Long Time Companion

 by: Hankster

© 2010 by the Author

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 3

The first thing they did was to go back into the house and call the police.  The police came out and took pictures of the front door, but admitted honestly that there was little they could do.  They promised to patrol the street and keep an eye on the house.  In the mean time, the presence of the police cars attracted all the neighbors, who got a good look at the front door.  Well, there was no need to pretend to be half brothers anymore.  They were definitely out of the lavender closet.  If this hate crime had happened today it would have been plastered all over the newspaper.  Fortunately for Adam and Evan the event remained on their street.

They were too shook up to go to work and so they called in sick.  They couldn’t explain the real reason they couldn’t come in, because at work they were in the closet.  Evan went out and bought a can of paint.  They repainted the door and spent most of the day unpacking the rest of the boxes and getting everything put in place.  By mid afternoon, it looked like they had been there forever.  Figuring that it was safe to leave the house in broad daylight, they took a trip to the supermarket and stocked the fridge and the pantry.

About 5 PM there was a knock at the door.  A good looking, young couple stood at the door with a towhead little boy clutching his daddy’s knee.  The woman held a covered tray and the man stuck his hand out.  “Hi,” he said.  “We live next door, on your right, and we want you to know that the filth you found on your door does not represent the sentiments of the neighborhood.  We’re here to welcome you.” 

Adam was speechless, but Evan said, “Please come in and sit down.”

Evan took them into the living room.  “I’m Evan and this is my partner Adam.”  (There, he said it.)

“We’re Jack and Ellie Bingham, and this little rascal who won’t let go of my knee is Billy.  Say ‘hello’ Billy.”  Billy was mute.

“Here’s a batch of cookies I whipped up for the occasion,” Ellie said. 

Evan took the covered tray and asked, “Can I get you something to drink and we can have some cookies with it?”

“Not tonight,” Ellie said, “but I want you to know that we have a block party on the last Sunday evening of every month, weather permitting, and it usually does.  It’s bring your own food and drink.  We block traffic off at both ends of the street, and set up bridge tables at the north corner.  It get’s going about 4:30 so you guys be sure to be there.”

Little Billy found his voice.  “Can I have a cookie?” he asked politely.  Adam looked at Ellie who nodded.  He uncovered the tray which was full of chocolate chip cookies, and   held it out to Billy.  “Thank you, sir,” the little boy said politely.

The adults made small talk for a little while and filled themselves in on their work, how long they had lived in Florida (nobody was a native) and where they had come from.  When the Bingham’s got up to leave, little Billy said,     “I like them Mommy.  They’re nice.”  Everyone laughed.  Just as they started down the front walk another couple came up the walk.  The woman was carrying a casserole dish.  They appeared to be in their late thirties, somewhat older than the Binghams.  The two couples chatted for a minute.  The lady with the casserole leaned down and kissed Billy on his head as the Bingham’s left.  Adam and Evan waited for the new comers at the front door.

“Hello,” the man said to them.  “I’m Ben Richter and this is my wife Sarah.  We want to welcome you to the neighborhood.  We live next door on your left.”  Ben spoke with a heavy German accent.

“Please come in,” Adam said.  He was beginning to feel much better.  “I’m Adam and my partner’s name is Evan.”  He was proud of himself when he said ‘my partner.’

“I’ve got a tuna casserole here for you two boys.  I hope you like tuna,” Sarah said.

“We love it,” Evan said.  “Thank you so much.  I’ll put it in the fridge and be back in a minute.” Adam took the Richters into the living room and motioned for them to be seated.  Evan returned and sat down.

Ben started the conversation.  “About that garbage on your front door,” he said and rolled his eyes, “you find hatred all over the world.  At least you could remove the hate, but we can never remove these.”  Ben held out his arm and turned it palm up.  He was wearing a short sleeve shirt, and Adam and Evan could clearly see some numbers tattooed in blue on his forearm.  “We survived the camps.  We survived the holocaust,” he said.

“My God,” Adam said.

“Were you both in the service during the war?” Ben asked.

“I was too young, but Evan was nearly killed in the war,” Adam informed them. 

“Then we owe you our lives,” Ben said.  “I will be forever in your debt for having liberated us.”

“You owe us nothing,” Evan said.  “We fought for our own liberties as well.”

