Chapter 14

I awoke the next morning to the tail end of The Chipmunks chirping out "Alvin's Harmonica" on my clock radio. I pulled the pillow over my head to block out the sound.

"I thought Christmas was already over," I muttered to no one in particular. I turned and glanced at the clock face. Shit. It was already 9:45AM. I silently cursed myself for not waking up earlier. I leapt out of bed, yanked on some shorts, and padded down the hallway to the bathroom.

I locked the door, pulled off my shorts and took a long, hot shower. The water felt wonderful, but I still winced a bit when it splashed on my backside. I sure hope this thing will hurry up and heal, I thought. I got out of the shower, dried myself off, and took a good look at myself in the bathroom mirror. The scratches and bruises on my chest were fading, but they were still fairly visible. I made a mental note to make sure I wore a shirt for the next few days, so my folks wouldn't ask any questions.

"Wil!" my sister Sharon yelled, knocking on the bathroom door. "I have to go!"

Shit, I thought. I knew I'd never be able to leave the bathroom without a shirt. "Sharon, can you do me a favor?" I yelled.

"What is it?"

"Can you get me a T-shirt and a pair of underwear from my room?"

She hesitated. "Your underwear is gross!" she said.

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't possibly have been this stupid at 9 years old, I thought.

"Please, Sharon," I whined. "Just any shirt will do. They're in the top left drawer of my dresser."

"Alright." After a minute, she knocked quietly on the door. I unlocked it and cracked it open an inch, grabbed the clothing, muttered my thanks, and immediately slammed and locked it again.

I tugged the shirt over my head, pulled up my underwear, and stared at myself in the mirror over the sink. "Shit," I said out loud, looking at the obvious outline of my penis through the white cloth. "I should remember not to walk around in my underwear anymore, either."

"What did you say, Wil?" yelled my sister from behind the door.

"Nothing, Sharon!" I yelled back. "Thanks for the clothes!"

I pulled up my shorts and took a last glimpse at myself. Yeah. That'd pass. I prayed for the bruises to heal faster.

Suddenly, my father knocked on the door. "Wil!" he called. "Your sister needs to use the bathroom. Can you please hurry up?"

"I'm done, Dad," I said, flushing the toilet to give me an excuse. I opened the door and my father stared at me suspiciously.

"Lemme in," said Sharon, who ran inside and slammed the door shut.

"Are you alright, Wil?" my father asked. "You don't look too good."

"I'm just tired from all the stuff over the holiday, Dad," I yawned.

My mother walked by on her way downstairs and grinned. "Oh, Ed," she said to my father, trying to stifle a laugh. "You know teenagers at his age spend an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, Mom!" I muttered, my face reddening.

My dad glanced at her, surprised.

"Well, it's true!" she said, laughing, as she continued down the stairs.

"I'm going over to Ronnie's house, Dad," I said. "I'll be back later on, okay?"

He nodded. "Don't forget, son, you've got to mow the lawn soon. I know it's winter, but we can't let it go forever."

"I'll do it, Dad."

I thought for a minute. Ronnie. What did he say on the phone last night? Damn.

"Uh, Dad?" I said, as he began to walk down the stairs.

"Now, what?" he asked, from the landing.

"Is it OK if I spend the night tonight at Ronnie's?"

He shook his head. "Son, you were just there a few nights ago, weren't you?"

I tried to think back. It seemed like a long time ago, but he might be right.

"Dad, Ronnie's family is moving to Texas this Sunday," I reminded him. "This is the last week I'm ever gonna see him and his brother. Do you mind?"

He sighed. "Alright. But don't forget the lawn!" he yelled, as he reached the bottom step.

Fifteen minutes later, I shivered in the cold outside the Lannigan residence and pushed the bell. The door opened, and I gazed at a tall, rugged-looking boy, about 16. He had reddish-brown hair, was wearing a cowboy shirt and boots, and was almost a foot taller than me.

"Hi," he drawled. "I bet y'all are Wil, right?"

I grinned and nodded.

"Ah'm Bobby Junior," he said, sticking out his hand. We shook hands, and he squeezed it, hard. "But call me RJ."

I winced. Christ, I thought. Are all of these people idiots?

"Is that Wil?" a voice yelled from the hallway. I looked up as Ronnie ran up to the door. "Hey," he said, his face breaking out into a big smile. "This is RJ," he said.

"Yeah," I grinned. "We just met."

