The Laundromat

By: Will B
(© 2009 by the author)
Aided, abetted, and assisted (as always) by E Walk

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

Author’s Note: This story was inspired in part by a story that appeared in a recent issue of the Baltimore Sun, the story of a 62-year-old man, who had had a distinguished career in the military and in the Baltimore City Police Department, but who felt so lonely that he took his own life. No indication of the gentleman’s sexual orientation is intended or implied.

At 5:00 on a Friday evening it was pissing down rain outside, and the temperature was 40 degrees. Inside the Laundromat it was warm and cozy, but 65-year-old Bill Burrows paid no attention to the warmth inside or the cold outside. He was numb with grief as he went about his appointed task of taking one load of clothes from the dryer (he had a second load in the washer) and folding them neatly. They were the clothes of his lover—his companion—his partner of nearly 30 years, Dale Chase.

Dale had passed away a few months earlier, and at last, Bill had been able to face the task of washing, drying, and folding Dale’s clothes before he packed them into bags to take to the Good Will Store which was located two blocks away,

As he folded the clothes he remembered scenes from his life with Dale. There was the time they had met….

The bar was crowded and noisy. Bill had gone to the bar, a popular hangout for the gay men of the neighborhood. He was going to have a couple of drinks, and then go home and read. He hadn’t reckoned on this being amateur night at the bar and a number of guys were displaying their ‘talents,’ in the hopes that they would be ‘discovered’ by a talent scout for television or the movies, or even an agent looking for fresh meat for the gay porn videos.

A pole had been erected on the little stage, and two of the wannabe stars were doing what they thought was a sensuous strip tease, rubbing their packages against the pole, or against each other. They were being cheered on by some of the rowdier men in the audience, with cries of “Take it all off, babe,” and “Show us what you got, dude.”

Bill had had enough. He was staring at the table, and thinking he would just go home where it was quiet, when a shape appeared before him. “Mind if I sit here, friend? All the other tables are taken,” said a deep voice.

“Sure, why not.” Bill replied. “I was just about to….” He looked up and found himself staring at the waist of a man wearing jeans and tee shirt. The man had washboard abs and an interesting bulge below the belt.

“…have another drink. Sure. Sit down.” Bill looked a little higher and saw a pair of broad shoulders, and then a neck and square chin, and then he looked at the stranger’s face and saw an infectious grin, a pair of blue eyes, and a mass if curly black hair. The guy was about Bill’s age, and it must be confessed that Bill’s heart did a ‘flip-flop’ as he gazed into the eyes of this good-looking—no, make that hot-looking man!

“Sure, please join me,” Bill said. “I’m Bill Burrows,” he said extending his hand.

“I’m Dale Chase,” and Dale shook Bill’s hand in a firm grip that was warm to the touch. He sat down with a glass of beer and looked at Bill. “Are you into this kind of thing?” Dale asked.

“Not really. I was thinking about going home, but then…,” Bill gave a little smile.

“Where is home, if I might ask,” Dale said.

“I have an apartment at 6503 Kensington Avenue,” Bill said.

“No shit! That’s where I live. I moved in yesterday. What’s your apartment number?”

“2-C,” Bill replied.

Dale put back his head and laughed, showing a beautiful set of pearly whites. “This is unbelievable! I’m in 2-D, right across the hall from you.”

“Well, look, neighbor, waddaya say, we split. Come on back to my apartment and we can continue this talk with a little peace and quiet?”…

… As he folded clothes slowly, Bill thought about that first visit. He put the coffee pot on and soon the two men were sitting comfortably in Bill’s living room, drinking coffee and eating some coffee cake that wasn’t too old—but neither seemed to notice whether the cake was fresh or not. In the next few weeks, enjoyment of the conversations changed to liking, which flourished into friendship, and Bill felt it was becoming something more.

Outside the rain was still pouring down. Pedestrians were splashed by water from the gutters as buses drove swiftly through the streets but Bill hardly noticed. It barely registered on Bill’s consciousness when the door opened and a new customer came into the laundromat. Bill was remembering….

“…Hey, buddy,” Dale called. “Come over to my place. I’ve got something to show you.” Bill went across the hall to Dale’s apartment. Dale told Bill to sit on the couch and get comfortable. Dale was wearing a tee shirt, a pair of khaki pants, and a pair of sandals with no socks. Bill thought how great it would be to suck on those …, but, no, he mustn’t go there!

“You remember that bar where we met?” Dale asked.

“Sure do,” Bill replied.

“Remember those poor guys trying to show off on that stage?” Dale asked

“Yeah, they were pathetic.”

