March 7, 1979

 

Dan awoke about an hour after sunrise, when the warmth of the rays of an autumn, morning sun, fell through the window onto his naked body. Realising he was in the tree house with Jake, he turned over and spooned his boyfriend. Jake’s eyes opened instantly and a smile brightened his face.

 

Jake asked with a tone of amusement, “What do you think you’re doing with that thing?”

 

“Nothing, Jake, I’m just spooning and it happened to be in that condition at the time,” Dan said.

 

“So you weren’t trying to possess my body with an evil spirit?”

 

“No but Jake, though the flesh may be hard, the spirit within is warm and nurturing, sort of like a mother’s milk.”

 

“Well, last night I certainly felt nurtured, especially when I was feeding on all that protein enriched, um, milk,” Jake said, laughed and then added, “You do know what we did last night is illegal at our age, though, don’t you?”

 

“It should be a minimum of sixteen, Jake. Eighteen is just a ridiculous age of consent for gay men.”

 

“Is that right? Well maybe you should become a politician and change the laws,” Jake joked.

 

“Actually, I heard somewhere the issue has been discussed, probably not for gay men but whatever, I know I heard somewhere they were considering changing it to sixteen. Maybe things in Australia will be different sooner than you think and maybe you won’t be illegal anymore. “Happy Sweet Sixteen, you old man,” Dan said.

 

“Shit, I forgot it was my birthday,” Jake replied.

 

“Just as well I was here to remind you,” Dan said.

 

“Hmm, yeah, just as well,” Jake replied.

 

“What would you like as a gift?”

 

“You gave it to me last night. Several times if I remember correctly,” Jake said and laughed.

 

“So it seems maybe you might not be illegal for too much longer – so, in that case...”

 

“Dan, even if the law changed today and it was legal for me, you don’t turn sixteen until November and so it would still be illegal for us to, um, enjoy each other.”

 

“Are you always going to be this much of a nit-picker? If that’s the case you’ll never get pregnant and we’ll never have a son of our own,” Dan quipped.

 

“Dan, are you insane? Even though your imagination is both touching and amusing and I think it might be nice for us to have a son one day; you and I are gay men, I doubt we’ll ever be able to get married and I certainly doubt we’ll ever be able to adopt a child. I guess we’ll just have to accept that sex, love and a long-term partnership will be the best we can hope for,” Jake said.

 

“Damn, you’re such a killjoy. I hope you don’t carry those grey clouds around with us for the rest of our lives together. I guess I’ll have to be the optimist if we want to continue, what did you call it, enjoying each other? Anyway, does that sex and love remark mean I can ‘enjoy you’ while continuing our long-term relationship, before we go back into your parent’s house to celebrate your birthday?”

 

The smirk on Jake’s face quickly faded in favour of a chuckle and he said, “You know, your handsome face, your beautiful body and your hard dick will probably lead me to my grave but as I can’t resist you, go on, take me, you hot stud.

 

“Oh baby, come to Daddy and let Daddy come for you.”

 

As they had the night before, during the following hour, Dan and Jake explored each other’s naked bodies. They touched, they kissed, they sucked and they played before Dan took Jake again. Their inexperienced sex was better then the night before but they both knew that with time it would get better than it was. Even so, it was passionate and surrounded by their love for each other.

 

Afterwards, they lay in a loving embrace kissing and cuddling but eventually they climbed down from the tree house and went inside. They showered and then went to the kitchen and Dan suggested he would make Jake a birthday breakfast. Jake chuckled and said he would like that but Maggie appeared before Dan could destroy her kitchen.

 

“Happy Birthday, Jake,” she said and he left his boyfriend to give his mother a kiss and a hug.

 

“I was just going to make breakfast for Jake. Would you like something, Mrs Edwards?”

 

“That’s very kind Dan but how about you both sit down and I’ll make breakfast for everyone,” Maggie replied.

 

“Nice save, Maggie,” Brad said as he entered the kitchen and Maggie looked at him and rolled her eyes.

 

“Morning, Mr Edwards,” Dan said.

 

“Morning, Dan. Happy Birthday, Jake.”

 

“Thanks Dad,” Jake replied and gave his father a hug.

 

The three guys sat down at the kitchen table and talked while Maggie set about cooking bacon, eggs and toast for everyone. Coffees were made in between and as the four shared the morning like a family, there was laughter and good feelings all round.

 

After breakfast, Jake’s parents gave him his present, which was a portable, twelve inch, colour television for his bedroom, a couple t-shirts and a pair of Levi’s. Later, on the sly when Brad got Jake alone, he slid a twenty-dollar note into Jake’s pocket and as he gave him a hug he said, “That’s for when you and Dan pedal off for the day. Buy whatever you want and enjoy yourselves on me.”

 

“I love you and thanks, Dad.”

 

“You’re welcome, Jakey.”

