A Single Soul
 Christmas Special

By: Pete Bruno
(© 2013 by the author)
 

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

 

Room at the Inn

Thursday December 22, 1983

“Jimmy, I have said no every day this week.  You will spend Christmas Eve with your family. Besides,” Bonnie said tersely as she was putting dinner on the table, “I think you have been spending entirely too much time at the Leo home.” 

“But Mom, Matty is my family, so is Uncle Frank.  They will be all alone since his crazy mother left,” Jim whined. 

“You may visit after dinner on Christmas Day.  I will not have my children away from home on Christmas.  Besides your grandparents will be here,” his mother continued. 

“For Christ’s sake Bonnie, they are coming from two miles away, not California.  Besides, you will have five of your children home.  Let the boy spend the holiday with his best friend.  It seems like the Christian thing to do,” George said, earning a smile of thanks from his son and an evil glare from his wife. 

“The subject is closed.  You will be sleeping in your own bed Christmas Eve,” Bonnie spat.

“Aw, poor Jimmy can’t spend Christmas with his boyfriend,” mocked Junior, who had been lurking in the family room and was now making his way into the kitchen.

“Screw you, Junior, at least I have friends.  Maybe if you weren’t such nasty prick and mamma’s boy you’d have one yourself,” Jimmy said.  Bonnie set the salad bowl she was carrying on the table and spun around with a raised hand ready to smack Jimmy but he was ready for her.  “Go ahead Mom, protect your baby like you always do.  That’s why he such a social retard,” challenged a defiant Jimmy.

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that!  Now you will not only not be going on Christmas Eve, and you are grounded for a week.  Now go to your room this minute!” Bonnie screamed.

“With pleasure,” Jim said and turned towards the family room.  When he passed Junior, he gave him the finger, so Jimmy checked him into the refrigerator.  Even though Jimmy was more than two years younger than Junior, he was a head taller and outweighed him by twenty pounds of teenage muscle.  As he made his way out of the kitchen he actually heard his father chuckle.  When he got to his room he plopped down on his bed and began to formulate a plan to spend Christmas Eve with Matty.

He waited until he heard everyone talking around the dinner table before sneaking into his parent’s room to call Matty to fill him in what was going on. “Listen man, I can’t talk long; I’m grounded.” 

“What the fuck man, what did you do?” Matty asked with a chuckle. 

“Called Junior a nasty prick and a mama’s boy in front of my mother,” Jimmy said laughing, and he could hear Matty laughing on the other end of the line. “But listen, man, don’t worry, I’ll be there tomorrow night as planned.  I know my father will bail me out of this.  I won’t let you down, man, you know that.”

“I know, just don’t get yourself in anymore trouble.”

“It’s cool dude, remember sometimes, you just gotta say, ‘what the fuck’,” Jimmy said causing both boys to break up laughing.  Just then the door to the opened and Jimmy’s heart stopped.  He calmed down when he saw it was his brother Marty.

“Jimmy, you better bet back to the bedroom, we’re finished eating and mom and dad are arguing about you going to Matty’s tomorrow night,” Marty said.  He told Matty he’d see him at school in the morning.  Since he was grounded he knew his mother would be driving him to school instead of letting him ride his bike with Matty.  One thing she couldn’t stop was them seeing each other in school; they had every class together.

Jimmy shared a room with his brother Marty and the youngest, Brandon. They all got along well.  Marty and Jim were both into sports and girls.  They also equally disliked their older brother, but his favorite was seven year-old Brandon.  He worshiped the ground Jimmy walked on and never got in the way.  His dad called him Jim’s shadow.  He and Matty took him with them all the time, teaching him to play ball and taking him to a movie at least once a week or just to sit and watch TV with them.  Marty used to tease them calling Brandy their son.

On the way back to his room he could hear his parents arguing and just before he closed the door he heard his father at the bottom of the steps call out, “Will you just let it be.”

Jimmy had just made it the top bunk when his dad opened the door. Rolling over to face the door he said, “Hey Dad, what’s up?”

“Nothing, buddy, I’m working on your mother but I can’t promise anything.  Just do me a favor and stay out of her way for a bit and for God’s sake just ignore Junior,” his dad said.

