Part 22, IT DOES TAKE A VILLAGE
From Part 21,
“Brad, I’ve got a special patient that
could use a little cheering up. I was wondering if you and your friends would
mind stopping by his room, just for a few minutes?”
“Howie, if it’ll help, we’d be happy to
say ‘hi’. Who’s the patient?”
“Young guy, 15 years old, who was
admitted earlier this week. Basically, his rectum was torn badly when he was
raped. The surgery was successful and he’s going to be fine, but he’s pretty
bummed out.” I didn’t comment on his choice of words.
“Wow, raping a minor. What kind of
animal would do that?” I asked.
“An unforgiving father who couldn’t
accept his son admitting he is gay. The father walked in on the kid and his
friend while they were exploring each other’s bodies.”
“Holy fuck,” I said, like a ton of
bricks had hit me. I felt a little faint as my heart started beating, rapidly.
By instinct, I leaned into Howie for support.
“Hey, Brent, you okay?” he asked, as he
steadied me. His arm wrapped around my shoulder was almost therapeutic.
“Umm, yeah. I’ll be fine.” I took a deep
breath and stood up, tall. I felt blood returning to my face. “Can we sit down
and talk, just for a minute?”
“Let’s go over to the reception lounge.”
Howie led me to a small room just off the nurses’ station. We sat down and I
looked into his concerned eyes.
“Howie, I’m going to trust you not to
repeat what I’m about to say.”
“I’m first a doctor. I also hope that we
can become friends later. You can trust me,” Howie said as he placed his hand
over mine.
“Doc, I was never abused, but I know the
feeling of being rejected by a father because he didn’t approve of his son
being gay.” I paused and let that sink in.
*****
BRENT
“I was 19 and didn’t expect my dad to
come home. When he arrived early, dad got an eye-full. My best friend and I
were really into each other.” I gave Howie a fast, capsule account of my past
five years, including the reconciliation with Dad.
“Unfortunately, this situation doesn’t
have a happy ending…yet. His name is Bryan Martinez. Nice, good looking, smart
kid whose future is pretty bleak.”
Howie looked down at the floor as he wrung his large, manicured hands.
“Bleak? How so?”
“The father, as I understand it, is
disenfranchised from his family in Dallas. Bryan has never met his grandparents
on either side. The mother divorced Mr. Martinez five years ago and moved back
east. She has never asked to see Bryan since.”
“Wow. That is bleak. What’ll happen to
the kid?” I asked.
“Depends on the police investigation.
Bryan lived with his dad somewhere in West L.A. We got DNA samples of the rape.
From what I understand, there is a positive match with his dad. Sounds like
foster home time.”
“So, he’s on this floor?”
“At the end of the corridor,” Howie said
with a hopeful, encouraging smile.
“Doc, you go down and tell Bryan that
there are a few friends that want to say hello, and I’ll get the troops.” We
both stood and left the lounge. When I returned to the door leading to Jim’s
room, Howie pointed further down the corridor. I nodded and returned to the
group.
“Hey, Brent, everything okay?” Doug
asked as I walked into the room. I noticed everything had been put away and Jim
was proudly holding court.
“The Doc asked a favor from all of us.
There’s a young guy down the corridor that needs a little cheer. I won’t go
into the details except to say that he was physically abused by his father and
our presence for a few minutes could be a good psychological lift.”
“Guys, I’ve monopolized your time,” Jim
said. “This has been a great evening, but sounds like this band of ten angels
is needed. To all of you, I thank you so much.”
“We’re going to have to have a party in
San Diego when you’re up and about,” said Dave. We’ve got a guest room for you
and whomever you might want to drag down.” Everyone laughed and Billy’s face
blushed profusely.
“In the meantime, take care of the young
man Brent mentioned. I know a little bit about what happened. You guys will be
good medicine,” Jim concluded. The group said goodbye, one by one, as they
filed out to the corridor.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” I said in a
stage whisper. “The guy is 15 and his name is Bryan. I’m sure that he’ll get
kinda emotional, but that’s where our acting comes into play. He needs us.” I
motioned for everyone to follow me. I saw Sean at the end of the corridor,
waving and smiling.
When we arrived at the open door, Sean
announced, “Dr. Bragman, would you tell Bryan that he has some visitors?”
“Hey, guy. A few people want to come in
and say, ‘hi’. You okay with that?” Howie asked.
“If you say it’s okay, I’d like that,” a
young, baritone, male voice replied. After Sean nodded, I entered the room.
