Tales from the Ranch

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. If you are offended by descriptions of homosexual acts or man/man relations, please exit this page.

TALES FROM THE RANCH Copyrightc 2004 by Tulsa Driller. All rights reserved.

This is a story of men who have two common interests. You will see that they love the land where they live and work, but it is also the story of young men who love other men and their coming of age in a culture of prejudice and misunderstanding. It is a story, which deals with difficult and often disturbing issues but, nonetheless, issues which must be confronted in today's world.

This is a work of fiction and in no way draws on the lives of any specific person or persons. Any similarity to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental. This work is copyrightedc by the author and may not be reproduced in any form without the specific written permission of the author. It is assigned to the Nifty Archives under the terms of their submission agreement but it may not be copied or archived on any other site without the written permission of the author.

PLEASE: In a perfect world AIDS doesn't exist. My characters have unprotected sex. I hope you use proper precautions because I'd like you to be around to read the last chapter of this story.

Tales from the Ranch, Book II Chapter 2: Confrontations

Joey had hung up his jacket and was getting a book out of his locker. He was just getting ready to shut the door when someone grabbed him by his left bicep and spun him around, twisting his arm and slamming it into the door of the next locker. It hurt.

"Well, if it isn't the fag from Houston!" the voice declared. Joey didn't know who the student was, although he had seen him before. He thought the fellow was a senior football player. The guy was big, probably about 6'4" and weighed at least 250 pounds. His face looked mean.

Joey was stunned.

"What are you talking about?" he gasped.

"I saw your picture in that newspaper article with the governor and the other fags. You just think you've won. There are a lot of people in Williamsport that think Fred Phelps is a hero and I'm one of 'em."

Daniel's locker was about 6 feet away from Joey's and Forrest's was about 10 feet beyond in the same direction, on the opposite wall. Both of them were watching what was happening with Joey and Thad Wilson, wondering what they could do. Thad was mean, a bully who had managed to intimidate most of his teachers, too.

"Meet me behind the gym after school is over with this afternoon. You're going to give me a first-class blowjob, fag boy!!" he sneered. He still had Joey's arm in a painful position and twisted it a little harder.

"I don't do stuff like that," Joey managed to say. His arm was really hurting by now.

"Sure you do, and if you don't do it right, then I'll beat the shit out of you, maybe take out some of them pretty teeth. You'll learn fast then, fag boy!!" As he said this, he kneed Joey in his crotch.

Pain!! A lot of pain! Joey was in a position where he couldn't move. Thad's knee had him pinned against the lockers and his arm felt like it was about to be pulled from its socket. Joey thought he was going to throw up. Tears were streaming down his face and he didn't know if it was from the pain or the humiliation.

Daniel and Forrest were standing in front of Daniel's locker by now. They didn't think they could get Thad off Joey. And, what would Thad do to them if they tried to help? All they could do was for Daniel to witness the attack while Forrest went to get help.

By this time, several other students had gathered, either because they were going to their lockers or were on their way to the first class of the day. All of a sudden Thad was aware of the others who were there. He let Joey loose and he promptly sank to his knees and up-chucked the contents of his stomach.

One of the students ran down the hall to get the janitor to bring a mop while another ran for help, not knowing that Forrest had already done that.

Thad sneered at the crowd of about 8 students. "Fag's don't deserve to be treated as nice as I treated Joey. The next time, he's going to hurt really bad." Then he smirked. "If you want to see this queer give me a really super blowjob, he'll be doing it out behind the gym right after the last class!" He started to stomp off.

About that time three people came running from around the corner. Coach Eddie Thompson, Doug Tate, the principal and Coach Carol Holmen bringing up the rear.

"What's going on here, Wilson?" Eddie demanded.

"Out of my way, asshole!!" Thad yelled, shoving Eddie aside.

Although Thad was at least 5 inches taller than Eddie and outweighed him by 80 pounds, Eddie grabbed his arm. He wasn't an expert, but he knew enough of the martial arts to put Thad on the floor before he knew what had happened to him.

Doug Tate rushed to Joey.

"Are you alright, son?" he questioned, squatting down beside him.

Then Joey's tears really started. He hadn't cried like this that he could ever remember. He was so ashamed, but it felt good at the same time. All of the things that had happened in Joey's life the last few weeks surfaced that morning while he was sitting on the concrete floor in front of his locker.

Coach Holmen started moving the students away from the area, toward their first period classes.

As she approached Forrest and Daniel, they let her know that they had seen most of what had just happened but told her they felt powerless to try to help Joey.

"Okay, you go to the Principal's office and we'll discuss this. Mr. Tate and I'll be there as soon as we help Joey and take care of Mr. Wilson," she told them.

Thad Wilson was screaming and swearing at Eddie. He was totally out of control. Joey was too sick to notice what was going on with his adversary.

Eddie told Carol that he wanted her to call the school security officer and to notify Thad's parents that they were to be at the school as quickly as possible as it appeared that Thad was going to be suspended from school for threatening another student.

Doug Tate helped Joey to his feet and took him to the school nurse's office. The janitor arrived about that time, pushing his cart with the bucket of water and disinfectant and other items needed to clean up the area.

Thad tried to get up.

"Just lay there and relax. You can get up when the security officer arrives," Eddie told him.

Thad started to get agitated again. He wanted to get up, but at least was smart enough to know he was in trouble and anything he did would make matters worse for him.

Marty was in Dale's office at the Bar-W when the telephone rang. Dale picked up the receiver and in his usual cheery voice said, "Bar-W Ranch, this is Dale Richards."

"Dale, this is Doug Tate," and he continued before Dale could say anything. "Joey was accosted before first hour class this morning. He wasn't badly hurt, but he's really shook up. Can you come to my office and pick him up? He probably should stay at home the rest of the day."

"Accosted?" Dale replied.

"Yeah, one of the guys off the football team. He's a bully and causes a lot of problems with kids he doesn't like. Joey was his latest victim. He's okay, as I said, but I think he would be better off missing classes today. I'll see to it that he has his assignments to work on."

Dale glanced at his watch. The day was just barely started. "I'll be there in about 15 minutes," he told the Principal.

"Fine. Joey will be in my office. I want to talk to both of you before he leaves."

Dale hung up the phone and Marty could see the pain on his face.

"What's wrong?" he wanted to know.

"That was Doug Tate. Seems that one of the senior football players decided to rough Joey up a bit. He isn't hurt, but they are sending him home for the day."

"Did he give you the other students name?" Marty asked.

"No, he just said that the kid was a bully and there had been problems like this before."

"Probably Thad Wilson," Marty said. "I guess we're finally going to have to expel him from school. I think this is the third incident with him so far this year. Coach Dennison always came to his rescue before, but he's not with us anymore."

"I thought he was supposed to be back after Thanksgiving?" Dale questioned.

"No, he and his wife moved away from Williamsport almost immediately after the problem in Phys Ed. He refused our requirement that he seek help."

"Oh," was all Dale could say.

"I'm going to the school, but will drive my own car. I hate to get involved in stuff like this, but as a member of the school board, it's my duty to see that the school system runs smoothly, and it certainly doesn't sound like it is this morning."

Thad Wilson's stepfather, Milton Brockle, was the minister at Faith Assembly Church. It was another non-denominational enterprise like Jimmy Bob Jones had headed. This fellow wasn't as visible as Jimmy Bob, or as outspoken. In fact he didn't know that the Rev. Fred Phelps and his gang were in Williamsport until he saw the 10 o'clock news on Friday night. He immediately drove to the parking lot to offer them a place to stay in his church, but the police and sheriff's departments wouldn't allow him to get close to their vehicles. He couldn't even offer them any assistance in the way of soft drinks or food.

When he arrived back home, he told his wife and Thad about it. By the time they discussed it, all three had decided that the police and sheriff's departments were way too liberal for them. It appeared that they supported the homosexual community as they had threatened to arrest Jimmy Bob and his side-kick when they tried to spy on a group that was meeting at the Episcopal Church rectory, across the street from the "fag cathedral" as Jimmy Bob had called it.

By the time they were through with their second family discussion on Sunday night after church, Thad was really riled up. He was a teenager with raging hormones and although he had threatened other boys he thought were weak, his arrogance had decided that Joey was a queer. He was going to get his very first blowjob. so he thought.

