IN FULL FLIGHT by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2005 written on September 17th 1993 translated by the author English text kindly revised by Brian
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"IN FULL FLIGHT" 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 9 - From Milan to Switzerland
When Giovanni got home, he heaved a sigh of relief. The lunch and later the supper had been excellent, but the interlude with the "show" that had lasted almost four hours, still weighed on him. Only the waiter with his honest face (a shame he hadn't even asked his name!) and the chat with Rodolfo had brought some of his good mood back for him.
When Daniel got in, even though the boy was tired, Giovanni told him all about it. Daniel listened, caressing him.
"My poor Gio... You could always have left..."
"I went there in Tullio's car. And then - I didn't want to be rude. But I swear they'll never see me there again. It all was so squalid... Well, it was a bit of a turn-on too, but... what a thing!"
"You can say you have one more experience, even if you did waste your day. Anyway, you got two good meals out of it."
"Excellent meals. And another thing..."
"What?"
Giovanni explained - the Swiss man Rodolfo had told him he could find him a better job, and with a better pay, in Switzerland, where he lived in Locarno. And as Giovanni didn't have a telephone, he'd invited him to call him in a week to find out what he had in mind.
"Would you like to go and work in Switzerland, Dani?"
"If it was to a better job, that would allow us to have the same hours, or at least the same day off... and with decent pay as well, why not?! It's the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland anyway, isn't it?"
"Yes. So let's hope Rodolfo finds us something."
Giovanni called him a week later. He told him he was still looking around, but was almost certain to find a good job for both of them. And he took note of their desires...
Giovanni called again the following week and Rodolfo said he had found two jobs, one at the Supermarket in Losone as manager of the wines and spirits department, which seemed appropriate for Giovanni, and the other in a small craft studio in Ascona making wooden toys, ideal for Daniel. Giovanni said both jobs sounded interesting, so the Swiss producer invited them to go as soon as possible to his place in Locarno, so he could take them to both places and sort out the contracts.
When Giovanni told Daniel what was on the offer, he exclaimed cheerfully "That's great! I like the idea of working in a factory making wooden toys! Or would you prefer to take that job for yourself?"
"No, no, I prefer wines and spirits, it's much more suitable for me. I'm something of an expert in that field. The problem is that if I were to go and work in Ticino Canton, we'll have to find a flat there. I have no idea how far apart Ascona and Losone are - I hope not too far."
"Perhaps your friend Rodolfo could help us with that too. We'll find somewhere, even if it's in a garage again... Today I'll ask my boss for a day off, and you ask your firm, so we can go there. Did Rodolfo tell you what day might be best?"
"He suggested a Friday..."
"Good, so let's both ask for next Friday then."
And that's just what they did. Rodolfo waited for them at the railway station. On the way to Ascona, Giovanni explained to him about the problem of lodgings.
"Don't worry, lads, I'll take care of everything. I know an ex-ballerina in Losone who I'm sure would put you up for a few weeks if I ask her. She likes having company around, and she's a typical "gay mama"; I don't know if you understand what I mean. And she's not short of money, so all you'd need to do would be just share the expenses for food. In the meantime we'll look for an apartment in that area, fortunately we don't have a housing shortage here. To make things easier, we'll say you're two cousins, and everything will go smoothly."
"Yes, but we'll need to buy furniture, and for the moment we barely have the money for a deposit on the flat, I think."
"I told you I'll take care of everything, didn't I? Don't worry, Daniel, my dear boy. My dear old grandma went to Heaven eight months ago and I have all her furniture in storage. It's just collecting dust there. But I would have been sorry to throw it all away - not least because she'd only bought it all less than three years ago. Yet you'd be lucky to get a few pennies for it second- hand. So I'll lend it to you, and as you buy new things, you can give them back to me, one piece at a time, with no rush. There is everything, you know. Even the colour TV and the fridge... and the washing machine. So you're home and dry. You can just sign a little paper for me, just to keep things all square, and that'll be it. Is that okay with you, lads?"
"It's simply splendid! But... why are you being so kind to us? You barely know us..." Giovanni asked.
"Well, d'you really want me to tell you? It's just that you touched me, there in that villa, that Sunday. I felt an immediate liking for you, and your story moved me. And then, if we gay sisters don't help each other, who else is going to help us? Certainly not the ones who spit on us, are they? And your boyfriend Daniel here that I'm finally able to meet. He seems a good sort to me. Like you. And then, if I get taken for a ride... the Buttafava has wide shoulders!" he concluded laughing. Then he added, "Ah, I was forgetting, Maggi, the boss of the small factory here in Ascona, he's a sister too, like us. But Daniel has nothing to fear, because he's got a jealous lover who never takes his eyes off him for a single moment and who works there too. And he's a good man, a hard worker. He's worked his way up from nothing, with his own two hands."
