Chapter 11: Sunday December 26, 1993.
Tom and Maria celebrated Christmas one day late in Oklahoma at her parents but they were supposed to be home late on the 27th.
Mom asked me what I wanted to do for Christmas break, including going back to Galveston. I told her I wanted to stay home, just the three of us for the holiday, no big production, just a quiet dinner at home. Turned out our plan to stay home was a good idea.
A large winter storm blew in from the Pacific and followed I-40 across the western USA dumping heavy rain on Los Angeles, Las Vegas, two feet of snow in Flagstaff, and 18 inches of snow on Albuquerque. That storm was forecasted to deposit ten inches of snow on Amarillo and east into Oklahoma. The storm was supposed to turn north-ish heading for Detroit and Toledo, then on to upstate New York because every bad storm on Earth eventually hits Albany.
Tom and Maria would be driving straight into it. They were out of internet contact and had no mobile phone or CB radio. I hoped they were keeping an eye on the weather news. He told me they were supposed to be home around 9pm on the 27th, so I stayed in my room to wait for his call or email on CompuServe.
Author's note: Every winter in the northern hemisphere a predictable weather pattern develops. Large low pressure systems move west to east across far northern Russia. Some of them break away and head south over the Bering Sea, cross the Aleutian Islands then march south churning up the Pacific as they go. After clearing the Aleutians the next piece of land is Hawaii, which is why they host world championship surfing competitions on the north shore of Oahu in December and January each year. It is also the reason why when the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 they crossed the Pacific ocean far north knowing nobody in their right mind would be out there because of those Siberian storms. Those storms often split and come ashore along the west coast of North America causing the storm mentioned in this chapter.
For Christmas dinner we decided to dress for the meal. I wore my sport coat, white shirt, and narrow black tie. Mom wore a low-cut dress that exposed more cleavage than I cared to see. Crow wore a red bow tie and a smile. He looked good, red tie against his black fur, but he had a narrow patch of white fur on his chest that made the tie stand out.
Crow never liked it when we put clothes on him, but he seemed to tolerate the bow tie, I walked him into Mom's room so he could watch me put the tie on him on the dog in the mirror, and how I wore a tie too. This time we stood close to the mirror and he stared at his reflection but never growled. I would love to hear what he is thinking when he sees the black Great Dane in the long mirror. I think his first response is alarm but then he recognizes it's us in the mirror.
I've shown him the dog in the mirror before and I think he is getting used to it now, but at first it was like he instantly went into combat mode.
For Christmas dinner we had turkey with all the rest of the stuff; pie, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, bread rolls, salad, coffee, water, white wine. We stuffed ourselves even with a 5lb bird. With Mom's coaching I mixed the dough and made our dinner rolls. We did end up with some leftover meat.
I brought his iron bowl stand into the dining room and fed him the same time we ate so we could be together, which made him happy. We sat on the big table and put his bowl stand between our chairs, across the corner of the table.
As usual, we picked all the meat off both drumsticks and gave him mashed potatoes and gravy. This time we added dinner rolls with butter and sweet corn with butter. He actually ate everything. I think he likes butter a lot too. I think it took him 180 seconds to eat his food and lick the bowl clean, but we didn't want him standing by the table drooling so Mom sent him to the TV room (Go Sofa). I cleaned the table and we both did dishes but left the roasting pan to soak. I washed his bowls and put the stand back by the clothes washer with cold clean water and ice cubes. I told Mom we should put the roasting pan on the floor and let Crow pre-clean it for us, she laughed but said he would end up pushing it all over the house and probably scratch the floor and bang the walls.
We rented a movie and sat side by side to watch Schindler's List. After it was over we did our simple gift exchange. I think we both sort of forgot about gifting because we did stuff for each other all year long.
Mom got me a J.C. Penny gift certificate for $250. I gave her a long handled snow scraper for her windshield, and new stuffed slippers for her perpetually cold feet. My tiny paycheck from the animal hospital didn't go very far. We got Crow a rawhide bone and the latest dog treats advertised on TV since he probably saw those ads too. I think the brand name was something like Wagginbites, it was a soft chew treat with a crunchy center. It smelled to me like plastic but he really liked `em. I even got him to watch a commercial for them on TV and held one in front of the screen when it showed a close-up and some TV dog catching one in the air.
