and fondle them; they both became almost instantly hard under my caresses.  What a great way to wake-up, I thought, as I stroked, smoothed, plucked, and adjusted their sex.  Roberto was first to awake, I felt him reach over and take me in his hand and begin to return my caresses.  Without missing a beat on either of them, I leaned over for a kiss good morning from Roberto. This was a really passionate kiss, not a good morning peck.  You might have thought that the three of us had not spent an hour or so the night before sucking and fucking the way we were waking-up all ready for action.  Johnny had reached for me, but found Roberto’s hand, so he rolled my balls around, pinched and fondled my nipples, and so on.  I leaned over for a good morning kiss from Johnny and was no way disappointed by the heat of his kiss.  It would have been nice to be in a room together, I would have liked to do something more, but though it was early, we had to be discreet and I noted that Roberto had lifted his knee up so that there was no visible movement of the covers for the casual observer to suspect the passion that was going-on.  Johnny moved Roberto’ hand off my boner and took over squeezing and stroking me; Roberto kissed me again, sucking my tongue, which he knows drives me crazy, while feeling me up wherever he could with is free hand.

By now, of course, we were pretty good about jacking each other off, and we were doing it slowly and expertly to each other, but I was in the center, and I was having the most fun, and I came first, clenching and moaning, spurting and arching beneath the covers.  When I came, I froze momentarily, and the action on Roberto and Johnny stopped; but they were having none of that, and I felt my hands removed from their sex so that the motion recommenced almost instantly, while I was still relaxing and coming down from my cloud.  Now Johnny was on his side, too, and he and Roberto were kissing passionately just above my face while they pumped each other over me.  It was really neat to watch their tongues licking and lashing each other just inches away from me.  Then Roberto came, and I took over stroking Johnny, so that he could enjoy that blissful quiet moment after cuming.  Johnny came shortly after that, and there we lay, all tangled together, with our cum all over my stomach and chest.  Roberto ducked his head under the covers and started cleaning my chest with his tongue, licking and savoring our cum.  Then Johnny started helping him and they licked me clean.  The feeling that you experience when two beautiful boys, boys that you love, are tonguing cum off your stomach and nipples, is one of the greatest feelings ever, and I lay back, closed my eyes and relished it to the full.  We lay together for a little longer, then got dressed and went into Roberto’s to use the bathroom and have breakfast.

After breakfast, we went down to my house and visited with Grand Belle and Bobbin for a while; then we went down to Johnny’s to see if his Mom had any chores for him today.  We paused and admired our handiwork at the Astimendi house. It was no longer an eyesore on our street, rather it looked quite striking, freshly painted and with the yard cared for and growing nicely.  Johnny’s Mom wanted the yard mowed, so we took care of that in no time at all and then were off to Emily’s.

We were welcomed by Emily and Victoria like long lost friends and were gently chided for not having visited them more often; we told them that we’d been very busy painting the Astimendi house and made it into rather a bigger deal than it had really been.  We were taken to the studio where we were shown the Greek painting.  It was really striking.  It was sexy in a different way than the Indian painting.  The Indian painting suggested sexuality, but in the Greek painting, the sexuality was explicit: it would soon be taking place.  It was a work of great beauty though, particularly if you liked horny boys.  As promised, unless you were intimately familiar with our bodies, you would never recognize Roberto and I, she’d changed our hair color and style and we both had blue eyes.  It was in the final stages of drying, and then Walt would hang it in his home.  I commented that Walt obviously didn’t care if anyone knew he was “queer.”  Emily replied that Walt and Tony had achieved a place in the world where the only people who came to their home understood that and, either didn’t care, or were themselves “queer”.  She rued the fact that there really wasn’t a nice term to describe our “tribe”; she thought that “homosexual” was far too clinical, and most of the other terms, such as “bent” or “light in the loafers” were trite or deprecatory.  I told Roberto that we should be a “tribe” and he just grinned hugely, “si mi corazon.”   Victoria chuckled.  Johnny was off in Ancient Greece and contributed nothing to the discussion.

“But where’s our portrait?”  I asked Emily.

“Why it’s in the living room, now, I’ll show you when everyone’s ready.”

When Johnny came back from Ancient Greece, he still had a rapt and distant look about him, but he was once again with us and we all trooped down to the living room.  There we hung, in pride of place, over the sofa.  Johnny was again entranced: staring at us, our youth and beauty, love and trust, frozen in oil.  Emily brought him back to Anaheim.

