Nevermore!
 By: Henry Higgins
 (Copyright 2005 & 2006 by the Author)
 
 The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...
 

16--The Secret

Kenny studied me intently, as if trying to foretell my response to his suggestion that he share something secret about the relationship between him and Rusty. I didn't feel nervous about it, just eager to find out what he wanted to share. Still, it didn't seem like quite the time or place for him to launch into something involved or for me to be receptive. Later seemed to work better.

"Okay, let's get cleaned up and put some sweats on; then I'll make breakfast while you guys tell me," I suggested.

"How 'bout we help you make breakfast and then we'll tell ya while we eat?" Kenny countered. I wondered if he sensed the same involvement that I did.

"Fine," I said. "It shouldn't take too long to throw something together."

We washed off the crusty remains of our mutual orgasm from the night before, put on our sweats, and padded into the kitchen. I said, "Guys, there's toaster waffles in the freezer, butter and syrup in the fridge, and Kenny, you know where the plates and silverware are."

Kenny nodded and headed for the plates and silverware. Rusty got the waffles from the freezer, tossed them to me, and I put a couple down into the toaster before making some coffee. Rusty was bringing syrup and butter to the table as Kenny brought the plates and silverware. In less than ten minutes, we were buttering our waffles and adding syrup.

"So," I said, "What were you guys going to tell me?"

Kenny thought for a moment--unusual for him as he more often spoke his mind directly. "Well, Jim, you know how you were feeling that there was some kind of special presence in the room last night?"

"Yeah..." I answered.

"Rusty and me, we've felt that same kind of feeling just about ever since we met. We don't understand it too well. It's like a lot of the time, we know what the other one is thinking... no, more than that... what the other one is feeling. It's a really special bond. And, there's more to it because we both feel there's something more than just the two of us--like we both have some kinda special guide or something. That feeling has helped us both to feel better, you know, about who we are and what we do."

Rusty nodded his agreement vigorously.

Kenny continued, "When we were at the movies yesterday, I could feel Rusty's fear. I knew that he was in some serious shit. That's why I wanted to leave and that's how I knew where to find him. It wasn't like I was reading his mind, but more like I could feel what he was feeling. I figured out that he was at the beehive because he had talked about maybe meeting that creep there. But, I also knew the feeling of that place--you know, creepy and musty and kinda edgy. That's what made me sure he was there."

Rusty added, "And... and...when Kenny's happy, I feel happy--even when we're apart. If he's sad or mad, I know it and usually I feel th' same way. Yesterday, it was like I was cryin' out to him with my mind when that creep got me."

"Wow!" was all I could say after a moment of contemplating what the boys had just told me and trying to put it into perspective. "I could tell from the start that you guys have a strong bond. I guess this just kind of proves it. I never realized how strong it is, though. I've heard of some identical twins who have this kind of relationship, but I've never heard of two people who are unrelated and just friends having it."

"Yeah," Kenny agreed. "It sure surprises us sometimes. It's like we're soul mates or something."

Rusty giggled. "You know the first time I started to figure out about our special bind was when Kenny was getting done by one of his regulars, a real nice guy. He was at th' beehive and I was over by the video store. All of a sudden, I started feeling really good and I could smell that kind of old crusty smell at th' place. I wasn't even touching myself and I got boned up and cummed in my pants all at once. It was like way weird! Like Kenny says, we're cellmates."

"SOUL mates," corrected Kenny as he grinned at his friend.

"Yeah, whatever..." responded Rusty.

I smiled at the two boys--the older so intent on nurturing the younger and the younger one feeling so securely wrapped in the special love of his "cellmate." Could they both feel my special love for them? I hoped so. Further, I hoped this love was genuine and not self-serving. I wanted what David and I had had so many years before.

Kenny suggested, "Jim, maybe what happened last night means we all have the same kind of relationship as those twins you talked about."

"It could be, Kenny," I answered. "We may learn more in time. Meanwhile, I do know how much I love you two--like a father or a big brother, not so much like a sexual partner, although you know I want that, too."

Kenny grinned widely. "Like the dad we never had!" He chuckled at his own rhyme.

Rusty chimed in, "Yeah, be glad, not sad!"

I wondered at these two--so much on the same wavelength so often. Hey, maybe they were "cellmates," like Rusty said.

I joined in, "Well don't get mad, just get bad..." Both boys peered at me.

"Get bad?" said Kenny. "Oh, come on, Jim. You can do better than that."

"Not on the spear of the moment," I defended, getting into Rusty's pattern of changing words slightly. "It's you guys who are always on the same wavelength. Why, if you two worked at it, you could probably do some pretty serious rapping."

"Nah," said Kenny. "We're more into country music--unlike just about every other kid in school."

"Vive la difference!" I commented.

"Huh?" said Rusty.