After the movie I went to my room to explore CompuServe looking to see if there was a photography forum, I joined right away.
I went to sleep early that night after wanking with images of Tom in my mind the entire time. I'm sure he knew I was going to jerk off while looking at some of those pictures, that's why I took shots of his body from his shoulders to his balls. Some shots I would love to have of him is a close up of his dick fully inside my mouth, his head between my lips being licked, and his semen all over my tongue and lips with his head an inch away.
That would be one to draw a face on his dick. Let him come on my lips with his dick nearby and two eyes, one of them winking at the camera and a smile on the mouth.
The big news on December 25th was the huge winter storm coming our way, Los Angeles to Tulsa, snow or rain depending on the temperature. On the 26th I put a note on the refrigerator that I needed another box of photo paper (250 sheets of Polycontrast-3 paper $150) and three rolls of Tri-X -400 film. I also set up the gear to print some of the prints that Tom took home. He never objected to me keeping the negatives of him naked, so I printed more to replace the ones he took. I wasn't sure if he realized you could print thousands of images from one negative. In all honesty I wanted a few of them to look at before I wanked. Daniel stopped by on the 26th before the snow storm arrived. We hung out for about three hours and walked the dog, and then he went home after the snow started to fall but before the wind arrived. He told me he got money from his parents for the holiday and they went to a ski resort in Utah and left him home. Dan said his father did not like to be seen in public with him. As soon as he said that I told him I was proud to be seen with him anywhere, anytime.
After I said that he hugged me.
I showed him some of the photos of Tom, they still haven't met face to face, but the only nude shot of him was the one where he was in the ocean up to his knees and all you could see was his butt cheeks and his entire back side.
The only thing Dan asked was, "He let you take pictures of him naked?" the way he said it sounded like he was making a character judgment about him and me.
While he was over I had my TV on a local TV channel, they always sent a news van out west on I-40 to the Cadillac Ranch to capture video of the first flakes of snow from big storms, so we watched snowflakes landing on the half-buried old cars. It's a tourist attraction a little west of Amarillo. It's about 5 miles by air from our house.
Tom and Maria were supposed to leave Oklahoma sometimes this evening, maybe 7pm-ish. It's about 2-3 hour drive to Elk City Oklahoma. I checked my email every 30 minutes. By 11pm they were hours late getting home, Tom promised to email immediately. My stomach got sick because I was so worried, I puked in the toilet. The snow in our driveway was over my ankles already but it never stuck around very long here, we didn't even own a shovel.
I walked Crow to the ball field in the falling snow. He thought it was the best thing ever. His energy running on the field was fun to watch. It's hard to think of a dog as having a sense of humor or just plain old silly fun, but Crow certainly did. I gave up throwing the ball because it was too hard to find, so we just played tag instead. I think he actually liked being chased, if I caught him I swatted the end of his tail. He seemed to be having great fun running around the ball diamond trying to slip and crash by taking turns too fast and sharp. It came to me that this was a dog enjoying being a dog, having simple fun and just being a silly boy. I laughed at his antics which he heard and became even more animated. It was one of our better moments together.
When a dog as large as a Great Dane plays around it looks funny because of their size, it would be like seeing a young horse having silly fun with another young horse in a field of grass. I think all mammals understand play and having fun.
Crow bit the snow to taste it and ran around like a crazy dog. The weather forecast after the storm was sunshine and 50 degrees so this snow should be gone by Tuesday evening. We made the best of it. It surprised me how matter-of-fact Crow was about some big things like snow, thunderstorms, and lightning. But he's afraid of the playground rides even after seeing little kids climbing on them. I guess he didn't have the trust that I wouldn't let him get injured trying something I encouraged. Maybe for him it was always a matter of the footing and how much traction he had with his dog feet on surfaces designed for shoes.
When a slick surface was optional he usually stayed off it, and I think he usually judged surfaces visually.
I tried hitting him with a few snowballs but he only gave me a harsh glance. I never packed them so it was like getting hit by a pillow. I also considered tackling him in the snow but I'm hesitant because if he gets hurt it comes out of my wallet, and there are no animal hospitals out here open all night.
