A Marine Called Jason
(Revised)
by: Peter

(© 2007-2015 by the Author)
 

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

Chapter 20
Home, Settling In 

I went to see my family for a brief visit before setting out to get on with my life. The first thing I did was drive to Dunnsport to see Jason. Yeah, I know, he was in the ground in that goddamned cemetery, but I needed to visit him there. First thing I did was pick up a six-pack of beer. I was old enough to get served now. Damned if the bartender didn’t recognize me.

“You back to visit Jason’s folks?” he asked as he was ringing me up.

“No, Jason,” I said.

“Oh,” he said, nodding.

I drove to the cemetery and parked as close as I could to his    grave. I got out and walked to his grave, the six pack of cold beer dangling at my side. I froze when I saw his bronze military marker. I didn’t know why it hit me so hard; I should’ve expected it. But it wasn’t there before, at his funeral, and it was such a final and stark reminder that he was dead. I stood and read it. “CPO Jason Seaborne, United States Navy, NS401226454, SEAL Team One, Sniper, Vietnam.” Damn, what a resume!

I sat down in the grass facing the marker and popped a beer.

“Hey, fucker, I’m back,” I said, holding the can up in a salute. “And I’m out. I know you wouldn’t approve, you think I’m a pussy for copping out, I should’ve stuck it out and finished the job, but they’re not gonna let us finish it. The goddamned politicians aren’t going to let us win. All those young lives are being wasted. Sorry, buddy, but that’s how I feel.  I know you wouldn’t have come back. Well, I wouldn’t have either if you’d still been there with me. I would’ve stuck it out with you no matter what. But you weren’t there and Goddammit, I couldn’t stand being there without you. I tried. Fuck, how I tried! I even extended twice.” I paused, took another drink and pursed my lips, fighting down my emotions. “Toby said to say Hey.” I paused again, trying to decide whether I should tell him.  “I shouldn’t tell you this, but maybe you already know--I don’t know how things work up there. Toby fucked my eyeballs out before I left.” I paused again, like I was waiting for him to respond. “He wasn’t as good as you, though. Nobody ever will be.” I started tearing up again and finished off the beer. I crushed the can and laid it carefully on the other side of his marker. I reached for another beer but didn’t open it. I just sat there, staring at the ground that covered the man I loved more than anything or anybody else in the world, till finally, I dropped my head and let the sobs take over. I didn’t cry long.

“Fuck, I swore I wouldn’t do this!” I mumbled. Finally, I stood up and brushed off my pants. I picked up the rest of the six-pack but set it back down on his marker. Maybe he might have another visitor who would like a cold one. I stared at the marker for a moment then turned and walked away. I didn’t look back. I knew I would come again and it felt good that he was so close.

I stayed with my folks for less than a week. They were disappointed when I told them I was moving on; somehow they thought I had come home to stay. For how long they planned that, I didn’t know. Fact was, we didn’t get along like we did before. Try as she might, Mom couldn’t help being Mom and treating me like I was still a kid in school.  Dad… well, that was a simple matter of two men living under the same roof.  Truth was, I wasn’t the teenager who left and I didn’t think they liked the man who came back home.  We parted on good terms, but we all understood that parting had to happen, for all our sakes.

I was drawn to Columbus, Ohio. It was a big city but close enough to Jason in Dunnsport, as well as my hometown of Benton Heights over in Indiana.  Maybe Toby was right; maybe I was still looking for Jason; and I knew where he would always be now, and I took comfort in that.  I moved into a motel till I could find a permanent place. There was construction all around Columbus and I landed a job as an assistant foreman on one of the sites and began looking to buy a place of my own.