"It's French for 'celebrate the difference'," said Kenny.

"Oh," said the little redhead--again, as if he understood, but seemingly still in the dark.

I was enjoying this banter, but we had to get after some serious things today. "Boys, let's talk about what we need to do today," I said. They both looked at me. "One thing we have to do is get Rusty's blood tested. Then we can talk about something fun to do. Have you ever had a blood test, Rusty?"

"Um, I don't think so," he answered.

Kenny joined in. "Oh, there's nothin' to it, bro. They stick a needle in your arm right here," he pointed to the proper spot on Rusty's arm, "And, they draw out some blood into some test tubes, and that's it."

"I don't like needles," Rusty protested.

"Yeah, I'm not too fond of 'em myself," Kenny answered. "But where Jim took me yesterday, there's this real nice lady named Martha. She does it so it don't hurt at all. I hardly felt it go in."

"Well, why do we gotta get blood tests, anyway?" Rusty asked.

"T' make sure we don't have STDs," said Kenny.

"STDs?" asked Rusty.

"You know," Kenny said. "Like we learned about in Health class. Sexually transmitted diseases. Like AIDS and syphilis and gonorrhea and stuff."

"But I'm not sick," protested Rusty. "I feel fine. And, my dick's okay, too. At least, I think it is."

If only he knew how fine his dick really was, I thought--and those bright red pubes, too!

I said, "Sometimes, Rusty, you can have an STD and not know it--like with AIDS. Other times you can tell 'cuz stuff leaks out of your penis. The only way to tell for sure is to have a blood test. Does anything leak out of your penis, Rusty?"

"Only when I come," he answered, smiling.

"What about other times, like when you unzip to go to the bathroom. Do you notice anything coming out of your penis when you take it out?" I asked.

Rusty grinned. "Only piss."

I chuckled. "But only that? No other liquid oozing out?"

"Naw, just piss and come."

"Well, the biggest problem is making sure you don't have AIDS." I said. "There's no clear sign that you have that until it's too late. Rog and I don't think either one of you boys do have it, but we need to make sure. The only way to do that is with a blood test."

"Well, sure, Jim--whatever you think I need to do. And, if we can go to that no-hurt lady that Kenny talked about, that'd be even better."

"That's exactly where we'll go," I said.

"Yeah," Kenny said. "And then maybe Jim'll buy us lunch at the diner again, like yesterday. Only today, you can plan on keepin' it down!"

"Oh, yeah," said Rusty. "I didn't do too good with that yesterday, did I!"

"Well, today's another day," said Kenny, grinning cheerily. "Get ready, Martha, here we come."

"Okay, guys," I said. "I think we've got part of a plan. Now for the fun part, I was thinking about going to the arcade at the mall after lunch. I heard recently that they put in a bunch of new games. You guys up for that?"

"Hey, yeah," both boys said at once.

"Okay," I said. "It's a plan. However, there's some other stuff I've got to go over with you."

Both boys looked at me quizzically as I continued. "One thing is how we come and go from here. I don't know much about the neighbors around here; but in my old neighborhood there was one old lady who made it her business to keep tabs on everybody else's business. As soon as she suspected something wasn't right somewhere, she'd be on the phone to whatever authority was responsible. So, neighbors who let their lawns get too overgrown would get a visit from somebody from the neighborhood association. If someone else had a loud party too late at night, pretty soon the police would show up to break it up. We would learn later that she was the one who called them. And, when she began to see David hanging around my house, she called Child Protective Services. That's how we were discovered."

"Oh," said both boys soberly.

"Wull," Rusty chirped, "We gotta leave here sometime, like today when we go for th' blood test."

"You're right," I observed. "And, I don't want you guys to get to feeling like you're prisoners in here, nice as it may be," I quipped sarcastically.

The boys studied me intently.

"Rog and I thought perhaps if I put window tinting on the rear windows of my car that you guys could sit back there all the time and not be seen. And, that's just for coming and going in the daytime. At night, you wouldn't be seen, anyway. What do you think?"

"Sounds okay t' me," Kenny said. "And, till you get th' tint for the back windows, we could just duck down below th' windows for a few blocks."

"Exactly my thought," I said.

"We'd be like gangstas," Rusty sang out as he punched the air with a fist.

"Easy there, Cosmo!" admonished Kenny. "We don't wanna lose any of Jim's valuable glassware."

Rusty grinned. "Hey," he said. "Maybe we can tunnel our way out! You got a basement here, Jim?"

"Bro, you been watchin' too many o' dem gangsta flicks!" said Kenny.

"Wull, how d' you think I learn all these neat tricks?" defended Rusty.

"Just keep in mind," said his older mentor, "Real life don't work like Hollywood life."

"Yeah, I guess... If only!"

