INTERNATIONAL SECRET SERVICES By Andrej Koymasky Š 2010 Written on June 16, 2002 Translated by the Author English text kindly revised by Matthew Templar
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"INTERNATIONAL SECRET SERVICES" 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 16 - A GOOD SETTLEMENT
When the ten years of Martin's contract were about to end, Lee and Martin started to look around to find a place to settle down. Both were determined to "retire from the business" as they judged they had already run enough risks. While discussing where to go, one day they went on a trip along the river Tajo that flows not far from Madrid. Up in the mountains they saw a small village totally abandoned, no more than a dozen houses, really picturesque, that almost fell sheer to the gorge where the river flowed.
With their car, they reached the lower part of the village that was surrounded by walls, in front of the only access arch. From there, three streets started that then united again in the upper part of the village, in front of a small chapel almost totally in ruins. They walked throughout the village, over the length and breadth of it. Most of the houses were still standing, and connected to each other by stone short stairways and arches, although the doors and window frames were totally broken or even missing.
"Martin, wouldn't it be wonderful to come and live here? For instance, in that house that is right on the sheer wall of the ravineÉ Look how beautiful it isÉ"
"Yes, it could be nice, but then what will we do up here? Be hermits?"
"NoÉ we can always invent a job. Nowadays with Internet, you can work in any placeÉ moreover, with the car we could be in Madrid in one, one and half-hours. Or we can go to Toledo in a couple hoursÉ And, anyway, we can make it just our vacation house, if you would rather live in a townÉ"
"To use the Internet we would need electric power, the telephone lineÉ"
"I don't think it would be too expensive being connectedÉ"
"Do you like it here that much?" asked Martin.
"Yes, really. Listen, we have to work about eighteen monthsÉ Why don't we start checking if we can buy one of these houses, and how much it can cost us to apply for the connections to the electricity, telephone and possibly also to the aqueduct and gasÉ We don't have a shortage of money. Come, let's go explore that house that seems to be the most beautiful and the widest oneÉ"
Martin followed him, more to please him than for a real interest. Undoubtedly the house, in spite of its totally bare stonewalls, was beautiful. The barrel vaults, also in stone, the rooms on different levels, the fantastic panorama that could be enjoyed from the windows, a wide terrace that bordered the ravine and that opened on a garden, now totally fallowÉ were really fascinating.
They then went to look for the county property maps to see who was the owner of that house and discovered that the entire little village belonged to a monastery. So they went to see the abbot to ask him if the house they were interested in was for sale. The abbot answered that in reality the entire village was for sale, and that they weren't interested in selling just a small part of it. He hoped that some tourist company bought it to restore it and make it into a tourist village, but they hadn't yet found a buyer.
Lee then asked how much they were asking for the entire small village. Martin looked at him somewhat surprised, but smiled and didn't say anything. The abbot called the monastery administrator; the monk came and examined some papers, then said that the price in euro would be about a millionÉ
Martin, more as a game than seriously, objected. "It seems rather expensive for a pile of old stonewalls in ruin. I can understand why no tourist organisations accepted to buy it. Moreover it is not connected with an asphalted road, there is no electric power nor water up there, any serviceÉ"
The monk said, "Yes, you are rightÉ But on the other hand it would be nonsense for us to spend any money there. We received the Aldea de Oro in heritage with some farms and land about sixty years ago from the late Countess Alfonsina Martinez de Rivera, who had no inheritorsÉ The fields and factories give us some income, but that group of abandoned small housesÉ"
"Is Aldea de Oro the name of that little bunch of houses?" Lee asked, interested.
"Yes, even though it is an absolutely inadequate name. It is too small to be called Aldea, that is village, and there is absolutely no trace of 'Oro,' that is of gold, there," the abbot joked, "Even though it seems that in ancient times it was possible to find some gold down in the gorge, in the waters of Tajo river."
Lee then said, "If you make us a good price, we can seriously consider buying itÉ We would pay you in cash, if what you ask is not too muchÉ"
"Would you pay the whole sum at the moment of the purchase?" the administrator monk asked, almost unbelieving.
"Yes, if the price is not too high," Lee confirmed.
The abbot told them he would consider the question, asked them their telephone and address, and told them he would let them know their final proposal.
When they were out, Martin asked, "You really would like to buy the entire village?"
