JUDGING 5 - ACER'S STORIES - The Lover Left Behind
The usual disclaimers apply. If you are under eighteen or sexual content is illegal where you live, read no further
Please donate to nifty.
Thanks to Jamies_Jottings, Stories_byFantastic, and Hotcowboys groups for posting my stories, and to Miguel Sanchez, Rock Lane Cooper, and George Grassby for their encouragement.
My stories can be found at
http://groups.google.com/group/Fireflywatchers-Stories
Please contact me with any suggestions or comments.
fireflywatcher@gmail.com
I reserve all rights to this original fiction story, it may not be reproduced, distributed, or published without my written consent. Please respect copyright and intellectual property right laws.
Phil Ford
JUDGING 5 - ACER'S STORIES
True Blue
by Phil Ford
Texas country women, cowgirls, will do everything for their man. They will have the children, raise them, pay the rent and the bills, put the food on the table, and let it slide again and again when her man comes home drunk or having blown his whole paycheck. They won't pay his bills. They won't tolerate it if he sees other women. The worst he can do is to dip into their money and if he does that, she'll cut off his balls. She might not literally cut them off, but he'll sleep by himself and likely on the couch until he makes it right. If making it right is impossible, then she'll start sharpening the knife.
"Blue, Blue, Blue, what kind of mess have we gotten ourselves into now?" Acer said to himself. Acer had just passed two weeks in New Mexico, one week in Gallup and one week in Silver City. He was headed east toward Roswell, turning north to Clovis and Hereford, and back to Amarillo.
Blue was his partner in business and in life now. The trouble wasn't of his making and he wasn't able to stand on his own yet. He needed Acer. Blue had met Acer on the road three times since the rodeo and stock show season began. Now this had come up and Acer found a ten day break in his schedule. He was pulling his trailer with his horse in the back end with the pedal to the floor down less than desirable side roads for that speed.
Acer had seen the same situation before. One of Acer's cousins had married a city boy. Later on she inherited land, free of debt. He persuaded her to borrow against it for his business and then went belly up, leaving her stuck with the debt. They came home at Christmas and stayed at her house there planning to do some deer hunting. After going into town one evening for a night of dancing at a little bar, when they got back to the house he shot her dead and turned the gun on himself. Maybe she'd planned to make up. Maybe she flirted too much in the bar. Maybe another cowboy went back with them and everyone knew her husband was a jealous son of a bitch, but there was no one to tell the story. Her husband survived, if you'd call it that. Only his body remained to serve the sentence for murder.
Blue's dad had done more or less the same thing and with much the same ending. His mom would be at home teaching school as she always had, but his dad would be locked up for a long time. She'd borrowed a hundred thousand dollars to buy him a rig and a cattle trailer to haul stock from ranches to auctions, seller to buyer, or just to move a rancher's stock. It was a small debt on ten sections of prime land. Her brother leased the place to cover the payment and as a condition of the loan. When Blue's dad didn't find enough work to justify the investment, he went into a cattle business of his own making. He'd drive the truck onto a rancher's land, round up enough stock to fill it, and haul them to auction. He'd become a modern day rustler.
Auctions didn't bat an eye. They were accustomed to seeing him, handing him the check after the sale was no problem. That damn cow with the chip in its neck brought him down. The law seized the truck and trailer and cleaned out his bank accounts. They left his mom and the house in her name alone and would have done the same with her land but it was collateral for the loan on the truck. Her only option was to sell it to someone for the amount of the loan. Otherwise the bank would take the property or any excess amount would be seized by the law. None of her family was in a position to come up with that much money. Finding another buyer would be giving the land away. She had to find a way to sell it to Blue and she was sharpening her knives.
It was May. Blue's uncle was getting in his onion crop and Blue could take possession even if the lease wasn't up until December thirty first. He had seven months to make the loan money from the property. Acer's feeder calves were sold at the end of April. He bought in September, grazed and fed through the cool, and sold before the pasture was bare and the heat made them loose weight. What he'd bought with Blue had only been grazing for two months on irrigated grass. They wouldn't sell until late fall. They might come close to covering the loan, but Blue would be broke again and unable to make any money. Acer would make enough by September to buy stock for his place.