I chuckled at my two young charges. "Well, Rusty...I do have a basement, but I haven't found any tunnels leading out of it."

"No, Jim! You don't get it," said the little redhead. "Like maybe we could dig a tunnel out to your alley in back, or something. Then Kenny and I could come and go through that."

"Oh," I said. "Now I see what you mean. Why don't you guys think about that idea? You'd have to be able to enter and leave the tunnel so that nobody could see you. And, how big would the tunnel have to be? If you had to crawl through it coming from school, you'd get your good school clothes all dirty. Yet, it could be done. Do a little investigation."

All this time, Kenny was listening to us and looking a bit skeptically at his friend. "Wow, you do come up with some doozies, bro! Digging a tunnel--hmpf! And just where would we get the time for that, much less the energy!"

"But Kenny, it could happen," said Rusty, undaunted.

"Yeah, right!" replied his older, and at this point I thought, somewhat wiser friend.

By then, we had worked our way back to the bedrooms and begun to dress. The clothes that Rusty had worn yesterday would need some serious sanitizing, so he needed a fresh set. I debated suggesting that we go over to his house to get some, but then thought better of it. The less we were exposed to someone seeing us, the better it would be. Fortunately, the two boys were near enough in size that Rusty could borrow some of Kenny's clothes. A couple of sizable cuffs in the pants solved the problem of their different heights.

"Hey, Kenny," said Rusty. "Jim sure got you some nice threads!"

"Yeah, they're nice," he replied. Kenny's subdued response took me back to the previous afternoon and the unfortunate encounter with a classmate in Bambles.

"Just nice? Man! These are great. I sure wish I had me some clothes this nice." Rusty was undaunted.

I said, "If you need some clothes, Rusty, we can get you some, too. It may have to wait a few days, though. We've got to get you healed and back to school first."

"That would be way cool, Jim! Thanks. Won't that be great, Kenny?"

"Yeah, it will." Kenny forced a wan smile.

I made a mental note that we would have to do some serious work with Kenny on respecting and caring for himself, especially in the clothing department.

As we trooped through the kitchen on the way to the garage, the phone rang.

"Hello," I answered.

"Jim? It's Rog. I'm glad I caught you."

"Me too. What's up?"

"I've been thinking about you guys going back to that lab at the hospital. I'm afraid we might raise suspicions if you were to come back in there with another boy in tow for an STD panel. I'd rather have you come over to my office. Adam, my PA, is in today and he can take care of it for you. That way, we don't have to risk alarming the System."

"Good thinking, Rog," I said. "The less chance of that, the better! It's good you called when you did. We were just about to leave. So we'll head to your office, instead."

"Great! I can't be there, but I'll call Adam so he'll be alert for the bell. We're officially closed today, but he's in there catching up on some paperwork."

"Okay, Rog. See ya. And, thanks!"

I hung up the phone and turned to the guys. "That was Rog. He's worried that if we come back into the same lab today for another STD panel, somebody will get curious. He said that his assistant, Adam, is in his office today. Even though they're closed, we can ring the bell and Adam will take care of the blood test for us."

Rusty's face clouded. "But Kenny said Martha does it so it don't hurt! We don't know anything about this Adam guy."

"I suspect that Adam knows how to do that, as well," I suggested. "We'll be sure to check with him before he does it."

"Well, okay," Rusty answered, still rather dubious about the whole matter.

We piled into the car and I gave the automatic door control to Kenny to open it for us. He looked at me first with surprise and then with pride as he pushed the button to open the door. As soon as we were clear of the garage, he pushed the button again to close the door.

"Here, Jim," he said as he attempted to give the control back to me.

"No, Kenny," I replied. "You keep it. You can be our door control person for the day."

I thought I saw a rather smug look on his face as he pocketed the control. Roger's office was located about the same distance as the mall and the diner, just in a different direction. Within five minutes we were pulling into the parking lot. I noticed a doorbell just to the left of the office door and pressed it.

Shortly, the door opened and there stood one of the most fantastic looking guys I had seen in a long time. Dressed in pressed chinos and a contrasting golf shirt, Adam Gregory had a dark, Mediterranean complexion that was neatly set off by his jet-black hair and bushy eyebrows. Honey brown eyes gazed out at us. "You must the guys that Rog just called me about. Come on in," he said with a smile that had me feeling warmer already.

I looked at my two charges and saw them both bright and wide-eyed, their tongues almost hanging out.

"And I'll bet you're Rusty," Adam said, looking at Rusty's red hair.

"Yep, I am," answered Rusty.

"Well we'll get you fixed up and out of here in no time," Adam said.

"It's not gonna hurt is it?" Rusty asked.

"No way, my man. It's almost painless. Worst you might feel is a little pinch, that's all."

