This is the conclusion of my story about Lon, an 18-year-old North Dakota farm boy, and Aaron, his younger brother's swimming instructor.
No minors were harmed in the writing of this story, but if you are one you should probably go find something else to do. Please do not reproduce this story in any form without the permission of the author.
-- Damian
PART 5
Aaron and I didn't spend every weekend together after that. He had final exams coming up, and I was working a lot and applying for grant money to start my own schooling after the first of the year. But we met at his place as often as possible. Mom and Dad were a little uncomfortable with me being gone so much, after being such an integral part of the family all my life, but they understood that I needed my time with Aaron.
It was Mom's idea to invite Aaron to Thanksgiving dinner. They hadn't met this wunderkind yet and really wanted to meet the guy who had taught Ronnie how to swim and Lonnie how to fuck. (Just kidding about the latter -- kind of!) Ted was working that day, as usual, and Aaron had no desire to stay home alone.
When he arrived at our door, I almost laughed -- I'd never seen Aaron in long pants before! He was determined to make a good impression on my family and came bearing flowers and a nice bottle of wine.
"Aaron!" Ronnie shrieked, running across the room and giving his swimming instructor a big hug. I was glad he didn't say "I almost didn't recognize you with your clothes on!"
"Mom, Dad...this is Aaron. Aaron, meet my folks," I proudly said. Handshakes all around. The ice had finally been broken and no one had yet passed out.
Aaron was a perfect gentleman over dinner, which was no surprise to me, of course. Whenever a lag in the conversation occurred, one of us managed to think of something to keep it going. Mom and Dad were polite but stoic North Dakotans. Back home it was kind of a joke to say "Why use ten words when one will do?" People there aren't known for their effusiveness...but they are the salt of the earth whenever you need any kind of help.
I noticed that Mom in particular kept staring at Aaron, while Dad was trying to find some conversational common ground with my new boyfriend. After dinner Aaron insisted on helping Mom in the kitchen. I knew that he had learned a lot from his dad about food preparation and clean-up and pretty much took the lead at home in that regard because of Ted's long hours away from home. He was a good son...I couldn't help but picture him in the role of good son-in-law as well.
After all the kitchen work was done, Mom pulled a photo album off the shelf and said that Aaron and I should sit on either side of her on the couch. She wanted to show Aaron all my baby pictures and photos of the farm where I grew up. As she turned page after page, she finally arrived at a photo that she particularly was looking for. It was one of Benny and me when we were about nine years old.
"Have you told Aaron about Benny?" Mom asked me. I nodded, wondering why she was bringing this up.
"You know, I kept thinking all during dinner that Aaron reminded me of someone. It was Benny's older brother Scott. Do you remember him, Lonnie? He was about Aaron's age when...we lost Benny."
Frankly, I don't really remember Scott very well, as he was nearly ten years older than Benny and me and already away in the military. But Mom and Dad were friends with their parents and knew both boys well. They lived on the next farm over from us.
"You probably never thought about it, Lonnie, but I think Benny would have looked a lot like Scott and Aaron if he'd...been able to be that age. I think the resemblance is uncanny, don't you, Howard?"
Dad nodded in agreement. My head was spinning -- so I wasn't so crazy after all. Mom saw it, too -- saw Benny in Aaron.
"Lonnie and Benny were inseparable, Aaron," Mom went on. "There was hardly a week that went by for three years or more that they didn't spend some together. Lonnie was heartbroken when he...when the accident happened. I think it took years for all of us...Lonnie in particular... to accept the fact that Benny was really gone."
She was wrong about that, of course. It'd been over eight years, and I still hadn't gotten over it. But knowing Aaron had helped...in a way. But in another way it had reopened an old wound. Benny, I still miss you more than anyone will ever know.
All this time, Aaron had been uncharacteristically silent. I wondered what he was thinking. Did he see himself in that photo of Benny and me? Was he...jealous in some way? I'd have to talk to him later, but now wasn't the time.
Mercifully, Mom finally ended the photo show-and-tell, and we dragged out a table game to play. Dad wasn't much into that sort of thing, and he wanted to see some football game on TV, so the rest of us played and had a good time together.