"Y'all want somethin' to eat?" he said, as we walked through the living room and out to the patio. "Supper's almost on the table."

I could see Uncle Bob, Mrs. Lannigan, and a few other assorted relatives out in back. The delicious smell of barbecued steaks and burgers drifted through the air.

"Sure," I nodded. "I'm definitely in the mood for meat."

Ronnie started giggling uncontrollably at my accidental double entendre, and RJ shot me a glance.

"That's what-all I hear," he said, smiling broadly.

Whoa, I thought, my heart doing a little flip-flop. We sat down at a large picnic table in the yard, and began eating our meal.

Man, that was great, I thought. Between Christmas Dinner and lunch today, I felt like I'd put on ten pounds.

Ronnie ran up and sat down next to me on the bench. "Isn't RJ, cool, Wil?" he asked, breathlessly.

"Well, I dunno," I said. "I mean, I just met the guy, Ronnie."

Ron looked in both directions. The adults had finally left the picnic table, so the coast was clear. "He's already... done stuff with us," he said, smiling slyly. "He's really neat."

I turned and looked to the left of the pool. Rick and RJ were throwing a football back and forth, and Rick had just playfully tackled the other teen and pulled him to the ground. They rolled over and over in the grass in a tangle of bodies.

I felt a pang of jealousy. Well, I thought. At least Rick and Ronnie would have some friends in Texas.

I nodded. "Yeah. He looks cool, Ronnie."

Ron got up and called to his brother. "Hey, you guys! Let's go in our room and... uh... watch some TV, okay?"

The two dropped the ball and looked up and laughed. We went inside the house, trooped down the hall to the boys' enormous bedroom, and shut the door. Rick reached over and locked it, then stared at RJ.

I grinned at him. "Well, I've met RJ," I said, laughing, "but I haven't seen too much of 'Bobby Junior' yet."

The tall teen laughed. "I hear y'all got a Texas-sized cock, Wil," he said.

I gulped. Rick and Ronnie were already pulling their shirts off.

"Well, I dunno about that, RJ," I said, looking at the floor.

Ronnie pulled down his shorts and kicked them off. From the looks of it, he was just about ready for action. I looked over at Rick, who already was sitting on the bed and fondling himself.

I laughed. "Oh, what the hell," I said. I pulled off my shirt and pants, and stood there in my underwear.

RJ looked over at me. "Lord! Y'all look pretty banged up thar," he said, eyeing the bruises on my stomach and back. "Ya been ridin' any bulls out here?"

"Not exactly," I said, my face reddening.

"A bronco tried to ride Wil," giggled Ronnie, "but I think Wil won the grand prize at the rodeo."

"I shor bet he did," said RJ, eying me below the waist. "That's a mighty nice package you got there, Wil -- real nice. Y'all mind?"

I grinned, and he gently tugged down my underwear, and my member dangled down and swung back and forth between my legs.

RJ whistled. "Well, sir," he said, visibly impressed. "Now, if y'all ain't a Texas-size boy, then I don't know what is."

He pulled his jeans off, and I glanced down. Holy shit, I thought. That's the biggest bulge I've ever seen since... well, since me!

RJ pulled off his underwear and turned towards me. "Well, won't ya look at that," he grinned. "I'd say you 'n me's just about brothers... wouldn't y'all?"

I looked down at his crotch, and my eyes opened wide. Shit, I thought. This guy might even be bigger than I was.

Rick and Ronnie laughed and collapsed on the bed behind me. "I think he might've beaten you, Wil!" squealed Ronnie.

My heart pounded, and my organ throbbed up to its full size. "You mind if we compare side-by-side?" I asked.

RJ grinned and nodded. "Sure, pardner. But I warn ya -- where I come from, a Texas dick beats a Florida dick any ol' day."

We'll see about that, I thought. I stepped forward and gently grabbed him with my hand, then held both of our endowments together. Shit, I thought. I think he's got me on length. But I got him beat on circumference, for sure. I knew it was 6-1/2" around, because I'd measured it before with Ron a few weeks ago.

Ron checked us out with a ruler, then jumped up beside me and giggled. "RJ's a hair over ten inches, Wil! I'm sorry, but he beats you."

RJ reached over and gently stroked me. I moaned and looked up, and he grinned at me. "But y'all win on thickness though, Wil, and that's pretty dang important. I think your head's quite a bit bigger, too." He reached down and felt my balls, then nodded. "Yep, y'all got a set on you like my cousin's. I seen bulls that are smaller, boy," he laughed.