Rusty relaxed his brow and followed Adam into the office like a little puppy. Kenny followed just behind, still staring and not having said a thing. Adam led us into an examination room where he had Rusty sit up on the table. Kenny and I found chairs against the wall.

"There's a secret to doing this so it doesn't hurt, Rusty. Do you know what that is?" Adam talked to the boy warmly as he prepared the materials for drawing Rusty's blood.

"No," replied Rusty. "I never had a blood test before."

"Oh, then I can understand why you'd be nervous. But really, it's simple and easy and it won't hurt. First I need for you to roll up both shirt sleeves above your elbow."

As Rusty complied with Adam's request, Adam took a rubber tube from his supplies.

"Now, let's see the inside of each elbow." Adam looked at each of the boy's arms, lightly tapped each one, settled on the left arm for the test, and tied the rubber tubing around the boy's upper arm.

"Whadja do that for?" Rusty asked,

"It helps your vein to come up so I can see to get the needle into it," Adam replied. "Now, Rusty, clench your fist and then open it. Keep doing that for about ten times."

As Rusty concentrated on clenching and then opening his fist, Adam took the syringe and fitted it with a test tube for the first blood sample.

"Okay, Rusty, that's fine. See how your vein has come up? It makes a little rise there under your skin."

"Oh, yeah!" said Rusty.

Adam continued. "Now, here's the secret. To keep it from hurting when I put the needle in, I'm going to use two fingers of my other hand to stretch the skin." Adam stretched the skin on Rusty's arm as he put the needle against the skin and then deftly pushed it through the skin and into the vein.

"There! Did that hurt?"

"Wow, no, Adam! I hardly felt it. You're great," Rusty said, visibly relieved and looking at Adam with puppy-dog eyes.

Just as deftly, Adam used one hand to pull off one vial and insert the next onto the syringe while he held the syringe steady with the other. Very shortly all the vials had filled with dark blood. Handing Rusty a cotton ball, Adam said, "I need you to hold this over where we put the needle in. Use just a little pressure, okay?"

Adam labeled the vials of blood and then came back to Rusty with a piece of tape. "I'll just put this tape on to hold the cotton in place and you're good to go, bud."

"Gee, thanks, Adam. You're the greatest! It didn't hurt at all."

"See," I said. "Martha must have taught Adam how to do this."

Adam looked at me, somewhat surprised. "Well as a matter of fact, Jim, she did! When I was interning, she was in the blood unit when I rotated through."

We all chuckled over the coincidence, thanked Adam again, and then took our leave. On the way out, the boys led the way, chattering about how easy the blood test had been. Adam followed me a few steps behind and found a chance to say softly to me, "Rog was right. You are one exceptional guy! I'm glad I know you."

Feeling somewhat astonished, I turned to look into his warm eyes and said, "Why, thank you Adam! I sincerely appreciate hearing that. I hope that the boys and I can see more of you."

Adam beamed. "I think you will. Thanks for bringing your guys today. I'm glad I could meet them."

I felt warmly acknowledged as Adam saw us to the door. As soon as we got belted into the car and I started the engine, the guys started.

"Wow! Did you get a load of him," Kenny whooped.

"Yeah, I almost cummed in my pants. I was hard the whole time!" Rusty joined in.

I chimed in, "Yeah guys, Adam is quite good looking, but he's also quite a skilled and caring medical technician."

"Oh yeah, that too. But, did you check out his butt?" Kenny asked.

"He was facing me, so I was lookin' more at his front, bro. I think you had a better view of his butt. All I could see was this big bulge in front," answered Rusty.

I couldn't help giggling. "You guys are bad, bad, bad!" I said.

Kenny piped up, "Well I saw you go kinda bonkers as soon as you looked at him, too."

I sobered as I realized... "He reminded me so much of David, of how he might look now," I said. "If he's still alive, that is. I just don't know."

"Oh, Jim! I'm sorry... I didn't mean..." Immediately, the boy's hand was on my leg.

"No, Kenny," I said. "You couldn't have known. I know that you don't want to add to my burden, but this is my own problem to solve. You can't be tiptoeing around trying to avoid what you think might upset me! I don't want that. I want both of you guys to feel free to say what's on your mind. That's the only way we'll be able to get through this. If I get upset by something, then that's got to be my problem to solve."

"Well, all I know," said Rusty, "Is that when I need another Mediterranean optician, I want Adam!"

Fortunately, we were stopped at a traffic light. From the front seat, we both turned to stare at Rusty.

"Huh? What'd I say," asked the impish little redhead.

"You mean 'medical technician' don't you, bro?" asked Kenny.

"Oh, yeah. That," said our little imp, grinning at his own verbal blunder.

The light turned green as Kenny and I turned back around, but all I could see in front of us was the vision of Adam--warm, smiling, and so buff.

To be continued...