"Oh Blue," Acer lamented. "I'll lay it all on the table for you bud, but if it comes up aces and eights to my pair of jacks, I'll be one sad cowboy." Acer pulled the truck to the side of the road right before a store, entering Las Cruces. He bought a large sweet tea and a power drink. The tea went straight down and he tossed the cup in the trash. He waited fifteen minutes for the inevitable and stepped behind the building to get rid of what remained of the tea. It always made him piss.
A young Mexican man had watched him walk to the back and surely heard the piss hitting the dirt. He was looking at Acer as he walked to the front. Beside him on the ground was a duffel bag. "Senor, buscando trabajo, " (Sir, I'm looking for work) the young man stated. This close to El Paso wasn't a good spot for an illegal to be sitting in public with all his possessions.
"Caminandas sola?" (Are you traveling alone?) Acer asked.
"Si, tenaba un socio, pero el regresaba a Mexico," (Yes, I had a partner, lover, fuck buddy, but he went back to Mexico.) he replied.
Acer asked what kind of work he was looking for and he answered, 'Whatever, work, just work.' When pressed he said he'd only done farm and ranch work. Knowing Blue would need help with the larger place, he told the man to get in the pickup. He learned the guy's name was Alfredo. He was seventeen and considered himself a grown man. When Acer asked if his socio was his lover, he protested that two men couldn't be in love. They were friends who took care of each others needs, fuck buddies.
Alfredo nodded off until Acer turned on the road through Ruidoso to Roswell. Acer talked with Alfredo some more as they drove. Sex was the main topic, being two men who enjoyed other men. "Da me una muestra. Mame me la verga," (Give me a sample. Nurse on my dick.) Acer said to Alfredo finally.
Alfredo leaned across the pickup seat, unfastened Acers belt and slipped his jeans down some, and went to work. After Acer came twice he had to tell Alfredo he did a good job to get him to stop. Some miles further Alfredo offered Acer a sample of his ass. It was two in the morning by then. The tea and energy drink had lost their effect, so Acer began watching for a place to park. A roadside picnic area came into view and Acer parked there. They both got out and locked the truck up. Acer opened the trailer where they stripped and climbed into the high bunk above the gooseneck.
Acer decided to give back in kind first and gave Alfredo a good blow. He held the load in his mouth and Alfredo tried to turn aside thinking he was going to get kissed, but Acer persisted and fed him his own load. Alfredo had a lot of rules. Kissing was taboo but swapping loads was fine. He tried getting in position to take Acer doggie style but there wasn't enough headroom for that. He wrapped his legs around Acer's waist and let Acer go to work. Acer had always been slow to reach a second climax. Alfredo rejoiced in that duration. He clawed at Acer's back with his nails and a deep moan sang out from his throat. This boy man was a true natural bottom built in some special way right down to the rippling muscles of his inner gut that grabbed and massaged Acer's rod with each inward thrust and the withdrawal that followed. Where it carried Acer superimposed and interchanged the identities of his matching partner between Alfredo and Blue until everything was a blur and he exploded in release.
Acer wondered at the thought that the physical expressed in lust and the emotional expressed in bliss could be felt for two who were so different, at the same instant. Blue held his heart but Alfredo was the best fuck he'd ever had. When he withdrew he offered Alfredo his ass. Alfredo wasn't interested. He laid there drifting off to sleep muttering 'Manana" and Alfredo continued to nurse.
Acer dreamed through the night. In one dream he watched as a friend was beaten and took no action. The dream repeated with Blue as the friend and just by raging his objection the attack halted. In another dream Acer's jealousy and doubt had cost him a lover. With Blue in that place, the incident became a comedy where the advances of another were rebuffed and the two were inseparable. Every scenario in his dreams repeated with Blue in a newer version of the original events and all ended with a positive result. When light flickered through the window, Acer rose and in the clarity of those first awakening thoughts, he wrote all of it down.
