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.
Jake had finished cutting the grass and putting away the lawn mower in the garage at his wingman's house when Annie Harmes returned from her morning errands. "Hi Mrs. Harmes," Jake said, "how are you this morning?"
"Listen, just call me Annie when your folks aren't around, okay? And I'm doing just fine; your mother called and we are going to out to dinner tonight," Annie replied, "and you? Aren't you heading down to Charlottesville soon to register and everything?"
"Yep, end of the month," Jake replied, "any word from Ev?"
"Nope, not for two more weeks; that's when they are allowed to call home for the first time, on that Sunday afternoon," Annie explained.
"I want to be here for that if you don't mind," Jake pleaded.
"I'll let you know," Annie stated, pulling out her checkbook, "what's the going rate these days for yard work?"
"It's on me, just helping out my wingman in absentia," Jake replied, motioning for Annie to put away her checkbook.
"You and Evan are such sweet hearts," Annie said, before catching herself.
"Don't worry about it Annie, have fun tonight," Jake said as he retied his shoe laces before the run home.
Arriving home, Jake was crusted with tiny flecks of grass that clung to his sweaty ankles, his shirt and shorts soaked with perspiration and greeted by his mother dumping a basket of weeds she had pulled from her vegetable garden into one of the trash cans outside the garage. "Jake honey, I'm not sure which is worse, what I see before me or what lurks in that lacrosse bag of yours," Emma commented, "go get a shower and then have some lunch."
Jake spread his arms out to hug his mom who feigned to dislike her sweaty-chlorinated swimmer-lacrosse jock-lawn mowing teenage son hugging, "my big baby boy. We love you Jake."
"Love you too Mom," Jake said, "I'm going to get a shower then head up to Baltimore for a late lunch with Jose, then St. M's, then dinner with Dad."
"A late lunch, is that what you young people call it now," Emma said with a twinkle in her eye, "back in my day it was called a nooner. Just call me when you get there and when you leave."
"Ahhhhhhh, Mom," Jake whined as he headed upstairs, busted about his ulterior intentions by his mother.
Jake resisted the urge to jack off in the shower as he cleaned up from his triathlon of swimming, running and lawn mowing. He gathered up the little bit of sheet music he had and put it into his backpack that he once used to haul his textbooks and homework around the corridors of Severn High School. Then he texted Jose that he was leaving Severn and to expect him within the hour after having Emma call Father Lowery at St. Michael's to be expecting the young organist.
Jose was pleased that Jake would be spending a few extra hours in Baltimore over the coming two week period as they began making out behind the closed door of Jose's room at FIJI. Jake was soapy clean without a trace of deodorant or cologne as Jose was a little rough and scruffy, not having showered since he arrived back in Baltimore less than 18 hours ago.
The shadow of Jose's thin beard tickled Jake as they playfully made out, Jose's classes over for the day, confined to the tiny twin bed in the room compared to the expanse of the queen-sized bed they had in Alejandro's penthouse apartment over the past weekend. Before long, both were naked and Jose was attempting to engulf all of Jake into his mouth while he poked a digit gently inside of Jake's tight ass.
Jake writhed in pleasure as Jose gently probed the finger inside the lacrosse jock's ass while gently sucking on his lacrosse stick. All Jake could do was moan and clench the sheets of Jose's bed until Jose took him to the point of no return. The lacrosse player's body tensed as his balls and shaft unleashed a load over 24 hours in the making.
After a little more making out, Jose ordered Jake to get dressed before heading out for lunch. After finishing some sandwiches at a deli, Jose and Jake walked back to the campus and stopped at the student health center where Jose signed himself in after presenting his student ID.
"What are we doing here?" Jake asked.
"Getting you tested," Jose replied, "I can bring any of my partners here for a free STD screening, even if they aren't students."
Jake moved in closer to Jose, nudging against him, whispering in his ear, "I love you.
"I love you too Jake-o" Jose replied.
And as he finished writing with his right hand, Jose put his left hand across Jake's butt in public, something Jake had never experienced before, a gay public display of affection.
The clinic was practically deserted and within a few minutes, a young male clinician came out, "Grimke?"
Standing immediately, Jake took a last look at Jose and followed him back in to the examining room. The clinician wrapped a tourniquet around Jake's strong upper arm and coaxed Jake to relax his arm before taking the blood sample. After the blood tubes were drawn, he instructed Jake how to take a saliva sample for the oral rapid HIV test. After Jake completed the oral swab, the clinician gave Jake tips for safe same sex contact and reminded him to use condoms whenever possible. As the twenty minute window closed on the oral test, Jake received a confidential identification number and toll free telephone line to call for his results which would be available in a few days.