“Sure Dad, and thanks for trying,” Jimmy said.  He really loved his father and they got along well. His only complaint was that his dad worked too many hours.  That was one of the reasons he loved being at Matty’s house.  His dad was a State Trooper and worked a regular forty hour week.  He did a lot of things with the boys and even took them to the gym.  George said goodnight and soon after Brandon came in and wanted a story read, even though he was seven.  He loved to get up in the top bunk with Jimmy while he read to him. And sometimes Jim would let him sleep with him, with Jim on the outside to keep him from falling off.  Tonight however he talked him into sleeping in his own bed; he was dying to beat off.  He and Marty were cool with each other rubbing out a load in their bunk after lights out, but Jimmy didn’t want his baby brother in bed with him while he did the deed. 

With Brandon asleep and the house quiet and his hand around his already hard teenage cock he could hear Marty’s bunk squeaking, “Let’s see who blows first,” he whispered over the side.

“Better hurry up, I’m almost there,” Marty panted.  Jimmy re-doubled his efforts and in no time the two brothers were grunting as they pumped their boy loads into their own hands.  They then proceeded to lick them clean; it saved leaving evidence for their mother to find. 

Friday December 23, 1983

School the next day flew by since it was only a half day.  The two friends spent most of the day with their buddies discussing what they were expecting from “Santa” and also making plans for hanging out over their vacation. 

“I’m not sure what’s going on with the old lady,” Jimmy was saying as they headed for their lockers at the end of the day, “She has really been on the rag lately but dad said he’s working on it.” 

“Don’t worry buddy, it will work out.  Just stay out of trouble ‘cause I know dad has a surprise for us next week.  He just won’t tell me,” Matty said as he closed his locker.  He wanted nothing more than for Jimmy to spend Christmas Eve with him but Matt was always the sensible one.  He didn’t want his best friend to make it worse than it was.  The two friends headed for the exit and with a high-five split up so they wouldn’t be seen together by Bonnie. 

Jimmy was allowed to eat dinner with the family but had to go to his room as soon he was done.  Junior attempted to taunt him but Jimmy wisely didn’t take the bait, really pissing him off.  He re-doubled his efforts and surprisingly earned a rare rebuke from his mother. 

Brandon was especially excited that night and wanted Jimmy to read him a chapter from Commodore Hornblower.  “Listen squirt, don’t you think you are getting way too old for me to be reading stories to you?  You’re going to have hair on your dick soon,” Jimmy said while tickling his brother making him blush and laugh at the same time. 

He ended up reading him two chapters.  Truth was he enjoyed the books just as much as his brother.  Then the boy begged to stay in top bunk with him.  He relented, he had been in his room all night by himself and he managed to pump out two big loads so there would be no need to do it that night.  Jimmy knew that it was just an excuse to spend time with him and he truly didn’t mind.  He loved how Brandon would still snuggle into him as he read just as he had done since his was little.  It was a special bond he had always had with him, and he hoped he would always be close with him; actually with all of his brothers except Junior, for whom he had nothing but disdain.  After the second chapter the brothers were asleep in minutes.

The beeping of the alarm clock woke Jimmy, he kept hitting the snooze button but the beeping continued.  As he began to come fully awake he realized that it wasn’t his alarm clock but the smoke alarm.  Then he smelled the smoke.  Sitting up he could see flames in the back window.  He began to panic but forced himself to focus.  Their bedroom was on the back corner of the house over the living room.  There were two windows in the back and one on the side over the side porch. 

He called out to Marty who answered in a frightened voice, “What the fuck are we going to do?”  Remembering something he had seen on a TV show he called out, “Crawl on the floor and feel the door,” as he grabbed a still sleeping Brandon and jumped off the top bunk.  His leg caught the ladder and he tumbled down twisting so that he landed on the floor to break Brandon’s fall.  As soon as he landed he felt the pain shoot up his leg and knew immediately he had broken it.

“Jimmy the door is hot,” Marty screamed and coughed at the same time as the room filled with smoke.  They could hear their father screaming for them to get on the porch roof.  Jimmy rolled onto his stomach, “Brandy get on my back and hold on, Marty crawl over and open the window,” Jimmy yelled out.  It was tough to see and the pain was excruciating.  As soon as Marty opened the storm window they felt the cold air and the flames on the front wall shot up to the ceiling.  He could hear the sirens of the approaching fire trucks, and felt the heat on their left side as he crawled to the window with a crying and coughing Brandon almost choking him.  It’s okay buddy, we’ll be out of here in a minute.”  When he got to the window he told Brandon to reach out for Marty who then pulled him out of the window onto the porch roof.  With tremendous effort and considerable pain Jimmy managed to drag himself over the sill and landed head first on the porch roof calling for Marty to hold his leg as he rolled over onto his back.  He lay there while Brandon knelt next to him, “Jimmy, what did you do to your leg?” The boy asked as he continued to cough to clear his lungs and tried to get his breath.