He thought that Joey would happily capitulate and that would be it. What he didn't count on was an audience that had seen most of the confrontation. or the faculty coming to Joey's rescue and then Coach Thompson felling him like a huge tree before he could react.

Dale parked the Blazer belonging to the Bar-W Ranch in the visitor's parking lot at Davy Crockett High School. As he started for the front door, Marty drove into the lot, giving him a toot to let him know to wait. They walked inside and to the Principals office together.

The only people in the room next to the Principals office were Coach Carol Holmen talking to Forrest Ross and Daniel Pearson. Doug's secretary was on the telephone and motioned for them to wait. Whomever she was trying to call didn't answer the telephone so she hung up.

"Good morning, Marty," she said. Turning to Dale she asked more than said, "You must be Joey's brother. You look a lot like him."

Before Dale could answer, Marty said, "Hello Cathy, where's Doug?"

"He went to the nurse's office with Joey. They should be back here in a few minutes," she answered.

"Yes, I'm Dale Richards," Dale managed to respond before Marty could say anything more.

"I'm sorry, Dale. Yes, this is Joey's brother and this is Cathy Buxton, Doug's secretary," Marty responded. I'm sorry I thought maybe you already knew each other."

"It was easy enough to guess correctly," she smiled as she offered her hand for Dale to shake.

"You both can go on into Doug's office and wait for him and Joey. It's kind of busy around here this morning. Coach Holmen is talking to Forrest and Daniel about the scuffle and we are expecting Thad Wilson's parents to arrive shortly. She looked at Marty. I'm sure you will want to be in on that meeting, also?"

"Yes, very definitely. Thad is going to learn the hard way that he can't intimidate other students and cause them physical distress while doing it."

"They took him to the Security Office and he will be brought up here after you and Dale talk to Mr. Tate and Joey. We're going to determine just what happened before Joey is released to your custody," Cathy told them.

Dale immediately bristled at the words "released to your custody". He didn't like the sound of that one bit. Marty had somewhat the same reaction at the choice of her words.

About that time Doug arrived with Joey, his protective hand on Joey's shoulder. Joey's shirt was wet as well as the front of his chinos. He looked pale and shaken and Dale could smell the lingering residue of the vomit on him.

Upon seeing Dale there, he rushed to him throwing his arms around his neck, laying his head against Dale's shoulder and bursting into tears again, sobs wracking his body.

Dale wrapped his arms around Joey. "It's okay, Bud, I'm here. it's going to be okay."

"Dad, I didn't do anything to him. I swear!!" Joey cried, releasing a new batch of tears.

"I'm going to meet with Coach Holmen and the other two boys who witnessed the attack on Joey. I'll be back in here in a few minutes. Do you want to join me, Marty?" Doug Tate asked.

"Yes," was Marty's simple reply as he followed Doug out and into the next office. He wanted to get to the bottom of exactly what had happened and Joey needed some time to settle down and talk to Dale.

"What happened?" Dale gently asked Joey as he was holding him. He realized that Joey was almost as big as he was as it was the first time they'd had any physical contact other than of them throwing an arm around the other's shoulder. Joey was a man in physical stature, but emotionally still a teenager who had to have help and assurance from everyone he was in contact with.

"Can we sit down, Dad?" Joey asked.

"Sure," he said, still holding Joey's hand as they moved onto the sofa.

"I had hung up my jacket and had gotten the books I needed for my first two classes and I was just ready to shut my locker door when this big guy grabbed me and twisted my arm and then slammed me against the lockers. He told me that he had seen my picture in the paper with the governor and the other fags and wanted me to know that he thought Fred Phelps was a hero. Then he told me that I was gonna give him a blowjob behind the gym after the last class is over today.

"I thought he was going to pull my arm out of its socket. Then he yelled at some kids that were standing around and the next thing I knew, he pinned me against the lockers with his knee against my balls. It really hurt. and still does."

Joey had tears running down his cheeks, but he was in control now.

"In the first place, I'm sorry you had to endure this. I understand that this Thad Wilson will probably be suspended from school, as you aren't the first he's hassled. Mr. Tate suggested that you spend the rest of the day at home and he's going to get your assignments for you before we leave. Daniel and Forrest are talking to Coach Holmen about what they witnessed and School Security has Thad in their custody.

"Dad, everything was going so great. Why did this have to happen? Does this mean that other kids are going to give me and maybe Forrest and Daniel a bad time, too?"

"Joey, there are always people out there who are jealous of everyone else, especially those who are in the spotlight. I don't know for sure what Thad's motive was, but he's going to be punished. Remember Rev. Jimmy Bob Jones and Bret Jenkins father?"

"Yeah." Joey replied, not sure what they had to do with this problem.

"Jimmy Bob had a vendetta against gay people. He didn't even have all of his facts straight and made a lot of noise about Fr. Tikker supporting our group that meets at the church. He managed to drag Bret Senior into it, against his will, and had him convinced it was the right thing to do. Bret ended up getting his arm broken by me because we were trying to protect his son. He was abusing both his wife and Bret Junior. Bret has reversed his thinking, but was ordered to get counseling for his whole family as his outbursts have traumatized all of them."

"I remember that. Bret was afraid that his Dad would beat him because he thought Bret tried to warn us we were being spied on. He was afraid to go home and ended up staying at Tom and Eddie's house that night."

"That's pretty much it. Of course, Jimmy Bob Jones had a whole other set of problems, but he managed to keep his congregation riled up all the time with mis-truths and crazy ideas he had."

"Did you ever have anything like this happen to you when you were in school?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, I did," Dale said, remembering.

"Really, Joey was stunned. He thought Dale was perfect.

"I used to get hassled by some of the kids about the fact that I was illegitimate, born out of wedlock, and my father wasn't around. Also, my Grandfather Richards was a truck driver, but spent a lot of his free time at the pool hall, losing money and drinking beer. Some kids perceived me as being a loser from the 'other side of the tracks' and wanted nothing to do with me. Others picked fights with me for the same reason. I had to learn to defend myself from about the time I was in the first grade. After I bested several boys over the next few years, the fights stopped, but the name-calling went on until I was in high school. I was on the baseball team and was a good player. The other boys saw that I was valuable to the team and that was pretty much the end of any hassling, but it still hurt because I was always kind of an outsider."

"I'm sorry you had problems, too, Dad."

"Well, Joey, its just part of growing up. In your case, you are new to Williamsport. I doubt that kids outside your own little group know much about you or why you live here. You are smart and on the honor roll. Again, kids get jealous over things they don't understand.

"Then we come along, open a big computer store, get a lot of publicity, some of which wasn't wanted, and again some people want to look at the dark side of things instead of the bright side of it."

Doug Tate and Marty walked into the room about that time.

"Are you okay, Joey?" Doug asked him.

"Yeah, my arms sore and my clothes are pretty cruddy. He kneed me pretty hard, too."

"I'm going to suggest that you take the rest of the day off from school as an excused absence. Betty Armstrong should have your assignments for you when you and Dale are ready to leave. We've heard what Daniel and Forrest had to say and we know that you did nothing to provoke an attack. Thad will be suspended from school this time, and will be dropped from the football team. Unfortunately, he's hoping for a college scholarship in football, but he's been warned about threatening other boys before. We just will not tolerate his actions here at Davy Crockett High School," he told them.

Marty took over the conversation. "Joey, Dale, I'm really sorry this had to happen. Some people just never get the message that they are responsible for their actions and Thad is going to pay the price for it. We haven't met with his parents yet, but it isn't as if we haven't talked to them before. His stepfather is another Jimmy Bob Jones who has a small following of bigots in his church. They seem to feed off each other and then set out to rectify what they believe are things wrong with the world."

"Joey, if anyone gives you or any of your friends a bad time, please let me know," Doug told him. "I don't care what is said or done, we want to provide a safe and healthful environment for students to learn in."

"Thanks, Mr. Tate," Joey said, standing up to shake his hand. Then he shook hands with Marty.

"I'll see you back at the Bar-W, Dale. We need to finish the meeting we started this morning," Marty said, giving him a pat on the back as he shook his hand.

