A FAIRY TALE? by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 written the 7th of March, 1993 translated by the author English text kindly revised by Vicent
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"A FAIRY TALE?" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
CHAPTER 8 - A date with David
One day on his way home from the University he saw workmen erecting a scaffolding around his house. He recalled his father telling him that the exterior would finally be restored and repainted in the near future. He foresaw some inconvenience for the following several days, but that didn't worry him. He knew he could become so absorbed in his studies that the work would not distract his attention.
The window in his room looked out onto the courtyard, where there was more scaffolding. Over the following couple of days he saw out of the corner of his eye that there were shadows passing across his window - men working no doubt. Once he looked out through the open window and saw a workman who appeared to be in his thirties and well built, climbing up the scaffold with a bucket of lime on his shoulder. "Not bad at all", he thought, but he plunged back into his studies.
The following day he heard a voice from the window calling "Ciao!" He turned and saw a boy his own age, wearing a tight gray T-shirt and blue jeans that showed off his lithe, slender body. The clothing was stained with mortar. The boy had stopped at the middle of the narrow steel ladder on the scaffolding, just in front of his window, and was looking in, smiling.
Martino answered, "Ciao!"
"Don't you do anything but read? Every time I go by this window you are there. You are so stock-still you look like a statue."
"It's my job to study", Martino answered, looking at him in fascination.
The boy had thick wavy hair, unkempt and spotted here and there with mortar, that hung almost over his eyes. His stretched T-shirt showed off a muscled chest and rose over the points of his small nipples. The arm he used to hold onto the ladder was smooth, marked only by the veins along his forearm, wrist and the back of his hand, standing out because of the tension in his muscles.
"Did I disturb you?" the boy asked, still smiling.
"No, no. In fact, I could use a short break."
"I see. But maybe we should get back to our jobs. Ciao." And the boy climbed quickly and easily up the ladder, not making a sound.
Martino admired the small round buttocks tightly wrapped in his jeans, thinking that this boy was really beautiful. And there was his open smile, friendly and fresh. Yes, beautiful. He didn't need his lost "memory" to recall this one.
He went back to his studies. Two or three hours later a shadow caught his eye, and he turned to look. It was the same boy again, just as he had hoped. He threw him a smile and raised his hand in a brief salute. The boy stopped in front of his window.
"Tired?" Martino asked.
"No way! Still three hours of work to go. Then a nice shower... My name is David, how about you?"
Martino looked at him taken aback, then said his name, "Martino."
"An unusual name, Martino, but it has a good sound. A nice name for a nice boy." He added with a quiet smile.
Martino thought that David was really beautiful, but not himself. "You mean a common name for a common boy", he said.
The boy looked at him seriously. "No, no. I saw you at the gym, without as many clothes. You have a really good-looking body. I thought then that I would like to meet you, and here we are. Life is funny sometimes, isn't it?"
"In the gym? I never saw you. I think it would be hard not to notice you."
"Oh, I was only there once, on a job about ten days ago. You know, just an extra little job to pick up some spending money. You were just coming out from the showers and... I noticed you. Well, I have to go, now. See you later..." and again he swiftly slipped away on the scaffold.
This time Martino had difficulty focusing on his books. David. It was a coincidence, evidently, but... ten days ago. He counted back. That was the day when he smashed his David to pieces. That same evening, David saw him coming out of the showers at the gym. Coincidence, no doubt, and yet... he shook his head. "Enough with the fantasies, Martino!" he told himself in a low voice.
But this David was really beautiful. Martino looked at the little statue and a detail hit him. The right hand of Michelangelo's David showed off the veins, visible on the back of the hand and on the wrist, exactly like those he noticed on the flesh and blood David. And his nipples under his T-shirt...
Martino shook his head, smiling with amusement at himself, thinking, "Fantasies, more fantasies..." But there was that straight nose, and those eyes under the jutting eyebrows... "No, no. Stop it", he said to himself, again trying to concentrate on his book.
It was almost evening when a light tapping at the open window attracted his attention. David was there, smiling. His knees were resting lightly against the windowsill from the outside, and his body was leaning slightly towards the inside of the room.
Martino stood up and approached him. "Ciao. Done with today's work?" he asked, stepping in front of him.
"Yes. Are you finished with your studies?"
"Almost."
"The man who studies too much goes mad!" the boy said, frowning and faking a serious expression.
