The Most Difficult Contest

THE MOST DIFFICULT CONTEST by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2008 written on December 2, 1993 translated by the author English text kindly revised by Acam

USUAL DISCLAIMER

"THE MOST DIFFICULT CONTEST" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.

CHAPTER 11 - A real Christmas

Jean Paul was working on Christmas Day; and so he couldn't accept the Berthiers' invitation to lunch. But Claude had insisted he went to eat supper with them at least. Jean Paul was now thinking of the Berthiers as his family. He had tried to resume relations with his parents and wrote them some letters but he never got an answer. He had called RŽnŽ to know if his parents still lived at the old address and RŽnŽ told him they were. It was therefore clear that his parents didn't intend to have anything to do with him any more. Jean Paul had said that to Claude who told his father.

So Jacques told him "Don't worry Jean Paul. We will be your family." And it really was like that.

Also Georges and Xavier treated him as family and in the end even their mother had softened her attitude towards the young man.

Around lunch time, Jean Paul received a call via the radio. He was to go to fetch some boxes of sweets from a small factory in the outskirts of Paris and to deliver them to the address they would give him and he was then to tell the headquarters the meter reading and the factory would pay the bill directly to the taxi headquarters.

Jean Paul went and easily found the sweet factory. The owner with his wife and children loaded all the boxes into the taxi and then gave Jean Paul an envelope with the address where he had to deliver them.

"Here are our annual greetings as usual. Please tell whoever is responsible that we added ten more packets to be sure there will be enough for everybody and that all of them are free - this is our contribution. And here is a packet for you too because you have to work on Christmas Day."

"Thank you. That is very kind of you. Happy Christmas to you all." Jean Paul said.

The eldest son of the man then said "But you... aren't you Jean Paul Godefroy?"

"Yes..." the young man answered hesitantly.

The boy then offered his hand with a wide smile and said, "Happy Christmas Jean Paul. I'm proud I can shake hands with you."

"Thank you... a really heartfelt thank you." Paul answered deeply moved and got into the taxi started the engine and waving goodbye, went downtown to deliver the boxes.

He looked at the address - it wasn't far from the Gare de Lyon. He drove through the city full of lights and Christmas decorations and felt his heart lighten. The boy's greetings: although he must have known what had happened, still wanted to shake his hand and that had warmed his heart.

He found the street and was lucky to find a free parking place just in front of the door where he had to deliver the boxes. On the glass door was written "Little Brothers of the Poor". From inside was coming a merry noise of voices. He rang the doorbell and a young man came to open.

"Sorry to disturb you but I have to deliver this letter and some boxes." Jean Paul said.

The young man opened the envelope glanced at the letter and said "Ah, the good Laurent hasn't forgotten us... Wait a moment I will call some friends to unload the car." he said with a smile.

He soon was back with two young men. In all there were six big boxes.

So Jean Paul said "I'll give you a hand." and taking one of the boxes he followed the two young men inside.

He found himself in a wide room with a long C shaped table where many old poor people were sitting while other young men were serving them. The young man who had opened the door to him was announcing that the sweets that were being distributed were for everyone to take home just like last year. The guests all clapped. Jean Paul was putting down his box when his eyes met those of Robert. They looked at each other frozen, as motionless as two marble statues.

Robert then slowly stood up from his place. JŽr™me had caught their glances and their expressions and at once understood who that young taxi driver had to be and why his friend Robert had turned pale.

He then quickly went to Robert and quietly told him "Don't run away again Robert... it's Christmas!"

"No, I will not run away. If he's here... Can we go to the other room just for a moment?"

"Yes, go. I will bring him to you so you can talk in peace."

Jean Paul had seen the two talk and then saw Robert go towards a door and the young man approaching him. He didn't understand! Robert was going away... he really didn't want to meet him... but why?

The young man approached him, "Come with me. Robert is waiting for you."

"Is he... is he really waiting for me? He hasn't run away?"

"No, not this time. Come..."

Jean Paul followed him and then gave the taxi keys to the young man.

"Will you please lock my taxi here on the street? I left it open and..."

"Yes, sure. Here through that door. I will leave you alone." JŽr™me said taking the taxi keys.

Jean Paul pushed the door and entered. It was a small office and Robert was waiting standing there.

"Robert!"

"Jean Paul..." the man answered and spread his arms.

Jean Paul threw himself in his arms and they embraced tightly crying with the intensity of their emotion.

"Happy Christmas Jean Paul."

"Happy Christmas my love!"

They held each other tightly and in silence for a long time.

Then Jean-Paul asked "Why did you run away the last time I saw you? I searched for you so long... I have never ceased to search for you. It must be destiny that sent me to deliver those boxes!"

"You didn't know you might find me here?"

"No, my love I had not even the faintest idea."