“Would you boys care to swim?”

“Sure,” Roberto and I chorused and off we went.  Johnny was a little hesitant, just like Gary had been the first time, as if waiting for swimming suits to be provided, or something, but when Roberto and I just stripped-off and dove in, he was right behind us.

As we swam, I noticed that Emily had a sketchpad and was busy making sketches of the activity around and in her pool.  I got out and went and looked over her shoulder. Again, they were mostly just movement sketches, a line or two, she was, however, getting very good at drawing butts.  Emily told me that she was going to ask Johnny to pose for her, so that she could give him a little money too.  I thought this was very fair of her.

“Do you have any new ideas for paintings?”  I asked her.

“Well, nothing solid, but I’m looking forward to getting a picture of your horse.  I think,” she continued, “That I’ll be getting some calls when some of Walt’s friends see you and Berto in Greece.”

“We’re going to see him and Tony tomorrow,” I confided.

“Excellent,” Emily smiled.  I called Johnny over and told him that he should pose for Emily.  Emily wanted to do two sketches of Johnny and said that she’d be happy to give him twenty dollars for his efforts.  Johnny thought that would be swell.

“Will you need him to be caliente?  I can help with that,” I offered.  She just laughed.

“Not today, I think,” and she chuckled some more.

Victoria was starting to set the table for lunch, so while Johnny got into the positions that Emily wanted, I helped Victoria while lazy Roberto lay on a recliner basking in the sun.  Between trips to the kitchen, I went over to Emily and suggested that she sketch Roberto too, all relaxed and dozing like he was, she thought that was a good idea.  We had a wonderful lunch, and then dozed around the pool while Emily sketched some more.

Later, after some more swimming, Emily paid us all for our posing, and we started home feeling rich.  I was resolved to open a bank account as soon as I got home, and I told Roberto that he should do the same.  As we were walking past the Astimendi house, I noticed that there was an old man sitting on the front porch in a wheel chair; I assumed that this must be Corporal Astimendi, I’d never seen him before.

“Is that Mr. Astimendi?” I asked Roberto.

“That’s him, Carlito,” Roberto responded.

“Can we say hi to him?”  I wanted to know more about the Corporal.

“We can sure try.”

We walked-up onto the porch steps and looked-up at the Corporal; he regarded us through clear and sparkling brown eyes.  I nudged Roberto.

“Senor Astimendi, these are two of my best friends, Carlos Scott, and Johnny MacCrimmon.  They helped me to paint your house.  We wish you a good day.”

“Good day, sir,” Johnny nodded respectfully.

I remembered the case of medals beneath his picture in the front room, and what the Commander had told me of them.  I saluted the Corporal like I had seen Chief Bowman salute the Commander, “Good afternoon, Sir.”

He smiled fragilely, raised his right hand to his fore head, and whisperingly said, “You don’t salute corporals young man.”  His smile was enchanting and sincere and I wished I had met him earlier, I was proud to meet him now.

“I’ve been in your house, sir, and the Commander told me about your medals.  I was saluting you.”  He saluted me back.

“Roberto,” he said, faintly hoarse, “will you ask Mercedes to bring us all something to drink?”

We sat on the porch around the Corporal’s wheel chair and drank iced tea.  The Corporal had been in the Field Artillery during the Great War; he had driven a team of horses that pulled the caisson and the cannon.  He spoke of his horses and told us their names; he remembered their quirks and foibles, their bravery under fire, it was as if they were just absent friends, as if it were all only yesterday when last they paraded.  When last they galloped into the guns of the Hun.  Of his medals, of his combat, he said not a word.  Grand Belle was calling us for dinner.  We all stood and saluted him.  We asked if we could visit him again, he smiled his warm and winning smile, “Please do.”

After that, whenever I saw him taking the air, I would go up and salute him and ask after him.  See if he needed anything done.  I did a couple little errands for him and he wanted to pay me.  Of course I declined.  He insisted.  I had to tell him that my Daddy was a horse soldier and that’d he’d kill me if I took money from another soldier.  He laughed.  I wish I’d gotten to know him sooner.