My choice of a real estate agent was a real fluke.  He turned out to be gay. I didn’t see it in him but he saw it in me first.  Hell, I was looking for a place to buy, not a sex partner.  We’d been working together for over a week and he revealed himself to me one day when he was showing me a property. It was a place well out in the country, located in heavily wooded hills back off a winding lane. A small stream cut into the back of the property for several hundred yards.  The house was a big, old farmhouse, on its way to being run down but with a lot of potential. There was a small barn, complete with hayloft, and horse stables and some other outbuildings.  I envisioned myself becoming a part-time farmer.  There was still some furniture left in the house; a big kitchen table and chairs, an old cabinet that I deemed to be an antique, and some chairs and tables and a huge woven rug in the living room.

"There's not enough land to farm, but you could raise farm animals, and a big garden," Josh, my agent, was saying as we stood in the barn.

"I guess that'd be close enough to being a farmer," I said.

"You could do about anything you want back here," he went on.  "It’s very much out of the way, secluded to a fault up here on the hill. You could have loud, wild parties and nobody would ever know."

"I'm not really a party guy," I said.  "At least not loud, wild parties."

"Ah, the more intimate type," he said.

I laughed.  We went back inside for me to take another look through the house. My mind was already pretty much made up but I wanted to go through it again and inspect it for any serious faults that I'd missed before.  I found nothing new and the ones I saw were fixable.

"I think I'll take it," I announced in the kitchen.

"Great.  I'll get the paper work started."

"How long do you think it'll take?" I asked.

"Well, since there's no one living here, occupancy can be immediate.  It's just the time to get the loan approved and the papers shoved through the system.  I'm very good at that."

"When can we start on the paper work?" I asked. “The loan won’t be a problem; I’ve got some money saved up.”

"Right now, then, if you want to come back to my office," he said.

"Fine," I said.

I took a moment to look around the kitchen again.

"Makes you want to celebrate, doesn't it?" Josh remarked.

"Maybe I will when it's mine," I said.

"I could think of a thousand ways," he said.

I glanced at him, thinking it was an odd thing for him to say. He caught my glance and in that split second of eye contact, as most often happens, something clicked. We both hesitated and neither of us made any move to leave and it was awkward for a few seconds till Josh spoke.

"You're new to the area.  I could show you places to go celebrate," he said.

It came to me in a flash and the words came out.  "How about right here, right now?" I said boldly.

Josh smiled, still hesitant.

"I gotta admit, I've been admiring the way you're put together," I said.

"Likewise.  And I've got a soft spot for Marines," he said. “Especially Marines with balls who aren’t afraid to go after what they want.” 

“You could say I’ve got balls, then. Have to have to be a Marine,” I said.

“I’ll bet you have.” He laid his briefcase on the table and moved toward me.

"And where would that soft spot be that you’ve got for Marines?" I asked smartly.

“I’m sure with a little recon, you’ll find it.”

We undressed each other and I found his soft spot and he offered it to me. I fucked him bent over the kitchen table.  He wasn't Jason… he never could be, especially in that position, but he was a cute, live, warm, responsive man of muscle and I needed that. I fucked his eyeballs out.  He was a wreck by the time I finished. He lay sprawled across the table, limp and gasping for air. I saw the puddles of cum on the floor and cum still draining out of his cock when I pulled out.  My own cum was trickling out of his asshole.

"My Godd!" he said as he struggled to rise up from the table.  "I've never been fucked like that in my life!"

"You've never been fucked by a Marine, then.  There's more where that came from," I said cockily.

"I'll take it! Shit, you're not even breathing hard!" he exclaimed.

"That's the Marine training," I said.

Josh and I got to be good friends after that.  He showed me around the surrounding towns and Columbus, Ohio.  He took me to the two gay men's clubs and bathhouses, several gay bars and a male strip club.  I was grateful to him, and showed it on more than one occasion, but as soon as I knew my way around I began to venture out on my own. 

For brief moments from time to time I forgot about Jason, but he was always there, inside me.  As I went about fixing up the house I always imagined him there with me.  It was like I was fixing it up for us. Every man I met was gauged against him and none of them measured up.  And I had my three pictures of him  enlarged and framed and they hung in my bedroom.

I made the trip to see my family again when my mom decided to have a reunion over Labor Day weekend. It would be good to see my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins that I hadn't seen for so long.  And especially my brother and his wife and kids.