"It really is destiny."

"Why did you run away my love? Don't you want me any more?"

"No, no, it's not that. I was ashamed to be seen by you... I'm ashamed..."

"Ashamed? But why? What for?"

"Don't you see? I'm just a poor devil now like all the other guests in the other room..."

"But I love you!"

"I've nothing more to offer you..."

"I don't want anything from you but your love. Don't you love me any more?"

"Oh yes, yes I love you!"

"Well then Robert you have plenty to offer me!"

"I'm an old man. I'm poor. I'm ugly..."

"You're wonderful Robert, wonderful! Come away with me..."

"I'm ashamed Jean Paul..."

"Of whom? What for? No, now that I've found you, I will not let you go again. Kiss me Robert."

"May I?"

"You must!" the young man said and they finally kissed thirstily and with enormous passion.

When they parted they both had shining eyes.

"Are you coming with me my love?"

"I... I wouldn't offend the friends, but..."

"Listen! You go on having your lunch with them. I have to finish my shift. Then I will come here again to collect you. I'm invited to go to the Berthiers for supper... as soon as they know that I've found you at last they will certainly invite you to supper too ..."

"I'm asham..."

"Shush! I don't want ever again hear that word from your lips. The Berthiers have become my family. And you know well that Claude and Jacques love you don't you? Come back to your family; it's your family too. Today it's Christmas. And after supper you must come to my place. You will stay with me. Alright?"

"As you want love. But these clothes... are not good are not suited for..."

"Who cares about clothes! And you will get better clothes later."

"What's your job now? A deliveryman?"

"No, a taxi driver. Jacques bought the taxi for me and I've almost finished paying the loan back to him. He wouldn't let me pay any interest on the loan - just think of that. They helped me enormously. And they would also have helped you... But what job are you doing, now?"

"I work as a deliveryman. I can survive. It's not bad."

"But now that we are together again we will both be better off. Well I finish my shift at 5. You will wait for me won't you?"

"Yes, certainly. I'll wait here."

"You won't run away any more; do you promise?"

"I promise. And anyway you would find me again I feel sure..." Robert jokingly answered.

"Let's go back then. Your friends are waiting for you and I have to go back to my job. We will meet again in less than five hours... and they will seem endless!"

Back in the dining hall Robert went back to sit in his place and Jean Paul went to JŽr™me who gave him back the keys of the taxi.

"Is everything alright?" the young man asked him.

"Yes, thank you. I will be back to get him around five o'clock. He promised me that he won't run away this time."

"I will keep an eye on him alright?"

"Yes, thank you. I really thank you very much. Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas to you too Jean Paul."

The young man went back to his taxi and by radio gave his position to the headquarters. They sent him to fetch a customer at once. So Jean Paul went back to work. As soon as he dropped the customer he went to telephone the Berthiers. The father answered.

"Mister Berthier, it is Jean Paul speaking..."

"Oh, you are going to come here later aren't you?"

"Yes, and I wanted to ask you a favour."

"Yes, tell me."

"May I bring a friend to have supper with you?"

"A friend of yours? Yes, of course."

"You know him too. It's Robert Chambret."

"Robert! You finally found him! Of course, of course you can bring him here. You really must! Praise be to God... I'm longing to see you both... And Claude will be so happy too..."

"And... you see, Robert is feeling somewhat ashamed... he is in rather a bad state and poorly dressed..."

"What a silly man! He is our Robert above all! But is he in good health?"

"A bit under the weather and he has lost some weight... he has a beard now... But he doesn't seem to be ill."

"I'm waiting for you two. Tonight it will be a great night in Berthier's house! Thank you, Jean Paul, thank you. I'm waiting for you."

The youth went back to work feeling happy and glad. He had been sure that the Berthiers would welcome them but the banker's enthusiasm gave him great pleasure.

Jacques told his family the news that Jean-Paul had found Robert and Claude in particular was really happy.

Then the man said, "Listen all of you. Jean Paul told me that Robert is a bit ashamed because he is dressed in a... poor way. So before they come we must all change our clothes and wear everyday clothes - informal and simple things... and that way we will not make him feel too embarrassed. And this evening we will have the table laid with our everyday cutlery and china. We will only leave the Christmas decorations. And we must also put a gift for Robert under the tree together with that for Jean Paul. What would please him best?"

"My bronze medal." Claude said at once.

"Yes, good. You dedicated it to him. And what else?"

They organized everything and prepared the gift parcels and waited for the two friends to arrive.

Jean Paul ended his shift. He warned the headquarters that he was going off and went to fetch Robert. When Jean Paul rang at the door Robert was helping the young men to clean the hall. JŽr™me came to open the door.

"He is waiting for you. Come in."

"Can he come now?" Jean Paul asked.