 

Before the boys got on their bikes to go riding, Dan went home to see his mother and to find out what the mood was like or whether anything had changed. He gave his mum a kiss and a hug as he entered through the kitchen door but his father, who had been sitting at the kitchen table reading the morning paper, stood up without a word and left the room.

 

“Give him time, Dan,” Carol said but the look in her eyes and the sound of her voice said two completely different things.

 

Dan nodded and then said, “Jake and I are going riding, Mum. We should be back in a couple hours.”

 

“Be safe, sweetheart,” Carol said and Dan smiled and left the house again.

 

During the day, as well as the following days, Dan and Jake spent practically every daylight hour together. They discussed many things and made several decisions they thought were important.

 

Dan suggested that even though he wanted to sleep with Jake every night, they should keep their lives as normal as possible for the time being, simply because he thought it best they did not disturb or unsettle their parents. Jake agreed and as a consequence, the sex between them took place in random, secret places or whenever one of their houses was empty during the day.

 

Jake brought up the subject of school and both boys decided they both wanted to return and to go on to year twelve. Jake added that they could decide at the end of that time if they wanted to go to university. Dan said that he thought they should keep their sexuality quiet where school was concerned. He also suggested they could come out to anyone that mattered after school was over but until then, it would be best if they sort of stayed in the closet. Jake agreed and then suggested they return to school on the following Monday.

 

On the following Saturday, Carol showed up to visit Maggie and Brad while Jake and Dan were in Jake’s bedroom hanging out. The boys snuck out and stood out of sight at the top of the stairs and listened to the conversation.

 

Carol discussed the boys and spoke of how she was okay with what was happening with them and Jake’s parents agreed before Brad added, he thought the boys seemed very mature and responsible with the way they were handling everything. Carol then said that David did not appear that he would ever accept homosexuality as normal and that things between she and David were not looking positive. She said that she did not know if they would stay together.

 

Before March was over, life for the boys was back to normal in every way, except for their relationship, which by then was even more multifaceted. They were still friends, they were still blood brothers and they still loved each other but now there was no longer anything that was hidden because now they were boyfriends as well.

 

By June, David and Carol were divorced and David left. He made no contact and never returned to visit his wife or son but oddly, Dan was not sad and Carol had never seemed more light and sociable and happy. She shared a lot of time with Maggie and they became true friends.

 

Christmas was shared at the Edwards residence with the Murphy’s, excluding David of course. It had taken on the persona of two families connected through marriage and it seemed it would continue on that way for years to come.

 

Two years later, after the boys completed school, they both decided not to go to university and instead to start looking for work. Neither was certain of what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives and so they decided to just get jobs and see where their ambitions led them.

 

Another year passed by and it was the beginning of spring, September of nineteen eighty-two, when they finally decided to move out of home and to begin their new lives living together alone. By that point, Jake was nineteen and Dan was eighteen but somehow, their love, their connection and also their importance to each other had grown even stronger and tighter. Their attitudes were in perfect alignment and all they could believe was the future, their future, would be experienced and shared together. Everything seemed perfect and ready and waiting but only time would tell.

 

It was during the year before, though, at the beginning of nineteen eighty-one, they heard about the new plague that was killing gay men. It caused so much fear and hesitancy and uncertainty individually. It also caused a stoppage in certain things they did together in private.

 

Regardless of their love for each other or the fact that they were still at the start of all that was ahead, AIDS became a threat to their innate, individual perspectives of self-protection. They may have been in their sexual primes but sex seemed to offer death, at least in the beginning.

 

Dan was the more rational of the two under the circumstances and so it was he that tried to move things forward but Jake was terrified. Jake refused to have sex of any kind and even stopped touching Dan in bed. It started putting immense pressure on their relationship. They began fighting about it and eventually they began fighting about the most trivial things as well.

 

In the middle of their last fight back at that time, Dan walked up to Jake, wrapped his arms around him and kissed him. It shocked Jake completely and then Dan said, “Jake, I love you, you love me, we love each other. We can sleep together, we can hold each other and we can give each other hand jobs. I don’t care about the rest. Well, I do but I just want things to be the way they were with us before this fucking disease came into existence. I don’t want to fight with you and I can’t stand not being able to touch you. Please Jake, stop pushing me away.”

 

Irrespective of their questions, doubts and extreme caution, as time went on, in spite of their fears, they learned everything they could about the disease, continued to follow a cautious approach and relied heavily on their love and friendship to keep them together until a hoped-for cure was found.

 

Though the cure did not come, years floated by and they remained inseparable. Eventually they came out the other side of the fear unscathed, believing that it was their monogamy, their eyes for each other only, along with no untimely blood transfusions or unhealthy requirements, which left them as two of the lucky ones.

 

Later, as it is for most young people, time seemed like an ally, life seemed like an amusement park and perhaps in an unusual manner, their love, their trust and their respect for each other seemed incapable of destruction. For Dan and Jake nothing seemed right if the other was not in some way a part of, a benefit of or a consequence of the world that lay before them.

 

Once again, only time would tell.

 

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