“I think I broke it when we fell, but its okay—stand up and look for the firemen,” Jimmy said as calmly as he could.  They could hear their dad calling from below and Marty calling back telling them that they were out but Jimmy was hurt.  The pain was really getting worse and the cold was starting to cause his teeth to chatter—and then in a flash the firemen were on the roof taking Marty and Brandon down the ladder.  The next thing Jimmy knew he was on a stretcher with his parents next to him.  His mother was crying, but his dad was smiling at him, “You did good son, telling Marty to check the door first saved your lives the firemen told me.  The fire is out and they are going to take you to the hospital to fix your leg,” George said and then he bent down and kissed his son’s forehead.  

Saturday December 24, 1983— 3PM

“I know you wanted to spend Christmas with Matty but did you have to burn down the house?” Jimmy heard through a fog; had been dozing—well more like sleeping, the result of a combination of pain-killers and exhaustion.  He opened his eyes and saw Frank Leo standing next to his bed in his Trooper uniform smiling. 

“Hey Uncle Frank,” he said groggily, “What are you doing here?” 

“I came to visit my second favorite boy,” he said with a warm smile.

And then what Frank said hit Jimmy and tears began to fall from his eyes, “I didn’t start the fire Uncle Frank, I don’t know what happened.” 

“I know that son, I was just pulling your leg,” Frank said as he took his hand and held it. 

“No Jimmy, it wasn’t your fault,” George said stepping up beside the bed, “the fire marshal already found the cause, it was one of the window candles.  The bulb exploded and the drapes caught fire.”

“Wow, is everybody okay?” Jimmy asked. 

“Yes, everybody’s fine.  Brandy was excited because he was given oxygen.  He and Marty will be staying with you at the Leo’s for the next two weeks; but you will have to spend the night here.  The break was worse than they thought and had to put a pin in your leg,” George said.  It took a minute for it to register and then Jimmy broke into a big smile, “How’d you manage that Dad?”

“Well, we can’t stay in the house right now and there isn’t enough room at your grandparents.  Besides with your leg in a cast you can’t do steps, and you need to limit your walking for the first week at least,” George said with a wink.  “So I’m sending the three of you together.  I had no choice; there is no way Brandy is going to be separated from you right now— probably for the rest of his life for that matter,” George said with a laugh.

“But what about Mom?”

“She’s just so happy that everyone is alright that she agreed,” George said.

“Matty and I will be back in about an hour to have dinner with you.  He thought you might want a cheese-steak hoagie.  How’s that sound?”

Jimmy gave Frank a confused look, “Dinner?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s six PM.  They couldn’t operate right away, and the pain pills knocked you out, so you’ve lost a day buddy,” George said. 

“Cheese-steak sounds good Uncle Frank, I’m starving!”  Then it hit him, the house—his clothes—what about all the Christmas gifts?  George must have read his mind. 

“Jimmy, it looks like most of your room was ruined along with your clothes.  Your mom will go out on Monday and get you the basics for now—don’t worry Santa will bring your gifts to granddad’s,” he said with a wink.  What he didn’t say was that they were already there; with six kids there was no hiding gifts in the house. 

“Hey Dad, was the whole room burnt up?” Jimmy asked.

“No, just the front around the windows, your clothes were ruined by smoke and water,” George said. “Why?”

“My present for Matty was in my desk, do you think you can get in and bring it with you when you pick me up,”

“I’ll try buddy, but we aren’t supposed to be in there right now.  But I know the fire-chief from the Knights of Columbus; I’ll call him and ask. 

*******

All things considered, the boys had a blast eating dinner even though they were in a hospital room.  Since it was Christmas Eve the census of the hospital was low—only the sickest and emergency patients were in so the second bed was empty.  So Frank and Matty kept Jimmy laughing helping him to forget about the fire and the cast on his leg.  When the food had been consumed (or was it inhaled?) Frank left the guys alone saying he needed to make a phone call.  