At home, we had roast chicken, baked potatoes, artichokes, and fresh biscuits for dinner.  There was a pineapple upside down cake for dessert.  We drank milk with dinner, this seemed kind of a letdown after having drank with the Corporal on his porch where we spoke of horses and war – important matters; but we were at my house now.

After dinner, we played baseball for a while in the front yard.  Then we went out behind the garage and began to set-up our bed for tonight.  Roberto was very distracting while we were doing this, he kept talking about what we were going to do in this bed when the three of us got there, what we were going to taste like, what we were going to feel, how caliente we were going to be.  He was going to arrange us so that we could kiss and massage each other; he would urge us into our sucking triangle; under his direction, we would take turns being in the middle, able to enjoy two dicks at the same time; he wanted two of us to lick and suck the third, then trade positions, so that each of us could enjoy a “double blow job;” we would all be able to taste cum, and then we would snuggle together and go to sleep.  Roberto was grinning deliciously while he laid out all of his plans for our evening.  I thought they were pretty good plans.  Johnny said he was awful tired, what with posing and all, and maybe we should just “sleep” in the bed.  We threw pillows at him.  He thought all this was screamingly funny.  Laughing, he struck a sexy pose, licked his lips elaborately, and laughed some more.  We all laughed.  Then we kissed and went in to take our bath.

When we went to bed, we did most of the things that Roberto had described.  Roberto was our team captain.  I thought it was really swell that we had a “sex team.”  We each came twice and then we slept that deep and rich sleep that comes on you when you’re drained by passion.

Next morning, after attending to our usual morning ceremonies, and breakfast; we set off on our bicycles to meet Joshua downtown for a day at the pool with the men.  As we rode downtown, I told Johnny that it was okay, and probably even expected, that we would go skinny dipping in the pool; that there would be a bewildering array of silverware at lunch, so if he was unsure of which piece to use, just watch me and use the piece I was using.  I also held forth on the statues and who they were.  He gave me a little grin and said, “Yes dear.”  We had come to use this phrase between ourselves fairly regularly, and I thought how odd it was that this was okay among the four of us, but if someone outside our tribe had used it, I would have been required to bristle indignantly, possibly even come to blows (and I don’t mean the kind of blows that I liked, either).

Joshua was waiting as planned, and we quickly loaded our bikes in the back and were off.  Johnny rode in the shotgun position in the front, while Roberto and I were in the back seat.  I played footsie with Roberto the whole drive, while Joshua answered a lot of Johnny’s questions about his world.  These were pretty much the same questions that we had asked him earlier, but he was pleasant and patient throughout, and kept the conversation alive by asking us questions about our world.  Johnny didn’t even bother to give him the line about playing baseball that he had on the Commander, instead he admitted that he didn’t have any idea what he planned to do in the future.  Joshua urged him to continue with his education; that’s what Joshua was doing and he made points with Johnny when he admitted that he didn’t know what he was going to do either, but that he wasn’t going to be a houseboy forever.

When we arrived, you could tell that Johnny was impressed by the house; we all entered through the front door and were met in the living room by Walt.  Walt was wearing a dressing robe with an ornate floral pattern against a dark red silk.  I thought it was just a little much.  He asked Joshua to bring some drinks to the pool, and asked us to accompany him to the pool.  As we trooped down to the pool, I saw that Tony was relaxing in a lounge chair; he was naked and was soaking up the sun.  I exploded out of my clothes in the dressing room and dove into the pool just ahead of Roberto and Johnny.  I really liked that the pool was kept cool, like Gary’s, rather than overheated like Emily’s.  I swam for a few minutes, then without bothering with a towel, I went over and sat down on the patio next to Tony’s lounger with the water running down and off me just like I like.

“Tony, can you tell me some more about Alexander and Hephaistion,” I asked.  He looked over at me with a grin.  I’d scoped him out pretty carefully when I’d first come down to the pool; as I’ve said, he’s a handsome man; he was evenly tanned, so he obviously enjoyed his pool without a swim suit; he had a sprinkle of hair on his legs, and a little on his arms, but only a few hairs around the nipples on his chest.  I thought he had a very nice cock which I was studying while pretending not to, because he was not circumcised and I was very interested in this phenomena.  I had also noticed that he had a tattoo of an anchor on his upper arm, almost to the shoulder, and resolved to ask if he was a sailor.