“I think that’s because they didn’t have the proper motivation. They were trying to be sexy, when they should have tried to be little corny.”

“Waddaya mean, Dale?”

“I think they should have had a routine—something a little original. Maybe something like this.”

Dale stood in the middle of the room and began to recite,

“Simple Simon, met a pie-man, going to the fair.” (Here Dale kicked off one sandal).

“Said Simple Simon to the pie-man…” (Dale kicked off the other sandal).

“Let me taste your wares.” (Dale slowly lifted his tee shirt over his head and flipped it at Bill).

“Said the pie-man to Simple Simon…” (Dale unbuckled his belt, and slowly drew it out of the loops).

“Show me first your penny.”  (Dale slowly lowered his pants to the floor and stepped out of them. He was wearing but a pair of Jockey shorts).

“Indeed, sir, I haven’t a single penny.” (Dale slowly rotated in a circle).

Dale stopped speaking in verse, and said in prose.

“If you haven’t got a penny, my fine stud, you may look—just look!”

Here Dale stood right in front of Bill and slowly, ever so slowly, eased his Jockeys down over his hips, lower and lower until they were around his ankles. Bill could hardly breathe. Right before his face was the most gorgeous seven-inch cock he had ever seen.

As he watched Dale gyrated his hips, and fondled his meat so that it became semi-erect.

Bill looked up at Dale, and Dale looked down at him with a smile on his face. “You, my friend, don’t need a penny. You could touch it if you like.”

Bill leaned his head forward and gently let his tongue play across the tip of the helmet.

Dale moaned, “Aaahhhhh.”

Bill licked the shaft on both sides from tip to base. The smell of Dale’s pubic hairs was intoxicating. Bill put his hands around Dale’s hips to pull him closer.

Dale’s cock was now steel hard, and Bill began to kiss the tip, flicking his tongue back and forth across the slit. As the first drops of pearly pre-cum appeared, Bill took as much of the organ into his mouth as he could.

Dale began pumping himself in and out of Bill’s mouth.

At last Dale said “I’m about to….”

“’S okay, let her rip,” Bill said, and he was rewarded with five shots of creamy white semen that filled his mouth and ran down his chin.

When Dale pulled away, both men were breathless for a minute or two. Finally Dale asked, “So that’s how I would do it. Do you think I could land a part in a skin flick?”

Bill looked at him and said, “Babe, you can flick your skin at me anytime you like.”….

… Bill was almost in tears as he folded the last of the clothes in the first dryer load. ‘Why,’ he thought to himself, ‘why did Dale have to leave me? We were so happy. Why, dammit, why?’

Bill knew what he was going to do. He was going to walk two blocks to the Good Will Store, and then he was going to go home and have that last glass of whiskey. He’d made his plans well. Soon he’d be with Dale again. Just a little longer until….

Thunder crashed and lightning slashed the sky, and the rain poured down harder than ever. Bill was still so lost in thought that he was unaware of the customer sitting in the chair next to his, with a basket of crumpled laundry, waiting until Bill could empty the washing machine.

Bill was remembering that day that he and Dale had first given themselves to each other completely….

…Dale was slowly edging his white briefs over his hips so that his cock was lying against his balls. Then he leaned back against the wall, stretching and raising his hands over his head as his cock began to stiffen. Then he lay on the floor on his back, and began to manipulate his penis, and a look of lust…of longing…came over his face.

Raising his legs into the air, he said, “Bill, take me. Make me yours. I want to feel you in my love canal.” Bill knelt down and began to lick the inside of Dale’s thighs, Dale moved in paroxysms of pleasure.

“Wait,” said Dale, and he reached up onto the couch and took a pillow from the couch and put it under his hips.

Bill resumed his licking, but this time he licked the Valley of Delight between Dale’s butt cheeks. Up and down that slender crevice he went until his tongue stopped at the rim of Dale’s opening. He used his spit to lubricate the opening, and then he drove his tongue into Dale’s opening. Dale spammed in delight.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Babe.” Bill said tenderly.

“Just do it, Bill. Put that pile driver of yours where it belongs. If there’s any pain it won’t last long. I just want…you…to…fuck… me….and …do…it….now.”

As Bill pushed his meat into Dale, Dale uttered an “Aaaaaaiiiiiiieeee!  Aaaaaiiiieee!” And then came “Aaaaahhhhhh!”  “Oooooaaaahhhhh!”

As Bill’s semen erupted into Dale’s anus, Dale ejaculated all over his own chest and neck and shoulders. When the two had finished, they lay with Bill face down on Dale’s torso. They kissed and kissed and kissed some more.