I laughed and thanked him for the compliment.

"That explains y'all's voice," he said.

I stared at him, curiously. "What do you mean, RJ?" I asked.

He grinned. "Y'all got the deepest voice I ever did hear on a kid. Ya sound like a man already, boy." The older teen turned to Rick. "How old did y'all say he was?"

"I'll be 14 in six months," I said.

RJ whistled. "I'm 16," he said. "And I know for a fact I wasn't this king-sized until jes' a year or two ago. I bet you still got some growin' to do," he said, grinning. "Y'all jes' might wind up beatin' me in the end, Wil."

I grinned and nodded. "Maybe it'll be a foot long by the time I'm 21," I laughed.

"'Course, there is such a thing as TOO big," he chuckled. "Even in Texas."

I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Speaking of too big," I said, sitting down naked in a chair by their bunk beds, "wait 'till I tell you what happened with Cynthia last night."

I gave them the short version of the story, and Rick nodded and idly fondled himself as I gave him the details on Cyn's body.

Ronnie laughed. "I bet she was sure pissed-off," he said, giggling. "You'd think she'd be comfortable with a really big one by now."

I glared at him. "Hey, Ronnie," I said, icily. "If you want, I'll try fucking you up the ass, and then you can tell me if you're comfortable with it."

He shook his head and immediately apologized.

"Yep, women kin be difficult like that," explained RJ, who apparently had had some experience with the fairer sex. "You say this little filly was just 13, like you?"

"Actually, I think she's around 15," I said. "She's in 9th grade, like me and Ronnie."

"Y'all need to find yourself a real woman, Wil," he said. "Little girls are designed jes' to be with little boys." He looked me right in the eye. "As far as I'm concerned, you're a big man."

I shook my head. "I'm just barely five feet-two," I said, slightly embarrassed.

"I'm not just talkin' about height," he said, seriously. "I'm talkin' about what's deep inside ya, and what's in your pants. That's what really makes a man a man." He stood up and put his hand on my groin, which throbbed.

I let out a quiet moan, and he looked me in the eye.

"And I say you're a man," he said, quietly.

RJ pulled me towards him and kissed me, hard. My pulsed raced. We fell to the floor and went between each other's legs. I grabbed his arousal and pulled it close to my face. God, I thought. It's really beautiful. It had a pleasant kind of musky smell, and RJ was circumcised, unlike his cousins. I felt something warm slurp hungrily at my groin, and I leaned forward and gobbled up all I could take.

The pleasure was indescribable. It was as if I was touching a mirror image of myself. We spent several minutes exploring every inch of each other's bodies. I followed RJ move for move; when he moved to my balls, I did the same thing. He was quite a bit hairier than I was, but I was beyond caring. We began sucking each other, and after only a minute or so, I felt my pulse quicken and my climax building. At last, I began to moan and I tensed my buttocks. Suddenly, he pulled his mouth off me.

"NO!" I yelled.

Rick and Ronnie looked up. I hadn't even noticed that they were eagerly fondling the other, watching me and RJ with great amusement.

"Why did you stop, asshole!" I hissed. "I was really close!"

RJ leaned back and smiled. "I knew y'all was about to cum," he laughed. "Ya gotta learn that gettin' there is most of the fun, Wil. It's not just about shootin' your jism," he explained. "Sometimes, y'all gotta drag it out some. I promise ya, the longer y'all take, the better 'tis in the end."

I frowned. I'd never taken more than five minutes to shoot. I thought the whole point was to have an orgasm!

"Let's you and me try somethin' new," he said. "Y'all just do what I do."

We sat cross-legged on the floor and reached for each other's weapon. "Hold on, pardner. Hand me that massage oil from over there, Ronnie-boy," he said to Ron.

Ron handed him a small bottle of oil. RJ squirted a little in his hand, then rubbed it around his fingers.

"Put a little of this on 'Little Wil' down there," he grinned, squirting a glob in my hand.

I looked at the oil. The liquid was clear and didn't have much scent. It felt almost like grease, but not quite. I wrapped my fist around my shaft and began stroking.

"Oh, GOD!" I said, moaning.

RJ grinned. "I told ya! Y'all got a lotta things ya could be learnin'."

I nodded. Jacking-off had never felt this good before.