“Well,” he at length responded, “before we talk too much more about Alexander and Hephaistion, we should talk a little about the world they lived in.  They thought differently about many things, and love between men was only one of them.  Alexander was King of Macedon as well as the Great King of the Medes and the Persians.  He made no secret of his love for Hephaistion, and his world thought nothing of it.  I can only try to imagine what would happen if the King of England, or the President of the US, brought his boyfriend home to stay.”

“Why’d did things change,” I said in the momentary silence.

“That’s a long story in itself, do you want to talk about that now, or should we stick with Alexander?”

“Let’s stick with Alexander; we can talk about the other stuff later,” I decided.

“All right.  Then the first thing you should know, is that nothing I’m going to say is a secret, you can find all of it in books and art and letters from the times, I’ll be happy to give you a list of some of them later, if you’d like.”

Joshua came by with a big tray of assorted drinks; he gave Tony a fresh iced tea, and I selected a coke.  Unlike our previous visit, he was now naked; he was the best-dressed waiter I ever saw.  I looked around and saw that Roberto was still in the pool, Johnny was sitting on pools edge with his legs in the water and Walt was nowhere to be seen.  Joshua put the tray on a table in the shade of an umbrella, and then dove into the pool himself.  It was all very comfortable, relaxed, and normal; or, at least, so it seemed to me now that I knew more about myself than I had before.

“In Classical Greece, it was considered normal for men to love each other.”  Tony continued, “Indeed, in the City of Thebes, there was an entire regiment of infantry composed exclusively of lovers.  It was believed that their love for one another would make them exceptionally brave in battle.”  He paused and looked off into the distance, and then went on, “It did.  And in their last battle, rather than disgrace their love, they died to the last man.  Sadly, they were fighting Alexander, so they didn’t really have much of a chance; but he honored their bravery and their memory.”

I was saddened by the thought of a regiment of lovers dead on the battlefield, but it was a great story anyway.  And, unlike some stories, it was all true.  I had about a dozen questions that I would have liked to ask at this point, but I thought I’d wait and hear more of the story rather than interrupt like a grade-schooler.

“In Greece,” Tony went on, “It was considered right and proper for an older man to court a younger man, but it wasn’t just about sex.  The two were expected to love each other for their souls; the older man was expected to teach the younger man about life.  And how to be a credit to his family and his city; they were expected to be the very best of friends for life.  It was also proper for young men to love one another, and this is what happened to Alexander and Hephaistion.  Alexander was going to be King of Macedon, so his father, King Phillip, arranged for a philosopher, a philosopher known and respected even to this day, named Aristotle, to teach Alexander and a select group of his friends.  It was while they were at this school that Alexander and Hephaistion fell in love.”

Now I had a question that I had to ask.  “But if all the men loved other men, where did the children come from?”  I was, after all, raised on a ranch; I knew that stallions “serviced” mares, and bulls, heifers.  This was necessary if there were to be foals and calves.

Tony looked at me sharply.  He’d been relaxed and telling a story with broad sweeps of the story tellers brush; he’d been looking at me admiringly, and I’d adjusted myself to be on view, but he hadn’t been thinking of me as an audience until now.

“That’s certainly a practical question, young Carlos, even a perceptive one, let me think on it for a minute.”

I certainly didn’t think the question was in the least perceptive, it seemed rather an obvious concern to me.

I looked around the pool.  Roberto was lying on a lounger, basking beautifully in the sun; Johnny and Joshua were standing close together, looking at the statues, Joshua had an arm over Johnny’s shoulder and was clearly telling him about the characters the statues portrayed, since their backs were to us, I admired their buns for a few seconds; Walt, still in his ornate robe, was coming down the steps from the veranda, I think he’d been admiring the view from the house.

“You know, Carlos, books have been written attempting to answer your question,” Tony started-up again, “Let me see if I can make it a little shorter.  Basically, Classical Greece was a man’s world; they didn’t even believe that ‘love’ was possible between a man and a woman, the women had no voice in politics, they were to stay home and manage the household, and to have children.  So a man was expected to ‘love’ another man, but to marry and have children with his wife, and that was entirely separate and did not have anything to do with ‘love.’  That said, it should be remembered that there was a great woman poet, named Sappho, who wrote poetry about ‘love’ between women, and because they didn’t like this, she was exiled to the island of Lesbos, and that’s how our lesbian sisters got their name.  I don’t think that our Greek ancestors had all of the answers.  But certainly, Classical Greece was not a good place to be a woman.”