"Why not, Martin? The place is beautiful, we won't miss money, and thenÉ did you realise? Aldea de OroÉ Gold. That is Qing, like my family nameÉ don't you think this is a sign? The Village of Qing, is its name, after allÉ"
Martin smiled, "Bah, if you really like it so much, we can seriously consider itÉ"
They got a letter from the abbey - they offered the entire village for seven hundred thousand euro. They bargained over the price a little more and at the end they agreed to five hundred and fifty thousand euro for the entire village and a stretch of land all around it.
They then applied for the connection to the aqueduct, the gas, electric power and telephone lines. Then they contacted an architect and a remodelling agencyÉ All together they got an estimate for the work needed of four hundred fifty thousand more euro.
"It's quite expensive, for a country houseÉ," Martin made him notice.
"But we have even more than that sumÉ moreover it is not just a house, but an entire village, as small as it isÉ"
"And what will we do with an entire village?" Martin asked, amused at the enthusiasm of his boy.
"We will see. For now we can start to remodel our house, and to simply put all the windows and doors onto the other houses, with the connections to the services."
Martin thought that, even if they spent almost half of their savings, just to see Lee happy, it was worth doing it. Therefore they went to sign all the contracts and had the work started. At the entrance arch of the village, they had installed a heavy wooden gate, reinforced with iron bands. Martin, hiding from Lee, had also prepared a painted sign to fix over the entrance gate, with "Aldea de Oro" written on it.
Their house was coming along quite nicely. On the terrace that was at the level of the roof, they also built a wooden Japanese style bath with three movable walls so that with the fine weather it was possible to bathe practically in the open. They also had the garden restructured in the Japanese naturalistic style, with a small waterfall. In the living room, inside a niche in the wall, they had installed some hidden lights - there they would put the beautiful ivory netsuke with the two male lovers united. The three gay erotic prints, instead, would be mounted on the wings of the door leading to their bedroom.
Martin was gradually getting enthusiast about the project. They then decided that, to keep their new house in order, it would be better having some service personnel. But to be freer, they had to be all young gay people.
"Who do you think would like to come and live up there, so secluded?" Martin asked.
"If they were couples of boys like us, I mean lovers, they would possibly live up there more willinglyÉ"
So they started to look, for a start, for two couples of young gay men who would accept living up there. They would settle them in a small house near their own. During the period they lived in Madrid, they had also, at times, attended some gay clubs, and got to know some people, so they started to spread the word. They also put some ads in the gay magazines. Some answers started to come in.
They met several people, but none of the two lovers seemed satisfied. Until a day a boy called them - they fixed a meeting, with his boyfriend, for the following day. They came - the one who called, Ruben, was twenty-seven years old, worked as the cook's helper on a cruise ship and resigned in order to live with his boyfriend, Enrique; so he was unemployed. The other boy, Enrique, was twenty-three years old, was the son of a gardener and worked with his father; therefore he knew enough of that work.
The two guys seemed likeable, their references were good, and they were ready to go and live at the village as this allowed them to live together without any problem. They had an old runabout, so they could move independently, and also go to do purchases, or even go into the town in their free time. The two boys were enchanted when they saw the village.
It was Enrique who, one of the first days of their life up there, gave to Martin and Lee the right idea about how to utilize the rest of the village.
"I've a friend in Madrid who is thirty years old, and he does very beautiful silk prints with a gay themeÉ I know he is looking for a place where he can live with his boyfriends and with also an art studio where he could work in peace. I think he would be ready to rent one of the houses here, to come to work and live hereÉ"
So they remodelled another of the houses and the artist and his lovers moved into the village. Manuel, the artist, passed the word on to a couple of their friends, Esteban and Juan, who made ceramics with gay erotic paintings in the style of ancient Greece amphora, who rented another of the houses, where they had a ceramic kiln built. Then it was the turn of a weaver, then of a writer, and also of a couple of web site experts; so that, gradually the village started to become populated.
Martin and Lee were almost always living up there and gradually became friends with the couples who lived there, populating the little village. Out of the entrance gate, a little lower, using the same stones of the village, of which the area was rich, they built a wide garage to keep their cars sheltered.
The village inhabitants started to call Lee "alcalde", that is 'mayor'. Often friends of the inhabitants began to go up there to visit their friends, and often they bought the works of the various artistsÉ In the gay ambiences the voice about the village soon spread, so also other visitors started to come, mainly on the holidaysÉ A couple of them asked to meet the alcalde.