“I want to tell you a story,” Ben said.  “There were homosexuals in our camp along with us Jews.  One night a young boy, no more than sixteen, came into our barracks.  He was a young homosexual, a Christian boy.  He was crying and he begged us to harbor him as a Jew.  The homosexuals were treated worse than we were, and to make matters worse, although the German soldiers pretended to despise them, young Hans told us that he was raped by them almost every night.  We had extra yellow armbands from dead comrades and we substituted one of them for his pink one.  When Hans came to us, the war was winding down.  One day we woke and found the camp deserted.  The Germans had all fled during the night.  I rushed to the women’s barracks and found Sarah still alive.  She was very weak.  The Germans had experimented on her and we will never have children.  Sarah, Hans and I had managed to survive.  All we needed to do was to wait for the Americans to arrive.  I had relatives in Miami, who brought us here.  We pretended that Hans was my little brother and got him here too.”

“Where is Hans?” Adam asked.  There were tears in his eyes.

“He’s well.” Ben said.  “He and his partner live and work in Ft Lauderdale.  Barry is all American.  He was born in Detroit,” Ben announced proudly.  “Friday night they will come for Sabbath dinner.  Would you also honor us with your presence and you can meet Hans and Barry.”

Evan and Adam looked at each other.  Evan said, “It will be our honor, and I can’t wait to meet your kid brothers.”

Ben and Sophie got up to leave.  Ben put one arm on Adam’s shoulder and the other on Evan’s.  “You and we,” he said, “we must always be vigilant.  We can’t allow hate to prevail here in America like it infested Germany.”

When they were gone, Adam began to cry and Evan took him in his arms.  “I’m OK,” Adam said.  “Whoever those bastards are, the whole neighborhood is against them.  I’m very happy we moved to this street, Evan.  I was thinking that we could gauge everyone’s reaction to meeting us at the block party next week.  We might even figure out who painted our door.  Maybe we can urge Hans and Barry to come to the party.”

***

Bright sunlight poured into Adam’s bedroom waking him up.  It was 6:45 AM on the day before Evan’s funeral.  Evan’s funeral!  Adam still couldn’t believe that Evan had left him.  It was too much for him to bear.  He busied himself by getting ready for the day.  In less than an hour he would meet Jamie for breakfast.

He felt so all alone. His dear friends, Hans Richter and Barry Stern, had passed away a decade ago.  Barry went first.  Hans followed him by just a few months.  Adam was certain that Hans could not survive this life without Barry.  He knew it was wrong, but he wished for the same fate as Hans, and quickly.

At breakfast Jamie asked him if he would like to do anything today.  “Do you need to shop or anything?”

“No, my dear boy.  You have taken care of everything.”  Jamie had arranged for food to be served in the dining room after the funeral.  Outside of The Sunnydale House residents, Adam did not expect more than a few acquaintances.  Most of his and Evan’s friends were dead.  Adam was a sole survivor. 

After breakfast Adam excused himself from Jamie, and found a seat on the front veranda.  The sun felt good on his old bones.  He turned his face to greet the warming orb, and he thought he heard laughter.  Yes, he clearly heard Hans and Barry laughing.  Then Ben and Sarah joined in.  Finally he could hear Evan’s distinctive laugh louder than all the rest.  They were all having such a good time.

***

It was the first Friday night in their new home.  Adam and Evan were walking across their front lawn to the Richters.  Adam carried Sarah’s empty casserole dish and Evan carried a bottle of red wine.  There was a strange car in the Richter’s driveway.  “I guess the young queers are here already,” Evan said jokingly. 

“Please Evan.  You know how I hate that word.”

“I would never use derogatory words in public.  It was just a joke between us girls.”

“You are incorrigible!  I don’t know why I put up with you,” Adam said.

“You put up with me because you love me.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the reason,” Adam smiled at Evan.

They rang the doorbell and the door was opened by a drop dead gorgeous young man about Adam’s age.  He was nearly six feet tall.  His eyes were blue and his hair was platinum blond.  He was smiling broadly and he could dazzle you with that smile.

“Adam and Evan?” he asked quizzically.  He had no trace of an accent and Evan wondered if he might not be Barry, and that maybe he had jumped to a stereotypical conclusion.

“I’m Hans,” the young man said and held out his hand, “I am always so pleased to meet a liberator.  Please come in.”

“You people are going to embarrass me to death,” Evan said.  “I did nothing more than my duty.”

Hans introduced them to Barry, who did not hold out his hand at all.  Instead he gave each of them a good strong hug.  He said something similar to what Hans had said, but completely different.  “I’m always glad to meet a brother who isn’t ashamed to be what he is, and let people know it.”