Bill backed off, and put some of Dale’s cum on his fingers and stuck into his own mouth. Before he could do anything else, Dale reached down and took some of the silvery ejaculate from Bill’s now flaccid cock, onto his fingers and then put his fingers into his own mouth.

Smiling at Bill, he said “Share?”

The two lovers kissed again and this time, shared their semen with each other. Then they lay back down side by side and fell asleep…

…Bill had taken the last of the first load of clothes out of the dryer and now turned to the washer with the second load of clothes to put them in the dryer. ‘Soon, soon,’ he thought to himself, ‘I’ll be able to go back to my apartment, and mail that letter and then drink that special cocktail, and … oh, dear God, then I’ll be with Dale again.’

Unnoticed by Bill, one of the shirts in the washing machine had fallen to the floor. The man in the next chair got up and picked the shirt off the floor.

“Here you go, friend. I don’t think there’s any damage done since the shirt was almost dry,” the man said.

“Oh! Why, thank you,” Bill replied. He wished the stranger would go away and leave him with his thoughts. But the stranger didn’t move.

“I’m Dick Conroy, retired salesman…I just moved here.”

Common courtesy required Bill to smile and in turn say, “I’m Bill Burrows, also retired.”

“I’m happy to meet you. You’re the first person I’ve met since I moved here.” Dick smiled, and Bill’s heart almost stopped. His smile was so much like Dale’s.

Dick went on, “I see you’re putting those clothes into a couple of bags marked Good Will. That’s a nice idea, getting rid of things you don’t need.”

Bill started to say that they weren’t things he DIDN’T need, but he realized that that might lead to him saying more than he wanted this …this Dick to know, more than Bill wanted to reveal. Instead he said, “Yeah, well…, when they’re done I’m going to take them to the Good Will Store.”

“It’s still pissing down rain, but you’ll be in your car,” Dick said.

“Uh, no, my car’s in the shop. I’m going to walk. The rain will end soon.”

Just then another roll of thunder sounded and another bolt of lightning slashed through the sky … and the rain came down even harder. In spite of himself, Bill shivered at the thought of that walk in the downpour. But he’d soon be home and then he could… have that last drink.

“Tell you what, Bill. If you don’t mind waiting until my one load of laundry is done, I’ll run you to the Good Will place, and then I’ll drop you off wherever you want to go.”

“That’s nice of you, Dick, but I wouldn’t want to impose…,” Bill started to say.

“Oh, bosh, Bill! I’d be glad to have some company for a while, and you can tell me about this city. I really have nobody to talk to. I have no immediate family, and my... someone very close to me recently died, and well ..., you know how it is. But, no, I guess you don’t,” Dick said.

“Okay, Dick. I’ll take you up on your offer; I would appreciate a ride. I wouldn’t want to catch my death of pneumonia.” Bill smiled inwardly as he thought about what he was going to do, and now he was afraid of a few sniffles.

Dick finished his laundry and the two men dashed out of the Laundromat to Dick’s car. As they drove Bill to the Good Will Store, they chatted quite easily, as if they had been friends for years.

When Bill had taken the clothes to the store, and gotten back into the car, Dick said, “Look, if you don’t have any other plans, how about we get some supper? My treat.”

Bill thought for about two seconds and then said, “Sure, that’d be nice. Thank you. I would really like that.”

So Dick and Bill went to supper and there was more pleasant, ordinary conversation. The thoughts were not very profound,  but they had the effect of causing Bill’s heart to thaw and thoughts of ‘that last drink’ to fade.

When they drove back to Bill’s apartment, Bill asked, “Dick, would you like to come up for a cup of coffee?”

“Sure, my friend. I would like that.”

They went into the apartment and Bill invited Dick to sit down while he put the coffee on.

The first thing Bill did was switch on the coffee machine. “Won’t be long, Make yourself at home,” he called into the living room. He went into his bathroom and emptied that vial of sleeping pills down the toilet, and then he tore up the letter to the Police Department, which he had been going to mail, along with a key to his apartment, so they would have been able to retrieve his body after…he had taken that last drink.

“Coffee’s ready,” he said to Dick. “Come on into the kitchen. It’s cozier in here.”

They were drinking their coffee, and Bill suddenly said to Dick, “Has anybody ever told you you’re a real life saver?”

Dick laughed. “That’s funny, pal. I was about to say the same thing to you. I guess maybe we’re both life savers.”

The End

E’s comment:  All I can say is WOW!  Mr. B. packed a lot into one short story.  I’m glad that Dick and Bill found each other in the nick of time.

Posted: 03/13/09