The men parted company after Dale and Doug Tate shook hands. Joey picked up his class assignments in the student office and Dale walked with him to his locker. He was surprised that it was the same one he'd had for two years when he was at Davy Crockett. He even remembered the combination.

Thad Wilson's mother and stepfather, Rev. Milton Brockle arrived at the school administration office shortly after Dale and Joey left. Doug Tate and Marty Williamson were more than ready for their visit.

Doug Tate gave them a veiled greeting. "Hello, Rev. and Mrs. Brockel. I wish I could say that I'm glad to see you, but given the circumstances of this meeting, I'm not. Thad attacked one of our freshman students this morning. There were witnesses to this and the victim did nothing to provoke the confrontation.

"What are you talking about?" an angry Rev. Brockle asked. This man was easily a foot shorter than his stepson and probably 100 pounds lighter.

"Thad attacked Joey Sullivan this morning before first hour class. He twisted his arm, inflecting a lot of pain, kneed him in the groin and threatened to make him to perform a sexual act on him after last class this evening," replied Doug.

"So it sounds to me that the little faggot got what was coming to him," was the reply.

"Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I know that Thad has managed to get one girl pregnant and tried to rape another young lady. He has threatened to make some other young men perform sexual acts for his pleasure," Doug told them. He was angry.

Thad's mother tried to say something and was cut short by Marty.

"We now know that Coach Paul Dennison intervened and managed to collect funds from the parents of other boys on the football team. Those funds were used to pay for an abortion and used as 'hush money' for the girls and their parents," he told them. Marty was mad.

"So?" an irate Rev. Brockle asked.

"SO!!" Marty almost shouted. "If I had been aware of the problem at the time it existed, I would gladly have paid for an attorney for the families of those two girls. Your son can't bully his way through this school and get away with it."

"You are just a rich SOB that wants the world to run his way!!" Milton Brockle shouted.

"I can assure you, sir, that I have the backing of the community behind me, otherwise I wouldn't be on the school board. There is no excuse in Williamsport or any other populated area for your sons' behavior or your attitude!" Marty was really angry.

"I stand behind my stepson. Joey Sullivan is part of the scum of the earth, along with the rest of the people who are opening that new computer store. I'll personally see to it that their business fails."

This really made Marty bristle.

"You, the Reverend Mister Brockle, are too late. Fred Phelps and his gang were laughed out of town and the store had a very successful weekend for sales. I don't think that you are going to cause them any problems. People seem to largely ignore ignorant bigots like you and your congregation."

This soon developed into a shouting match that could be heard out into the hall, however, at this hour of the day the hall was totally empty.

"So why are we here?" Milton Brockle asked.

Doug Tate quickly jumped into the melee. "Thad is being suspended from school for three weeks. He will not be playing on the high school football team for the rest of the season."

"You can't do that!! The school needs him to win their games and he is in an ace position for football scholarships to three colleges." Those were the first words spoken by Thad's mother.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but you are going to have to face the fact that Thad is going to have to pay for his actions. He is suspended for the rest of the first semester and can make application to become a new senior at the beginning of the second semester. He will have to meet with the Davy Crockett school tribunal, which consists of Administration, Student Government and Instructors," Doug continued.

"That's a crock of shit!" Rev. Bockle raged. "There are Christian schools that my son can attend and they will recognize him for the student he is."

"Then, sir, I encourage you to get him enrolled as quickly as possible," Doug Tate replied.

Marty offered the minister and his wife his hand to shake, hoping that this would be the last they would hear of Thad Wilson.

Rev. Brockle grudgingly offered his hand to Doug Tate and Marty Williamson. He knew he had been defeated. Now all he had to do was wait for his stepson to be brought from confinement.

Although there had only been a handful of witnesses to the altercation Joey had with Thad, the story spread like wildfire through the students that Monday morning. Many of the students were puzzled because Joey appeared to be a person who could take care of himself and hold his own in a scuffle. Since most did not know the details of the story, it was a mystery to them.

As they were on their way home, Joey was looking at his homework assignments. "Dad, the only real homework I have is a chapter in Algebra. The rest are reading assignments."

"So, what do you want to do?" Dale asked him.

"I don't want to stay home by myself. Can I either go to the store or tag along with you today?"

"You're welcome to do either, but I have a lot of things to accomplish at the Ranch today so I probably wouldn't be very good company. I need to check on Michael and Pat to see about their progress. They should be ending up the fieldwork this week. We have people coming from a new ranch in Oklahoma this afternoon. They've bought 150 horses, pregnant mares, and yearlings, along with several stallions and then want to look at cattle, too. I won't be directly involved, but want to meet with them as they could become a very good customer of the Bar-W."

"Wow, that's neat!" Joey replied. He was still fascinated with anything to do with the ranch. He had hoped that Dale would saddle up a couple of horses and they could ride, but it didn't sound like his Dad had the time for that.

"Why don't you just drop me off at home? I want to get out of these clothes and take a hot shower; maybe it will make me feel better. I'll do my homework and then maybe Dad Craig will come home for lunch and he can take me to the store later."

"That's okay with me," Dale told him. "I want you to call Craig as soon as you can and tell him what happened. He'll be concerned about what happened, too."

Dale drove into the parking lot to let Joey out of the Blazer after making sure he had his key. "Don't let this get you down, Bud," he told Joey. "I'm glad you weren't hurt."

"I'll be fine. My arms just a little sore from being twisted around. I'm okay otherwise."

Joey started to the stairway and gave Dale a big wave as he drove onto the street to go to the Bar-W Ranch.

Joey let Mitsy out of the apartment and followed her back down the stairs. It was a nice day and he wanted to sit in the sun for a little bit. The warmth felt good on his shoulders, arms and back. Mitsy quickly took care of her needs and was back to where Joey was sitting on the ground. She wanted to play and Joey wished he had her ball with him. She settled for being petted and rolled onto her back so he could rub her chest and stomach. Joey played with her for about 15 minutes and then decided that he was hungry. When he stood up to go to the stairway, Mitsy led the way and was waiting in front of the door when he got there.

He wasted no time in stripping out of his clothes and left them in a pile to go to the laundry hamper. When he went into his bathroom he positioned the mirror so he could look at himself. He was going to have a big bruise. It already looked red where he'd been shoved into the lockers.

The hot water felt good, almost like it was washing away the incident of the morning. His thoughts turned to what might happen. Would other kids treat him as Thad had? He wished that he were at school. He wanted to discuss the happening with his pals.

After pulling on a clean pair of boxer shorts and socks, he remembered that Dale had told him to call Craig. He picked up the receiver and punched the speed dial code for Craig's office. Craig answered the phone on the third ring, as it was Sherry's day off.

"Hi Dad," Joey tried to sound like he felt great.

"Well hi, yourself." Craig looked at his watch. It was 9:20. "Where are you?" he asked, sensing there was a problem.

"I'm at home. One of the senior football players jerked me around before school started. Mr. Tate, Coach Thompson and Coach Holmen came to my rescue. Mr. Tate called Dad Dale and he came to the school to get me. I'm out of school on an excused absence for the day."

Craig was concerned. "Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the doctor?"

Joey gave him a brief synopsis of what had happened.

" Did Dale go back to his office? Do you want me to come home?" he asked without giving Joey a chance to answer.

"No, you don't need to do that. I need to do my Algebra assignment. The rest of my homework is just reading new chapters. Are you still going to come home for lunch?" Joey asked, hoping Craig would.

"Sure. I always go home to let Mitsy out. Do you want to rest this afternoon or do you want to do something else?"

"I'd thought about going to the store to see if I could help there. Do you think that would be okay?" Joey questioned.

"I don't know why not, but you're worked really hard this last month in getting the store ready to open, along with helping your grandparents get settled." Craig thought of something else. "Maybe we should keep this quiet from your grandparents. Mom will go into a tizzy if she thinks you got hurt, and Dad will be right behind her. Okay?" Craig wanted to know.

"Sure, I don't want to be treated like a baby," Joey said, getting the meaning of what Craig had asked.

"Tell you what. Why don't you get your homework finished? How long do you think it will take?" Craig wanted to know.