Crow finally got worn out, we walked home in the falling snow. It was very quiet outside. I never saw any cars on the roads. Amarillo was snow covered, I think everyone must have been in bed. Crow even had snow on his back! I tried to teach him the word 'snow' while we were at the baseball diamond. I held some on my palm and called him over to sniff it. He seemed entertained by the snow.
By 10pm I was back in my room watching for emails from Tom. Finally, at 10:54pm I got an email. He said they got stopped near Shamrock, Texas for a bad wreck on I-40 and sat in traffic for over an hour. There were fire trucks, wreckers, police, and hazmat vehicles all over the place, but they still made it home on one tank of gas. Tom said they discussed college money the entire time, so maybe it was a good thing.
I emailed him back asking if he could come over tomorrow evening but he'd already dropped offline.
I went to sleep that night with Crow by my feet like every other night. But when I woke up around 1am I realized I just had another vision/dream like some others I've had for four years now, they all kind off started off the same way:
In my dream I was walking on a footpath beside a wide river into an Indian encampment. There were teepees all over a flat grassy plain beside the river like in the movies. Thin smoke came from their vent flaps. Horses were tied up nearby and dogs ran around scavenging. It looked like images from history because almost no American Indians lived in teepees after the civil war. It's just past sunset but there's enough red sunlight on the clouds to let me see the footpath winding through the trees beside the river. The sound of the river added to the realness of the vision. They always seemed to begin at sundown in the fall after the leaves were off the trees. Almost nobody was outside so it must be dinner time. The land looked like movie scenes I'd seen in Idaho or Wyoming. I never saw buffalo grazing but I could smell them.
My history teacher taught us that most nomadic Indian tribes were forced to stop following the buffalo herds across North America in the mid 1800s and many of them started making homes out of mud brick and thatch. Teepees made of animal hides were designed for portability so once they stopped migrating there was no more need to use teepees.
There was one teepee with familiar hunting art painted on the outside so I lifted the flap, bent over and went inside. I sat down near a small fire in the center where there was an older Indian man. His oval face was weather worn, wrinkled, dark skinned, dark eyes, long black and gray hair pulled back in a ponytail down to his mid-back. He reached over to take my hand as if he wanted to hold mine but I didn't seem to understand what he wanted, I felt frustrated and embarrassed. I think he wanted me to sit closer. So I scooted closer to him and he took my hand in his but we didn't do a proper handshake, which was weird.
The old Indian, obviously a wise man patted his chest and poorly said in English: 'Soaring Crow.' He seemed to want me to feel at ease but I still felt like I didn't understand why he invaded my dreams. But if this was just a dream why was it so real? And if it was a vision why did they only come when I'm asleep? I patted my chest and said: 'Rob.' He picked up his pipe and lit with a small stick he pulled from the fire and lit it then offered it to me, so I pretended to smoke with him but didn't inhale.
He didn't react when I told him my name, so I guess my name doesn't mean something stupid in Pawnee, like Dweeb or Semen-in-Hair.
We sat by the fire in his teepee with the deerskin floor and painted walls, we were strangers but it felt like we had a history. His eyes looked familiar, sort of a brownish color and somewhat squinted. His eyes said he's happy and comfortable with me but his body position looked awkward to me but I'm not sure how I knew all that.
Soaring Crow looked into my eyes, I started to feel less afraid and smiled back. I turned my gaze back to the heap of glowing embers in the fire and became drawn into their warmth and ever changing light show. Outside the teepee I heard the approach of thunder and the sound of rain drops pelting the buffalo hides.
Inside the teepee I saw two sleeping spots, with buffalo skin blankets and hair-stuffed pillows, I guessed one was for me, the other was his. He gestured to one as if he invited me to share the teepee with him tonight. On the other side I saw his hunting gear, a long bow, leather saddle, and arrows. He had the stuff to hand-make more arrow tips from shiny black basalt rock. I looked at my legs and saw I was wearing leather pants and a leather shirt too. My guess was we were in the early 1800s, but this tribe was barely in the Bronze Age. I wondered how nomadic Indians collected iron and tin. Maybe a few of them mined and refined ore to make metals to melt into molds to make arrowheads, but I was sure they still made some from stone.