Making coffee with his old camp pot, the aroma saturated the room. That woke Alfredo. Carrying two large cups, they began the six hour drive that remained. At the halfway point while gassing up they got some food. Just before noon they pulled in at the house. Blue was there waiting.
"You drove like a bat out of hell," Blue observed.
"Naw, I stopped to sleep, sort of," Acer replied. "I never asked if you speak any Spanish. I brought you some help."
"Are you kidding? My mom teaches Spanish and French, and Grandpa Otto spoke German at home. I've got those three and English down pat."
"I never would have guessed, you're so damn quiet," Acer told him, grabbing him in a bear hug that squeezed the breath out of the big guy.
"Who is this help you brought me?" Blue inquired.
"I ran into him the other side of Las Cruces sitting there with a sign in his hand that said, 'Immigration, send me back to Mexico.' He said he was looking for work and his boyfriend took off on him. I asked if they were lovers and he said men don't fall in love with other men, they were fuck buddies. I didn't want you sniffing around for my replacement and knew you were going to need help. He fit the job description." Acer fumbled for a second and said, "I had to test him out. Guys will lie to get a job and finding out he was a virgin to man sex wasn't something I wanted to do here. He can suck a dick like nobody's business and has an ass that should keep you happy when I'm not around."
"Damn, you think of everything," Blue replied.
"I don't think he see sex as a job requirement. He looks at it as a benefit. Just don't go falling in love. I'm putting everything I've got on the line. Win or loose, we're stuck with each other, OK?"
Maybe we should find him a partner that will let me come and play when I get to missing you," Blue suggested.
"I'll see what Cotton can do along that line," Acer assured Blue.
Introductions were made and with Alfredo riding bitch and the trailer parked, they took off to look at the farm. Blue's uncle certified that all the irrigation systems were in working order, the shame was planting it in grass. Growing onions takes nearly weed free ground and that was how it stood now.
"How's your mom holding up?" Acer asked.
"She'd like to kill daddy and have his hide made into footballs. She filed for divorce last week. He had plenty in the bank. He could have paid off the bank and retired on what was left. As it is, what ever she gets above the loan amount, the government takes. It's valued above two thousand an acre and the equipment is worth a lot, too. She's sick about it, but they can't take the land. It's the bank that's forcing the sale. Rustling is still a hanging offence in Texas. He got twenty five years on a plea bargain. He'll be seventy eight when that is done, the damn fool."
"Are you going to visit him?" Acer asked.
"I was never good enough for him. I wasn't smart enough. I wasn't strong enough. My picture didn't make the front page of the paper. I didn't get scholarships to college. I didn't date the prettiest cheerleader. I could have done all that if I'd had a mind to. If he said go forward, I backed up. I hate the bastard. Nothing about this changes that. At least he never hit mama."
Acer took that as a 'Hell no' and moved on. At the far end the sprinklers were running. Ahead of that the spriggers were working their way through the fields. At the front, ammonia trucks were fertilizing.
"I switched to the feed with growth hormone. It may be legal and the way things are done now, but I ain't eating any of that beef," Blue declared. "Next year we ain't using hormones." Acer hoped the increased weight gain set in so there would be a next year. If the feeders came up short, the expenses ate up the profit and could even result in losses. His home place didn't have the expense of pumping water but drought could have the cattle eating the profits from the feed trough. If that happened two or three years in a row, you went broke. Here there was this year to make it and no deer for lease money if you lost your herd.
"I've learned more about you in the last hour than I have in the last two years," Acer told Blue. Three thirty in the afternoon had arrived by the time their tour was finished. "I think the four sections we're sprigging will be more than enough pasture to meet our needs," Acer confirmed. "If you were better at cultivating, cotton would make a crop on the rest if we got it planted by the end of May. A rope wick would catch the high weeds. Do you think you could keep the tires between the rows, Blue?"
"I'd give it my best, you know that Acer. With six sections, I aught to get the hang of it before I run through it once," Blue answered.
"Hay cultivada labores de algolon antes" Acer asked Alfredo (Have you cultivated cotton fields before?).