"Maybe about an hour. There's nothing new in Algebra to learn, this is just a recap of the last section of the book. Some of the other stuff, like history, I've already read ahead of the rest of the class 'cause it's interesting."

"How would you like for me to order a picnic lunch and we'll strike out to wherever and enjoy this nice day? We've all been so busy that we haven't had time for each other lately."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Joey was excited.

"Should I call Dale and see if he wants to join us?"

"That would be great, but he told me that a new ranch in Oklahoma is buying 150 horses and they are coming to get them this afternoon," Joey told him.

"I'd forgotten about that. He thinks that this may be an important new customer. Tell, you what, I'll call anyway just to make sure he doesn't feel left out."

"That's cool. What's time will you be here?" Joey asked Craig.

"How about 10:45 or a little after that? I need to talk to Don about some changes in a building for a new client. I think what he wrote and what he means are two different things and I need to resolve it before I put anything into the computer.

"Cool. That should be about the right amount of time for me to get finished with my homework."

"You think about where we might go and what we might do this afternoon. This may be last the super-nice day we'll get to enjoy for awhile," Craig told him.

"See ya later," Joey said as they each broke the connection.

Craig called Trisha at LeGourmet to order a picnic basket. He had called Dale to tell him what he had planned. He could tell that Dale was disappointed, but his reason was that he had been away from the ranch too much the last month and also that he wanted to meet the men who were buying the horses in the afternoon.

He was a little upset and wanted to remind Dale that even though he had officially been on vacation for a couple of weeks, that he had gone to the office for a couple of hours each day. He loved Dale for his sense of duty to others, especially Marty. Dale was loyal and the first person in line to help someone when they needed something.

However, Craig was glad to have a chance to spend time alone with Joey. He felt like he knew him pretty well, but all of their lives had been so busy since Joey had moved to Williamsport he almost felt that Joey had been neglected. This would be a great time to talk to each other.

Forrest and Daniel were on their way to the cafeteria and walked past the public phones in the hall.

"I'm going to call Joey as soon as we eat lunch," Daniel said. "We didn't have a chance to talk to him after we talked to Coach Holmen, Mr. Tate and Mr. Williamson. I don't know if he was hurt or not."

"I know," Forrest answered. "That had to have hurt plenty the way he slammed Joey into the locker and then kneed him in the balls."

"I felt so helpless," Daniel said. "I'm not even sure that both of us could have gotten him away from Joey without him hurting all three of us."

"Thad is such a goon," Forrest agreed.

Bryce and Bret were coming down the hall from the other direction and Matt was waiting for them so they could get in line together.

As they were eating lunch, Joey's friends discussed what had happened. Daniel and Forrest provided the eyewitness accounts and the other boys in the group were startled that something of that sort could happen in their school.

Bret Jenkins was really upset. He considered Joey to be a good and true friend who had been nice to him the night at the meeting of the Dignity/Integrity Chapter at St. James Rectory. Their friendship had grown and he was grateful to Joey for helping him join the choir at St. James Episcopal Church. He considered Joey the leader of the group that ran around together.

Matt had similar thoughts. He'd met Joey for the first time at the Halloween party at Tom and Eddie's home. This was only a couple of evenings after he had arrived to be placed under their care. Again, Joey hadn't questioned him about what had happened except Matt found himself telling Joey exactly what had happened. Joey was really upset that his father had beat him and that his mother didn't seem to care that Matt wasn't living with them anymore. Like Bret, Matt considered Joey the unofficial leader of their little group.

Bryce was a little more shaken at the story. He remembered the reason his mother had packed his family up and left his father to serve the remainder of his term of service by himself in Germany. He still had very mixed emotions about that. He had enjoyed it, but his mother had agreed not to press charges against his father. It would have ruined his career and cut her income to nothing. Bryce didn't know the details, but really thought his mother was being much too tough on his father. Bryce loved his father, but knew that sexuality had entered into the picture.

Again, Bryce admired Joey and was grateful Joey wanted to include him in the group of students that were hired to work at Saber Computers. Bryce wanted to work after school and on Saturday, but his mother wouldn't hear of it.

Forrest was shocked at the ordeal Thad had put Joey through that morning. He knew that Joey was capable of defending himself, but Thad was much bigger and had the advantage of surprising Joey, pinning him before he had a chance to react. He had gladly gone to get help to stop the fight. He and Daniel saw most of what had happened and had no reservation about telling Coach Holmen what they had seen.

Daniel was one of the first students to talk to Joey when he started attending Davy Crockett. They shared several common interests, and he had especially enjoyed working with him in the computer lab. Joey had a quick, analytical mind and was good about helping other students who realized that he and Daniel probably knew more than the teacher, Kent Korte.

When Joey had asked the gang if they wanted to work at the new store, Matt was the only one who didn't want to work there. He thought it sounded like too much to do. Daniel jumped at the chance as he thought it would not only help him develop better computer skills, but was a chance to be around Joey more than just at school. He was the first student hired by Joey's grandfather.

Forrest, of course, was elated to be asked. His paper route was hard work, but it earned him the little money he used to help pay for his grandmother's medications. Saber Computers paid him a lot more and he didn't have to get up early and be out in all kinds of weather. Frank found out that he had good skills and asked him to work as a salesman when the store opened. He would get a commission on the sales he helped generate in addition to his hourly wage. Like Daniel, it was a chance to be around Joey other than at school.

At the present time, Forrest was concerned, as he knew his grandmother didn't have much longer to live. He was grateful to Joey's dad, Craig, for getting Leland Stanton to help put her affairs in order and have her property placed in trust for Forrest. The only thing that had not been settled was where Forrest would live when the inevitable happened. It was thought that he could continue to live at the house, but that hadn't been determined yet.

Daniel punched in the number and the phone rang 4 times before the answering machine picked up.

"Hello," Craig's voice said. "You have reached the home of Dale, Craig and Joey. We are unable to answer the phone right now, but if you will leave a message and your number, one of us will call you back as soon as we can." There was a beep and Daniel started talking.

"Hi Joey, it's your gang calling. We're concerned about our lack of leadership since you aren't with us today. Seriously, we hope that you aren't hurt. We'll check back after school to find out if you are okay."

The connection was broken.

"Do you think he's okay?" Forrest asked?

"Either he's asleep or with Dale or Craig," Matt said.

"He might be at the store, too," Bryce added.

"Hey, we didn't talk about the store," Matt stated. "Joey told me at church yesterday morning that you were really busy on both Friday and Saturday."

"Yeah, we were really swamped with customers. Nobody had time to even go to lunch on Friday so Dale and Craig ordered in pizza and salads for all of us. We took turns going back to the classroom to eat," Daniel told them.

"Yeah, and we got to shake hands with the Governor and the Mayor, too," Forrest proudly told them.

"Bet you didn't get a chance to shake hands with the nutty guy from Kansas, did you?" Bryce teased.

"They didn't even get close to the store. That was so funny, they weren't expecting the crowd to chase them back to their bus," Forrest said.

"Yeah and then they couldn't get either vehicle started. It's wasn't until Saturday morning that the police gave them the distributor caps and told them to get the hell out of Williamsport," Daniel laughed.

"Really?" Matt asked.

"How did you find that out?" Bryce wanted to know.

"Just a rumor going around," Forrest giggled.

"Wow! I'd like to have seen that scene," Matt told them.

Forrest wanted to tell him that if he had taken the job offered at the store, he would have been there, but kept his mouth shut. There was something different about Matt and he had dodged some rather pointed questions from several of them.

Craig arrived home just after 10:30. Joey was still sitting at the dining room table wearing only his boxers and socks. He had completed all of his homework except for some of the reading and he could do that later.

Mitsy was glad to see Craig and wanted to go outside so he opened the door and watched her bound down the stairs.

"What should I wear?" Joey questioned.

"I'm going to change from these good pants into a pair of Levis and will probably wear a sweater of some kind," Craig told him.

"Cool," Joey told him. "That's what I'll wear, too."

As he got up from the table, Craig noticed him wince.

"Let me look at your shoulder and arm," Craig asked.

Joey turned around. Craig noticed that there was going to be a bruise on his left arm and when he rubbed his left shoulder, he could tell that Joey had pain. Also, the area felt warm compared to the rest of his back.

