The following is part of a novel in progress. There is some sex but not highly explicit. It is a fantasy set in the not so distant/possible future. Please let me know what you think. E-mail me at: rwig@hotmail.com
Legal stuff: The story is mine so don't steal it or I'll be pissed.
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RClayton
FOUR
Heath sat at his desk wondering how things were going for Jerrison. He was worried that the answers he was expecting wouldn't be the ones he would get. Then again he was scared that he might get a totally different set of answers that would be exactly what he needed to help get sent home. Even after only a little over a day he was growing attached to the older man. It wasn't the sex, that was great and all, but his personality was great and his sense of humor was just odd enough to be fun.
"Are you in there, Heath?" Frank asked as he stood before his secretary's desk.
"Sorry about that chief. Wool gathering I guess."
"You looked like you were thinking about a new boyfriend." Frank said. He crossed his arms. He had been through this with Heath before. The young man had been "in love" a dozen times over the three years he had been working for him.
"I wouldn't call him a boyfriend exactly. He's just a new friend... with benefits."
"I see," Frank said. He and Heath had shared the same arrangement themselves more than once over the years. That had ended the previous July when Frank had met Aaron and fallen in love himself. Now he was a happy husband and didn't cheat for anything.
"I'll get back to work." Heath said. He picked up the document he had been transcribing onto the computer.
"Who is he, Heath?" Frank asked. He sat on the edge of the desk, mildly curious. He was always somewhat interested in his friend's social life.
"His name is Jerrison and he just got to the island day before yesterday. I found him wandering in a daze and took him home to sleep it off. When he woke up we talked, a lot and then well, one thing led to another."
"I'm sure," Frank said. He remembered a Jerrison he had known once in College. God, that was so long ago now. A gorgeous guy who had a hot lover that died in a wreck of some sort. The guy went on to marry the head of the pep squad and drama team. Last he'd heard the guy was a big time businessman with major bucks and a couple of kids.
"He has no idea how he got here or why. He went to bed with his wife and woke up here."
"Really?" Frank sat up straight, taking more attention to the story.
"Yep, weird, huh?"
"Very. You say wife as in female?"
"Yeah, he's got two kids too."
"What's his last name?"
"Walker, why?"
"I don't fuckin' believe it!" Frank stood up.
"What?"
"I know the guy, or knew him anyway. In college."
"No way," Heath said.
"I would bet on it."
"Cool. You may be just the person to help him. If he can convince the right people he doesn't belong here..."
"You just realizing what you're saying? He'll leave."
"If he can get back to his real life that's more important, man, I can fall for someone else, I always do eventually."
"True enough." Frank said. "That is very mature of you, Heath. I'm glad to see you've finally started thinking about someone's needs besides your own."
"Yeah well, it had to happen sooner or later I guess." Heath said. It struck him that he felt this way because he actually had real feelings for Jerrison besides lust.
"Go home and see your friend, Heath. Help him get all this worked out. You can have a few days off, with pay."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously. Call me tomorrow. I'd like to see Jerrison again. It's been about ten years since the last time. We talked."
"Did you know each other well?"
"Not really, no. I was a friend of his... um..."
"Lover?"
"Well, yes, to be honest. Chad and I were on debate team together and had a few of the same classes. We got a long well and spent time together when Jerrison was busy with his own school work."
"Wild, man."
"Go, take off. Don't forget to call me."
"Tomorrow, Chief."
"Bye, Heath."
Heath gathered his things and took off before Frank could change his mind. He walked down the block and caught the bus across the island to his apartment complex.
"Jerrison! You home?" He called as he opened the front door. The apartment was silent. "Guess not." He closed and locked the door and made his way to the kitchen for a soda. He noticed the light blinking on the answer phone.
"Hey, it's me. I'm still here. I don't know how long I'll be. It looks like I have money in the bank but it's not under my name. I'll explain when I get home. We'll go out to dinner. My treat." The machine beeped.
"Okay then." Heath rewound the message and listened to it again. He sighed. He walked back to his bedroom to take a short nap.
A man stepped out of the guest room. He was dressed in white and he was huge. He had close cut hair and muscles on top of muscles.
"Who the fuck are you?" Heath said.
"Nobody you need to know." The man approached him and he backed away. This did not look like a good situation. He tried to figure how fast he could get back to the front door.
"You wouldn't mind just leaving and not hurting me would you?" Heath asked as he continued backing down the hall.
"Sorry, that isn't part of the assignment." The man grabbed his shirt front and snatched him forward off his feet. His fist met with Heath's nose with a resounding crunch.
Heath screamed in pain.
The man drew back and threw another punch blackening his left eye and continued his assault with reckless abandon.
Heath passed out as his second rib snapped.
Jerrison got the key in the lock only to realize the door wasn't even locked. He pushed the door open to find blood smeared on the wall. There was a trail down the short hall to where a mound lay near the entry to the kitchen. There was no movement.
"Oh God, no." Jerrison ran down the hall and landed on his knees in a pool of blood. "Heath, baby, come on talk to me."
The young man's face was black and blue and smeared with blood. The nose was busted, both eyes were bruised and swollen shut and there were several teeth missing. There was bruising around the neck. "Heath!"
"Step away from the body!" A police officer in gray and white entered the apartment pointing a gun at him.
"Call for help! I just got home and found him like this."
"That's not what the emergency call said." The officer said. He was Hispanic and well built but not like the nurse from the medical center.
"I didn't do this. I couldn't."
"You think we don't get domestic abuse cases here? It happens all the damn time. Just get away from him."
"Call an ambulance!"
"It's on the way." The officer moved slowly down the hall. "Put your hands on the wall and assume the position. Now."
Jerrison did as he was told but he kept looking down at Heath praying for some sign of life and not seeing any.
The cop frisked him and cuffed him then hauled him roughly out of the apartment as two men in white rushed past with red kits that looked like tackle boxes for fishing. The cop led him down the stair and placed him in the back of a white Buick with a flashing light on top. There was a cage between back and front and in all ways it was the same as any other police car he's ever seen.
Jerrison closed his eyes and felt tears burning them. One fresh hell after another with no space between. He prayed Heath was alive and not just so he could identify who really assaulted him. He prayed because he had become attached to the guy. He couldn't call it love but it was damn sure more than friendship.
The cop opened the front driver's side door and slid in.
"How is he?" Jerrison asked.
"Alive, for now." The cop said. "You sure did a job on him though."
"I didn't do it."
"Sure," the cop replied. He pulled the door closed and turned the ignition on, put the car in gear and made his way into afternoon traffic.