NOTE: This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this installment, please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Captain John Grimke, still in uniform just having finished the day tour on Rescue 1 at Baltimore's Steadman fire station, picked up Jake and Jose at Penn Station upon their return from New York City and detoured north on Charles Street to drop Jose off at the Phi Gamma Delta house where he was spending the summer. Even though Jose just had an overnight suitcase slightly larger than Jake's gym bag, Jake insisted on walking Jose up to his room in the FIJI fraternity house. With most of the brothers gone for the weekend or summer, Jose had a single room and before his bag hit the ground, both were engaged in a passionate kiss good bye.
"Thank you for a wonderful weekend in the big city Jose," Jake managed to get out in between the tongue wresting matches.
"I love you Jake; to me, you are such a wonderful man," Jose replied, "now get going before your old man comes up here and starts doing a search for us."
"I love you too Jose," Jake said, disciplining himself to break away and make the walk back to the front door. As he turned to look back at the frat house, Jose stood there with a wave and a big smile and then a second wave as John waved to Jose too from the Honda before starting the 20 mile trip back to Severn.
On the way back, Jake filled his dad in on the details of the trip, especially his moving visit to Ground Zero knowing how important the bonds are amongst all firefighters. He also touched on the show, dining out at Bobby Flay's restaurant, Alejandro's cool penthouse apartment and their shopping trips while avoiding details of the love making between him and Jose.
John talked about his last two days at work, lots of training and not too many fires before reminding Jake he still had to get over to the Harme's house to cut the grass for Annie. Even though all of his father's words were registering and he was answering appropriately, Jake's attention became riveted on a motorcycle rider hunched over the handlebars of a crotch rocket, dressed in black racing leathers with matching boots and helmet.
"Don't even think about it Jake," John said, "your mother will kill both of us if you aren't already dead from a severe case of road rash."
"Sorry Dad, I wasn't really thinking about the motorcycle," Jake replied, "just, um, uh, the..."
"I gotcha, okay, but just remember what I said," John said, realizing what his son's attention was focused on before continuing, "and fair warning, your mom is going to hit you up with something big when you walk in, she's desperate which means you are in the driver's seat."
"Oh," Jake asked, "how so?"
"It's kind of like the perfect storm," John continued, "the Conservatory is seeing a drop in the enrollment of the Organ Studies program which means fewer students, fewer students means less need for an assistant professor of organ there."
"Mom's getting laid off?" Jake said in a startled tone.
"Not anytime soon," John continued, "but since the Chesapeake Chapter of the American Guild of Organists is having their bi-annual meeting here this summer, your Mom thought it would be a great idea if one of her students would give a demonstration for some other young people so that maybe they would consider organ studies at a place like Peabody. Except now the student that was going to do it had go back home for a family medical emergency"
"I'm not exactly feeling like I am in the driver's seat yet Dad," Jake said starting to connect the dots.
"Oh, I did leave out something," John said, "she said something about a small honorarium, perhaps for somebody's out of pocket expenses at UVa this fall."
"Gotcha now Dad," Jake said watching the leathered sport bike rider take an exit ramp, "does she have a figure in mind?"
To sweeten the deal, John offered, "well, these sorts of things are discretionary; I know the Guild doesn't have tons of money to be shelling out but I'll match whatever figure she offers."
"When?" asked Jake.
"That's the kicker, two weeks," Dad said as they pulled up the driveway "your mom plans on having the demonstration concert at St. Michael's after the 11:00 AM service."
Inside, Emma greeted her men with a huge hug and kiss for John and equally huge hug and quick peck on the cheek for Jake. "Go get changed and grill the steak dear," she said to John before turning to Jake, "tell me about your trip sweetheart; how's Jose?"
"Jose's just fine," Jake said, "he said to say hello to you."
Jake unlocked his iPhone and showed Emma a g-rated picture of Jose and himself posed on the rooftop patio in their new clothes with the Empire State Building in the background, "you two are incredibly handsome together," she cooed as she looked at their picture just forwarded to Jake's email by Jose.