"Yes, certainly."

Jean Paul went in. As soon as Robert saw him he approached.

"Well then... I'm going JŽr™me. I'll just get my Christmas presents. Thank you for everything..."

"Thank you Robert for having been with us, and for your help tidying up."

"We will see each other again soon..."

"Of course."

"Happy Christmas JŽr™me. Happy Christmas everybody."

"Happy Christmas to both of you. See you soon."

They went out and got into the taxi.

"I don't have a Christmas present for you my love..." Jean Paul said thinking about it for the first time.

"You are my Christmas gift..." the man answered with bashful sweetness.

"And you mine?" then Jean Paul asked him with a smile.

"Yes, of course. Do you forgive me?"

"For what?" Jean Paul asked him, surprised.

"Because I ran away."

"The important thing is that you won't run away any more. Never again."

"Surely not."

"I love you Robert."

"I love you too Jean Paul. You are the only valuable thing in my life."

"And you for me. The Berthiers are waiting for us. You should have heard how happy Jacques was when I told him..."

"This packet of sweets ... can we give it to them as our Christmas present even though it's a little thing." Robert suggested.

"They will certainly appreciate it. But most of all they will appreciate seeing you again. This is the best Christmas of my life Robert. You don't know the joy I feel..."

"I hope not to disappoint you..."

"Come on, silly man! But do you feel well? Are you in good health?"

"Yes... I've just thinned a little and am a bit flabby. But I'm alright."

"If the Berthiers were not waiting for us I would take you to my place at once. I am longing to make love to you. But tonight we will won't we?"

"As you want..."

"What do you mean? You don't want to?"

"I dreamed of nothing but that all these long months."

"Well then, why did you say 'as I want'?"

"It still seems to me impossible that you still want me; that you really want me..."

"But, Robert! Don't be absurd! I really love you. You mustn't doubt it not even for a single moment. Robert, my love, the hard time is over now! We are together again. Nobody and nothing can separate us now. We both have spent really awful moments and maybe you had even more than me. But we can now revive each other. This really is a Christmas for you and me. Maybe even more for us than for anyone else..."

They got to the Berthiers' house. They drove through the gate in the taxi and stopped in front of the main door which opened while they were going up the steps and Jacques and Claude came out. Jacques went towards them and hugged Robert tightly.

"My friend! Oh, my dear friend" Jacques said holding him tight against himself with affection.

Then Claude hugged him too and then led them inside. After they greeted all the family Jacques excused himself from the others and took Robert into his office.

"Robert my dear friend you can't know how pleased I am to see you again. How are you?"

"Fine, thank you?"

"Why didn't you stay in touch with us? We all were worrying about you."

"Well you know... I was too broken up... the scandal, the expulsion, and my wife..."

"Yes, I know. It was terrible my poor friend. And I feel responsible for a great part of all this..."

"You? What do you have to do with it?"

"You see I thought a lot about it, really a lot all long these months. When you and I were young... we had that beautiful relationship. Beautiful yes. But I undervalued it. I presumed that for you as it was for me it was just a strong, a very strong friendship that felt the need to express itself physically. Really beautiful but doomed to end. I fell in love and married. After a while you too married and I thought that for you it was as it had been for me and I was silent about it. I didn't understand then that for you on the contrary our friendship was something much more serious and deep. That for you loving a man was... natural. I remember that it was me who pushed you to marry, as I felt sure that that was your natural destiny. It was a mistake but I have only recently come to understand it. You trusted me... I convinced you... I have been a fool."

"But I was really persuaded... I really believed I was in love with Franoise..."

"Yes but you were in reality different from me. And here I made my second mistake. When Claude disclosed to me that he is gay and told me about Jean Paul and told me also that the boy was in love with you, I should have said nothing to him. But I wanted to make Claude and Jean Paul realise that such friendships can happen and that they don't necessarily mean that they were definitely gay... I told Claude about you and me. And so unintentionally I pushed Jean Paul into your arms... and contributed to your ruin."

"It might have happened all the same..."

"Yes, sooner or later you two could have understood each other all the same and would have started a relationship all the same ... I realise that. But if it had happened a few months later that would have been enough to ensure that that scandalmonger magazine would not have discovered it because they would have looked before there was anything to discover. Do you see why I feel responsible?"

"It was just fate. You have nothing to reproach yourself with."

"I don't know. But I know that I am now in debt to you. And another thing I know - almost certainly my son Claude is really gay. I would like him to be able to live with his sexuality without trauma. I have to be careful to ensure he won't have traumas. He needs to know that I accept and love him as he is. And the best way to tell him that is to accept you two and to help you two."

"I heard that you did a lot to help Jean Paul. I thank you very much."