"Y'all watch me," he instructed, kneeling down on the floor next to me. "Give your hand a little twist as y'all go up and down, like this." He demonstrated his technique. "It feels a lot better that way, 'specially on the head."

"Shit," I said. "That's great!"

"Take it real slow, now," he ordered. "Don't be in such a dang hurry. And hold on to your balls, so they don't ride up."

I matched him stroke for stroke. He reached up and tweaked his right nipple with his left hand.

"Jes' give it a little squeeze, then pull on it a bit," he said, panting.

I did as he suggested and felt a twinge surge through my body. This went on for several minutes as we sped up and slowed down. He showed me several different parts of my body, which he called 'Erogenous zones.' Most of them were like little electric switches that seemed to turn on tingles of pleasure inside me.

RJ wasn't dazzlingly good-looking, but he was still great to watch. I could see he had moved closer to manhood than either of the Lannigan boys, but the family resemblance was still visible. He had a great tan, along with some decent arm and chest muscles from his years of working on his dad's ranch. RJ didn't have the definition of Sky's tight, lean body, and he was considerably taller than either of us -- probably close to six feet, I thought. His legs were particularly attractive, with sinews and muscles that I could see all the way down to his knees. He had just the right amount of body hair -- a smooth chest, with a few reddish-brown curls coming out of his nipples, and a line of hairs leading down from his belly-button to a thick growth below.

Every time he saw I was close to an orgasm, he ordered me to stop. I sat there and glared at him, my erection throbbing helplessly. After a minute, he gave me a little more oil and let me start up again, slowly.

He made me repeat the process two or three more times. After more than 20 minutes, I knew I had reached the point of no return.

"I'm... gonna cum, RJ!" I said, moaning.

"Slow 'way down!" he yelled.

I did, but it was torturous. About thirty seconds, I finally felt the fireworks begin to explode, but I resisted the urge to pound my fist as fast as I could. I kept my strokes slow and steady, and twisted my grip like he showed me earlier. Finally, I erupted with the biggest ejaculation of my life, blasting Ronnie square in the face, a good six feet away.

"HEY!" he yelled. "This shit's in my EYE!"

Ronnie hopped around yelling, and I shot another half-dozen thick streams all over the rug, the wall, and their clothes dresser. The orgasm was so intense, it was almost painful. I nearly blacked out and fell backwards to the floor.

RJ caught me in his arms and gently lay me down on the carpet. My eyelids fluttered and I dizzily looked up at him.

"Oh, fuck, man," I moaned. "Jesus. That one felt like... like it lasted three times as long as any orgasm I've ever had."

He grinned and nodded. "Now y'all are gettin' it, Wil!" he said. "A friend of mine back home tells me he kin go two, even three minutes just shootin' and shootin'. He calls it a 'Texas-size orgasm.'"

I looked up at him and laughed, weakly. "RJ, I can barely walk as it is. I don't think I could take much more."

He nodded and grinned. "I hear ya, pardner. Y'all got me so turned on, I gotta take care o' business, mahself!" RJ kneeled down beside me and began stroking frantically.

Shit, I thought, closely eying the Lannigan's cousin's prodigious member. If that's what I look like to Sky, no wonder I scared the shit out of him.

In less than ten seconds, the Texas boy started moaning. "Oh, lordy! Here comes a geyser!" Suddenly, he exploded, and a torrent of white goo shot across the room, missing Rick by inches.

"SHIT!" he yelled, frantically diving out of the way.

"Not quite!" I said, laughing hysterically. RJ let loose with more than a half dozen volleys of almost equal strength, then fell back beside me, exhausted.

"Holy fuck!" I whispered. I'd never seen anybody or anything cum so hard, or so much. RJ leaned forward, then grinned as he saw my face.

"Now, that's how we do thangs down in Texas!" he drawled, panting for breath.

Over the next couple of days, RJ showed me a few more tricks with his Texas-sized tool. I felt a kinship with the older teen that I didn't have with the two younger Lannigan brothers. At least he knew what it was like to be, well... a freak.

"Is yours the biggest you've ever seen, RJ?" I asked, as we leaned against the wall in Rick and Ronnie's bedroom, following a fairly intense session. We'd had dinner an hour before, and I was so tired, I was almost drifting off to sleep.

He shook his head. "Naw," he said. "There's two or three bigger ones I've seen on some o' the older farmhands back on the ranch." He caught my surprised expression and laughed. "Naw, I ain't sleepin' around with everythang on two feet, y' understand? But my daddy's got about 900 employees out there, and, well... guys get lonely herdin' cattle and takin' care of drillin' oil in the middle of nowhere."