“So a man could have a wife and a lover at the same time?”  For some reason, I needed to be sure of this.

“Indeed, a man was expected to have a wife, and he could also have all of the boyfriends and girlfriends that he could handle,” Tony smiled.  I thought this was pretty incredible stuff.  For the moment, I forgot about Alexander and Hephaistion and considered my own situation.  Here I’d been wondering about how my tribe fitted into the world.  I had not one, but three, boyfriends, and I’d thought this was something new and unusual, and here Tony was telling me that this situation was nothing new, and therefore probably not too unusual either. It was my turn to stare off into space and contemplate the fact that the world was not a simple place.

I was brought back from space as Walt took off his ornate robe, and dove into the pool.  He was wearing a swimming suit.  The suit was dark blue, so it went with his robe, but it was baggy and did nothing for him.  “Why is Walt wearing a swimming suit?” I asked Tony.  Tony chuckled gently, “Oh her, she’s modest even in the bedroom.  But I suspect that she’s been enjoying the scenery.”

I noticed that Joshua and Johnny had brought some trays of food down from the house and were setting them on the table with drinks and ice.

“Can I get you a plate of food,” I asked Tony as I stood up, feeling hungry.

“Sure.  Get us two plates and we’ll sit here so I can continue to enjoy your conversation.”  He smiled up at me, and I again thought that he was a very handsome man, as I looked down at him, from head to toe, lingering somewhat, in between.

I fixed Tony a new iced tea, just the way he had asked me to, no sugar, just a wedge of lemon; then I made a selection of small sandwiches from the tray that Joshua had obviously made prior to our arrival.  I added a portion of lobster salad and took the plate, the tea, and a silver salad fork and a linen napkin over to Tony.  As I returned for my plate, I asked Roberto if he wanted anything, he thanked me and said, “Later Carlito.”

I took my lunch back to Tony and sat at his feet to eat.  I was wondering if I might not like having three boyfriends and an older man to teach me about the world; certainly, I wasn’t interested in a girl friend or a wife or anything like that, so my plan seemed pretty Greek to me.  I wasn’t sure about the “love” part of it, but I knew that I “liked” Tony an awful lot.  Besides, Tony had already said that the Ancient Greeks didn’t have “all the answers” either and this seemed to leave me a lot room to experiment in.  I decided to see what might happen.

“Tony, why don’t you call me ‘Carlito’ like all my best friends do?”  Tony looked surprised.  He had a mouthful of food, so he had some time to consider what I considered to be an advance; he took a drink of his iced tea; he smiled at me and said, “Why thank you very much, Carlito, I don’t know quite what to say.  That’s very nice of you.”  I smiled back at him.

“So what all did the man teach the boy in Ancient Greece,” I continued my advance.

“Well, in Ancient Greece, he would have taught the younger man how to be a soldier, that was very important in those days when all of the citizens of a city were also the army, and the army was usually called to war almost every summer.  He would teach him about politics.  He would teach him about art and religion.  I guess, in short, he would teach him to be what we would call today, a ‘gentleman’.  You should remember that we are talking only about the citizens of the city, not about the slaves or non-citizens.”

I was a little distressed that Tony Hadn’t mentioned sex.  After all, he had earlier said that sex was a part of this process, or at least he had said that it wasn’t “all about sex”.

“Would you teach me about some of these things?”  I pushed ahead.  Again, he thought for a long moment, then replied, “well sure, why not?”

Excellent, I thought to myself.  “Great,” I said smiling.

“Let’s go up to the house and I can show you some art books about Ancient, or Classical Greece, I should say.  You can’t swim for a half hour at least anyway.”

“Super,” I said standing up, then daringly, I grabbed his hand as if to help him up; but he didn’t need help, looked a little startled, but didn’t try to shake me off.  I gave his hand a gentle squeeze and then released him and we started up to the house.

“Would you like a robe?” Tony wondered.  Advancing steadily, I replied that “we” didn’t need them.  No point in getting dressed now, I thought.  I began to think that I might have to be pretty forward about this.  I maneuvered so I could brush his leg with my hip.