Following behind was the entire group. One by one we surrounded the bed. Before
us was a handsome, young teen with short, dark hair, a fair complexion and
large brown eyes.
“Hi, Bryan. I’m Brad and these are some
of my buddies. We were visiting a good friend, a few rooms away, and the Doc
said that you might like some company,” I said with a low, soft tone.
The crew followed up with variations of
an upbeat greeting. Each smiled and waved.
“Hi,” he squeaked as his eyes got larger.
His head slowly turned and studied each face in his line of sight. His mouth
dropped open when he made it back to me. “Is this some sort of dream? I
recognize some of you from the television. Is someone pulling my leg?” he asked
meekly.
“Some of us work on TV, Bryan,” Billy
said. “But tonight we just want to be friends. We know you had it pretty rough,
guy. I’m here to tell you that there are good days ahead.”
“Sez who?” he asked politely with a hint
of defiance.
“Sez me, big guy,” Howie answered. “I wanted
you to meet these guys and let you know that there are plenty of people pulling
for you.” He smiled and put his big hand on Bryan’s shoulder.
“And someone from this group will visit
you every day until you mend,” I said. “I’d like to get to know you better.”
“Yeah, sure. A big star like you is
going to see me,” he answered, a little mockingly.
“If you’ll have me, I’ll be here, Bryan.
I work and also go to school. But I’ll be here. Is that okay?” I put out my
hand for him to grab. Reluctantly, he took my hand and we shook. The others
around the bed murmured approval.
“I take a handshake seriously,” Bryan
said. His grip was strong and his hand was warm.
“So do I, buddy.” We locked into each
other’s eyes and nodded.
*****
DOUG
We were closely wrapped together,
spooning, with my chest up against Brent’s back, my flaccid equipment parked
against his butt, and my hand resting firmly on his stomach. He was deeply
breathing, still zonked out, as the early Sunday morning light entered the
bedroom window. I had been awake for a while, replaying the last scene we
experienced at the hospital before coming home.
Knowing the details of Bryan’s abuse, I
realized that the young man in the hospital bed had emotionally touched Brent.
He gave Mike, Dave and me the sordid details when we drove back to the condo.
“Mornin’, babe,” Brent mumbled as he
touched my hand and wiggled his behind into my crotch.
“How are ya doing?”
“Except for a pee hard-on, pretty good.
Excuse me for a sec,” Brent said. He eased out of bed and stumbled into the
bathroom. Earlier, I had left the mouthwash out for my buddy. We had both
concluded, years ago, that Sunday morning loving was a special time. Moments
later, I heard a flushing sound…two, actually…and smiled, knowing that our house
guests probably had the same plan in mind.
“Feeling better?” I asked as my personal
‘stud muffin’ returned to bed. He smiled, joined me and pulled up for a fresh,
morning kiss.
“Much better.” Brent moved closer, our
awakening cocks touching. He strongly hugged me while his tongue, freshly
minted, explored my oral cavity.
“Love ya, champ,” I mumbled as we took a
break, tongue-fucking each other.
“Love me, hard.” Brent looked into my
eyes, intensely, as he ground his crotch into mine. The overcast, gray, morning
light was becoming brighter. Without much effort, I moved Brent over on his
back. Both of our cocks had grown to their full, excited size.
“Your wish shall be granted,” I replied
with a lustful smile. Getting on my knees, I straddled my lover and leaned down
for another kiss while I started massaging his pecs and lightly pinching his
nipples. I wasn’t surprised when this produced a pleasant groan.
“Oh, yes, Hon. Ahhh,” he uttered as I
started nibbling on his earlobe and laved his ear. After kissing him one more
time, I moved down to tongue his armpits, chest, aureoles and six-pack
structured torso. I momentarily pecked at his navel before taking the knob of
his prized manhood into my mouth. Tonguing his sensitive dickhead kept Brent in
overdrive while I rolled his orbs around in his scrotum with my hand.
“One for the ‘Gipper’ I said after I
left his throbbing, drooling cock. I sucked his balls while my fingers found
their way to his perineum and beyond.
“Bingo. Fuck me…love me…now.” I looked into
his eyes and read the familiar expression of sexual anticipation on his face.
He smiled when I grabbed the bottle of Wet and dribbled a generous portion of
lube on my hand. After coating his hard cock and mine, I started to work on his
puckered opening. At this stage in our partnership neither of us needed much
more that an initial stretching to prepare the anxious anus. He twitched as I
entered with two fingers and found his ‘spot’.