Daniel liked Maggi at once, and the man seemed to feel the same way about him. The hours were from 8:30 to 4:30, Monday to Friday, with a half-hour break for lunch. The pay was three times what Daniel had been earning as a washer-up. They signed the contract right away, and Daniel could start the following Monday. Next they went to Losone and Giovanni too signed his contract. His hours were from 8 to 5, Monday to Friday, with an hour for lunch, and his salary too was really good.
Lastly, Rodolfo took them to meet Roberta Prodi, the ex-ballerina. She was a woman in her sixties, with a still splendid body that she showed off flirtatiously by wearing a black leotard with a kind of almost transparent silk tunic over it. They chatted for a while, then she showed them the room that they could have. They parted, making a date for the Sunday.
"So then, I'll wait for you, boys! I'll cook you one of my special meals. And you must come too, with your little dancer, what's his name?"
"Sure, Robbie. And his name is Nicky, by the way. And don't call him my little dancer, or else he'll get mad like a Russian spy."
Rodolfo saw them back to the station.
"She is likeable, Robbie, isn't she? She's a bit of a chatterbox, but she is a good company. And she knows all the faggot girls in Ticino Canton and round about."
"But what does she do for a living?"
"She comes from a rich family, she has a private income."
"But how does she occupy herself, now that she's not working any longer?"
"She entertains, throws parties... she never stops moving. And she has a hobby of calligraphy, and she sells hand-lettered books."
"Hand-lettered books? What're they?"
"When someone rich wants a book, but written by hand in wonderful calligraphy, he tells her. And she copies it out in calligraphy. What can I say... a Shakespeare comedy, or Death in Venice, or The Count of Montecristo... in short, any book the guy is interested in, all hand-lettered in the style he wants, with illuminated initials and the whole works, on hand-made paper, then she has it bound in leather and it's finished. She gets paid good money, and she usually gets more requests than she has time free. So she has her fun, and gets paid for it. Not daft, is she?"
"She's a really interesting woman, don't you think so, Giovanni?"
"Yes, Daniel, the Robbie is exceptional, and you never finish getting to know her and being amazed by her. Now listen, boys, I'll come over on Sunday to collect you here from the station. Do you have much luggage?"
"Oh, a couple of suitcases each, no more."
"Then I'd better put the roof-rack on. See you soon, boys!"
So Giovanni and Daniel began their new life. They settled in at Roberta's. That evening Roberto came back with his Nicky. They spent a good evening. The woman and the dancer bickered jokingly.
Around midnight Roberta said, "Now hit the sack, boys! Giovanni and Daniel have to start their jobs tomorrow morning. This first time I'll go with them, so they learn the way from here. And they need to get there fresh and strong. You two playboys can stay up late, if you like, but by yourselves."
"Sure, pretty girl, you can go to bed early like the hens do. Anyway, it's the only thing you can do, as you don't have any cock to entertain!" Nicky said jokingly.
Roberta just raised one eyebrow, "Listen to the chick playing at be a cockerel! At least I've had all the cocks I could want, but you, apart from your own..."
"Don't worry, I've had my fair share of cocks too! I saw one just five hours ago. You on the other hand... How many centuries is it since you last saw one?"
"Five hours ago? Oh yes, I see, when you went to the toilet. You saw yours, darling. Now I... a sausage that long, just yesterday!"
"Look, you mistook it, it was just a salami, darling! You know you can buy those from the butcher."
"Yes, I've had my fun with the butcher's, too..." and so on.
When Giovanni and Daniel withdrew in their room, they were feeling light and happy. They were amongst friends, a good future within their grasp. They fell asleep almost at once, tenderly embraced. Only at dawn was Giovanni awakened by the intimate kisses of his lover on his morning erection. And they quietly made love as they waited for the alarm clock to ring.
Both fitted in well in their new jobs. Giovanni was the assistant to the manager of the wine and spirits section, who was soon to be moving up to a bigger branch of the supermarket, leaving Giovanni his place.
The man was amazed at Giovanni's expertise and asked him, "Have you worked in this field before?"
"No, never." Giovanni answered, without explaining that his skill came from entertaining the elegant milieu when he lived with his family.