I was taken aback when I saw Brian's kids.  Melanie was a knockout teenage babe and Hunter had fulfilled his potential as a young stud.  Melanie had her boyfriend with her but he was off talking to someone else while she was gushing full of questions about the war and Vietnam, the country and the people.  I thought that unusual for a teenage girl.  It took a while to get around to Hunter because of getting reacquainted with people.  He and I ended up sitting across from each other at a picnic table to eat, along with Melanie and Roger, her boyfriend.

"Geezuss, what happened to you?" I said as I looked Hunter up and down.  "Last time I saw you, you were about this high. Hell, probably still shitting green.”

"I guess I grew up," he said. “It was bound to happen.”

“He’s still shitting green,” Melanie said.

Roger, the older of the three seemed quiet and reserved; he laughed but didn’t say anything

"You grew up and out," I said, clapping my hands around his broad shoulders. "Well, shit, no wonder," I said, nodding to his plate heaped with food.

I learned that Hunter was about to turn eighteen, starting his senior year.

"What sports?" I asked.

"Football, baseball, wrestling.  I tried out for track and basketball but I'm too heavy and I don't have the speed.  I played soccer this summer," he told me.

"Well, it's good to know that all of that isn't going to waste," I said, indicating his muscular upper body.

"Oh, I make good use of it," he said, laughing.  "Hell, I've got it, I might as well use it."

"Somehow, I don't think that was a reference to sports," I said quietly with a suspicious grin.

“He likes to brag,” Melanie said.  

Just then a car drove up and a drop-dead blonde got out, wearing shorts and a top that barely covered and contained her tits.

"Speaking of sports....." Hunter said with a proud smile as he got up from the table.  “There’s my main squeeze.”

“That’s something to brag about,” I remarked as he was going to meet her.  I noticed Roger noticing her too.

Hunter went to meet her, brought her back to the table, and introduced her.  "Uncle Brad, this is Angie.  Angie, this is my Uncle Brad.  He’s just out of the Marines.”

I stood up part way and took the hand that she offered me.  We chatted for a moment then she headed off to see Hunter's mom.

"Damn!" I said softly. Hunter laughed. "You were speaking of....?" I said.

"Like I said, I try to put all of my God-given talents and attributes to good use," he said.

"She is obviously very comfortable around the family," I observed. "How long have you been going with her?"

"About a year. And yeah, I try to make her real comfortable," he said with a mischievous grin.

It was a fun day.  I couldn't get my fill of Hunter.  He was funny and he was great eye candy, just like before only now he was close to legal.  I was almost jealous of Angie--the way he hung on her, with his arm around her.  His hand would slip down to her butt from time to time and hers to his butt when they thought no one was looking.  Evening came and I needed to get on the road.  I began the rounds of telling everyone good-bye.  My mom and dad walked out to my car with me then Hunter came up, along with Angie, and Melanie and Roger.  He’d remained rather aloof; he hadn’t talked much.

"Hey, maybe I'll come for a visit over Thanksgiving break," Hunter said.

"That'd be great.  I've got plenty of room," I said.

“I’ll be having Thanksgiving here,” my mother said as she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“We’ll play it by ear,” I said, then her and Dad walked back a ways to wait for me to drive off and they could wave goodbye.

“Maybe we’ll all come,” Melanie chimed in. “Do you have room for all of us?”

“All, meaning….?”

“The four of us,” she said quietly so her parents wouldn’t hear.  “That is if you’d like to go,” she said to her boyfriend.

“Sure, I’d like to see your place,” he said.

“Just make sure your parents never find out, nor your grandparents,” I said.

That scenario, of the two couples and especially the big hunk, Roger, staying with me for a couple of days whetted my appetite and gave me something to look forward to.  I got the house in order and set about fixing up rooms for them.  I'd planned on making the room farther down the hall from my room into a guest room anyway, and I also fixed up the room right across my mine.

To be continued...  

Posted: 02/20/15 rp