"Let me get some lotion to put on that. I don't think it will keep the bruise from developing, but it may keep it from being as bad. Also, your shoulder feels hot and that's probably from being strained." With that he told Joey to follow him into the bathroom and directed that he sit on the stool. He rummaged in a drawer in the linen closet and came up with two bottles, discarding one because he thought it had an unpleasant smell that stayed with you until it was washed off.

He opened the cap of the other bottle and squeezed some into his hand, then rubbed it with the other to warm it. He started in on Joey's shoulder, working it into the top, then down the back, under his arm and back up the front. He accidentally brushed Joey's left nipple, causing him to giggle.

"Ooooh, heeeehee, that feels soo good," Joey said. He could feel his cock give a twitch in his boxers.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that," Craig said.

"It felt good," Joey said, sounding disappointed.

"Let me get this finished up," Craig told him. He squeezed out more lotion and followed the same route, avoiding getting anywhere near the nipple.

He worked for another minute, and then put the cap back on the bottle.

"Okay, go get dressed and we'll be on our way."

Joey was semi-hard and fled the bathroom before Craig had a chance to turn around and see him leave.

Craig took off his pants and shirt, and then went into their walk-in closet to retrieve his Levi's and a long-sleeve pullover, along with a pair of athletic shoes.

Joey was back in the living room headed toward the front door when Craig walked out of their bedroom.

Mitsy was scratching at the door and Joey let her in.

"There's a map in the car, we can decide which direction to go after we get in," Craig said.

Joey was excited to be going somewhere with Craig, by themselves.

Frank and David were going over the sales figures and reports for the first three days of the stores operation when Leland Stanton walked in.

"Gentlemen," he greeted them. He had already talked to Frank earlier and found out that the Sunday sales had been better than expected, with the store selling almost $30,000 of merchandise. There had been a smaller ad in the Sunday "Austin American-Statesman" with coupons for computer accessories such as modems, floppy disks, cables, and several software packages. There was also a coupon for $100 off on any purchase of $2,000 or more and that seemed to have generated sales of 6 computers, along with printers and monitors.

"Morning, Leland," David said, standing to greet him and offering his hand.

"David, Frank. Did we have a great opening, or did we have a great opening?" Leland was all smiles.

"We had a great opening," David and Frank answered, almost in unison, then the three of them laughed.

"Seriously, sales were about 40% more than I had dared hope for." Leland was acting like this was his baby, and maybe it was. He was exuberant.

"Yeah, but can we keep the sales going?" Frank asked. He was still amazed at what he was seeing printed out on the green bar paper.

"Of course we can," David jumped in. "I think that we are going to have to advertise every week, probably with ads like in yesterday's paper and then develop a direct mail list. The coupons, even for small items seem to bring people into the store. We sold a lot of floppy disks yesterday, along with cables, paper and the one model of computer desk we advertised. We had to give 5 rain checks on those, but the order was shipped incomplete to begin with. The backordered quantity is to be shipped tomorrow, so that should still leave us almost a dozen in stock."

"I agree with the coupon idea. People like to save money on everything and usually will buy things they don't really need at the time, just because they can get it cheaper now," Frank said.

David laid out the inventory reports, showing what they had started with, what had sold, the present stock level, the quantity now on order with the last column showing the stock level if the orders arrived today.

He had already used colored highlighters to indicate fast- selling items, items that needed an increase in inventory level and items that hadn't moved as well as expected.

Doris came in while the men were working. She had two large pans of cinnamon rolls and wanted the men to know she was going to put them in the break room for all of the employees to help themselves.

They were more than ready for some of Doris' delicious homemade cinnamon rolls and a cup of coffee. Frank thanked her with a kiss as he took the rolls. The men followed him to the break room after thanking Doris for thinking of them.

The three men went over the reports together with David writing comments next to some items on the report. The big question was how much inventory was needed and could they make a good decision based on three days of sales for the grand opening. Sales strategy, advertising, outside sales (to offices, schools and businesses) and other considerations were laid out on the table. Leland supported keeping the inventory levels high, with the idea that people would realize they could come into the store, have a good selection to choose from and buy it right then.

"Interest rates are stable and good for business. You have enough of a line of credit with the bank to cover you, so take advantage of it. When we get into mail order after we get a catalog ready to go, we'll need even more inventory for quick turn-around of orders. Again, we'll want to be able to ship ASAP to keep the customers coming back to us."

Frank and David agreed with Leland. "In order to sell merchandise, you have to have it in stock."

Leland glanced at his watch. "Guys, I have a 10 o'clock staff meeting about 5 minutes ago," he laughed. "I need to call my secretary and tell everyone to wait for me," he said as he picked up Frank's telephone.

After Leland left David said that he was ready for another cup of coffee so he and Frank headed to the employee lounge.

The store had opened just a few minutes before at 10 a.m. and there were 9 customers in the store already.

"I need to get the bank deposit ready," Frank told David.

"That's an easy job, I need to get purchase orders written and faxed to our suppliers," David replied.

Dale was thinking about Joey as he drove to the field where Michael and Pat were working. 'Were they putting Joey at risk of being harassed by other students and maybe getting hurt by another over-zealous bully, like this morning?' He hoped not. 'Then there was the problem of Daniel and Forrest working at the store. Would Daniel's parents have a bad reaction as to what had happened, with the protest from Fred Phelps and this morning's confrontation involving Joey? Would the kids tease Daniel and Forrest because they worked at the store?'

'There hadn't been any bad reaction at church yesterday. Fr. Tikker had talked about tolerance in his homily. A number of people had congratulated all of them on the successful opening of a new business,' he further thought.

'Young people could be so cruel, even without realizing it. Words could hurt a lot worse than a beating and a lot of people saying "words" didn't even know what they meant.' Dale knew that he and Craig would have to monitor this situation carefully.

Michael and Pat were taking a break as Dale drove up. The tractors had been parked and both the young men were on one tractor, each leaning against a fender with a box of cookies on the tractor seat.

"You're just in time for a cookie and coffee break," Michael said.

Pat handed Dale the carton of Oreos as he walked up to the tractor.

"Thanks," Dale told them, pulling three out of the package.

"I could offer you some coffee, but we only have two mugs," Pat said.

"That's not a problem. The cookies are fine without it.

"We sure like our new place," Michael told him, referring to the new crew quarter's house.

"I hope you are enjoying living there by yourselves. When we started planning this, there were going to be four of us living there," Dale told them.

"Four?" questioned Pat.

"Yeah, the two of you, John and me. I was going to sell my house and live out here," Dale said.

"I thought you sold your house already," Michael asked.

"I did, but I moved in with a friend of mine and now my half- brother, you met Joey, lives with us. It makes it a little crowded for three of us to live in an apartment," Dale told them.

"Yeah, we remember Joey," Pat told him. "He looks just like you, only younger."

"That's him, although he's only 14, sometimes I think he's 30," Dale laughed. "One minute he can be very adult and in total control and the next he's a typical teenager who is into everything," he continued.

All three of the men laughed, each remembering their teen years.

"So, why don't you and Joey move out here? There's plenty of room," Michael asked.

"Oh, we're doing okay. I think we'll be building a new house that's better suited to our needs, anyway," he answered.

"You mean, for you and Joey?" Michael asked.

"No, for all three of us," Dale replied, being caught off guard. As soon as he said that, he realized that he might have given away a secret and started to turn red.

"So, how's the work going?" he asked, more to change the subject than anything.

"We're making good progress. This field is about a third done and I think we'll finish it up on Wednesday or Thursday morning at the latest." Michael replied.

"Great," Dale told them. We have some fences to repair and will probably want to put in a couple of gates to make it easier to move from one field to another. That's pretty simple work and we have a power auger to help us set the posts. After that, we'll start in on cleaning and repairing farm equipment and some of the outbuildings."

"What kind of building repair?" Pat asked.

"The barn where the office is needs a new roof. I think we can do that job ourselves without having to hire a roofing company. The pitch of the roof isn't steep, so it won't be dangerous working up there."

"I've helped my Dad and uncle put on a roof before. It's not hard work," Michael said.

Craig and Joey fastened their seatbelts prior to Craig starting the car. "Any ideas as to where to go today?" Craig asked.