"What about at school?" I asked. I was curious to see how many other kids shared our... situation.

RJ thought for a moment. "Jes' one guy I knew in junior high back near Dallas," he replied. "His pole might've been an inch or two bigger, but his was the kind that never quite gets a hunnert percent hard -- kinda spongy, ya know? You and me, we could hammer nails with these," he said, proudly, giving his endowment a squeeze.

"You into girls or guys, RJ?" I asked, hesitatingly.

"Let's just say ah'm flexible," he said, grinning. "I think too dang many people try to put labels on this sheeit. The way ah see it, 'heterosexual' and 'homosexual' don't really cover all the shades of gray. It ain't jes' black and white, and it don't have to be an 'either/or' kinda thing, Wil."

I nodded.

"And besides that," he said, letting his large appendage droop over the side of his leg, "I think we got a gift from God with these things. Me an' m' dad ain't what you'd call religious, but I think it's our responsibility to share this gift with as many people as we can."

I felt a pang, remembering Cynthia from the other night.

"I didn't have much luck sharing mine with a girl from school the other day," I lamented.

"Don't worry, Wil," he said, reassuringly. "Y'all are still young. You got quite a few years left to spread your wild oats, and find people out there who kin handle what you got -- men and women. Believe me, it's quite a blessin'."

"It's been a curse to me a couple of times, RJ," I said, shaking my head. "You ever get called 'donkey dick' in school?"

He laughed. "I heard every dang one of 'em, Wil," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "They called me 'bull dick,' 'horse cock,' 'elephant peter,' 'queer bait,' and a lotta other ones I can't even remember. But some of the ones that yell the loudest are the ones that really wish they had what I have. What you and me both got."

"Maybe," I said, looking down. "But this thing's still a lotta trouble for me sometimes."

"How so?" he asked.

I explained my difficulty with getting my endowment in my swim trunks, and how some kids made fun of me in the locker room. He commiserated when I told him sometimes, it was even annoying to use urinals in public places, because I was so long, I sometimes had to take a step back, just to avoid having it dangle into the drain. And when I got hard, which seemed to be happening more frequently these days, it was almost impossible to hide it in my pants.

"Y'all know what I do, Wil?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"I wear one of these here jock-straps all the time," he said, grinning. "It's a lot more comfortable, and in case you run into any acc-cy-dents, it'll keep thangs down low and outta sight."

I grinned. "Thanks for the advice," I said. "Maybe I'll try that."

He leaned closer to me. "Y'all listen to RJ," he said. "Guys like you and me... we're lucky. Real lucky. And there's a lot more boys out there with pencil dicks than there are with real cocks like us."

I nodded, feeling a surge of pride. For perhaps the first time, I started to feel glad I was the way I was. I grinned at RJ.

"Maybe we should start a club," I said, laughing.

He chuckled. "Y'all come out to Texas sometime, Wil, and maybe we'll talk about that." I nodded.

In between my chores, working on my History paper, and spending as much time as I could at Rick and Ronnie's house, the week after Christmas went by very quickly. Ronnie and I fooled around almost a dozen times -- sometimes with his brother and RJ, sometimes just by ourselves.

On Saturday, the Lannigan's house was bedlam during the day. Two giant moving vans blocked the front driveway, and workers swarmed over every room. Rick and Ronnie were apoplectic, trying to make sure all their toys and plastic model kits were carefully packed in such a way that they wouldn't break en route. Since all their furniture was now on the road to Dallas, all we had in his room were four sleeping bags and the TV set. The boys had insisted on that.

Because of the number of relatives around, we were hardly able to get any privacy to ourselves. Finally, at about 11PM, Rick and RJ started going at it in the bedroom. RJ was giving lessons in "real ass-fuckin'," as he put it. He was on his back, with his knees pinned up, and Rick was slamming him for all he was worth.

I shivered. I hadn't even thought about two guys doing that since Scott had tried to rape me more than a week ago. I looked back at the two sweating teenagers, who were oblivious to me or Ronnie. Judging by the looks on their faces, I guessed maybe it could be a lot more pleasurable than what I went through, under the right circumstances.