As the timer beeped to announce twenty minutes, the clinician reported Jake was HIV negative and sent him out to Jose who was texting one of his FIJI brothers.
"Good to go," Jake announced to Jose, "thanks for doing this for me, for us."
"Your welcome," Jose said as they walked back to FIJI for Jake to pick up his car and head down St. Paul Street to St. Michael's after a passionate good bye kiss that anybody could have witnessed.
Jake parked in the staff lot and let himself in the church office door like he had done many times before, talking with Mrs. Hermanny, the long-time church secretary who absolutely gushed about how big and grown up Jake had become as Father Lowery came out from his office to let Jake up into the chancel.
"Just let me know when you are done Jake so that we can lock up," Father Lowery said.
"Will do," Jake replied as he made himself comfortable at the bench of the Moller opus.
Jake went through some scales and toyed with some different stop combinations, realizing it had been since Easter when he last played. He dabbled with a few first lines out of the 1980 Hymnal, looking for familiar tunes that anybody who attended church with any regularity would probably recognize. Notes from St. Anne, Austria, Sine Nomine filled the empty nave as he went through the tunes, embellishing each with flourishes from different combinations of stops.
Feeling comfortable once again in front of the great instrument, he thumbed through some of the pieces of music he brought, settling on Eugene Gigout's Toccata in B-Minor for a first piece which he played well before opting for another.
He skipped Widor's famous toccata, knowing it was one of his mother's favorites to play and not wanting to steal any of her thunder, he searched until he found the music for the final movement from Louis Vierne's first organ symphony. He looked at the notes his mother had made for her registrations and took them as merely guidelines and set his own and began to play. Jake's first attempts to play it were adequate, but he knew the instrument in front of him could do more and by the time he had changed his registrations a third time, the whole church literally shook.
Jake stopped, pleased with himself and knowing that some kids were about to be blown out of the water with what one person and such an instrument can do. He made his final notes and picked up the rest of his sheet music and found Father Lowery sitting in the front pew with a big smile, "the apple didn't fall far from the tree did it young man?"
"No sir," Jake replied, then prying for an opinion, "what did you think?"
"You kicked ass Jake," Father Lowery said, "that was awesome!"
Jake blushed a little hearing the rector use such language then smiled, "I'll be back later in the week for some more practice."
"I look forward to it Jake," Father Lowery said as he locked the chancel up and followed Jake out to his car.
Jake put his backpack in the trunk of the Saab and elected to keep the top up for the short trip down to Steadman station, looking at his watch and seeing that he would be there just after his dad reported for duty.
Although it had been a while since Jake had been to Steadman, he remembered the "Members Only" door near the employee lot and let himself in and walked quickly across the apparatus floor to the Lombard Street side of the house where Rescue 1 and all the other Special Operations units were parked. The crew was checking out the rig and their riding positions when Jake saw his dad checking out his air pack in the front passenger seat of the massive tandem rear axle custom built rig.
"Hey Dad," Jake said, half startling Captain Grimke.
As the low air alarm sounded, John turned, "Jake, how are you, you get Annie's grass cut today?"
"All done and a rehearsal done at St. M's," Jake tacked on.
John reached down and handed Jake his spare black firefighter's coat with GRIMKE sewn on in yellow reflective trim, "Wear this if we go out on anything, that way nobody will screw with you; you're riding in back with Shapiro, Wright and Deavers; you might remember Mike Proctor, he's the driver now, tillered when I was Truck 19."
"Hey Mike, how you been?" Jake asked shaking the driver's hand just as the tones announced a call.
"Rescue 1, Proceed to 1120 Eutaw Street for the stalled elevator, reported two trapped between seventh and eighth floor. Rescue 1 switch to Channel 2 for your response at 17:33 hours."
"Get on up in their kid," Shapiro said before the rest of the crew climbed into the riding compartment and the rig began a non-emergency response towards the address given.
"How comes we're not going with lights and sirens?" Jake asked the crew.
"If we did that every time we got called for a stalled elevator, they'd have to replace the siren once a week on this thing," Shapiro replied.
Deavers added, "usually the ladder companies handle the stalled elevator calls but with so many closed companies, we end up doing some of the more mundane stuff."
"Headquarters to Rescue 1, disregard your current assignment, switch back to channel 1 for a new assignment," the radio speaker boomed.