"No, you're the driver and I don't know much about what there is to see and do around here."

"I have an idea. The Longhorn Caverns State Park is just up the road a little bit. Have you ever been in a cave before?" Craig asked.

"Hun un," Joey said. "Won't it be dark and dirty and scary?"

"Not this one. It's well lit and they have guided tours. This cave is really beautiful. There are some fantastic rock formations and other things to see. It's a pretty big place and a lot of walking. Are you up to it?" Craig wanted to know.

"Sure. That sounds super. I've seen pictures of Carlsbad Caverns, but I've never been anywhere near a cave before. How far away is it?

"Only a few miles. In fact I think that some of the cave may actually be under part of the Bar-W Ranch. I know that some of the State Park boundaries abut some of the Bar-W land. Seems I've heard the spring that feeds the swimming hole on the river may originate in the cave."

"That's cool," Joey said. "Let's go."

"I have a picnic lunch that I ordered from LeGourmet. We can eat at the picnic tables close to the visitor's center. I assume that you are hungry?" Craig said, thinking that all boys Joey's age were always hungry.

"Yeah, actually I'm starved. I lost what little breakfast I had this morning. I couldn't help it, I just got sick when he roughed me up."

Craig didn't know about that. "I'm sorry, I had no idea," he told Joey.

He backed the car out of the parking place and entered Larcher Drive, then made a right turn at the next stop light to take them to Commercial and the north bound highway out of town. After they passed the Bar-W Ranch Craig knew the Park Road was shortly before they got to Demarco. He need not have worried; there were signs before they got to the intersection. He made a left turn and started down a narrow blacktop road. Joey was watching for the visitor's center at the park, which was another 6 miles.

In a few minutes Craig pulled his car into the parking lot. There were only eight cars parked there.

"Let's go to the visitors center and see about tours, then we can pick up literature and look at it while we eat lunch," Craig said, indicating the picnic tables in a large area with plenty of trees for shade. Most of the trees had lost their leaves and that would allow them to soak up the warm sun while they ate.

Joey held the door open for Craig. Two uniformed park rangers were talking to two groups of people standing at the counter. Two other people were looking at the rack of brochures that had folders from all points of interest in Central Texas. There were two different brochures for the Cavern and the Vanishing Texas River Cruise in a separate section, along with slides and postcards that could be purchased in the little gift shop.

Craig noticed the sign that had their winter hours posted. There was a tour at 1 p.m. and another at 3 o'clock. Admission was $10.

Joey was holding one of the picture folders up, looking at it. "Dad, look at this," he said pointing to a picture that looked like a stone waterfall. "You would never know that anything like that was underground right here."

"It's all caused by the minerals in the water and the limestone. Remember, the stone quarry on the Bar-W Ranch?" Craig asked.

"Yeah, Dad Dale said we couldn't get there anymore because the trail was overgrown and there wasn't any quality rock left to take out, so it was closed."

That's true. It wasn't a large quarry to begin with but there were a lot of geological forces that had to happen in this area to cause the hills, rock formations, this cavern and the rivers to be formed," Craig answered.

"Sounds like you could be a tour guide," one of the rangers said as he walked up and overheard Craig's explanation. "I'm Ranger Kyle MacGregor," he said, smiling at the two men.

Craig offered his hand. "Good to meet you. I'm Craig Bastian," shaking hands with the Ranger.

"I'm Joey Sullivan," he said, proudly shaking hands with Ranger Kyle.

Both Joey and Craig were taken with the handsome man who probably was in his late 20's.

"Are you going to take the cavern tour at 1 o'clock?" he asked.

"Yes," Joey answered, looking at Craig.

"Good, I'm leading this tour. The people in the gift shop took the morning tour and unless someone else shows up it looks like the two of you will be taking the next trip by yourselves. It's kind of slow around here in the winter months."

"I thought this was a guided tour?" Joey asked. He was apprehensive about he and Craig going into a cave by themselves.

"It is a guided tour, I'm the guide and you're the tourists," laughed Ranger Kyle.

"Oh," said Joey. He was relieved.

"It's such a nice day that we brought a picnic lunch and are going to eat outside. We should still have a little time before your tour starts, Craig told him.

"Are you fellows from around here?" the ranger asked.

"Yes, we live in Williamsport. I just moved here from Houston, so my Dad is showing me some of the neat things there are to see and do in this area."

Ranger Kyle almost did a double take on that statement. Craig didn't look any older than himself and Joey looked like he was probably in college. He hoped that these two men were the only ones on the tour. It would give him a chance to get acquainted with them.

Craig looked at his watch. It was almost 12-noon. That would give them a chance to have a leisurely picnic and have time to freshen up a bit before the tour started. "We're going to eat lunch and we'll be back in here in plenty of time for the tour."

"Great!" Kyle said. "I'll be looking forward to showing you this great cavern."

By this time the tourists in the office and gift shop was down to three people, all senior citizens from Austin who had just heard about the caverns at an AARP program a couple of weeks earlier. The three of them spent a total of $7.50 on souvenirs, mostly picture postcards.

The other ranger, Stan Perry, was new to the Texas Park System and was still in training, although he had learned his job more quickly than most. Kyle had worked for them for three years. He had enlisted in the Air Force upon graduation from high school, and then enrolled for a degree in geology after his tour. He was 29 years old.

Craig retrieved the picnic basket from the back seat of his car. The first thing on top of the food was a cloth table cover, along with a supply of napkins, stainless eating utensils and plastic plates. Tricia hadn't charged Craig a deposit on the basket because she knew he would return them.

Soon the food was on the table. Craig had ordered fried chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, baked beans and a green bean salad. He had decided that smaller containers of a variety of side dishes were better than larger quantities of a small selection.

Joey was hungry and Craig was glad he'd had Trisha pack food for three men. He was hungry, too, and ate more than he normally did. But, the hour and a half walk through the cavern would shake that down pretty quickly.

"Mmmnn, this is good chicken," Joey said, helping himself to the third piece. "And the other stuff is good, too. Thanks for thinking of this, Dad."

It pleased Craig that Joey called him 'Dad'. He hadn't ever thought he would be in a situation where he would have that title. Certainly he had never expected to have any children of his own.

"You never did tell me how you and Dad Dale met each other," Joey wanted to know.

Craig felt his dick twitch at the memory.

"I'd seen Dale around town several times and had to ask several people before I found out who he was and where he worked. When I found out he worked for the Bar-W Ranch, I hoped I might have a chance to meet him as I'd done quite a bit of work for Marty on several different construction projects.

"As luck would have it, shortly after Labor Day Marty called me to come to the ranch for a planning meeting for the new crew quarters house Ray Evans just completed."

Joey nodded his head. His mouth was full.

"Dale was at the meeting and I found out that he was expecting to live there. He had decided that he didn't need the house where his mother and grandparents had lived, that a room at the Bar-W would be fine for him.

"I remembered that my partner, Don Albrecht, had made an offer on Dale's house. He was going to fix it up and use it for rental property. So, after the meeting I asked Dale point blank if he was going to sell the house to Don. He told me that he hadn't seen an offer at that point, but knew he was interested in buying it.

"By that time I determined that I wanted to know more about Dale because he was handsome and extremely sexy, I thought. So, I made a lame excuse about looking at the house on Don's behalf so I might give him some suggestions on fixing it up."

Joey giggled. "You mean that wasn't the reason for you to go there?"

"No, I had no interest in what Don was going to do with the house. I just wanted to get acquainted with Dale," he smiled.

"Neat! So, did you manage to go see the house?" Joey asked.

"Oh yes," Craig laughed. "Dale immediately invited me over that evening, suggesting that we order pizza and he could show me the house. I immediately accepted and would have cancelled anything else scheduled for that evening. That day seemed to drag on and on forever, too."

"That's neat. So, do you think Dale had any idea as to why you were really going over there?"

"Well, later I found out that he wanted to get acquainted with me, too, but was too shy to try to contact me.

"Dad Dale, shy?" Joey asked.