Once the door was closed Matty moved his chair closer to the bed.  All he did was look at his good friend and the tears started to fall. Matty just took his hand and held it, saying nothing.

“Matty, I was fucking scared out of my mind,” Jimmy whispered, “but don’t tell anybody.”

“You know I won’t, but you did good and saved your brothers,” Matty said quietly and simply held Jimmy’s hand.  Matty laid his head on the bed. Jimmy looked him in the eye and whispered, “You know the whole time I was crawling to the window, all I could think about was never getting to see you again.”  The two friends just stared into each other’s eyes.  Matty was blown away by the admission.  He didn’t know what to say, so with his heart thumping he said nothing and just held his buddy’s hand until both boys nodded off.  They woke and moved quickly apart when they heard Frank.  He had been off to the nurses’ station.  Before his wife left she had worked at the hospital as an RN and, strangely, was very well liked.  He went to speak to the charge nurse whom he knew had been a friend of his wife’s to ask permission for Matty to spend the night; she knew Matty and Jimmy were friends and since the floor was almost empty, she agreed.  The boys looked both surprised and confused when Frank entered carrying a set of scrubs—and they were even more confused when he handed them to Matty. 

“What are these for Dad?” Matty asked. 

“To sleep in, you’re spending the night,” Frank said.

“No way!” Both boys shouted at once.

“Yup,” George smiled.  “Matty do you remember Mrs. Lowden?  Well she’s the charge nurse and she said you can stay in the other bed. You can catch a ride home with Jimmy tomorrow morning.”  Matty jumped out of the chair and hugged his dad. 

“Thank Dad, this is so great,” he said as he kissed his dad. 

“Yeah, thanks, Uncle Frank—this is like the best fucking Christmas ever!” Jimmy said and then panicked when he realized what he said.  Frank and Matty just broke up laughing.  After that Frank said goodnight.

The two friends were stoked.  They had planned to spend Christmas Eve together and had been stymied at every turn.  They decided that it had to have been divine intervention, “Of course I could have done without the broken leg,” Jimmy concluded.  Matty then told Jimmy about having to share his bed with Brandon the night before.  Brandon was all keyed up from the excitement of the fire and being treated for smoke inhalation and begged to sleep with him.  Of course he couldn’t say no, but told him he needed to settle down and go to sleep. 

“Just after I turned off the light the little shit say’s “You can beat off if you want.

I said what are you talking about?” Matty laughed and started to change into his scrubs, “He said Jimmy and Marty do it every night when they think I’m asleep, I try but nothing happens to me, but it feels good,” Matty laughed at the look on Jimmy’s face, “You never told me you and Marty beat off together.”

“We don’t really beat off together like you and I do, we’re in our on bunks, we just stopped trying to hide from each other.  I can’t believe the squirt has been watching.”  Jimmy said.

“Well he’s getting an education.  He’s just not sure why you and Marty are licking your hands,” Matty said laughing more as he continued to undress. When he was down to his underwear Jimmy said, “Dude, how about a blowjob now, I got a bone on?”

“Shut-up dude,” Matty said, but it was too late.  He was already chubbing up in shorts and Jimmy noticed. 

“Look, you’re already boning up,” Jimmy said pointing and giggling. 

“Yo dick head, didn’t your mother tell you it’s rude to point?”

“You’d be pointing too if your shorts were down,” Jimmy said giggling. 

Just then they heard the door opening and Matty pulled the privacy curtain around him just in time to see Mrs. Lowden coming in with Jimmy’s pills.  She gave him a fake stern look and said, “Matty, you’re here to keep him company, not make him fall out of bed laughing.”  She gave Jimmy his pills and showed Matty were Jimmy’s urinal was if he needed it during the night and what to do.  Then wishing the boys goodnight and Merry Christmas, she left to complete her rounds.  The medicine worked quickly and in no time Jimmy was asleep, and Matty wasn’t far behind him. 

Matty was pulled from his slumber by Jimmy’s softly calling his name, looking at his watch he saw it was four AM.  “Are you alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, I have to pee but I’m having a problem with the urinal,” Jimmy said quietly.  Matty got up and crossed to the same space between the beds; in the low glow of the night light he could see Jimmy’s hard cock lying flat against his stomach and giggled. 

“What’s the problem is it too big for the opening? Matty teased.

“No doofus, I can’t bend it down.  Come on man, help me out.  Please!”