"You are not from around here, are you? Your accent..."
"I'm from Florence. But I've lived here for six years. I was fifteen when I moved here."
"You're twenty-one then, same as me. "
"Really? So when is your birthday?"
"September twenty-third."
"Mine is September eighth. That makes me fifteen days older."
"Do you work out a lot to stay in shape?" asked Martino, who couldn't stop admiring his fine body.
"Work out? No, I just work. Carrying heavy loads up and down the scaffolding all day, I don't need a gym. Oh, I'm not criticizing you, not at all. Besides, if you didn't use the gym I wouldn't have seen you, that day when you were coming out of the showers all naked like your mum made you. And she made you nicely." Martino looked at him somewhat embarrassed, and the boy noticed. "Hey, there is nothing to be ashamed of about being handsome!"
"No, but being seen naked..."
"Well, what could you do? Shower with your clothes on? Ah, the shower is a great invention. It won't be long before I'm under the shower myself."
"Do you live far from here?"
"It takes me exactly twenty minutes on my bike. I live behind Saint Anthony's church. Do you know where it is?"
"Yes. Do you live with your family?"
"Two brothers. The older one is twenty-nine, and the younger one is eighteen. My big brother works in a factory, and the little one studies, so he also keeps the flat clean and prepares our meals."
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
A crucial question...
"Are you kidding? I don't want to be cheated by a woman!" This was an answer full of possibilities... Then the other continued, looking in his eyes, almost as if he wanted to penetrate to his soul, "It is true that you are a doctor and I am an ass, but... I would like if we could become friends."
"Me too, very much", Martino answered, his feelings for the boy beginning to stir.
David stretched out his hand and put it lightly on Martino's chest. "Friends, then!" he said. "Word of honor, man to man!"
Martino felt a quiver at that delicate contact, an unexpected shudder of pleasure, and felt he was becoming aroused. He placed his own hand on top of the hand touching his chest. "Friends, yes", he said. "And perhaps something more..?" The noise of the entrance door slamming made him start and interrupted him. "My father", Martino said regretfully.
David slowly pulled his hand away. "See you tomorrow, friend!" he said, and slipped quickly down the scaffold.
Martino was still aroused. He had to check to make sure the protrusion wasn't visible, then he went to meet his father. He had been about to say, "more than friends, intimate friends", when he was interrupted. He chatted a while with his father, ate his supper, and returned to his studies. But before long his eye was caught by the statue of David, and he had an idea. He pulled out his old History of Art textbook and looked up the page about the David statue.
"On September thirteenth, 1501, Michelangelo began work on the David..." The month was the same but not the day, he thought, almost relieved. Well, what did he expect? He mentally called himself stupid. But his eyes flew on automatically, one line of text after another. "The statue was presented to the public on September eighth, 1504..." His heart stopped for a moment, then he said to the little statue on his desk, "What kind of joke are you playing on me?"
He closed the book. Then a new thought stroke him - they both were born in 1964, exactly 460 year after... Well, 460 is just a round number, nothing special about it. He again smiled to himself and, pulling his own leg, told himself, "Maybe his father's name is Michelangelo too!"
But there was no doubt that he was attracted to the boy. It had taken only a slight contact for him to get a hard-on. Then, lying naked in bed, he recalled what the young man had said, that he had seen him naked and found him beautiful... and that he thought he would have liked to meet him, that he didn't want to be cheated by a woman, that he wanted to be his friend... man to man!
Well, even that didn't mean that he wanted to make love with him, he concluded, logically. He should stop mixing up desire with reality. He fell asleep thinking of the beautiful, open and frank smile of that incredible boy.
On the following morning he had to leave early for the university, so he didn't see David. Back home at about one o'clock, he entered his room and opened the window. David appeared immediately, standing upright in front of him. "You're back! I was eating my lunch here under your window, waiting for you. Matteo made meatballs with spinach for me today. Do you want some? They are really tasty."
"No, thank you. The housekeeper already made me some lunch."
"Don't you have a mom?"
"No, she died when I was seven years old."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Mine died too, but I was fifteen. My dad was already dead before that, so my brother, the older one, decided to look for a job here, and we moved, all three of us."
"Your father... his name wasn't Michelangelo by any chance, was it?" Martino felt like an idiot for asking.
David looked at him taken aback and asked, "How did you know?"