Then I woke up and saw Crow at the foot of the bed with one eye open, staring at me. I think he woke up at the same moment as me, I must have moved suddenly. I whispered `hi' to him but as usual he had no response.
That was not the first time I met the old Indian. But I just didn't understand its meaning. Maybe I'm going crazy, maybe I should keep seeing the counselor. I re-scheduled my last four appointments because his questions were getting too personal, I got up and walked out of our last meeting. The thought occurred to me that maybe my dog was the reincarnated soul of the old Indian, and capturing my soul in my sleep was some kind of residual power he had in the afterlife. And if that was true I guess that means the Buddhists were right and the ancient Egyptians were wrong about the afterlife.
I wondered why God would re-incarnate human souls into animals. I personally believed that all mammals had a soul, just like us.
I got an email from Tom on Wednesday morning asking me if I could come to his place tonight. I asked Mom for the car. I asked if I could bring Crow too, Tom said okay. Crow didn't ride in the car often so I put the NFL Cowboys stadium blanket over the back seat, put him in back then drove over. All the snow was gone off the roads, only a few piles near the highways were left.
I got to his place at 6:10pm. He never mentioned dinner but we ended up sitting at their kitchen table for another Christmas style dinner of Mexican food, build your own fajita and two pies and some ethnic Mexican music. They spoke blended Spanish and English to each other but English to me. I negotiated food for Crow, who had never had Mexican anything before, except for a face lick to Tom. They had several Jesus candles burning on the table.
By 7pm we were done eating, kitchen cleaned. We went to their family room and Crow got all excited. As he moved around the room his tail started knocking things off tables, which caused him to spin around to see what happened which caused more stuff to get knocked to the floor including a tall plastic glass of tea Maria had on the coffee table. They were obviously not accustomed to having a very tall 150lb dog in their house. And Crow was used to living in a Great Dane safe world.
While Tom and I hustled to move stuff out of the way and clean up the messes the dog spun around in front of Tom smacking his crotch with his tail, which sent Tom on the sofa clutching his balls - moaning in pain, while Maria and I laughed. Crow stood by wondering how Tom got hurt. Maria started calling the dog: Marmaduke. I didn't think it was as funny at all. Crow had no idea what that meant. I wanted to ask her to stop but kept my mouth shut. What I wanted to say was: "You know Maria, the dog listens closely to us and when you say that name at him he'll think you're scolding him." I kept my mouth shut but it really made me angry.
I knew the moment we walked into the family room it was going to be trouble because every table had breakable stuff on it, but the shit started before I could say something. In our house there was nothing breakable below six feet anywhere in the house.
Like I said before, in our house every room has a small piece of blue painter's tape on the wall at six feet above the floor to remind us that is roughly how high he can reach. He can actually go higher but his ability to do things is greatly reduced.
We spent an hour in their living room talking with Crow standing in front of the TV soaking up all the attention, like he was on a stage acting like a dog.
By 8pm we were in his room, Crow was up on the bed trying to be small, curled up into a tight coil while we sat on the full size mattress. We talked about stuff, he told me about his time at his grandparents and the snowy drive home. He said they watched the news and saw the weather advisories and decided to leave at 5pm instead of 7pm but it wasn't early enough. When they first hit the road there was only flurries but by the time they got to the state line it was heavy and wet and the traffic slowed to a crawl. Then he described the wreck and how traffic on both sides was backed-up for half a mile. A big crowd of people worked to clear the debris from the wreck off the highway in the heavy snowstorm.
He said it was hard to see because it was snowing heavily and dark outside but it looked like one semi lost control, crossed the median and drove into the front of another semi heading the other way. All he saw was truck parts scattered everywhere and people with flashlights walking around picking up truck body parts. One of the trucks was a tanker.
Tom lit a candle and unbuttoned his shirt all the way down. He knew how much I loved looking at his upper body. Tom got close to me and opened my shirt too. Before long we were in a tangle of bodies trying to get as much from each other as we could. For a time we were head to crotch just because we missed the flavor and feel of each other so much.