He only had to learn how to deal with salesmen, how to obtain better prices, how to display the goods on the shelves to increase sales - in short, the tricks of the trade.
Daniel, after a short explanation from the owner, was put to work with a "senior" (he was actually only twenty-seven, but he had been working there for ten years). They had to make wooden toy trains. They did everything, sawing and turning the wood, polishing the parts, colouring them with stain, gluing them together and connecting up the parts. Then everything passed on to a checker, then to the packer. Other people were making different toys, "spring puppets", spinning tops, building blocks, educational games and so on.
Daniel too, thanks to his manual ability, fitted into the production without problems.
Already on the first day, during the lunch break, Luigi, the "senior" he was working with, asked him, "Are you gay too?"
"Does it show that much?" Daniel asked taken aback.
The other smiled. "No, it's just that Maggi prefers to hire gay people like himself... or like me. At least two thirds of the people here are gay."
"And the rest, how do they... behave?"
"The straight minority? Quietly. They mind their own business. Nobody here bothers other people; I mean, no finger-pointing or preaching. Maggi is strict on this point, he doesn't give in. Do you have a boyfriend, or are you on your own?"
"I'm with a guy. He's twenty-six."
"Oh, one less than me. Now me, I am alone, at the moment. My ex left me less than a year ago. He is fifty-three, we'd been living together for eight years. But he likes boys, and I got too old for him. He found a boy of nineteen, and now they're living together."
"I guess you must have been hurt."
"Well, not that much. I knew it would end that way, even if for a while I kidded myself it was different with me... After all, I felt great with him. We're still good friends... more or less. No grudges, you know how they say. But when I see his current boy, I must admit I do feel a bit jealous. It's silly, I know, but... Changing the subject, I get the feeling you like this job, don't you?"
"Yes, very much. I've always enjoyed working with wood."
"Me too. I've built a small workshop at home too, and in my spare time, I make small wooden things. Not toys exactly, but rather... porno objects, I'd say."
"Meaning?"
"Well, how can I put it? At the moment I'm working on a flute in the shape of a cock - you take the tip between your lips and play it, and it looks as if you're giving head... Then I made a wooden salt and pepper cruet, cock-shaped again, stylized. I sell them to friends. It's fun and I get some pocket money out of it."
Daniel smiled, amused at the idea.
In the end, it wasn't Rodolfo who found a place for them, but Roberta. One of her friends was vacating a second-floor flat in a modern block, on the banks of a small river. There was a little kitchen, a very big living room, all windows, with a terrace looking towards the woods, a beautiful bedroom, the bathroom, a hallway, a cellar and even a private garage. The rent was quite reasonable, especially now they had two good incomes, and the deposit fair. So they signed the lease. Rodolfo sent them all his grandma's furniture as he'd promised, including bed linen, table linen, towels. None of it was really attractive, but it was all good stuff, in good condition and functional. And above all, there was a double bed, wide and comfortable. So, little more than a month after their first day of work, the two lovers could also settle into a nice flat all to themselves. Daniel bought a moped to go to work in Ascona; Giovanni was able to walk to work.
Once they had settled in, one Sunday they invited their friends for lunch - Rodolfo with Nicky, Roberta and Luigi. It became obvious at once that a fatal spark was struck between Luigi and the young dancer; so when they slipped off without a word mid-way through the afternoon, to Giovanni and Daniel's bedroom, the two lads felt terribly embarrassed.
Rodolfo noticed and, smiling, said, "Well, the boys are rather cheeky, using your bedroom without even asking you..."
Daniel, taken aback, asked, "But... is it alright with you?"
"Nicky has never really been tied to me. Oh God, nor me to him either, honest! D'you remember, Giovanni, at the party in the villa, he did it first with that Arab hustler, then with the circus boy?"
"Who, one of the twins?"
"No, the electrician, I think, the youngest of the four. But he usually comes back to me, to the fold. Look, I'll tell you how this is going to end - if he comes back in five minutes, then it means there is something serious and maybe he will leave me. But if he's back in about an hour, that means it's just a little fling and he'll be staying with me."
"Not the other way round?" Giovanni asked.
Roberta answered, "No, Rudy is right, I know the type well. If he's in love, he doesn't consummate at once. If he consummates at once, he's not in love... Oh, here they come! That's bad news for you, dear Rudy!"
"No..." the man answered simply and when the two sat down again with the others, everybody pretended nothing had happened.
Rudy's prediction was right. After a couple of weeks Nicky and Luigi were together. It was Luigi who told Daniel, at work.