"We saw that this place is really beautiful. Many people come here to spend a day, and we have heard that several would also like to stop here for a few daysÉ And we also heard that the three houses that are just beyond the entrance gate are still emptyÉ We would like to rent them to make them into a pub-restaurant for some rooms for the visitors who would like to stop hereÉ How much do you ask to lend us those three houses?"
So the village started to revive. It conserved its ancient and rustic aspect, although it was equipped with all the comforts. The new inn also attracted more visitors, so in another of the houses was opened a small shop of souvenirs and gay articles that also did good business. In the span of just three years, all the houses were inhabited, and the village was complete.
It was then that an interesting personage came to Aldea de Oro. He too asked to confer with the alcalde and when he met Lee and Martin, introduced himself.
"My name is Francisco Torres. I am an Evangelical pastor and this is my spouse, Carlos. We are members of several Spanish gay associations. We often celebrate gay union rites that don't have a legal value, at least for the moment, but who have a social and religious value. The biggest problem up to now is that we have had to celebrate them in private houses, as no congregations let us celebrate them in their churches. We noticed that there is a small chapel in the higher part of this village, and we would really like to be allowed to use it for this purposeÉ"
"For us there isn't the slightest problem, but you certainly saw that only the walls are still standing and a little bell tower - there are no doors, no windows, there is no bell, but above all there is no roof and the floor is totally ruined by the weeds and bushes that grew insideÉ," Lee made them notice.
"This is the least of our problemsÉ we can put it in order, restore it. Also, the ruined little house annexed to the chapel can become the officeÉ and possibly also the residence for my Carlos and me. Carlos and I don't have so much money, to tell the truth, but I'm rather confident I can find some benefactors ready to give us the needed money to restore the chapel and the annexed house, and possibly also to buy a bellÉ"
"What do you think, Martin?" Lee asked, clearly interested.
"I say that if you, Reverend, really are able to restore the chapel, we will more than willingly let you use it totally free, together with the annexed house. I never found out whom the chapel was consecrated to; I could find no traces, no images, and no documentsÉ To whom do you think to consecrate it?"
"We evangelical Christians usually don't consecrate our churches to saints, but we are in a country with a big catholic majority, and these distinctions amongst churches and confessions, in my opinion, are absolutely useless and absurdÉ therefore I was thinking we can consecrate it, if you agree, to the saints Sergius and BacchusÉ"
"Who are they? I never heard anything about themÉ" Martin asked, curious.
"They are two martyrs of the primitive church who almost certainly were loversÉ I discovered information about them on the InternetÉ and there I also found the text for the liturgy for the gay marriagesÉ"
"It is just perfect!" Lee exclaimed, "So, then, you can start to busy yourself, Reverend - we will be glad if our village also had our little church workingÉ"
Francisco really busied himself. Not only did he find gay friends who gave him the needed money for the restoration, but also an artist who gave them four stained glass windows representing gay saints. On the first were David and Jonathan, Aelred of Rielvaux, John of the Cross; on the second John and Simeon of Emesa, Alcuin of Tours and Peter Ordinsky; on the third Paul of Tharsis, Augustine of Hippo, Anselm of Aosta and Pauline of Nola; on the fourth Sebastian, George, Edward of England and Venantius Fortunatus.
On the altar-piece were represented, life size, saints Sergius and Bacchus dressed as Roman soldiers, hand in hand and smiling to each other. The weaver made and gave them the paraments, altar clothes and carpets. The ceramist made the furnishing and candleholdersÉ everybody in short contributed to make their chapel beautiful.
Martin and Lee decided to give the bell as their contribution and, when the chapel was inaugurated, they wanted to be the first couple to celebrate the union rite, at the presence of the entire village. All their friends wanted to sign the wedding book that would be conserved in the chapel.
When, the same day of their marriage, Martin and Lee went to bed to make love, Lee said, with a dreamlike expression, "The day I first met you, I would never have dreamed of all this. Do you know that I'm really happy, Martin?"
"I too am happy, my sweet spouse!"
THE END
In my home page I've put some more of my stories. If someone wants to read them, the URL is
http://andrejkoymasky.com
If you want to send me feed-back, or desire to help revising my English translations, so that I can put on-line more of my stories in English please e-mail at
andrej@andrejkoymasky.com