While Emma finished getting the dinner salad ready, Jake gave her a rundown on the trip to New York City, pretty much the same version he shared with his father on the way home. "So Dad says you are in a bit of a pinch for an organist," Jake started.
"I guess your father laid out what's up, what I need?" Emma said as she crumbled the blue cheese into the spinach salad.
Jake saw the bacon already in the salad and knew now Emma was making one of his favorite dinners and smiled, "a little bribery, greasing the wheels here Mom?"
"Well, I did miss having you around," Emma replied as Jake snatched a crumble of bacon and blue cheese from the serving platter.
"Red wine?" Jake asked going to the wine cabinet.
"Yes, there's plenty of Malbec," Emma said as John walked through the kitchen and grabbed the skirt steak already crusted with salt and pepper.
As Emma put the finishing touches on the salad, Jake stood next to her, almost three inches taller than his mother and began to uncork the wine while Emma continued, `Just an hour of your time. I talk about it, you play it."
"Sounds easy enough, what do I play?" was Jake's natural follow up before the wheels in his head started to spin.
"Literally, if you do what you did for Will back in the fall, show what the instrument can do and then belt out something heavy duty, that's all I really need," Emma outlined.
By the time his mother had finished her sentence, Jake countered with his own suggestion, "wouldn't it be better if I did the talking, so that they heard it from somebody closer to their own age? Not saying you're old, just saying, you know, heard it from one of their peers."
"Sounds even better!" Emma exclaimed with John returning, the grilled steak on a serving platter.
Attempting to falsely clear his throat as they sat down at the kitchen table, "Dad did mention something about an, um, honorarium for the guest organist."
"I think we can swing a couple hundred, put that towards your unfunded UVa expenses," Emma offered, unaware that John had proposed to match it.
Now knowing he was driving this from the driver's seat, Jake countered with, "I can make that busting my hump cutting grass this summer. How about $500.00?"
John looked at his son across the table and smiled because he knew Jake had taken the bait and was running with it. Jake continued, "I got to get the sheet music, drive to Baltimore to practice; there's expenses with these sorts of things."
Emma sighed and then smiled, "Deal; I don't have any students this summer so the Moller at St. Michael's is all yours; just let me know when you want to go so that they are expecting you and it's not the Phantom of the Opera when the organ starts playing at odd times."
After dinner and cleaning up the dishes, Jake called Will and then Jackie just to see how they were doing. With the task of giving an organ demonstration concert, Jake went to his MacBook and after quickly changing the desktop pic to one of the racier shirtless shots of Jose and himself, he began to go through his iTunes play list looking for classical music he could play on the organ. Before long, the adventures of the weekend were catching up with him and he went to bed a bit early, texting some sexy messages to Jose in Baltimore who was getting ready for his second summer session at Hopkins and letting him know he would be in Baltimore frequently over the next two weeks to practice at St. Michael's.
The next morning, Jake could smell the coffee and hear John and Emma puttering downstairs in the kitchen at 7:00 AM. Already, the sun was warm as he made a plan for the day. Knowing his former swimming coach at Park Severn usually arrived an hour before practice started at 9:00 AM, he pulled on two speedos, a newer one first followed by an older one as a "drag suit" and then pulled on his lacrosse shorts followed by no-show sox and his favorite Nike Shox and a well-worn navy blue Baltimore Fire Department tee shirt with the sleeves cut off of it.
"And where are you headed dressed like that mister,' Emma demanded to know.
"See if I can get a few quick laps in, then cut the grass at Evan's for Annie," Jake answered, popping a couple of frozen waffles into the toaster.
"Just be home early, your Dad is working the night tour tonight," Emma reminded him.
"Well, I was going to try to hit St. M's and run through my music this afternoon and instead of having to drive home in rush hour, could I stop and have dinner with Dad at the firehouse?" Jake asked.