Adam and Evan felt a great pang of guilt.  They had intended to pass themselves off as brothers, but were accidently outed by the hate patrol.  Ironically, they looked no more like brothers than Hans and Ben.

During the evening Hans and Barry did most of the talking.  They were exuberant about their jobs, their lives and most of all their love for each other.  They were not embarrassed to show Ben and Sarah how much they loved them also.  The best part was that they talked openly about their homosexual lifestyle.

“There’s a section of Ft. Lauderdale where more and more gays are moving in,” Barry said.  This was the first time Evan and Adam had heard the word ‘gay.’  “It’s becoming a little Mecca.  The best part is that a couple of gay bars have opened up.  It’s great because we can hang out there with our buddies.  We’re having dinner at one of the bars tomorrow.  Why don’t you guys join us?”

“You should go,” Ben said.  “Sarah and I had dinner there with the boys a couple of weeks ago.  The food was wonderful and also I found out that these two have a lot of nice friends.  I would urge you to go and I would love it if you would all become friends.”

“Enough talk,” Sarah said.  “Dinner is ready.  Come to the dining room.”

“Have you ever had a traditional Jewish Sabbath dinner?” Hans asked.  Evan and Adam shook their heads.  “You’ll love it,” Hans continued.  Your taste buds will salivate, but you better have plenty of alka seltzer at home.  I had to wait until we got to the States to savor it, but boy, it was worth the wait.”

“Jewish cuisine was the final step in converting Hans to Judaism,” Barry said.  “It was the food that did it.”  That brought much laughter to the table.

“My conversion isn’t kosher however,” Hans said.  “Barry wouldn’t let me get circumcised at my age.  I wanted to do it, but he said absolutely no, so when the rabbi asked, I said I was cut.  I prayed and prayed that he wouldn’t want to look for himself.  But I did study, and I had a Bar Mitzvah last year.  I wish you guys were here so you could have been at the party.  We had a blast.”

The food was as delicious as Hans had promised and Evan and Adam were introduced to a couple of new dishes like matzoh ball soup and chopped liver spread.  Hans and Barry kept everyone in stitches telling tales about some of their friends, straight and gay.  The evening was almost non stop laughter.

During dinner, Barry and Hans kept leaning over and kissing each other and holding hands, right in front of Ben and Sarah.  Adam and Evan had trained themselves not to show any affection in public and they really didn’t know how to react to this public display of male to male affection.  All of a sudden, out of the blue, in the middle of a laugh, Hans asked, “Evan, do you love Adam?  Adam, do you love Evan?”

They both looked at Ben and Sarah thoroughly embarrassed.  “Of course we do,” Evan sputtered.

“You sure don’t show it, man,” Barry said.  “Kiss each other for God’s sake.” 

“Yeah,” Ben said. “Kiss each other.”  Ben, Sarah, Barry and Hans began tapping on their wine glasses as if they were at a wedding trying to urge the bride and groom to kiss.  Red faced, Evan leaned into Adam and kissed him lightly on the lips.

“You call that a kiss?” Hans said.  “You do it like this.”  He leaned into Barry.  Their mouths parted and they began to soul kiss.  The kiss went on and on. 

Finally Ben said, “Enough already.  You two are embarrassing me.  Your old bedroom is upstairs, Hans.  Go you two, before it’s too late.”  Everyone laughed so hard their sides hurt.

***

Sitting on the veranda at The Sunnydale House, Adam could still hear the laughter.  The laughter reverberated in his ears until he could feel a headache coming on.  Then he realized that tomorrow was Evan’s funeral.  The headache got worse as he buried his head in his hands and wept and wept and wept.  Suddenly the semi-tropical sun was too much for Adam to bear.  He went upstairs to his apartment and closed the door.  He dialed Jamie’s telephone number even though he knew that Jamie wasn’t in his apartment.  Leaving a message on Jamie’s answering machine, he politely asked Jamie not to pick him up for lunch.  He said that he wasn’t hungry but that he would meet him for dinner.

He stripped as he always did before getting into bed.  It was warm in the room and he lay down on top of the covers.  He could hear birds chirping outside his window, but everything got really silent as he slipped into a fretful sleep.

***

He and Evan were standing on the front porch of Hans and Barry’s house.  They knocked on the door and Barry let them in.  As soon as they were inside, they were literally attacked by the homeowners who covered them with kisses and hugged them tightly.  There was no question that Hans and Barry were very demonstrative and very kissy, kissy.  Adam and Evan were just the opposite.  They had made a career out of being in the closet, and covering up there sexual identity.  Hans and Barry made them feel guilty.