He replied that he'd done it every year since he was twelve and could run a straight line down the rows all day long. Alfredo said he was from the desert country near Durango where cotton was one of the main crops. "I'll talk to my mom and see about borrowing my dad's tractors. She contracts the field work since he passed away and the equipment sits in the barn."
At the house, Acer went straight to his office and started making calls. His mom was first, then Cotton, and last he called his boss. His boss offered a loan if needed when the time came, but Acer wouldn't take it except as a last resort. He wouldn't tell Blue, either. Cotton and Logan were coming as soon as they could get there.
Blue had something cooking and was leaned against the counter. Alfredo sat Indian style in front of the TV watching sports in Spanish. He was tall, maybe five eleven and a hundred and fifty tops, but looked like he was tied in a knot sitting like that. "We'll joing the civilized world some day and have pizza delivery out here," Blue swore. "Until then, I'll just make it. You've got every gadget that exists in this kitchen, Acer. Are you playing that game of 'he who has the most kitchen gadgets wins' or something?"
"Naw, I'm just lazy. It looks like you figured out how to use them though. You've got everything cut up that can go on a pizza except anchovies," Acer remarked.
"I ate the anchovies in a salad last week and haven't bought more. I love those salty little fishies," Blue told him. Two pizzas were in the oven and two more were on the counter ready to go. All the ingredients were in containers to be put away. Blue exchanged the finished pizzas for the other two while Acer packed away the containers. Alfredo followed the aroma and they all ate their fill without taking a seat at the table and washed it down with cold beer.
Acer looked at Alfredo and asked if he wanted dessert, pointing to Blue's zipper. He dropped to his knees and fished out Blue's pole. Then he went to work. After a couple of minutes Acer told Blue, "Hit that ass man," and smeared a glob of Crisco from the can on the counter into Blue's hand. Blue rubbed in most of the grease, stroked his stick twice, and jacked Alfredo as he rutted. He bent forward over Alfredo's back and chewed on his neck the whole time. Alfredo cave out a cry and splattered the concrete floor beneath him. Blue's expression said he was doing the same thing up inside Alfredo. "Concrete is rough on the knees," Blue complained as they separated. Acer had watched transfixed on the scene before him.
Alfredo was asleep on the couch when Cotton started shaking Acer awake at four. "We're hitting the sack," Cotton told him. "Billy Martinez drove your dad's truck. He said he'd work for beer food, and ass until you had the cash to spare. You might have to buy him some smoke, too. You know the boy likes his weed. Wake us up at eight."
"He can smoke all he wants if he keeps it outside. I don't want my house stunk up," Acer answered. "I'll wake you up." He got up to make coffe and get the day started. Billy passed him in the hall. He had Alfred over his shoulder and Alfredo was smiling.
"I've got to tap this," Billy said, slapping Alfredo on the butt. "It'll help me get to sleep faster." Acer told Alfredo coffee would be ready when Billy went to sleep as the two entered the back bedroom. Alfredo nodded a yes, still smiling.
Acer worked to get the tractors set up while Blue ran to the Co-op for seed and a second run for diesel. Each of the three would cut a thirty foot path through the field, busting the soil with chisel plows in front, breaking the clods with disk harrows, and forming the rows and planting the seed at the back. In an hour they could make three trips down the three mile long field. Thanks to Blue's uncle keeping the ground cultivated, it was an easy task on the level ground. Cotton took the lead with Logan riding beside him in the cab. Blue was at the back with Acer giving him pointers. Alfredo had Billy instructing him because the young man had never used equipment this size, but he caught on quick. They used the lights for the last half hour finishing up the half mile wide field.