Aaron and I had a rare day off together the next day, so I had already planned to go home with him and spend the night. Mom couldn't have been nicer when we left -- she hugged Aaron and told him that she was happy that he had come into all our lives. Dad shook his hand and told him he was always welcome in their house. I knew he meant it, the way he said it. Ronnie hugged him again around the waist, and Aaron tousled his hair and hugged him back. Aaron thanked them all profusely.
I had to run back to my room to collect a few things...especially my thoughts and my composure. This very unusual Thanksgiving couldn't have gone better, and I felt a surge of pride and happiness. Thank God that Dad had sold that farm and moved us here or I would never have met Aaron!
Aaron and I didn't say much on the drive home in his car, with my hand on his leg. I think we were both a little overcome with new feelings. We didn't go swimming that night but snuggled up together on a loveseat and just held each other.
"That was a wonderful day, Lon. You have an amazing family. I wish I'd had a brother like Ronnie -- he's a sweet kid. And your folks seemed so accepting of me. I was really moved."
As suddenly as he had started talking, he grew silent again. We were holding each other, and soon I felt his body shaking. I'd never seen Aaron cry before, so I squeezed him tighter and asked him what was wrong.
"I'm sorry, Lonnie. I just miss my mom so much..."
He'd never called me Lonnie before. When he regained his composure, he talked about her and the terrible ordeal of her illness and death back in Phoenix. He'd never opened up to me about her before, but it all came spilling out like water over a broken dam.
"I want you to see her," he finally said, getting up and pulling a photo album off the shelf. As we leafed through the pages, like we'd done back at my house, I could see what a beautiful woman she had been -- Aaron had come from good stock. As he turned page after page, I was starting to realize how much this growing boy had resembled Benny. But I almost lost it when he turned to a page with a photo of when he was ten years old. He could have been Benny's identical twin!
We looked at each other when that photo appeared.
"You notice it, too, don't you, Lon? When I saw that photo of you and Benny back at your house, I knew I had to show you this one. Amazing resemblance, isn't it?
Now it was my turn to cry. Benny hadn't really left me after all. He was sitting right here next to me in the form of Aaron. There was never a doubt in my mind that I had wanted Aaron the first time I ever saw him, and now I understood why.
After I regained my composure, I stood up and pulled Aaron to his feet with both hands. Moving my hands to his face, I cupped it and brought his lips next to mine. It was the sweetest kiss I'd ever given him. I wanted him to know just how much he meant to me. He responded in kind, demonstrating a heartfelt passion that you usually only see in the movies. But this was for real -- no director was sitting there to say "Cut!"
After a minute or so, I finally broke the kiss and lowered my hands to his waist, pulling his sweater up and running my hands onto the solid bare flesh I found underneath. My thumbs caressed his nipples, bringing them to life till they were hard and suckable. Silently, he raised his arms in an open invitation for me to skin the sweater off. Smiling, I complied.
I returned my hands to my lover's magnificent body, stroking his chest, arms, and shoulders and sucking those tantalizing nipples. I wanted him nude. I opened his belt buckle and pulled his zipper down. His pants fell to the floor, and he stepped out of them.
Sitting back down in front of him, I stroked Aaron's bronze, furry thighs and watched as the front of his briefs filled out with his growing erection. I gave it a gentle squeeze, and he flinched in pleasure. His briefs were now damp in front from his pre-cum. Slipping my hands into the leg openings, I squeezed the globes of his masculine buttocks, pulling his body toward me and nibbling on his still-covered cock. Moving my hands to his sides, still inside his underwear, I oh-so-slowly lowered the fabric down from the waist until his now-throbbing rocket popped out.
Suddenly I knew what I wanted. I wanted to feel this hard, beautiful tool deep inside of me. It would be the first time -- I'd been inside of Aaron twice now, but I hadn't yet allowed him to take me in the same way.
"I want you, Aaron," I said softly, stroking his manhood. He knew just what I meant. He picked up his clothes, pulled me off the couch, turned off the lights, and walked me hand in hand to his bedroom. I undressed, put a condom on my lover, lay face down with a pillow under my middle, and eagerly awaited what he was ready to give.
We spent most of that long weekend together, and it was pure bliss. But the road to bliss often has a few potholes in it, and we would soon come upon one that threatened to derail this wonderful new life we had.