"If it's okay with your father, it's fine with me. Maybe I will take Annie out to dinner, I'm sure she is kind of lonely these days," Emma replied.
Jake finished spreading peanut butter on the waffles and dousing them with honey before eating each one in a handful of bites, "Sweet, Dad?"
"Sure, it's okay with me, I'll tell who ever is cooking to make enough for one more," John said, "and after watching you eat that, I'm thinking two more!"
By 7:30 AM, Jake was finished with breakfast, wearing his Oakleys and popping the earbuds from his iPhone into each ear listening to Shinedown's "Diamond Eyes" the same song Will used for the lacrosse video montage as he began a sub eight minute mile pace to Park Severn Swim Club just under two miles from the Grimke residence.
Arriving at the swim club, he saw his coach's car there and banged on the chain link fence to get his attention while yelling, "Coach, Coach Thompson!"
Harry Thompson looked up from the umbrellaed table where he was reviewing his notes on the current roster of swimmers and headed to the padlocked gate, "Hey Jake, how are you???"
"It's all good, think I can get a few laps in before everybody gets here for practice?" Jake asked, turning on his winning smile.
"For you Jake; of course," Harry answered, "Want me to time you?"
"Not yet, let me get a feel for the water," Jake replied as he began to strip down, piling his belongings on the chair next to Harry's table, "how's the team looking this year?"
"We're off to a good start, got some good young talent coming along but got to keep them in the program. Jake, you made us all proud with that rescue at Rehoboth earlier this summer," Thompson said reminding Jake of what happened during Senior Week.
"I never could have done that without the training from you and the lifeguards here so it's as much yours as it is mine," Jake said, never one to try to take all the credit for any of his successes.
Jake walked to the starting platform and dove in prone and began a few laps of freestyle before resting along the gutter drain under it after completing 200 yards. Then he pulled himself up out of the pool dripping wet and asked, "Hey Coach, let's see if I still got it" Jake said nodding to the J. Grimke on the record board for the 100 yard butterfly for 16-18 year old boys.
"Sure," Thompson said wearing board shorts, swim team sweatshirt and flip flops, "swimmer, take your mark, get set, GO!"
Jake's body sprang across the water with an excellent push-off from the starting platform before his body began rhythmically porpoising in the butterfly stroke as he surged towards the opposite end of the pool and slowed just enough to make his flip turn before returning 50 yards to the starting wall. Coach Thompson was kneeling at the starting platform as Jake forced his body to move faster through each stroke without getting sloppy before he touched the wall.
"Minute twelve and some change Jake, not bad considering you haven't competed for almost two years," Thompson reported after clicking the old school analog stopwatch, "you lost some time on your turn but I'm confident your record is safe until the next Jake Grimke comes along."
Jake smiled, panting from the swimming sprint, "Thanks coach." he managed to get out before hauling himself up and out of the water.
"So, Virginia and lacrosse?" Harry asked as the one-time swimmer drip dried before putting on his shorts and shirt.
"Hell yeah," Jake said with his usual understated confidence.
"Jake," Harry started as Jake put his socks and Nikes back on, "you have wonderful natural talent and abilities. You are a gifted student; gifted athlete and a great human being. I want you to do good things with your life Jake; promise me you'll do that."
Young Grimke understood the seriousness of his former coach's voice and had heard similar pleas from others; Coach Dase, Miss Birdsong and Dr. Pearce among others and knew he had to live his life to the best of his abilities. "I promise Harry, I hope I live up to the expectations you and others have for me," Jake said with his typical hug.
"I'd say make us proud Jake but you have already done that once, so, keep making us proud Jake, God bless you as you head to Virginia," Jake's former coach said with a bit of a tear in his eye.
"Thanks for everything Coach, keep an eye on the Cavs," Jake said as he popped the earbuds in and Oakleys back on for a run over to Evan's house to cut the grass.