“I’ve some books on Classical Greek art in my study,” Tony observed as he led the way through the house, his buns gently swaying as he walked.  Pretty good-looking buns, too, I thought.  We walked into a paneled room with bookcases all around, a desk by the window, where he obviously did some work judging by the files and papers that were spread over the top of it.  There were several beautiful lamps on various tables and his desk and a truly magnificent rug covered the golden wood of the floor.  Tony went to a bookcase and took down a large volume, which he brought over to one of the tables.

“Come look at some of these pictures of Greek vases.”  I came and stood beside him. Close enough to feel his warmth, but not quite touching.

He started leafing through the pages, stopping from time to time to show me a particular picture: there was one of a bunch of boys running naked together, and Tony explained that in Greece, everyone exercised naked in gym; in another, a naked boy had ribbons draped over his arms and a man with a beard, wearing a robe, was putting a wreath on his head, Tony explained that the boy had just won a contest of some kind; there were several naked men wrestling that needed no explanation.  I edged a little closer so that our flesh tingled together once in a while.  When first we touched, Tony gulped and stopped talking for a moment, but he did not move away.  I noticed that his cock was just a trifle larger than before, and that his foreskin had seemed to draw up from the tip of his cock.  It’s hard to hide those kinds of things when you’re naked.  A picture on a page Tony was preparing to turn caught my attention; I stabbed my finger onto the page and stepped under his arm between him and the book.  I now had half of my butt against his upper thigh and my leg was against his.

“What’s happening here?”  The picture was one of a naked boy standing in front of a bearded man wearing a robe.  What was interesting was that the man was tickling the boy’s balls.  I thought this was fascinating as well as being right in line with what I wanted to happen next.

“Well…uh,” Tony gulped and paused, “I guess…uh…what we’ve got here is…well, uh…a man courting a boy,” he finally blurted it out.  The normally articulate Tony, who usually spoke in complete, frequently elegant sentences, was clearly flustered plus, I couldn’t help but think that the “courting” was in a well-advanced state.

I turned into Tony so that my stomach was in contact with his sex squishing it against me; I put my hands on his hips and looked up into his eyes while I moved even closer, snuggling into him, relishing the feel of him growing firmer, the feel of his skin, and his warmth.  There was a long pause.

“Tonio,” I whispered in the tension, “why don’t you do that to me?”

His eyes were closed.  With one hand he started to stroke my hair, the other he placed gently on my shoulder, caressing my neck and shoulder.  “Carlos…er, I mean Carlito.  This…really isn’t Ancient Greece…and, uh…we can’t do this.”  Bullshit, I thought; I could feel his dick, velvet steel, against me; I ran one hand down and started to stroke his butt, tantalizing him with the tips of my fingers in the crease of his butt.  “Come on, Tonio, tickle me like in the picture,” I snuggled against him and kissed his chest with my lips, licking here and there with my tongue.  “Tonio,” I whispered.

“Carlito.  We can’t…we just can’t.”

“Oh yes we can, Tonio, we can and it’s the right thing to do!”

I stepped back just a little bit, so that my hard-on stood up straight.  So did his.  I moved back into him and put my arms around his neck, hugging him firmly.  “Tickle me, Tonio, and be my teacher.”  I pulled his head down, slid-up against him on my toes, and kissed him gently on the lips, running the tip of my tongue over his lips.  I broke the kiss and admired his face; his eyes were still closed.

“Carlito.  You’re too young,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Bullshit!” I whispered back, not a bit hoarse, “I know who I am; I know what I am; but I don’t yet know what I will become.  Tickle me, Tonio, and be my teacher.”

“Oh God,” Tonio whispered, “oh God.”  He slid his hand down off my shoulder, and I moved slightly to the side so that he could reach me.  He began to fondle my balls, rolling them, tickling them lightly, stroking them.

“Yes, Tonio.  Yes.”

I put my cheek against his chest, holding him around the waist with one arm, while I ran my fingers through the light hair on his chest, and rubbed his nipples, one after the other.  There was a brown leather couch against he wall, toward which I began to move us.