Aaron looked uncharacteristically glum when I went over there after work one night a few weeks later.
"What's wrong, buddy?" I'd never seen him look that way.
"Come on in, Lon."
It was pretty chilly that night, so we sat in the den. He pulled my socked feet up onto his lap and just stroked them gently while seeming to have trouble finding the words. He had me seriously worried.
"I've got some news you won't like, Lon. Dad told me this morning that he's been asked to open and manage a new restaurant down in San Diego. It's too far for him to commute from here, and he's trying to figure out what to do about me and the house."
My gut knotted up at the sound of this. Aaron had just turned 20 and didn't really need an on-site dad anymore, but it sounded like he might have to move for economic reasons.
"This house is too expensive for Dad to keep, and you know I really don't have enough money right now to strike out on my own and go to school at the same time. It's a real dilemma. I can't stand the thought of being so far away from you, but it looks like we might have to be apart for a while. When I turn 21, I'll come into a substantial trust fund set up by my mother and my grandparents, but that's still a year away."
He really didn't want to go to San Diego, and of course I didn't want him to go there either. We talked about options for several days, but no idea we came up with seemed feasible. Reluctantly, I started to resign myself to seeing my lover much less often. I was panicked that I might lose him if he met someone else down there.
I mentioned the situation to my folks, and my dad came up with an idea none of us had even thought of. He had invested the profits from the sale of the farm in some short-term CD's. He and Mom put their heads together and said they would make an offer on Ted's house. It was a win-win situation for all of us -- Ted got some money for housing in San Diego, Mom and Dad and Ronnie got a bigger and nicer place to live, and -- best of all -- Aaron and I could share his existing bedroom seven nights a week. Ted said he could provide some room and board money for Aaron to give my folks and tuition for him to still stay in school here in the L.A. area until Aaron came into his trust fund.
We were beyond elated at this unexpected turn of events! Mom and Dad bought some of Ted's furniture, and we helped him transport the rest to his new place in San Diego. We stayed a couple of days and helped him get set up.
As we were ready to start back home, Ted approached me first and gave me a big bear hug.
"Take good care of my boy, Lon. He can be a bit of a handful at times, you know," he said with a little chuckle.
"I will, Ted. Thank you so much for everything. My whole family loves Aaron, and he'll have the best home we can make for him. He'll just have to learn to keep his clothes on more often -- you know how he is."
Ted just laughed. "You boys come down and see me whenever you can. You're both my boys now, you know -- remember that."
I had to turn away when he said good-bye to Aaron. It was just too painful to watch. They had lost so much when his mom passed away, and now they were going to have to live apart for the first time. Aaron could hardly talk on the way home. I knew how much they loved each other.
It was a little awkward at first getting used to our new living arrangements, but we soon settled into this new family structure. My folks had come to adore Aaron in the short time we had been together, and he was happy to have a mother figure in the house once again.
My family loved their new house. One big advantage was that we could all now enjoy the swimming pool -- something that Ronnie was totally stoked about. The only down side was that swimsuits would now have to be worn in daylight, but we had a deal with Mom that she would look the other way after dark so that Ronnie and Aaron and I could swim together the way nature intended. Actually, I think she and Dad had long ago figured out that Ronnie's new swimsuit had never gotten wet during his lessons. Once when Mom wasn't home we even got Dad out there to skinny dip with us, and he found out how much fun it was to swim that way!
Actually, Aaron had admitted to me one time recently in our "pillow talk" that he had made up that story about his dad requiring him to give his swimming lessons in the nude. His dad had only suggested that he thought that he and Aaron should swim naked when they were home alone -- not that anyone else needed to swim that way.
"What! You devil!" I had said to him. "So why did you say that when Ronnie and I came over that first time?"
"I was testing you," Aaron confessed. "I was so attracted to you that I wanted to see what kind of reaction I'd get from you if I stripped naked. You should've seen the look on your face, dude -- it was priceless!"
"But don't you usually have a swimsuit on under your shorts?"
"I usually go inside and change into my swimsuit after meeting my clients, but after one look at you I decided to let it all hang out and see if you liked it. You took the bait, my friend. After that, I couldn't very well start wearing a suit around you guys, so I had to give all of Ronnie's lessons that way. I hope I didn't traumatize the poor kid."