"I would like to be able to do even more - especially for you Robert. For the sake of our old relationship. At least for all you did for my Claude."

"I... I don't deserve much. I have Jean Paul and that's enough for me. At least as long as he wants me."

"Your Jean Paul is really a good boy and he is really in love with you. ... when we were young...I couldn't give you my love. Let me give you my help at least. You may think it is odd but... I really feel I need to help you. Do me the kindness of accepting my help."

"Yes, alright... thank you..."

They rejoined the others.

While Robert was out of earshot Jacques said to Jean Paul, "There is something that doesn't work. Robert seems to be... lifeless. He is giving way too easily; he is not the old Robert. I'm worried."

"Maybe he is just dazed and worn out after all that he has undergone."

"Yes... sure... But I'm really worried. I want to talk about that some more when he is not around."

Supper time came. They ate the traditional rich Christmas meal in merriment but Robert's smile was tired.

They opened the presents. Robert was moved and confused.

"Ah... in my room I still have your gold medal Jean Paul. We have to go there and get it."

"Yes, Robert. Tomorrow we will go to get all your belongings and move them to my place, to our place."

"Alright, tomorrow."

"The boys in the team will certainly want to meet you, Robert..." Claude said.

"Oh no, please... I don't feel like... Don't tell them you know where I am... please..."

"But why? All of them have been worrying about you. You know that we all love you..."

"Yes, I know... I know... but look at me... I don't want them to see me in this state or to see this wreckage."

"You will recover!"

"Don't tell them please. I really don't feel like meeting them..." Robert insisted.

Jean Paul took his hand, "No, don't worry. Claude will tell them nothing for the moment. But you will recover and get back to your old shape and then we will throw a big party for all our friends."

"My shape? But what for Jean Paul?"

"For what I still don't know. But for whom yes, I know - for me and for yourself!" Jean Paul answered.

"We will see..." Robert answered in a tired tone.

Jean Paul looked at his watch "It's late... I think it would be best if we go back home now." he said.

They said goodbye to everybody and took their Christmas presents and went away promising that they would soon meet again. They got into Jean Paul's taxi and left. When they were near Jean Paul's house Robert pointed out a street to him.

"I work there in a toyshop."

"Our home is close to here. Just think we were so near and we didn't know!"

"It will be easy for me to go to work..." Robert said.

Jean Paul was about to tell him he ought to find a better job but decided for the moment to say nothing. They went up to the apartment.

"So, Robert, this is our home."

"It's nice, here..." Robert said, looking around.

Jean Paul showed him the kitchen and the bathroom and then took him upstairs to the bedroom.

"Do you like it here Robert?"

"Yes... it's spacious here at your place."

"Here at our place! This is your house now, Robert, our house." the young man said hugging him.

"Are you sure you really want me here with you?" the man asked quietly.

"Don't talk bullshit! Of course I am sure. You are all I have. I would not give you up for anything in the world. I love you Robert, I really love you."

"I'm just an old man... Why don't you look for a young and handsome lover like yourself?"

"Because I love you. Don't you don't want me any more? Don't you love me any more?"

"Oh yes I love you, but..."

"But? I don't want to hear any but. We will now go to bed and make love, all right? I've been waiting for you for a year and a half and I've missed you and desired you the whole time."

"You will be disappointed..."

"It's not possible my love."

"I'm not what I used to be any more..."

"Yes, Robert. You will always be my Robert, my man... Come, I want to undress you... and you will undress me..." he said pulling him towards the bed.

"But switch off the light. I'm ashamed..."

"Of me? You cannot feel ashamed of me!"

"My body..."

"My body too is not in good shape any more - at least not as it was before. I know. But I don't think that it was just the shape of my body that you loved, was it?"

"No, it wasn't..."

"And I neither. I'm in love with your soul."

"Also that is... is wrecked my poor Jean Paul. What can I offer you?"

"Your love, I already told you. Yes, our bodies may be withered our souls are possibly wounded. But our love will heal them. Come my love don't raise problems that don't exist. Let yourself be loved by me, by your boy!"

"Switch off the light please..." the man implored.

"Alright as you like this time. I will now switch off the light then I will undress you and you will undress me and we will make love..."

Jean Paul switched off the light and in the dark searched for the buttons of his man's jacket and started to undo them. After a while also the man's hands searched for the zipper of the boy's jacket and undid it. Their clothes fell one after the other. Jean Paul felt his man's body was trembling.

They stroked each other. Jean Paul felt that Robert's body was less firm, thinner, and bonier than he remembered. But he caressed it with infinite sweetness. And with a mix of pleasure and of warmth felt the strong erection of his man. He pulled him to himself, led him onto the bed and wrapped him with his arms and legs.

"Kiss me my love..." Jean Paul whispered with tender passion "I need you..."

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 12

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