“Sit on the couch, Tonio, so you can really do me.”  We moved to the couch and he sat on the edge, I separated his legs and stood directly in front of him with my straining hard-on right in front of his face.  He smiled-up at me, “beautiful Carlito,” he said, and then he took me in his mouth.  He was wonderful on me, quite expert and all.  I tousled his hair, then smoothed it, stroked his head, tickled his ears and called him “sweetheart” or something before he started to really effect me.  I began thrusting into his mouth, but he kept me under control, he’d move down my dick until just the tip was in his mouth which he would tongue avidly, and then he would pull me deeply into him until his nose was in my sparse bush.  I kinda wanted to prolong this, and was thinking about pulling away and going down on him, but he was, like I said, really expert, and he brought me along so fast that before I really knew it, I was gushing into his mouth and throat and he was swallowing every drop eagerly.  Just like my boyfriends, he was reluctant to release me, and we held our final position as I, almost reluctantly, softened in his mouth.

At length, I pulled gently out of his mouth, watching as my wiener slowly emerged from behind his lips.  “Sit back Tonio,” I instructed as I moved onto his lap and began to kiss him with languorous French kisses, running my hands over his chest, tweaking his nipples, but staying well away from his cock, which I intended to move onto slowly.  I licked down his neck and tongued his nipples, moving back and forth between them; I proceeded further down, rubbing his hard-on with my chest, when I was face to face with it, I paused to admire it for a few moments; he was thicker than I was used to, but looked like he was just about as long as Roberto; he had lots more hair than I was used to; he was, of course, uncircumcised, but he was so erect that, just like Gary had said when we were posing, you couldn’t really see the difference; his balls were large with a sprinkling of hair, they were sagging nicely in the warmth of the day and our passion.  I began to lick them, and move them all around with my tongue.  Then I took him in my hand, and began to lick slowly up his shaft.  I got to the top, and tongued the tip, working my tongue all around, licking and lashing and savoring.

I had other things in mind though, so I smiled-up at him, “do you have any lotion?”  He opened his eyes and looked down at me, “In the bathroom just down the hall,” he whispered.  I returned to his dick for a few licks, then I dashed down the hall, grabbed some lotion from the bathroom counter, and dashed back.  He hadn’t moved.  I worked him over again with my mouth and then sat back and liberally applied the lotion to his manhood; I put the lotion in his hand, stood up and presented my butt to him for lotion.  He surprised me by using his tongue all up and down my crack, and then pushing into my hole with his tongue.

“Beautiful Carlito,” he sighed again, and then he put the lotion on and into me.  I sat down on him, above his dick, and then slid down a little and admired the way his dick stuck-up between my legs, in touch with my own sex.  It felt really slick and sexy.  I slid over him and wiggled against him, thinking about how I liked it when he called me “beautiful.”  It really was pretty neat; it made me feel, well, treasured.  I positioned myself over him just right and slowly took him into me inch by wonderful inch, working my ass muscles to squeeze and relax on his dick.  He felt super, and it did not take me long to have all of him in me.  I paused a little until he felt just right there, and then I started to hump him.  First very slowly, and then a little faster and then faster still.  He was whispering in my ear and crooning with pleasure.  Both of his hands played all over my chest, thighs, and sex; I was hard again.

Long before I expected it, he started really panting and sighing, he hugged me tightly to him, and came.  I worked the muscles of my bottom all around him to give him as much pleasure as I possibly could.  Then we relaxed together, still connected.  After only a few seconds, his hands started roaming and caressing me again.  I was ready for more, but I waited until he had softened and slipped out of me before I turned around and presented my boner to him again.  He stood us up and kissed me, he startled me when he reached down and around and picked me up, cradling me in his arms. We kissed some more.  He laid me on the carpet and began to lick all over me.  He licked and kissed me from my toes to my eyelids, and then once again, he went expertly to work tonguing my boner, and I came almost at once.

We relaxed on the carpet together, all sprawled and entwined.  “See Tonio,” I observed, “you can too be my teacher.”

“What would you have me teach you beautiful Carlito?”

“Oh I dunno for sure.  Little.  Lots.  All kindsa stuff.”

“Okay,” Tonio said grinning hugely, “but since we’ve got Classical Greece all involved with us in the Twentieth Century, you should think of me as your ‘mentor.’  That would be the term that they would have used.  I’ll try to teach you lots, and little, and I’ll always love you.”  I kissed him, but then I had some alarming thoughts, “what will Walter say?”

“Walt and I have been together a long time.  It is not just about sex with us, I love him very much, but I should tell you, that from our first meeting, when you stood-up to Walter, and then told us the story of El Cid, I’ve thought of you as having a beautiful soul, and nothing has happened to change that, save that now I think of you as ‘Beautiful Carlito’.”