"Joey, you have to realize that up to a few months ago, Dale was a very insecure person. He had a very narrow experience with life and although he knew a lot of people, he didn't have any close friends. His life was his job at the Bar-W and he loved to help coach Little League. He hadn't been away from Williamsport very much and didn't seem interested. I guess he was just afraid to explore the world on his own. Since then, we've taken several trips together. His attitude about life has changed - for the better and he's really bloomed into a great person who is comfortable with himself."

"Wow, I would never have guessed that," Joey said.

"Well, at the time you were going to come live with us, he was even sorry about selling his house and was going to look for a place for you and him to live."

"Why?"

"He was afraid that you and he would impose on me. I told him that we had agreed to become partners, lovers if you will, and that I wouldn't hear of some crazy idea like that. We were here for each other and getting a good kid like you was a bonus for me."

Craig smiled at Joey. "I mean that, you are just super and I'm proud to share everything I have with both of you."

"Thanks, Dad. I love both of you guys. You've been swell to me and I got grandparents out of the deal, too," Joey smiled.

"That you did and they love you just as much as Dale and me."

"So, how did the 'meeting' at Dale's house turn out?" Joey giggled. He knew what had probably happened.

Craig turned red. "Well, we did get around to ordering pizza a little later." His smile gave all kinds of other information he wasn't going to volunteer.

Joey laughed and Craig joined him.

"That's cool, too. I know what gay guys do with each other and it doesn't bother me because I know you guys love each other. That's what's important," Joey told him.

"You, young man, are wise beyond your years."

"Thanks, Dad," Joey said sincerely.

"Now how about a big piece of apple pie?" Craig asked, digging out two more containers of food.

"All right!!! Joey said. Craig handed him one of the plastic trays that held a quarter of a pie. He took the other one.

Craig and Joey were the only people on the tour with Ranger Kyle. They paid their admittance fee and Kyle led the way to the mouth of the cave and went inside. He started in with his standard spiel about the cave, how it was thought to have developed and was pointing out the interesting rock formations everywhere. Finally after about 5 minutes, he turned around to the men.

"Is it okay if I turn off the 'canned speech' and be informal about this? I'll be glad to stop and answer any questions you might have and there are things to tell about that aren't in the speech we're supposed to give."

"Sure," Craig and Joey said, almost in unison.

Kyle led them deeper into the cave and showed them many interesting formations that the usual tour group didn't see because of not having enough space for a larger group of people to gather. Some of the areas were not well lit and had just a narrow access. Kyle was carrying a large lantern with a halogen bulb that really lit up areas that were already well lit.

A little later they stopped and sat down after a climb up some steep steps.

Ranger Kyle spoke up. "I just remembered why you guys look familiar. You own the new computer store in Williamsport, don't you? Your pictures were in the paper for the grand opening."

Joey beamed at having been recognized.

"Yeah, and the governor was there for the opening, along with the mayor."

Kyle decided to plunge in with both feet. "Yes, and you had some unwelcome visitors, too, didn't you?"

Craig gulped. "You mean Fred Phelps and his gang?"

"Yeah. It's too bad that had to happen. They should lock up that idiot and throw the key away."

"It didn't hurt business any. We had a very successful Friday and Saturday. I haven't seen the figures for Sunday yet, but I'm told the store was busy," Craig continued.

"Well, I for one, am glad there were no problems and I wish you a lot of success in that venture. I'd like to buy a PC for Christmas, but haven't talked my roommate into it yet. Neither of us knows very much about them."

"Here's our resident expert," Craig said, giving Joey's left shoulder a squeeze.

Joey jerked away from Craig. "Ouuccchh!" he said, rubbing his shoulder with his right hand.

"Oh, Joey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make your shoulder hurt anymore than it already is."

"It's okay, you didn't know?"

"Are you okay?" Kyle asked. From the way Joey jerked away, he knew his shoulder must really be sore. "You didn't bump into the wall anywhere, did you?" He was afraid that he had injured himself in the cave.

"I'm okay. I just got hurt at school this morning," Joey told him.

"What happened?" asked Kyle.

"One of the big goons that is a senior and on the football team roughed me up before classes started. He jerked my arm around and pinned it against the wall. I thought it was going to come out of the socket. It's really sore."

Kyle was surprised. "You go to high school?"

"Yes, I'm a freshman."

Kyle laughed. "I thought you were probably in college."

Joey flashed him his 1000-watt smile. He always liked it when people thought he was older than he really was.

Kyle stood up. "We'd better finish our tour or Ranger Perry will come looking for us if we're late getting back," he laughed.

They finished the tour on time and Ranger Kyle had shown them a lot more of the cave than the other tour groups ever saw.

Joey and Craig thanked Kyle, each giving him a card with their name and other information on it.

"You're an architect?" Kyle asked Craig.

"Yes, we do new construction as well as restorations of older, historic properties."

"That's fascinating. I almost went into that field myself, but decided that I like geology better. I really like working for the Texas Park Department, it's almost a hands-on experience and I still learn new things each day.

"It should be that way with any job, if you do it right," Craig told him.

"I'll be at the store on Saturday. Ask for me and I'll be glad to demonstrate computers and answer your questions," Joey said.

"We may take you up on that," Kyle told him. "We just need to see what they can be used for and if one can really help us."

The men shook hands, and then Craig and Joey got into their car and drove off.

Kyle watched them drive away. He wondered if they were lovers. If so, both men were lucky, especially Craig. 'Joey was a little bear cub,' he thought.

Craig and Joey were back in Williamsport by 3:15. Craig stopped at LeGourmet to drop the basket off, apologizing for not having disposed of the extra food or having cleaned up the dishes that were inside.

"Don't worry about that," Tricia told him. "Looks like you had about the right amount of food. I'd say you had a pretty good idea of what you could eat."

"What can I say?" Craig replied. "We were outdoors and the food was good."

"Glad you enjoyed it. Remember us the next time you need food prepared for a party or picnic," she told him.

Craig thanked her once again and got back in the car with Joey.

"Where to now?" Craig asked as he started the car.

"Dad, do you have the keys for the storage unit with you?" Joey asked.

"Craig looked at his key ring. "Yes, I do. Why?"

"Could I get some of the movies that belonged to my Dad?" he questioned.

Craig hesitated. "You mean the gay porn movies?" he asked.

"Yeah," Joey said, somewhat shyly.

Craig thought for a moment. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. You just need to keep them where they aren't easily seen. I guess my parents won't be staying with us again, so I'm not worried about them finding the stash. Just be really careful who you have over to watch them with you. Remember what happened this morning," Craig warned.

"I know," Joey said. "There are only a couple of guys that I'd let watch them anyway.

"Well, be sure because Dale and I could get into trouble by allowing you to have them. I'm not sure how the law reads, but I'm sure it's something like 'contributing to the delinquency of a minor' or some obscure law. Just be sure of the audience you entertain."

"I will. Of all my friends, I think Forrest and Daniel would like them the best," he grinned.

The storage units were on their way home, so Craig stopped at the gate and entered the code to let them in. Joey's old desk was at the front of the unit. Craig switched on the light.

"I can crawl over the desk and get to the boxes with no problem." He proceeded to slide across the top and looked at the boxes, which were clearly labeled. There were two boxes and both were sealed. Craig took the top one and set it on the top of the desk.

"I don't want you to strain your shoulder, so I'll put it in the trunk, okay?" he asked Joey.

Craig started to crawl over the desk.

"There's another one, Joey said.

"Two boxes?" he questioned, teasing Joey.

"That's the same reaction Dad Dale had when we were boxing them up. According to my Dad, there are a lot of classic movies here."

"Classic isn't a word I would use to describe porn, but I've not seen all that much of it," Craig told him.

"Some of these are supposed to be the first videotapes they made, after they quit using real film."

"Whatever you say. Let's get these home and decide where to hide them," Craig said. He had to climb up on the desk after he put the box on top, and then put them on the ground so he could open the trunk.

Joey waited until Craig had the trunk open, then shut off the light and locked the door.

By the time they arrived at home Joey was getting tired. His shoulder and side hurt. Craig made two trips to bring the boxes out of the car, with Mitsy tagging along and riding on the elevator with him.

"I'm going to the office for a few minutes and then will stop at the grocery store on the way home, so I'll probably be gone until about time for Dale to come home," Craig told Joey.