I didn't feel like sitting around and just being a spectator, so Ronnie and I tiptoed out to the pool. He turned all the lights off, so that none of the rest of the family would be able to see what we were doing. Even though it was only about 50 degrees outside, the pool water was warm and inviting, and the entire deck was shrouded in fog from the steam that billowed up from the surface. We sat on the bottom step in the shallow end, just talking quietly for nearly an hour, then Ron began kissing me. Even though we'd already done it once with Rick and RJ several hours earlier, I could tell both of us were still hungry for more.

I used the opportunity to get him off in the pool, using my mouth underwater. Ronnie never took long. In less than two minutes, I felt him spasm and I sensed the familiar taste going down my throat. As I bubbled back up to the surface, he pulled me close and kissed me.

"That was... that was great, Wil," he sighed, his eyelids fluttering. "The best ever. How can you hold your breath that long?"

"Well..." I panted, "we competition swimmers are known for our amazing lung capacity." I grinned. "Among other things."

He kissed me. "I love you, Wil," he said softly, his eyes filling with tears.

"I... I love you, too, Ronnie." I put my arms around him. We were surrounded by blackness.

"Boys!" called a voice.

"Uncle Bob!" whispered Ronnie. "We're in here!" he yelled, as we untangled ourselves in the water.

"Y'all best be gettin' to bed, now," said his Uncle. "Don't forget, we're takin' off at 8AM."

After his Uncle left, Ronnie turned to me. "I can't... I can't live without you, Wil," he said, starting to choke.

"C'mon, Ronnie," I said, soothingly. "You're gonna meet all kinds of cool new kids in Dallas. Your Uncle's got lots of dough. And don't forget, you've got RJ."

He frowned. "I think he's more interested in Rickie than me," he muttered. "Besides, RJ told us he's already got a girlfriend."

"Really?" I said, wonderingly.

"But he's got a couple of boyfriends, too," Ronnie whispered, giggling. "Guys on the ranch."

I bet he does, I chuckled to myself.

"I'll never forget you, Wil," he said, holding me closer. "Never."

I felt a pang. I had to make this as easy as possible for both of us. "Me neither, Ronnie. I'll... I'll write you when I can," I said, knowing I'd probably be lucky to do it even once.

"Can you visit over the summer?" he asked, in a small voice.

I sighed. "I've got practice with the Greater Tampa swim team from May to July."

"But you GOTTA!" he wailed.

A light flicked on back inside the house.

"Sssshhhhhh!" I said. "Hold it down."

He sniffled and nodded, then looked up at me. Even in the darkness, I couldn't miss the look of love in his eyes. God, how I wished I could see that when I looked at Sky.

"Alright, Ronnie," I said, surrendering. "I'll try to get away for a couple of weeks sometime over the summer, and I'll see if my folks will let me come out to Dallas."

"Swear?

"I swear."

He put his arms around me again and kissed me, passionately. I hadn't felt this much from a kiss since that last time with Cynthia. Shit, I thought, remembering my ostensible 'girlfriend.' What was she going to say at school next week? I prayed that maybe she'd just move on to her next conquest and leave me alone.

Ron and I pulled ourselves out of the water and onto the concrete deck. Still shivering from the cold, we slipped our swimsuits back on, grabbed our towels, then trotted over to the side door and headed back down the hall. As we got to the very end, I heard some muffled groans from behind Ronnie's door.

Ronnie peeked inside and rolled his eyes. "They're at it again," he whispered.

"Ronnie," I whispered back, closing the door. "Maybe this should be it. I won't be able to... really say goodbye to you at the airport. I don't think your mom or your Uncle would understand. You know?"

He nodded. "Yeah," he said, quietly. "Thanks for being my friend, Wil."

"Me, too," I said. Shit. Now I was crying. We wrapped our arms around each other one last time.

In the morning, I awoke as my radio went off, with Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" coming out of the speaker. I heard a plane in the distance, probably a jet from MacDill Air Force Base two miles away. Shit, I thought. Ronnie's gone. He was gone forever.

Good riddance, I tried to convince myself, as I rolled over. Ronnie was such a goddamned pest, with those stupid impressions and lame jokes. Such a moody little guy, too. Always having temper-tantrums, getting all weird and jealous on me.

I closed my eyes at the memory. Jealous, because he loved me so much. I felt a lump in my throat and desperately tried to push his face out of my mind. I suddenly became aware again of the radio. The orchestra's melody suddenly swelled up, and my eyes brimmed with tears.
 
 

© 2001, John Francis