"You know, Nicky came to live at my place yesterday."
"Oh, I see."
"He is a fantastic boy. In bed he is a bomb! So sensual, erotic. And beautiful! He really made me lose my head."
"It seems... he is rather self-possessed in his... adventure."
"Yes, he warned me. He told me, 'If you want me to be your boyfriend, you have to let me be free. The freer you let me be, the more I can stay with you, because I like you too, I love you'."
"A weird love that, who wants to have both you and his adventures. I would never accept that from Giovanni, nor would I be able to do such a thing to him. Forgive me."
"Yes, I know what you mean. But I understand Nicky too. Anyway, it isn't a problem for me."
"Well, if you are happy with that, Luigi..."
"Yes. Do you know that just thinking of him gets me horny?"
Daniel looked to his fly in amusement, "Yes, it shows. Don't you feel embarrassed?"
"No. What's wrong with it? I think it's natural, it can happen to anyone, at times."
"Yes, but be careful they don't get the idea it's me who's turning you on." Daniel said laughing.
His friend smiled and said, "Now I can tell you. Those first few days I did feel horny because of you as well. But then, when I saw how committed you are to your Giovanni, I decided to cool down."
"I wasn't aware of that!"
"I'm not surprised, as you don't ever look at other men in that certain way. You don't undress them with your eyes, I mean. You only have eyes for your Giovanni. He is a lucky man."
"I'm the lucky one."
"Both of you. You really are made for each other. You are a really beautiful couple, let me tell you."
Pleased, Daniel repeated Luigi's words to Giovanni that evening. They got into the habit of going around the house naked, since nobody could see in through the windows. If somebody rang the bell, they could quickly slip on a loose tunic.
Giovanni leant against him from behind and brushing against him said, "I get a hard-on at work too, sometimes, just thinking of you, you know?"
"You never told me! But... does it notice?"
"Fortunately not. The apron covers everything up. Just thinking of you arouses me."
"It doesn't me... sorry."
"It doesn't matter. You're turned on as soon as I so much as touch you, like now... That's the important thing."
"Yes, I only have to feel your desire..."
"And are you feeling it now?"
"And how... so very strong..."
"Do you like it, Love?"
"Do you want me to show you?" Daniel asked, turning round in his lover's arms and looking at him, his eyes aglow with passion.
Giovanni whispered, "God, how beautiful you are!"
"It's your beauty mirrored in me, Love." Daniel answered caressing him and bending to kiss him all over his body.
Giovanni quivered and returned those sweet and passionate ministrations. Their bodies shifted on the living room blue carpet, giving themselves to each other with love and passion, expressing their desire and commitment.
"You know, each time seems more beautiful than the last." murmured Giovanni, moved, holding his lover's body tight against his own.
"That's true, though it hardly seems possible. You know, I like you so much, I feel I'm going mad?"
"Yes, you made me feel it, and it's wonderful. I love you, Dani, I love you so much!"
"I do too, Gio... let's go to bed, I feel like starting all over again..."
"Yes..."
A long letter came from Pietro. In it he told them he'd been through a bad crisis with Novio, but said that everything was sorted out now, and that if anything they were even closer than before.
The crisis broke out when Novio wanted to make a threesome with Pietro and a young soldier. Pietro gave in to Novio's insistence, but did enjoy the experience very much as well. Novio wanted to do it a second time with the same soldier. Pietro gave in once more, after some resistance; but right in mid- intercourse, seeing his man enjoying himself in the others arms, he burst out and sent the young soldier packing, then burst into tears. Novio was shocked - he'd never seen his boyfriend crying; only then did he realise he was hurting Pietro. So he asked his forgiveness and promised him it would never again happen.
In his letter, Pietro asked Daniel if in his opinion his reaction had been wrong. Daniel wrote back immediately and replied that no, he thought it was a proper reaction, and that he would never accept having to share his Giovanni with another. He wrote, "If Giovanni had an adventure, I would certainly forgive him. But I could never, ever accept seeing him making love to someone else before my very eyes. Never!"
Before sending the letter to his friend, he made Giovanni read it. He added that he agreed completely with Daniel, and that this was not jealousy, but simply a refusal to be hurt in that most sacred thing which exists in a couple - the exclusive, intimate union of two bodies, and not of three, or four...
Besides Pietro, Novio himself answered their letter. He wrote that he understood that now too, and that his Pietro's pain (without anger or accusations) had opened his eyes, and now he loved his boyfriend even more than before, and he would do his best never to cause him any pain, suffering, disappointment.
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 10
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