Acer and Blue had talked all day long. Acer could have gotten out and gone to do other things. Cotton and Logan could have, too, but the critical lesson came at the end of each row. With a tractor that size set up as it was, it was impossible to back up. Then the turn and getting lined up to do the next run had to be dead on. With three tractors it gave more turning room where a single tractor would have been a real bitch to negotiate. Acer stayed in the cab and they talked. Grandparent love and are loved by their grandchildren, even one as gruff as old Otto. Their mothers were both teachers and alike in many ways. Their fathers were total opposites. Acer learned Blue had a sister ten years older killed in a car wreck when she was sixteen. Blue's remorse was that he didn't miss her. He didn't feel any grief. They'd never been close and she acted as if he was a pain in the ass. Without any closeness Blue had nothing to miss, she was never there involved in his life anyway. By the end of the day when they parked the tractors, Acer had touched on everything they had experienced in life.
Acer had a big pot of stew slow cooking through the day. They hadn't stopped for lunch and only carried a jug of water along, most of which they sweated out. Stopping to piss, even just opening the door to spill it in the dirt, took time away from the task. In his younger days Acer carried a bottle along and used it so he wouldn't need to stop. They were all exhausted. They ate quickly and hit their beds to rest up for the next day. Cotton and Acer had breakfast almost ready by the time everyone was up the following morning.
While Blue, Alfredo, and Billy went back to planting, Acer, Cotton, and Logan set the sprinklers in motion. The long fields had one half mile wide walking unit each that Blue's uncle had set to travel the three miles in two days leaving an inch of water as it went. It would sit two days at the opposite end of the field and make the trip again in the other direction. Where the grass was sprigged, most of the fields had smaller walking units and there were twelve circle units on one side. Huge natural gas powered twelve cylinder engines ran the pumps. With all the water going, the three more experienced men started building fence along lines dividing sprinkler systems. It might take as long as two months to have enough grass cover to graze stock on the fields. Acer was hoping for a month.
Trucks would come out from the Co-op to fertilize the grass but the cotton should have been fertilized on planting. The tanks and injectors for the ammonia would fit on the trailers in one trip. The first pass cultivating would deliver fertilizer at the same time. It was the best they could do.
They had lunch and were in for supper at a reasonable time. Logan had even timed how long it took to empty a seed bin on the planters and a pickup was waiting in the right spot to refill them. Four more days passed and the planting was finished, leaving four days before Acer would have to leave again. Cotton and Logan went home saying they'd be back in a few weeks with more equipment. Billy and Alfredo went out to work on the fence and water every day and Acer got to spend some time alone with Blue. They went through his schedule. He'd fly this time, leaving the truck, trailer, and Ranger behind. Every few weeks either Acer would fly back or Blue would fly to meet him
"I think we're going to make it," Acer told Blue.
"You're the best man I've ever know Acer Caldwell," Blue responded.
"You're a damn good man yourself, Blue, don't slight yourself any," Acer answered him. "All I am is what my dad taught me to be. I don't quite measure up, but I do my best. He was a church going man. Not anything extreme, just Methodist like mama. He didn't drink but didn't get on me for doing it. He said to live a good and honest life. He really only had two rules: 'Love one another' and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' as simple as that. If churches kept it that simple you'd see me there more often. As it is, where I disagree with what they preach keeps me away. I still live by those rules. I guess my church is in my heart."
My mom is Lutheran," Blue replied. "I don't think it's much different. I got the good out of it from her. Daddy never went once, not even for the holiday services. They might preach about men being with other men more often than Methodists. They did enough of that to drive me away and leave me with a guilt trip, but I got the good part." Blue hesitated a moment. "I'm having papers drawn up making us business partners when we pay off the bank. If something happens to either of us, the other one gets everything. You get paid back, too. All I ask is for us to set up an account to take care of my mom. If she'd sold this land and dad hadn't caused the mess, she'd have been rich. She held on to it for me."
"That's the right thing to do for your mom, Blue. I'm all for it," Acer responded. "If we get a couple of good years, I'll quit judging and do my share of the work, too. Let's put my place here and my home place in as part of the deal. It will make it a little more even and my money needs to be in there or a partnership wouldn't be right."
For the next days, Acer and Blue spent most of their time making love. Blue drove him to the airport. They stopped by Acer's office on the way and Acer introduced Blue to his boss and the others who were there. Before he walked down the ramp to the plane, Acer said, "I'll see you when I see you," and then he was gone.