Now Martino was more astounded than David, "I... I didn't know, I was only guessing."
"Well, you must be psychic!" the youth exclaimed smiling assuredly. Then he added, "Can you read my mind? What am I thinking now?" and closed his eyes.
Martino thought that he didn't know, but he knew very well what he would like to do - kiss those perfect lips... David was still waiting, his eyes closed. Then Martino brushed his arm with his hand. "I don't know..." he started.
David opened again his eyes and said, "Then I'll tell you - I was thinking that I like you very much and that I like being with you. And that it is a pity that I have to stay out here and you inside. But that tomorrow is Sunday and we are both free, and we could spend it together."
Martino was excited. His hand on the other's arm trembled slightly. "You and I, alone?" he asked almost in a whisper.
"Sure! And where nobody can bother us. I know a beautiful place, less than an hour from here on a bike. I love the place. I go there whenever I feel like being alone. I've never taken anyone there, but you can come. Do you feel like doing that, Martino?"
He nodded and whispered, "I'd be glad to..."
"Good. Now go eat your lunch. We can meet after a while and make better plans for tomorrow. It's going to be a beautiful day!"
Martino nodded again and David left the window. Martino went to eat. He didn't know which astonished him more, knowing that the boy's father's name really was Michelangelo, or getting that invitation, and in that way. A place David loved, where he went to be alone, where he never took anyone...
He saw David again around three o'clock. "Tomorrow morning at nine then, is that OK for you?"
"Yes, sure. Where?" Martino asked.
"I have a bike. I can come by and get you."
"I have a bike too."
"Even better! So let's meet at the iron bridge at nine. You know where it is?"
"Which one, the one on the river or the one at the rail yard?"
"Ah, right, I didn't think about the other one. The bridge at the river."
"Good. Should I bring anything?"
"No, I'll take care of everything - food, too. Tonight I'll ask Matteo to fix it. Better than having your housekeeper do it. He's really good at it - he's studying at the Culinary Arts Institute."
"Can I bring some wine? Do you drink it?"
"Yes, a little bit. But by the time we eat the wine will warm. No, I'll take care of everything", David repeated.
"My father will want to know how late I'll be."
"Do you think he will make a fuss?"
"No, no. Just... what time we'll be back?"
"As late as possible", David answered with a smile.
"After supper?"
"Of course!"
"At... ten?"
"Can't you tell him around midnight?"
"Well... I think so. What plans do you have?"
"Do you trust me?"
"Well... sure."
"Then just tell him at midnight."
"All right. But are you sure I can't bring something?"
"Just bring yourself, that is the most important thing. I'll take care of the small stuff." The young man glanced at Martino, then merrily added, "Now, back to work, before my mates start asking why I'm making so many stops at the fifth floor!" As usual, he went away nimbly and fast.
Martino felt overcome by the events. Happily overcome. Around 4 pm the telephone rang and he went to answer. It was Vincenzo, inviting him for the following day.
"I'm sorry, but I can't. I'm spending the day^Ê with a boy!"
"A boy? All day? Who is he, some conquest of yours?"
"To tell you the truth I'm his conquest. I'm losing my head."
"Do we know him?"
"Of course! He is Michelangelo's David."
Vincenzo laughed, "Ah, then you're going to Florence tomorrow."
"No, just out of town."
"I don't understand", the voice in the receiver said, perplexed.
"I'll tell you later."
"But you are going out with a boy... a flesh and blood boy I mean, aren't you?"
"No, he isn't marble, in fact..."
"Well, then good luck."
Back in his room, Martino looked at his small statue of David. "I feel like bringing you with me, tomorrow", he said. "After all, you deserve it."
At the end of the work day, David came by to say good-bye, and confirmed their date for the following day.
"I'll be counting the hours", Martino said to him.
David's eyes shone. "And I'll be counting the seconds", he answered and showed him his watch. He pushed a button and instead of the time there appeared a rapidly changing number. Martino looked more carefully. The numbers showed 14 hours and 53 minutes, and the seconds were rapidly counting down. Soon the reading was 14 hours and 52 minutes. Martino smiled and nodded. David lowered his arm but Martino took his hand and lifted it again. He looked at David's watch and said, "So then, in 14 hours and 51 minutes and a few seconds..."
They shook hands warmly, and Martino felt on fire.
"See you tomorrow, friend", David said and swiftly left, down the scaffold.
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 9
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