“Good,” I hugged him.  “Tonio, didn’t you say that in Classical Greece they sometimes had more than one boyfriend?”

“I love it when you call me Tonio.  And yes, I said that.  Just remember that it is always necessary to love the soul.  That is the real basis of friendship and love.  Sex just comes along for the ride.”

Yeah, I thought, but what a ride.

“We should probably go visit the others,” Tony observed with just a hint of reluctance, which I thought was charming.  I jumped up, “come on bestus Tonio, bestus teacher…mentor,” and I reached down for both of his hands, helping to pull him up and, in the process, rubbing all along his body and then giving him a deep kiss and a hug when he was up.  We started back to the veranda.

At the top of the steps we paused for a moment and looked down at the pool.  Walt was wearing his robe again, and was lying on one of the loungers.  No one else was in sight.  We walked down the steps and Tonio held my hand; I wondered if he had somehow guessed that I liked that.  We went over to Walt and I noticed that there was a crumple of cloth on the cement beside his chair, this was his swimming suit and I was glad that he had unbent that far, even though he had put the robe back on.  He appeared to be asleep, but this did not appear to concern Tonio, who asked him where the boys were.  He opened his eyes a little and said, “well, they put on quite a show for me, and I think they’re somewhere out in the back.  Probably playing naked savages or some such.”

“We’ve got lots of neat games like that,” I informed him, “there’s ‘King’, and ‘Indian’, and ‘Greeks’, and ‘Tropical Island’ (I had just this minute invented this game, but it was based on our trips to the beach).”

Walt smiled widely, “and are all of these games played naked?”

I smiled right back, “Yep.  Indeed, and now I’m gonna play ‘Torpedo’” and I arrowed into the pool.

I cavorted for a few minutes, and was swimming under water, when Roberto dove in close to me, and waved me to follow him to the shallow end of the pool.  He got there first, so I maneuvered so that I popped-up into his arms.  He hugged and kissed me and asked me where I’d been. I told him that I’d seduced Tony and that I’d tell him all about it later.  He grinned.  “What’d did you guys do?”  I asked in turn.

“Well, me and Johnny did it while Joshua blew Walt, and now Johnny and Joshua are doing it back in the trees.”

“Will you do Tonio with me before I hafta leave?  He’s gonna be our mentor,” I explained.  Roberto just gave me what I had started to think of as ‘that’ look, and said, “What’s a mentor?”  I kissed him and told him I’d explain it all later.  We got out of the pool, got some cokes and an iced tea, and went over to sit with Tonio, giving him the iced tea.

We lazed away the rest of the afternoon until it was time to go home.  I wished that we could have spent the night.

And now it was time for me to go back to Reno.  Usually it was only my Grandparents and Johnny who saw me off, but this time, Roberto and Papa were there, as well as Miss Jean and the Commander.  I felt happy-sad.  I would be happy to see my folks and the ranch and Dragoon again, but I would be missing my new found tribe.  I had everyone’s address and had promised to write.  Roberto and I had had lunch with Emily and Victoria; Emily wanted a “good” picture of Dragoon and said that she would miss me and had some ideas for new paintings.  Tonio had had us over for lunch when Walt was at work and Joshua was off.  Roberto and I were, of course, naked and in the pool when Tonio brought a light lunch down to the pool; we had talked about this, and as soon as Tonio had setout the lunch, we got him naked too.  We didn’t eat much.  Then we took Tonio to his bedroom where we had great sex and a long talk; he would mentor Roberto too (was there any doubt?)  He gave me an Ancient Greek coin.  It was a silver ‘drachma” with the profile of Alexander on it.  It was mounted in a bezel and I could wear it around my neck on a silver chain.  Roberto and I would both have silver medals now.  He also gave us each an elegant fountain pen that was called a Mont Blanc and instructed us both in how to use them.  Roberto also got a pocketknife with a silver chased handle.

I got a hug and a kiss from the ladies, a hug and a handshake from the men.

Roberto and Johnny and I had said goodbye very intimately the night before.

As I got onto the train, a smiling Papa said, “Vaya con Dios, Carlos.  Vaya con Dios.”

 

THE END

 

Feedback is the only payment our authors get!
Please take a moment to email the author if you enjoyed the story.
graflz127@msn.com