"That's fine. I'm going to take some Tylenol and rest for a little while. I'm more tired than I thought."

"Okay, try to take a nap. Maybe a hot shower would help you relax, too. You can use the one in our bathroom, if you want."

"Wow! Okay. I like that shower. Thanks, Dad, for spending the day with me. It was super and the picnic was good. I really liked Longhorn Caverns. That was a neat tour."

"I enjoyed the day, too. I'll see you about 5:30 or so," Craig said walking out the door.

Joey stripped out of his clothes, picked up a bath towel and washcloth and headed to the bathroom Craig and Dale used. He loved that shower because it had four showerheads. He turned the water to as hot as he could stand and allowed the pulsing water to massage his body. He wasn't sure how long he had been in the shower, but the water was starting to turn cool when he realized that he'd better finish and dry himself. By this time he was so relaxed that he was asleep within three minutes after crawling into his bed.

At 4:10 p.m. the phone started ringing. Joey was asleep in his bedroom and had the door shut. He didn't hear the insistent ring or the answering machine.

"I guess nobody's at home," Daniel said. "Do you think they had to put Joey in the hospital?" he asked Forrest.

"I hope not. I didn't think he was injured, just shaken up," Forrest replied.

"Maybe he's just asleep," Daniel said.

"I hope so. I need to stop at the hospital and see if my grandma needs anything before I go home," Forrest said.

"How's she doing?" Daniel wanted to know.

"Not very well. Her mind is still sharp, but she's getting weaker all the time. They get her out of bed and into a wheelchair a couple of times a day. She should be awake now because they feed them their dinner about 5 o'clock."

"That's too bad," Daniel told him.

"The doctor said that she would never be able to go home again and that they had done all they could for her. She's to be moved to a rest home on Friday." Forrest had tears in his eyes as he said that.

Daniel gave Forrest a quick hug. "Hang in there, you have a lot of friends you can call on if you need us."

"Thanks," Forrest said. He realized that he hadn't known any of this close-knit group until he met Joey and was invited to eat lunch with the gang.

As they parted company, Daniel decided to stop at the condo shared by Joey and his Dads. Daniel would like to know more about their personal lives. Regardless, he wanted to see Joey and find out if he was okay. They had missed having him at their table during lunch.

Daniel rode the elevator to the top floor rather than walking up the stairs. He rang the doorbell, but got no response, although he couldn't hear it ring. He knocked loudly and heard Mitsy bark, so knocked again.

He was about to turn around and leave when the door opened. There stood Joey wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. That made the trip worth it in Daniel's mind.

"Hi Dan," Joey said, opening the door wider. "Come on in."

"I'm sorry if I woke you up," Daniel said. "How do you feel?"

He couldn't keep his eyes off Joey. Bryce had been right, Joey had a lot of hair on his chest.

"I feel better. Craig took me on a picnic up to Longhorn Caverns and then we took the cave tour. It was awesome. We were the only ones on the tour so the guide showed us some areas of the cave that aren't open to the public because there isn't room for large groups. It was so neat! I'd never been in a cave before.

"I've been there a couple of times on school tours. It is an awesome place to visit."

"Come on to my room, I need to put some clothes on," Joey said.

Daniel wanted to tell him not to bother. He could feel himself getting aroused and could tell his cock was pointed down the left leg of his Levis. Maybe it wouldn't be noticeable, and then again maybe he hoped it would.

"I took a hot shower after Craig brought me home. He and Dale have a totally cool shower in their bathroom. It has four showerheads and two of them have the pulsing massage gadget."

"Neat. Can I see it?" Daniel asked.

"Sure," Joey said, laying down the Levis and shirt he was going to put on. "Come on."

The bedroom door was open, so Joey led the way into the bathroom and turned on the lights. The shower enclosure was constructed of clear glass and indeed there were four showerheads. The shower was large enough for three or four people, too.

"This is so neat!" Daniel said. I'd like to try it out sometime."

"I guess it would be okay, but maybe not today. I'd better ask both of them if it's okay for you to check it out."

As they went back to Joey's room, Daniel noticed the queen- sized bed in the room. It was the only bed. 'Hmmmm.' he thought.

Joey pulled on a clean pair of white socks, then stood up and pulled on his 501's and polo shirt. The bruise had turned a deeper red color.

Daniel was looking around the room and saw the two cases on the floor. They were marked "XXX Videos - Box 1" and there was a "Box 2" also.

"Hey, neat!! You have a bunch of movies. Can I look and see what you have? Are they action movies, or what?

"Yeah, they're 'action' movies, all right," Joey told him. "Look, these belonged to my Dad. He collected 'special' movies and he allowed me to see them, too. I hope you have an open mind."

"I think I do," Daniel said, wondering exactly what he was about to see.

"Well you have to promise me that you don't say anything to anybody we can't trust to keep this among ourselves. I mean, I think Bryce would totally freak out if he saw what's in these boxes."

"Yeah, I'm cool. What's the big deal?"

Joey squatted down with a letter opener in hand and started to cut the clear tape sealing the boxes shut.

"Just keep an open mind," he said as he pulled the flaps up to reveal the contents of the box.

Daniel had squatted beside Joey, wondering what was special about the videotapes. "Geeze." he said as Joey handed him three boxes, all depicting male-male sex scenes. He could immediately feel his cock getting hard faster than ever before.

"Do you like to watch stuff like this?" Daniel asked, hoping for an affirmative answer.

"I've looked at some of them, but not all that many. Some are male-female, but most are male-male. Dad collected all of the movies that several directors made. He said that some were 'classics', but I don't really know what he meant by that."

"I mean, do you get turned on by them?" Daniel asked.

"Well, sure I do, by all of them. I guess it's just the idea of people having sex with each other and getting to see it."

"And. your new Dads, Dale and Craig are cool with this?" Daniel wanted to know.

"Well, I wouldn't say 'totally cool', but they didn't insist that these movies be destroyed, either."

"Dale and Craig are awesome. I can't imagine my parents letting me have anything like this," Daniel said as he was spreading some of the tapes across the floor to better see what was in the boxes.

"They are neat guys and they rescued me from an uncertain future. I could have ended up in the foster care system in Houston and that isn't a pretty picture.

"Can I ask something?" Daniel wanted to know.

"What?"

"Well, I've been thinking about things. You. Them. They live together. There's one bed in their bedroom. They opened a computer store, then the protest by that guy from Kansas. it makes me wonder. Are all of you guys gay?

Joey looked at Daniel. He didn't know how to answer the question.

• • • • • To be continued

Author's Note: Thanks for the overwhelming response to the first chapter of Book II. I received more emails than I could answer and am sorry for that as I promised to answer each one. I'm amazed at the number of you who wrote, wanting to know where I'd gotten "the model" for Rev. Fred Phelps. I thought that every card-carrying gay person in the world knew about him. Yes, he does take his band of "merry fag bashers" all over the country, and yes, they do picket funerals of gays and those who publicly support gay people. His website is "godhatesfags.com" and it's scary to look at.

My special thanks for proofreading help to Paul Daventon, who has taken time to help me catch obvious errors. Joey and Thomas didn't get a chance to look at this chapter as I was trying to get it posted for your Holiday entertainment as a THANK YOU for being such loyal readers. You people are the best!

When the first chapter of this book was released by Nifty, I got into trouble with AOL for a "terms of service" violation for sending mass emails. They shut down the TulsaAuthor account, although I was able to get it restored. They won't tell me how many emails constitute "mass mailings", but regardless I'm going to have to find another way to notify those of you who want notice. Any suggestions you might have will be gratefully appreciated. I only hope that everyone who wants to read this story can find this chapter on their own.

My eyes are doing fine. It's nice to be able to see street signs two blocks away and to be able to comfortably drive at night again. Now, to get the Christmas Season over with. I have two Christmas Eve services to play at 6:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., with a half hour organ recital before each. A Christmas Day (come dressed casually) service at 10:30 a.m. And two Sunday morning services. No wonder organists are tired of Christmas when the "last amen" is sung.

A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON TO EACH OF YOU AND YOURS. BLESS EACH OF YOU.

Any comments are appreciated and you can reach me at TulsaAuthor@aol.com. Thanks, David.