Early in the morning, I felt Oliver snuggle into me. I responded and soon we were kissing and grinding once again. I wondered how many times we could do that before we had nothing left. I resolved to find out sometime.
Once again, our anticipation grew. We slowed down, trying to prolong the feeling, but we weren’t very good at that and we soon erupted, squirting our cum onto each other’s chests and bellies. After we lay back and rested for a moment, Oliver took one of his socks and cleaned us off.
We slid our bathing suits on and crawled out of the tent. We found the others just climbing out also. I was afraid they might smell the cum on us, but we all ran to the water and jumped in for a final swim. Even I was jumping in now.
After a quick swim, we returned to the campsite, where Vinny and Pete cooked scrambled eggs and bacon.
They did a good job and we ate everything in sight, even a few leftover hot dogs.
Finishing, we cleaned up, packed our things, and took down the tents, storing them in their bags.
Dad hadn’t arrived yet, so we returned to the stream for a final, final swim.
As we splashed and swam, Dad came down to the stream bank. He called to us, and when we looked at him, we knew something was wrong. Without a greeting, he said, “I need to talk with all of you at the picnic table, now.”
We climbed out of the water, grabbed our towels, and moved to the table. Not only was Dad’s SUV at the site, but behind it was a police cruiser with a uniformed officer and a woman in plain clothes standing beside it.
At the table, Dad said, “Oliver, you need to go speak to the officer.”
Looking very worried, Oliver started to move toward the cruiser with me beside him.
“No, Trevor, you stay here.”
I looked at Oliver, then at Dad, who motioned for me to return. Finally, I did as he said.
When the rest of us were seated at the table, Dad said, “Boys, a terrible thing has happened.”
I felt really scared and looked towards Oliver, who was listening to the woman and appeared to be crying.
Dad continued, “On Saturday night, Oliver’s home was invaded by one or more gunmen. His sister and his mother were killed. His father was shot in the chest and is now in the hospital fighting for his life. Nobody knows if he’ll live or not.”
We all stared at each other. Again, I really wanted to go to Oliver. I felt that my place was there. I started to rise, but Dad took hold of my arm and forced me to sit.
“Trevor, Oliver is talking with a police officer and a social worker. They’ve told him what has happened, and they’ll take him back to Wallaceville. The social worker will see that he’s taken care of for the next few days.”
“Can’t he stay with us?” I asked.
“No, Trevor, until the killers are caught, he won’t be safe anywhere outside of police custody.”
“Sir,” asked Pete, “how were they discovered? It must have been fairly quickly if Mr. Phillips survived.”
“Fortunately, a neighbor heard gunshots and called the police, but by the time they arrived, the gunmen had vanished.”
“So why didn’t you and the police come yesterday?” asked Vinny. “Why did they wait until this morning?”
“The shooting happened late enough Saturday night that it didn’t get into the Sunday papers. Nobody but me knew where Oliver was. I didn’t know what had happened until I saw the newspaper this morning and called the police.”
“Do they have any idea who did it?” Art asked.
“I don’t know,” Dad replied. “They won’t say anything until they have a suspect in custody,”
“Well, I have an idea,” I blurted out.
Dad looked at me and said, “Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. But you are to stay out of this. If you ask questions and someone is alerted, you could be in real danger. They’ll vanish and the police won’t be able to find them.”
We watched as the cruiser pulled away, Oliver looking very small and vulnerable in the back seat.
The rest of us packed up the van. I put Oliver’s belongings in with mine; I’d take care of them for him. When everything was packed and the campsite was clean, we climbed into the van and drove off.
It was a silent ride home. Nobody said anything, but I’m sure we were all thinking hard. Nothing like this had ever happened in our town, let alone to anyone we knew.
For a while, I was crying, silently. I remembered what Oliver had said when Vinnie had his bike accident. ‘That’s so strange,’ he had said. ‘You can be having a great time and then suddenly something happens and everything changes.’ How true that was!
At the same time, I was growing more and more angry. I wanted so badly to help Oliver and I couldn’t think of any way to do that. I wondered if the others were thinking the same thing.
Back in town, as the others climbed out of the car one by one, we agreed to meet in the park around three.
When Dad and I got home, we took our tent and Oliver’s and my backpacks into the house. There wasn’t much in either of them except dirty clothes, so I unpacked them, stripped and added my clothes to the pile and put them in the washing machine. Then I decided that I needed a nice, hot shower.
Upstairs, I went straight into the shower and stood in water as hot as I could stand it. I started crying again, but that feeling of anger returned, stronger than ever. I knew who had done it. Maybe Dad did too, but neither of us had any proof we could give to the police, and I couldn’t think of any way we could get proof.
Finally, before I turned into a prune, I turned off the water, dried myself, and went to my bedroom where I put on clean clothes.
Downstairs, since Bonnie wasn’t there, I found Dad getting lunch ready. We sat at the kitchen table and ate…silently. Finally, he asked how our trip was and what we’d done.
I told him that until the end it was a great trip. We all grew even closer if that was possible. I told him about swimming, the rope swing, climbing twice to the lookout, cooking for three mornings and nights, and eating the fish which the others had caught while Oliver and I slept. I didn’t tell him anything about our activities in the tent, but I did finish by telling him about the skinny dipping.
He laughed and said, “I’m glad you all had a good time. I hope you can remember those times, despite what’s happened.” He paused a minute before saying, “Trevor, I know that you and Oliver are really good friends. And I hope you continue to be for many years to come, but I want to caution you again not to do anything which could endanger Oliver or you or the investigation. If it’s any comfort, I suspect we’ll hear results fairly soon. Just keep Oliver and his father in your prayers.”
I nodded, thinking that was an odd thing to say since neither one of us had anything to do with church, but I knew what he meant.
Just before three I walked over to the park. On my way to the spot where we usually met, I saw Derek. I wondered if he’d had anything to do with the shooting and in my anger, I wanted to get the boys and beat the shit out of him, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea.
Slowly the boys began to arrive. At first there was a lot of commiserating about Oliver. If his dad died, he’d be an orphan and who knew what would happen to him then? If his dad lived, he’d probably be in the hospital for a long time, and then who would take care of Oliver?
Then Vinny, the most outspoken of us, asked, “Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind who did this?”
We all shook our heads.
“Then why don’t we tell the police?”
“Because,” I answered, “making an accusation when we have no proof wouldn’t help them and it’s possible Charlie could even sue us.” I realized that was the first time Charlie’s name had been mentioned. Continuing, I asked, “Does anyone think that Derek was in on it too?”
Vinny thought Derek was involved, but Pete and Art thought that Charlie wouldn’t be stupid enough to take Derek along.
We were silent for a while until Pete said slowly, “Maybe Charlie WAS stupid enough if he thought he was somehow teaching Derek what needed to be done to Black people.”
Again we thought, and finally, a plan that might work began to form in my mind. Huddling close together so nobody could hear what we were saying, we talked over my plan, refining it as we did.
When we left the park that day, we knew what we were going to do.