We ended up wanking on each other that night, I had to be home by midnight. We planned for more time together Sunday evening. I was home by 11:30pm, Mom was already in bed. Crow and I were asleep by midnight. We didn't play tennis that night, instead he did his stuff in the back yard. There was still a little snow left along the back wall of the house, it must have slid off our roof.
Sunday I was up around 8am. Mom was already up in her robe and new slippers in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating toast with jam. I had some Apple Jacks and coffee too. Crow did his stuff outside then ate at his elevated feeding station in the utility room. After eating he joined us resting his head on the counter, sniffing what was being eaten and trying to look pathetic.
I asked Mom (when she wasn't coughing or blowing her nose) if Tom could come over today. I went to my room to email Tom and ask if he could drive over. He replied that he worked to 5:30pm today with his Mom but he could visit after work. Around 6pm he arrived smelling like fryer oil. I offered to let him use the shower. He walked out of my room heading down the hallway to the bathroom door (only wearing a bath towel). I put his clothes in the washer just to be nice.
A few moments later I heard the shower water start. I waited about three minutes then walked to the bathroom and entered silently. Mom's bedroom door was closed, so she was in bed reading or sleeping. I silently slipped off my clothes then stepped into the back of the shower to Tom's surprise.
He had soapy hair but I think he was done with the rest of his body. He stepped backwards into the hot stream rinsing the soap from his hair while I watched. I admired his wet shiny body and all his upper body muscles. Mine was already sticking straight out. His was aiming upward. Seconds later we were in an embrace, mouths smashed together, water running over our shoulders. Eyes closed. We both seemed to disappear from our world and into a warm wet dark world of passion and a huge thirst for sexual release.
Our dicks were sandwiched between our bellies while we kissed. Tom mumbled into my mouth that he missed me. I made a barely understandable "uh huh" inside his mouth. We pressed our faces into each other's shoulders and twisted side to side a little in the warm water. I slowly raised my hands to his chest and pushed off, stepped out of the shower, grabbed the Vaseline, rubbed one finger tip over my hole and returned to the shower.
We kissed briefly, then I turned to lean against the wall with my feet spread. Tom approached from behind, grabbed himself and rubbed it up and down, found my spot and slowly entered me.
I doubt he lasted more than four minutes. Tom kept a grip on my shoulders and shoved it in hard and held still while it pumped. Tom pulled out then turned me around and planted his puffy red lips against mine. We kissed until the hot water ran cold.
Crow was on my bed sprawled out on his spot, knowing he would have to move because Tom was over. It was Crow's way of showing us that he had seniority and territory, but that message was wasted on Tom who was still mostly blind to dog body language and his territorial displays.
Tom sat on the edge of the bed, I stood nearby. My room was dimly lit by one small lamp on my desk. I moved beside him offering him my rod, he took me in his mouth and worked it gently. I didn't last long, maybe two minutes. I came in his mouth, he looked up to smile at me. I placed my hands on the sides of his face, leaned down and kissed him, then offered him the bottle of water from my desk. I kept water bottles there for these occasions. He guzzled the entire thing. I offered him more water but he declined.
We turned on the radio and got in bed naked just talking about his trip to Elk City and his grandparents. He said his father's family were all in Joliet and they had very little contact after he died eight years ago. I got up to put his clothes in the dryer. We talked even longer, and then I got him his clean work clothes. I watched with great pleasure as he slowly got dressed, shirt on last and slowly at that! He slipped it on but left the front open for a while so I could enjoy the view. While he tied his shoes I reached my hand inside his shirt to gently massage one of his marshmallowy nipples.
I escorted him back to his car, he got home by 10:45pm. Back in my room I asked Crow if he wanted to go play tennis. For some reason I was filled with energy. We jogged to the baseball diamond. Crow chased the ball twice then lost interest. Watching him play made me smile. I hated the thought that his life was going to be so short compared to mine. He learned so much and was so involved in our family, it will be a tremendous loss the day Crow died. If I could perform some miracle I'd let him live twice as long as Danes normally reach, like maybe 20 years! Imagine how much he'd learn with another decade of life!
Watching him sniff around I started to think about Tom again, which I seem to do all day now. I think I'm in love.
Write the author: borischenaz mailfence com
Even more hints were included in this chapter of the coming disaster.