"You horn dog! Do you have any idea the torture you put me through every Saturday morning having to look at your naked ass for an hour?"
"Torture?!? Lonnie! I'm wounded -- I thought you liked it!"
"That was the problem, you pervert -- I liked it too much. I thought I'd shrivel up and die when you told me Ronnie's lessons were over. I thought I'd never see you again!"
"Well, you did, didn't you? So what are you complaining about?"
"You strung me along for over two weeks after that before you invited me over."
"I just wanted you to be really ready for me -- were you?"
"What do you think?" I said as I started tickling him there in bed, raising screams of hysterical laughter. My boyfriend -- what a tease!
The following year, after Aaron had come into his trust fund, we took a driving vacation to Canada during our summer break from school. On the way home we stopped in my old hometown in North Dakota so that Aaron could see where I came from and the farm that we used to own. The new owners, whom I had known for years, were kind enough to invite us for lunch and let us roam around a bit. Aaron had never been on a farm before, and he was impressed with all that I told him about my old chores.
After lunch, the new owners said they had to go into town for a while and to make ourselves at home. I took the opportunity to show Aaron the barn and the hayloft. He caught on right away why I took him up there.
"You and Benny used to come up here, didn't you?"
"I can't deny it," I grinned.
As he looked around, he unbuttoned his shirt, and then mine, stripping them off of us. He stooped to take off his shoes and socks, and I did the same. Belts were unfastened, zippers opened, and pants came off in unison. There we stood, two feet apart, looking at each other in our just our underwear.
"Is this what you and Benny did?"
"Yes -- but only once, just a week before I lost him. But we didn't even have this much on."
In unison, we stepped out of our briefs and stood totally naked together in the straw. Our cocks went hard in the warm, fragrant farm air. I reached out and touched Aaron's just like I had touched Benny's that day, feeling his balls and squeezing his firmness and remembering how exhilarating it had been to touch another boy that way for the first time. I explored every now-familiar inch of my lover, like I had explored Benny's young body that day.
But this time would be different. This time I knelt down in the straw and took Aaron's hard penis in my mouth and sucked him passionately -- something that I had later wished I had done with Benny. But in the final analysis, I'm glad Benny and I hadn't gone that far. I saved it for this man, whom I loved with all my heart, who now filled my still-eager mouth with the juices from the very depths of his wonderful being.
"You farm boys knew some tricks, didn't you?" he smiled after he caught his breath. "And I don't think you learned how to do that particular one from the farm animals."
"Everything I know about pleasing a man I learned from you," I said, truthfully.
"You obviously don't need it, but here's a little refresher lesson," he said, dropping to his knees and returning the favor.
There was one final hurdle for me to overcome on this return journey to my roots, and that was a trip to Lake Audubon. I hadn't gone there since I heard about Benny, but I knew -- though it would be difficult -- that it was something I needed to do before we left my home state.
We drove to the beach where I had been told that Benny had lost his life. I strongly felt his presence as we stepped out of the car onto the warm sand, leaving our sandals behind. By the time we got there at dusk, everyone else had gone home for the day. Aaron and I didn't even need to say it -- we both just left our clothes in the sand and walked hand in hand naked into the chilly water.
I would never be the swimmer that Aaron was, but I had learned far more about swimming than I had ever thought was possible for me. He had made me face -- and eventually overcome -- my fear with his love, persistence, and devotion. We dove under the water together, emerging a few seconds later into the moon-lit air. Holding each other tightly, we kissed tenderly under the bright stars.
"I love you, Aaron."
"I love you, too, Lon."
I felt I had finally and fully crossed a bridge into a new life. Benny was my past. Aaron was my present, and it was clearer to me with each passing day that he was going to be my future as well.
I stretched my hand out toward the middle of the lake, barely touching the surface with my fingers.
Good-bye, Benny...and thanks.
THE END
(If you liked this story, please let me know. Thanks to all who commented on the first four parts. If you've written to me before, you're on my mailing list, which I do not share and will use only to announce the beginning of a new story. In the meantime, please check out my previous stories on the Nifty Authors tab. Love yourself, love others, and stay safe, warm, and happy! Damian at nvtahoeus@yahoo.com.)