The boys were awakened in the morning by the sound of the shower running. Charlie lay thinking that a shower might feel good and clear his head. He looked at the clock and saw it was only 6:30. He was accustomed to sleeping until about 9:00 in the summer, and of course, they had changed time zones, so it was only about 5:30 in Waco.
In a few moments he heard Ben call, “If you boys want a shower, Rodney and I have had ours. Breakfast will be in half an hour.”
Charlie climbed out of bed and realized that he was naked, so he put on his boxers and opened his door to the hall just as Joey was opening his. They stood facing each other and yawning. Charlie told Joey to take a shower and he’d take his when his brother finished.
He sat on his bed, waiting and wondering what the day would bring.
When Joey stuck his head in the door and said he was finished, Charlie went into the bathroom, removed his boxers, and stepped into the warm shower. He liked his shower quite hot, so he turned the handles until the water was almost hotter than he could stand. He soaped himself up and let the hot water flow over him. He paid special attention to his privates, partly because, when he was little, his mother told him he should always keep them clean, and partly because he liked the feeling. He was hard and it didn’t require too many hot, soapy strokes before he came, arching his back and reveling in the sensations.
The boys dressed quickly and trotted down the stairs to the dining room. Finding it empty, they went into the kitchen where Ben and Rodney were preparing breakfast. Ben told them they only used the dining room when they had guests.
“Aren’t we guests?” asked Joey.
“Well, we hope you won’t consider yourselves guests,” said Rodney. “We hope you can learn to feel that we’re family.”
Fat chance, Charlie thought. He ate without talking, a rather sullen look on his face. Both men tried to engage him in conversation, but if a response was needed, he only replied with a grunt. Joey, meanwhile, chatted away as if he’d lived with the men all his life.
“What are we gonna do today?” he asked.
“Well,” Ben replied, “it’s supposed to be a good beach day, so we thought we’d just stay here and enjoy the beach.”
Neither Joey nor Charlie had been to a beach very often, and when they had, it was on the Gulf of Mexico, where the water was quite warm.
After breakfast, everyone put their bathing suits on and walked down to the beach. The men brought a couple of shovels, a pail, and some balls with them.
Wanting to make a statement that he was brave, Charlie ran into the water, stopped, and quickly ran out again. “Jesus, that’s cold!” he shouted.
Joey stood with his feet in the water until they got used to the temperature, and then moved in up to his knees.
“Charlie,” said Rodney, “if you go in and get wet all over, it’ll feel cold at first, but you’ll get used to it.”
Sure, Charlie thought. It’ll still be fucking frigid. I could freeze my balls off. He watched as Joey inched his way into the water. When the water was up to his waist, he ducked down, immersing himself. He stayed down for about 30 seconds before he popped up and said, “Rodney’s right. It’s really nice.”
Charlie sighed and decided to try Joey’s method. Once he got used to the water, it didn’t feel nearly as cold. Joey was a fairly good swimmer, so the two boys swam and played in the water, Joey jumping on Charlie’s back, and Charlie dunking his brother.
When they tired of swimming, they went up to the beach, where they spread towels out and let the sun dry them. They both had good tans already, so the men weren’t too worried about sunburn.
Ben and Rodney threw a football back and forth for a time, then changed to a tennis ball. Having had enough sunning, Joey joined them, and soon there was a three-way game of catch. Charlie lay on his towel, ignoring them. Occasionally, the ball went into the water and one of them had to retrieve it.
In time, Joey decided he’d had enough playing with the ball with the men and took one of the shovels down near the water, where he began to dig.
The men went back to their towels and Charlie joined his brother. Together they constructed what they called a castle, but it looked more like a somewhat ill-fashioned pile of sand.
The tide was coming in and soon their castle was eaten by the waves. When the tide was high, which was about 11:00 o’clock that morning, the boys began to construct a series of canals. They managed to get the water to flow into one and then out of others.
At noon they returned to the house, showered under an outdoor shower to get the sand and salt off, and then changed out of their bathing suits and had lunch, which consisted of BLTs and milk.
“Don’t you ever drink soda?” Joey asked.
“Not usually,” replied Rodney. “Milk is healthier and often we just have water.”
In the afternoon, they drove into the town of Truro so the men could do some shopping. Ben pointed to a store down the street and encouraged the boys to go there and see if there was anything they wanted for the beach.
The boys looked around and Joey decided to get a couple of trucks, one being a dump truck, to use on the beach. Charlie, who considered himself too old for much of that sort of play, just walked and looked around, but when they returned to the beach later in the afternoon, he couldn’t resist the temptation and played with Joey happily. Even the men joined in, and they began to talk seriously about building a castle the next day.
At night, as they got ready for bed, Charlie told Joey to yell for him if either of the men tried to do anything to him. “They won’t,” said Joey, but Charlie was certain it was only a matter of time. He wondered which man would take which boy. I bet Rodney has a huge cock, he thought.