"Could be good," Wright said.
"Special Alarm, Rescue 1 and Truck 25 respond to Northern Parkway and Roland Avenue, Engine 44 on the scene, with a vehicle overturned confirming entrapment; those units, Channel 3."
Shapiro, Wright and Deavers cheered in the back as the siren wound up on the front bumper and speed increased, "Jake here is bringing us some luck tonight."
The rush hour stop and go traffic made it seem like they would never get there. Captain Grimke worked the siren and air horn pedal switches much as Jake had worked the pedal keys an hour or so before on the organ, just that there are 30 less pedals to push. In the crew compartment, the firefighters finished putting on their turnout gear as the air brakes hissed, announcing the arrival of Rescue 1.
"Special Operations Deputy on the scene with Rescue 1, Roland and Northern Parkway," Jake could hear echo on the radio thinking, Chief Whitelaw.
Captain Grimke was already taking a lap around the four door sedan resting on the passenger's side and consulting with the medics about the severity of their injuries. Both were conscious and it looked like some stabilization coupled with a roof removal would get them extricated the fastest. While Jake had a rough idea of what was going to be done, he was more impressed that each man knew his job and how it integrated with what the rest of the crew was doing. Captain Grimke called the play, Shapiro and Proctor handled the stabilization aspect of the rescue while Deavers and Wright got the tools ready to cut the roof off.
"Hey Jake," Chief Whitelaw said standing next to the younger Grimke, putting a firm hand on Jake's shoulder in salutation, "your dad said you would be coming up for dinner tonight."
"Hey Chief, how are you doing?" Jake replied.
"All good, heard you had a banner year on the lacrosse field," Whitelaw continued.
Jake watched as the winch cable was stretched and anchored to the chassis of the overturned car and trying not to to sound too proud, replied, "yes, sir, state champs."
The crew from Rescue 1 assisted by personnel from Truck 25 worked to stabilize the car before the roof removal began. A pair of firefighters manned a hoseline in case any leaking gasoline found an ignition source while news and traffic helicopters overhead provided eyewitness accounts of what was happening to the motorists stuck in traffic and those waiting for the motorists to come home safely.
Chief Whitelaw took a look at Jake who was mentally recording the scene, like he might need to know how to do this later in life before he started, "Go to school Jake, get your degree. If you think you still want to do this after you graduate, let me know, I can open some doors for you. Baltimore's not the place anymore, we're losing too many companies and men for the amount of work we got to do."
"It's been a long time since I rode with Dad," Jake said kind of surprised to hear Whitelaw trash talking the home team, "I hadn't given it much thought until just now, just watching the team work; it's just like lacrosse."
"I know son, I know exactly what you are saying. Just understand, our job here in Baltimore has been made extremely dangerous by all the staffing cuts and closed companies. I'm sure you have heard your dad say the same thing and not sure how much you and your dad have talked about you following in his footsteps at all, but not here young man; not here," the Special Operations Deputy continued.
Jake remembered the dwelling fire right before Christmas where two lives were lost and his dad's railing against the city for having closed the closest engine company. "I understand what you are saying Chief, it makes perfect sense to me," was Jake's reply.
"I'm not going anywhere soon Jake, I'll be around a few more years, who knows, may be even make it to Fire Chief and then perhaps I can make things better for your dad and others," Whitelaw added after glancing his watch, watching with Jake as the extrication moved into the roof removal phase, "but your body language right now is reminding me of what I remember from your father when he reported to the Fire Academy and if you want this sort of a life, I'll be more than glad to help you."
Jake just nodded in the affirmative as Chief Whitelaw looked at his watch again once the roof was off, "Thanks, I won't forget Chief Whitelaw; I will not forget."
Captain Grimke walked over to the Special Operations Deputy and Jake now that the vehicle's occupants were freed and turned over to the paramedics for care and transportation, "Hey Boss, how are you tonight?"
"Impressive work, captain, 12 minutes to get them out," Whitelaw commented.
"Thank you sir," Captain Grimke replied, smiling at his son, "I'll pass that on to the rest of the crew."
After a few more remarks between the Deputy and his hand picked captain on Rescue 1 Chief Whitelaw got into his red and white SUV and headed home as Captain Grimke turned to Jake, "Did you and the Deputy have a nice talk?"
"Yes sir," Jake answered while the crew picked up the equipment to be put back on the rig.
"Tell me about it some day," Captain Grimke said as he climbed into the front seat for the ride back to Steadman as Jake got in back with the rest of the crew.