Barry opened four beer bottles and handed one to each of them.  “It’s a little early yet,” he said.  “Our reservation is for 7:30 and we can walk over in five minutes, so drink up me hearties.”

“How did you two meet?” Evan asked them.

They both broke out laughing.  Did these two ever stop laughing? 

“I’ll tell.” Hans said. “I had a blind date with some guy whose name I can’t remember.  A few days before the date he called to ask me if I would mind if we double dated.  He said that blind dates could sometimes be awkward and this way if things started to go south, there would be another couple there to relieve the pressure.  So my date asked a friend of his to double date with us.  Well, as luck would have it, the friend also had a blind date for that night, so a double date suited him just fine also.”

Barry picked up the story and continued.  “I was the other guy’s blind date.  To make a long story short, neither of us liked our dates, but we sure liked each other.  We never even said anything to each other.  We just seemed to read one another’s minds.”

“Yeah,” Hans said.  “Halfway through dinner I got up to pee and Barry said he needed to go also.  We slipped out the back door and took off, leaving those poor guys with four meals to pay for.”

Barry and Hans burst into more laughter.  Adam had to wonder how Hans could laugh so much after what he had been through.  As if he could read his mind, Hans said, “You know, my life was hell until I somehow got the courage to hide in Ben’s barracks.  Now I am the luckiest guy in the world.  I worshipped Jesus once.  I still do.  But he was never my Messiah.  Ben and Sarah are my true Messiahs.”  Then he smiled at Barry.  “Barry is a Messiah too, but in a much different way.”  He leaned into Barry and they began to kiss passionately.

It got a little too hot so Evan said, “If you two want to go to bed we can go to dinner alone.”

“Not on your life,” Hans said.  “I am going to personally teach you two to enjoy life and love each other more.”  This statement coming from a holocaust survivor fueled Adam’s guilt.

“I don’t think I could love Evan more.” Adam said.

“Never say never,” Barry advised.  “You’ll see.”

During dinner practically everyone in the restaurant came over to greet Barry and Hans.  Did these two know everyone in the gay community?  Apparently!  They introduced Adam and Evan to everyone and the general sentiment was that Adam and Evan should hang out here more often so that they could all become better friends.

“You should come here more often,” Hans said.  “After dinner we’ll hang out at the piano and sing.  You guys must learn to let your hair down, and have some fun.  I get the feeling that your up tightness comes from hiding who you are from the world.  Believe me you have nothing to prove.  If you are vital links at work, it won’t make any difference to your bosses.”

Adam had his doubts about that and Evan was in full agreement.  They had a wonderful time with their new friends and hated when it was time to drive home.  In the car Evan said that he could not believe that Hans was so upbeat after having been continually raped by German soldiers and having survived the holocaust.   They agreed that he was an amazing man.

In bed that night as they were cuddling, Adam asked Evan, “How do you think they would take it at work if you came out?”

“I really don’t know, but I’d probably get fired.  What about you?”

“Pretty much the same thing.  I think I need to get laid,” Adam said, and cuddled closer.

Adam pushed his erection against Evan’s thigh.  Their lips met in a passionate embrace.  Their hands groped and found each other’s cocks and each began to stroke the other.

“Suck my cock, please,” Evan pleaded and Adam gladly obliged.  They assumed their favorite fallatio position.  Evan lay on his back and Adam got on his knees between Evan’s legs.  In this position Adam’s tongue could slide up and down the underside of Evan’s shaft.  They both found the underside of the shaft more erogenous than the head or even the balls.  Only the entrance to their asses was more erogenous than that.  Adam began to stroke Evan’s cock with his tongue and his fingers, just as the phone rang.

“Shit,” Evan said as he reached for the phone.  Adam kept on sucking.

“Hi, this is Hans,” a cheery voice said.  “I’m just calling to make sure that you two are making love and going all out.  I hope there are no hang ups in your bedroom.”

Evan started to laugh.  “I assure you that we go all out in private.  We don’t hold back.  It’s just that showing affection in public is something we are going to have to learn.”

“Good, because I’m not going to give up my role as mentor.  I intend to get you two to stop worrying and enjoy life.  Just take into account how good we’ve got it, compared to life in a concentration camp.  We are all so blessed,” Hans said wistfully.

“You’re right, dear friend,” Evan said.  “Now will you please hang up so Adam can resume sucking my cock?”  They could both hear Hans laughing hysterically as he hung up the phone.

To be continued... 

Posted: 05/07/10