“You gorgeous man. I love you,” I said
as he moved his legs to my shoulders and I positioned my cock at his back door.
His butt eagerly moved to receive me.
“Urmph, oh…I love you, too,” he quietly
moaned as I slowly moved in, only stopping once my pubes brushed against his
buns. Knowing what my ‘other half’ liked, I started a variation of
long-dicking, followed by short, probing jabs aimed at his prostate. Brent
grabbed his hard cockhead and started a focused manipulation with his thumb and
forefinger. Neither of us wanted to ‘get off’ fast.
“Babe, strangle my cock with your
asshole, ahhh…oh, yeah…take it, fucker,” I yelled as I sped up my strokes after
several moments of tender loving.
“Slam it home, you beautiful
cocksucker…Kee-rist, ohhh,” Brent yelled. I felt his sphincter tighten the same
time my balls started tingling.
“I’m cumming, Brent. Shoot your
jizz…I…ahhh…oh, shit,” I shouted.
“Houston, we have contact,” Brent
retorted with a contorted smile as I plunged into him for a few, defining,
final stokes. He erupted and shot cum up his chest and torso while I flooded
his chute. He eased his legs down and I gently lay over his slick, sticky, warm
body while my dick slowly wilted to its normal, flaccid form inside Brent.
That was, indeed, a good morning,” Brent
said, as I literally slid up for a final kiss. “But the top guy has to clean
up.” Brent winked and nodded.
“Hold that thought.” We both knew what I
meant as I slid out of him and off the bed. I trotted to the bathroom and took
care of my messy business before returning with two towels: a warm, moist towel
and a dry one. I lovingly cleaned him before placing a dry towel under him.
I smiled with him as we heard, “Fuck
me,” being yelled from the guest bedroom.
“Score two points for the good guys,” I
said with a laugh. He smiled before I leaned in for another kiss…this time a
soft, tender expression of love.
“Babe, can we talk for a few minutes?”
It was only about 7:00 a.m. We had promised to meet Mike and Dave in the
kitchen around eight for some breakfast before they returned to San Diego.
“I think I know what’s on your mind.
It’s Bryan, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s Bryan and where his future
is headed. I worry about his placement into a foster home. It can be a real
crapshoot. He seems like a nice kid and I’d hate to see anything negative
happen to him.”
“Why don’t we…I emphasize ‘we’…get to
know Bryan better this week. I can certainly get over there after a day at the
studio. And we could both go over there this afternoon?” I suggested.
“That’s a good plan. He needs some adult
role models right now; gay males whom he can look to for advice. I need to tell
him about myself, Doug. To come out to him.”
“Wow, that is a statement of
commitment.”
“I need to do it, for him.” Brent looked
at me with a sincere urgency.
“I’ll support whatever you decide. I
have a funny feeling that we’d better get our home addition finished soon,” I
said with a laugh.
“Let’s figure out where his head’s at
and what our roles might be, first. I want to help Bryan, but I’m just not sure
what we can do,” Brent said with a shrug. “Enough of that right now. We need to
get cleaned up.”
We proceeded to take a shower and shave,
together. Brent and I carefully shaved each other in the shower. After throwing
on sweats and a tee, we padded out to the kitchen, made coffee and started
putting together a breakfast.
“Good morning, guys.” From behind we
heard the familiar voices of Dave and Mike. Turning, I smiled at the radiant,
just-got-fucked, facial glows each emitted.
“Hey, yourself. Brent and I are getting
ready to make breakfast: juice, scrambled eggs with diced ham, and English
muffins. Grab yourselves some coffee.
“I can get into that,” Dave replied. As
he poured coffee for both, he continued, “That was quite an evening. Kind of a
double-hitter. I felt really good to help boost Jim’s morale. But neither of us
was ready for the impact of the visit with Bryan. What a shitty hand the kid
has been dealt.”
“Bryan is really a nice boy. It appears
that he is getting a good education. I mean he doesn’t come across as some
wise-ass, street kid,” Mike said as he sipped the coffee. All four were
standing around the kitchen while Doug was cutting the ham.
“I’ll give the father credit for
providing for Bryan. Apparently he is a chef in a West Hollywood restaurant.
Doctor Howie told me that the guy is infamous for making gnarly, homophobic
comments to the waiters. Then he comes home and finds Bryan…well, you know.”
Brent looked down at the floor, briefly, unable to complete the obvious
thought.
“So much for being a father,” Dave said.