He lay in bed replaying the day and realized with surprise that he’d had fun. He still didn’t trust the men, but they had certainly done nothing wrong during the day. In fact, he thought, sometimes they acted like overgrown kids.
The next morning appeared to be good beach weather, so they all returned to the beach. As the boys were digging in the sand, Joey stepped on an unseen broken shell. It was sharp and cut the bottom of his foot. He started to cry and ran up the beach to Ben.
Ben reached out to take Joey in his arms, but Charlie yelled, “Don’t you touch him!” He raced up the beach and grabbed Joey, putting him on his shoulders as the two men looked bewildered.
Charlie carried Joey up to the house and into the bathroom, where he put his brother on the counter and turned him so that his feet were in the sink. He washed Joey’s foot gently saying, “It’s not really bleeding a lot, Joey. I think it’ll be okay.”
He looked in the medicine cabinet and found some bandages and antibacterial cream. He put some of the cream on Joy’s cut before he added two band aids, side by side.
Helping Joey down from the counter, he told him that he should wear sneakers for a few days. Since they both had two pairs, Joey could wear one pair on the beach and even into the water, keeping the other pair dry.
While Charlie was helping his brother, Rodney asked Ben, “What was that all about?”
Ben thought a moment before saying, “Charlie doesn’t trust us yet. My guess is he was afraid I was going to do something sexual to Joey. It’s their father’s fault, but we need to help Charlie get past that.”
The boys returned to their play and nothing more was said until the evening. When they had all finished supper and watched a movie on TV, Ben said, “Joey, why don’t you head upstairs and get ready for bed while we discuss something with Charlie. Everything’s okay and he’ll be up in a few minutes.”
Joey looked at Charlie, who nodded, so he went up to his bedroom.
Charlie was sitting in a chair near the fireplace looking at the two men side by side on the sofa.
“So, what’s your problem?” he asked. The chip on his shoulder had certainly not disappeared.
“Charlie, can you tell us why you reacted the way you did on the beach today when Joey hurt his foot?” Ben asked.
The boy looked from one man to the other. He’d been afraid this would happen, and he really didn’t want to talk about it, but he sighed and said, “I don’t want either of you touching Joey. He’s too little to understand what can happen.”
“What can happen?” asked Rodney.
“Look,” said Charlie, “I know about queers, how they like to have sex with boys or even teens like me. I’m not gonna let you do that to Joey. If you touch him, I’ll call the police.”
There was silence in the room.
At last, Ben spoke. “Charlie, I know your father told you that about gays, and I hate to call him wrong, but he was. Gay men like us don’t have any desire to do sexual things with boys like you and your brother. Rodney and I are committed to each other; we love each other. That’s what can happen between two gay men.
“Your father was confusing gay men with pedophiles. Pedophiles are people, men or women, who are attracted to and sometimes prey on children, both boys and girls, although some manage to control their interest. Some say that a separate term, ‘pederast,’ refers to men attracted to adolescent boys like you. But the distinction doesn’t really matter. The fact is, gay men like us are not at all interested in preying on children or adolescents. Our only interest is with each other.”
Charlie said curtly, “How can I believe you? It goes against everything I’ve been taught and certainly against what the boys in Waco think. How can I know what you are? Simply telling me doesn’t seem to be enough.”
Rodney answered, “Charlie, you’ll need learn to trust us just as we have to learn to trust you. How do we know you won’t steal from us? Sure, we’re big, but you could still hurt us if you wanted to. We have to learn to trust you; you have to learn to trust us. But doing that takes time. We would never, ever, hurt Joey or you. We know you’ll be watching us for a while, and I suppose we’ll be watching you. Can we trust you?”
“Of course,” said Charlie.
“But it’s not ‘of course’. It’s taking little chances and seeing what happens. It’s getting to know each other. We have no reason now to distrust you, and if you can forget what your father said, you have no reason to distrust us. Just try for a while and see what happens.”
Charlie was silent, absorbing what had been said.
Ben added, “Something that will help is changing your language. We don’t answer to terms like ‘queer’, or ‘faggot’, or ‘fairy’, or any others of those terms. We are gay, and we’re proud of it.”
Charlie lay awake a long time that night, just thinking and wondering. How could he trust the men? Could he believe that his own father was wrong?
Then Charlie had another thought. He remembered his reaction to the steward on the plane, and it scared him. He knew that he enjoyed looking at and thinking about boys and young men. He had no use for girls. He had only recently begun to have sexual feelings, and he realized they were all for boys. Was he gay? Oh, God, he thought, not that. After all the put- downs and hatred he had heard on the school playgrounds in Texas, he couldn’t believe that what the boys had said could actually apply to him.
His fear was so strong he got goose bumps and shivered. Even though it was summer, he pulled a blanket up over him. What should he do? He certainly couldn’t tell anyone of his fears and suspicions.
It was a long time before he fell asleep.