Matty took his buddies cock, and just as he had done so many times before gave it a few strokes and then bent over and took it into his mouth.  He employed their favorite suck and stroke method while Jimmy tried to control his panting.  It didn’t take long for Matty’s mouth to be filled with very large load of Jimmy’s boy cream which tasted different tonight. 

“Thanks man,” Jimmy said through his controlled breaths, “I really was beginning to suffer from MSB.”

“Well that sure was a massive load of sperm you had built up, and it tasted different,” Matty said giggling.

Jimmy added as he squeezed his cock and got a little bit on his finger and tasted it, “Yeah it was a good load—maybe the medicine is making it taste different,” he said as he inserted his now deflated cock into the plastic urinal he was holding.  It only took a few seconds for the strong stream to start, filling half the bottle. 

“Whatever. You just owe me one when we get home,” Matty said as he went to the bathroom to dump the contents.   When he returned he noticed a serious look on Jimmy’s face and asked what was up.

“Nothing buddy,” Jimmy said reaching out for his hand, “thanks for staying with me tonight, you’re the best friend anybody could have.” 

*******

The boys were awaken again around 8AM by Frank, and standing next to him in a full dress Marine uniform was the biggest guy he had ever seen.  “Jimmy, this is Captain Foles.  He runs the recruiting office in Center City,” Frank said as he introduced the boys.  The Captain told the boys that he was on the way to a Toys for Tots party in the city but he had heard about Jimmy’s quick thinking during the fire and wanted to come by and congratulate him.  He also gave each of the boys a set of official Marine Corp sweats and then was off to his party. 

Matty helped Jimmy in the new sweats, and then put on his set as well.  They were snacking on homemade cookies the nurses had brought them when an excited Brandon burst in the room and ran to hug his brother.  He was talking a mile a minute filling Jimmy in on almost every second of his time since he had seen him last. 

“Alright Brandy, take a breath and let everyone else have a chance to say hi,” George said and then he noticed Matty, “Hey Matty, you got here early,” he said.

“No Dad, he’s spent the night,” Jimmy said smiling. 

“Matthew, I don’t appreciate you pulling pranks like this; what if you had been discovered you could have gotten Jimmy in trouble,” Bonnie said with a sour look on her face.

“Mom, he had permission.  Uncle Frank knows the head nurse and since the bed was empty she said he could stay,” Jimmy said.

“Humph,” was her response.

“Well it looks like little Jimmy got to spend Christmas Eve with his boyfriend after all,” said a smug looking Junior who was standing in the background.  The smiles left both Jimmy’s and Matty’s faces.  In an instant George wheeled around and grabbed his son by the collar.

“I’m telling you for the last time boy, if I ever hear you say something like that again you will regret it.  Now you can wait for the family in the lobby,” George hissed, inches from Junior’s face and then pushed the boy towards the door. “And by the way, you’re grounded for a week.”

“George, I don’t think that’s necessary,” Bonnie said defending her favorite. 

“Well I think it is, end of story,” said a still angry George. 

The rest of the visit went well and quickly, George was going to return at one to take the boys to Frank’s.  As the family was leaving George remained behind and quietly told Jimmy he was able to get into his room earning a big smile in return. 

********

Frank was cleaning up from the Christmas dinner that George’s mother had sent over.  They ate the dinner in Frank’s bedroom; he was letting the boys stay in his king-size bed since Jimmy was supposed to stay off his leg as much as possible.  The boys had opened their presents from “Santa” when Jimmy handed Matty a gift and Matty did the same. “You go first,” Jimmy said enthusiastically.  Matty ripped the paper off and opened the box and burst out laughing.  It was a framed picture that they had taken on the boardwalk this past summer where they were dressed as cowboys from the 1890’s. 

“You don’t like?” Jimmy said.

“No numbnuts, open yours,” Matty said with a smile.  When Jimmy finally got the box open he found the same photo, just in a different frame. 

“Well it looks like great minds think alike,” Jimmy said.  Then he offered his hand for a hi-five and when Matty connected he grabbed it and pulled him into a tight hug, “Merry Christmas, buddy.”

The End.

Dear Readers,

We would like to wish you all a very Blessed & Merry Christmas and a Happy & Prosperous New Year.  As always, thank you for reading and for your email throughout the year.  Stay tuned, Potter’s Wheel will be back before you know it!

Pete & Jim  

 Posted: 12/20/13