“From what I understand in pre-law, his actions just pre-empted that position,
permanently.”
“And that’s the rub. No family. The
mother hasn’t seen Bryan, or hasn’t cared to see him, since she left. In that
the father works at night, the boy is an unusually positive example of a
successful ‘latch-key kid’ situation. I guess he loves school,” Brent added as
he put the English muffins in the double toaster. “Guys, pour some juice and
sit down. Chow’s almost ready.”
“We’re going to see Bryan this afternoon
and see where his head’s at,” Doug said. He poured the egg mixture into a
large, hot skillet and started the scramble.
“Sounds like you’re going to have a
young’n in your lives, too,” Mike said.
“Too?” Brent and I asked, together.
“Yeah. A guy who is 15 and coming to terms
with being gay,” Mike said. For the next 10 minutes he and Dave related how
they met and bonded with Justin Palmer.
“So, I guess at this point we’re his
unofficial big brothers,” Dave said. “Mike and I are really concerned about his
grandma’s health. But Justin is in Minnesota at school and really isn’t a
burden on her.”
The rest of the morning was devoted to
random conversation shared with best friends. By 10:00 a.m., Mike and Dave said
goodbye and left to return to San Diego. Brent and I did a few loads of laundry
and straightened up the condo. We walked into the recently constructed doorway
that led to our soon-to-be master bedroom and entertainment center and
discussed how best to accelerate the renovation. Brent promised to call the
designer first thing in the morning. His first class wasn’t until 11:00 a.m.
*****
BRENT
Sean Fitzgerald arranged with security
to issue a special two-week pass and gate card to the underground hospital
entrance. Doug and I arrived around 2:00 p.m. and went up to Jim and Bryan’s
floor. We first stopped by and said ‘hi” to Jim. He was in great spirits. Billy
had brought over study guides from Jim’s professors so that he could make every
effort to keep up with classes until he returned to campus.
Our next stop was at Bryan’s room. Just
as we were about to enter, an unfamiliar voice said, “I’m sorry, Bryan, how
this all turned out. I still like ya, buddy.”
“You haven’t said anything at school,
have you? I mean…”
“Absolutely not. I’ve got just as much
to lose as you if the guys found out about the stuff we were doing. I told
everyone that you had an appendix operation. The gang expects you back at
school in a week or so.”
“Phew. Thanks, Jimmy.”
“I gotta go. Mom’s picking me up in a
few minutes. Bye, babe.” We heard a familiar sound of a kiss before a tall,
lanky, blond kid bounded out of the room. He excused himself as he almost ran
into us and went on.
”Hi, Bryan. I’m baaack,” I said in a pretty crummy Jack Nicholson impression.
“Bryan, my buddy is not very good at impressions,”
Doug said with a laugh. After Bryan got over the shock of having two faces from
last night in his room, he let out a giggle. “You remember Brent, AKA Brad? And
I’m Doug.”
“You came back,” he said with a
surprised expression in his voice.
“We are men of our word. If you want,
we’d like to get to know you better and be friends, maybe?” I added.
“You don’t want to be friends with a
queer.” Bryan looked down at his sheet-draped body and grimaced. He was trying,
unsuccessfully, to hold back a tear.
“I prefer the term ‘gay’ or
‘homosexual’,” I replied. “To answer your question: yes, we want to be friends,
gay or straight.” He slowly raised his head and looked at each of us. He wiped
away the tears and turned on a small, tight smile. Bryan was a handsome lad.
Genetically, it appeared that his father was probably more Spanish than
Hispanic in heritage. We knew his mother was Caucasian, from a farming
community in Ohio.
“Well, Dad found out that I’m certainly
gay. I didn’t want him to ever find out, knowing how he feels out que…gays. Now
I’m really fucked, in more ways than one.” He looked at us and let out a
nervous laugh.
I sat down and took his hand and said,
“And a young, gay guy with a sense of humor.” Doug and I joined in laughing at
his awkward icebreaker of a joke.
“Um, I know you’re an actor, Brent. What
do you do, Doug?”
“When I’m not picking up after this guy
at home, I am a struggling film director.”
“Struggling, my ass,” I said. “Whoops,
maybe not the best choice of words.” This brought another laugh from Bryan.
“Home?” Bryan asked as the laughter
subsided.
“We share a condo. Plus a few other
things,” Doug answered. This drew a puzzled expression from the teen.
“Bryan, can I tell you some things that
need to go no further than this room?” I asked.
“Um, yeah, I suppose.”
“Let’s put it this way. If you were a
kid, I’d say ‘cross your heart’. As a young man, I want you to shake on this
deal.” I extended my hand and, unlike last night, he eagerly grabbed it. After
we shook hands, I put my other hand over his and looked into his curious eyes.
“Deal,” he said.
“I’m not going to even imagine what is
was like for your father to rape you, Bryan. I can only imagine the physical
and emotional hurt you experienced.” He nodded his head and placed his free
hand over mine. “Six years ago, my dad walked in on me and another guy. I won’t
go into the details except to say that it was heavy-duty gay sex, and we were
really getting into it.”
“You mean…”
“Yep, I’m gay. Was and am. My dad
couldn’t deal with it and literally tossed me out of his house.” ‘Hmm,’ I
thought, ‘I said “his house” and not my home.’ Interesting. “The big difference
is that my dad never physically abused me.” Bryan’s mouth was open as he
digested what I had just said.
“When Dr. Howie told us about your
situation, Brent became quite concerned,” Doug said.
“It hit too close to my experiences.”
For the next ten minutes, I told Bryan about my life after being kicked out.
Doug smiled and placed his arm around my shoulders when I brought him into the
picture.
“So you guys are together?” Bryan got
the big picture.
“We’ve been partners for over three
years. Because of the nosy press, we keep it very quiet,” Doug answered. “If it
was legal for two guys to get married in California, we would have been first
to the altar.
“If I could ask, how do you feel about
what your father did to you?” I looked into his eyes. He immediately pulled his
hands up to his face and started sobbing. “I’m sorry, buddy, I guess I
shouldn’t have brought this up.”
“Naw, no, it’s okay.” Bryan let out a
big sigh and wiped his face. “It’s just so friggin’ painful. I don’t mean back
there. I’m healing. I just can’t get over that he threw me onto the bedroom
floor and attacked me.”
“Only tell me if you wanna,” I said.
“Brent, I want to tell somebody. I think
you’ll understand.”
“You want me to leave?” Doug asked.
“No. I mean you guys are like, married.
Right?” We both nodded. “I guess I never looked at him as anything other than
someone who provided for me. My mother didn’t love me. In fact, I think that
having me was never in the cards for either of them. I kinda just happened.”
“Maybe that he took care of you was his
way of demonstrating his love for you?” I said. “You know the saying, ‘love has
mysterious ways’.”
“Fuck mysterious…whoops, sorry guys. I
mean, he never once told me he loved me. Barely ever touched or hugged me.
Never even spanked me. Until what he did happened, I think that respect is all
I really felt. Now that’s gone.”
“So now…” Doug started to ask.
“I don’t hate him. But I don’t respect
him. I plan on putting both him and what he did into my past and get on with
life.” Bryan looked at us intently and added, “Dr. Bragman and another doc have
been helping me with this.” I picked up on Bryan’s use of the pronoun ‘him’ and
never ‘dad’ or ‘father’.
“Sounds like you’re getting good advice.
The big question is where do you go from here?” I asked. “Dr. Bragman says that
you’re ready to be released in a few days. From what I understand you don’t
have any relatives.”
“Yeah,” he said in a small, tentative
voice, “that’s the rub. The guy who was leaving as you came in is my best
friend. But he said I couldn’t stay with him.”
“If this isn’t too personal, could I ask
if this was the guy your dad caught you with?” Doug said. Bryan slowly nodded
and started leaking tears, in spite of his struggle not to cry.
“Hey, buddy. That’s okay. Let it out,” I
said, leaning in. Bryan automatically reached for me, hugged hard and buried
his wet face into my chest.
“There’s a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo that
I’m going to go through,” he said after the last of the tears and sniffles
subsided. “I understand that I’ll be assigned to a foster home. What a bummer.
I mean, who wants a gay, teenage guy?”
I looked at this lost young man, whose
only misstep had been to physically love another young man, and felt my stomach
tighten. I turned to Doug and our eyes immediately locked into one-on-one
focus. Telepathically, we communicated while reaching into each other’s souls.
He moved closer and nodded with a small smile.
“I know people who might be interested,” I answered. Our eyes
immediately locked into one-on-one focus.
“Yeah?” Bryan asked, skeptically, as he
started a rapid blinking.
“Yeah. You’re looking at them,” I said.
“If you want, we would really like to talk with you about maybe coming to a new
home…ours.” Doug walked around to the other side of the bed, sat down and
quietly placed his hand on Bryan’s shoulder.
__________________________
TO BE CONTINUED