Bill W

Finding Love

Chapter 1
My World is Shattered and Recreated

I don't know if I can adequately explain about how I went from being a happy child, with a very loving and attentive father, to living in an absolute hell on earth. I was only seven-years old when this downward spiral began, but it seemed as if from that point on very little ever went right for me. Let me attempt to explain what I went through before someone finally came to my rescue.

No one knows exactly what caused the accident that began my extended period of misery, because it could have been any number of possibilities. It might have been the result of a defective pressure valve or a damaged seal around one of the windows or the door. It could have also been the result of a defect in one of the windowpanes or in a seam that ran along the body of the craft, but whatever caused the accident, my father's corporate jet depressurized quickly and killed everyone on board.

The investigators claimed the passengers and crew were most likely dead before the Learjet crashed into the ocean, but no one could be absolutely certain if that was the case. Even if they had been either dead or unconscious before it happened, I wasn't as fortunate. The crash left me with severe emotional pain and the event completely shattered my world.

On that fateful Wednesday in May, I said goodbye to my father as he got ready to go away on a business trip, which he did quite often. He was scheduled to travel on the corporate jet to attend a negotiation session in Los Angeles, California, but before he left, he came to my room, kissed me on the forehead and bid me farewell.

"I'll be back by the weekend, pal," he explained. "You be good for your mother and I promise we'll do something special when I return."

I waved goodbye as he drove off, completely unaware this was going to be the last time I ever saw his face or heard his voice. He then made his way to the airport, where he met up with three of his business associates at the corporate terminal, before they boarded the private jet. There was only the four of them, along with the pilot and the co-pilot, as they set off for the west coast. Following takeoff, the jet rose higher and higher until it leveled off at 35,000 feet, and once it was at its cruising altitude the pilot engaged the autopilot. Beyond that, nothing more is known for certain about the ill-fated flight.

Hours later, after many failed attempts by ground personnel to make radio contact with the crew, the jet overshot its final destination. It then flew out over the ocean until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. There were no survivors. My father was gone and my entire world had came crashing down along with the jet. My dad had been the center of my universe, the giver of life and love, but now he was gone. To put it mildly, I was completely devastated.

My father had been educated as a lawyer, but his job was to serve as president of the company founded by my great-great-grandfather. He was flying out from our home in Dallas, Texas to meet with the company officials from one of four smaller, yet similar, businesses that my father's company was trying to acquire. I had heard other people mention that my dad was ruthless when it came to business and didn't care whether he had to buy these other companies outright or merely drive them out of business, but he usually got what he wanted.

I don't want you to think my father was some kind of an ogre though, because he was just a very persistent and determined businessman. He would negotiate with company officials first and attempt to buy the company he desired by offering them what he considered to be a fair price for the business. If they didn't accept his terms, however, he then began to utilize other means to acquire it. At that point, he might attempt to negotiate deals with the other company's suppliers and then freeze them out, so they could no longer acquire the materials needed to stay in business. At other times, he might even buyout their suppliers instead and then refuse to do business with them, but either way they'd finally come to terms.

If none of those options were available, he might try to purchase a similar company nearby or even open one of his own locations in the area and then get into a price war with the company he wanted to acquire. It didn't matter to my dad if his business might have to temporarily take a loss, because he knew he'd eventually either drive the other company into bankruptcy or force them to close their doors permanently. One way or another, he would end up with what he wanted and his company would either purchase the other company or that company would cease to exist. On this particular occasion, however, the company he was to begin negotiations with received an unexpected reprieve, since my dad and his team never made it to the meeting.

I was always surprised when I overheard people talk about how vicious my father could be in his business dealings, because he was always so very gentle and loving at home. My dad was my whole world back then and my buffer against the harsh realities of life and the bitter truths it harbored. As far as I could tell, no one else loved me. Loved me? Hell, no one else even cared about me. My mother was always rather cold and aloof toward me, but after my father died, she became an alcoholic and was unable to stay away from the bottle long enough to give me any affection. I know I shouldn't have taken this personally though, because I wasn't convinced she ever loved my father either.

I'd always heard she'd only married my dad because of the prestige associated with the family name and the things the family fortune could buy her. After my father died, I felt her most desired purchase had become her precious booze, and since the family fortune was now all hers, she could have whatever she wanted. Even though I doubted she could pull herself out of the bottle long enough to manage the daily affairs of the business, let alone her own finances, she still had the final say.

Since she was only concerned with making sure she had what she wanted, she trusted in the honesty and ability of others to handle everything else, including the money and the business. These things were taken care of by one of the company's senior vice presidents and her accountant. They were the ones who would oversee everything associated with the business and then move money into her accounts, so there would be enough for her to run the household.

Even though my mother and I had never been very close and mixed about as well as oil and water, at least I was never alone. She seldom went anywhere and we had a very large domestic staff to take care of both the house and our personal needs. The staff fixed the meals, washed and ironed our clothes and kept the house clean, so the place was always bustling with activity. No matter how many people were around, however, none of them ever seemed to take more than a passing interest in me or were concerned about my welfare. As long as I ate, slept, kept clean and made it to school, those aspects appeared to be all that mattered.

The staff had their own duties to perform and no time to be bothered by a young boy, even if he was the son of the master or mistress of the house. During those last few years before my father died, however, no one except my father ever did anything with me. I guess it probably also accounted for the reason why I was hardly able to contain myself until he got home from work each evening or why I was so impatient for him to have a day off from work. When he did, he would spend a great deal of his time with me and we would do many things together. He would take me places or we would play games together, but that wasn't all. My dad also had a wonderful and extensive play area built for me in our backyard and that's where we would spend hours of fun playing together. I was a very lucky kid.

We did many things together, but best of all and what I enjoyed the most were the times he would read all sorts of wonderful stories to me. They were filled with incredible adventures and took place in fantastic imaginary locations or far off and exotic lands around the world. When he died, it proved to be those same stories that kept me going and gave me the courage to survive. I remembered every detail from each book my father had ever read to me, so I retold the stories to myself, over and over again, until I was old enough to read them on my own. If it hadn't been for those marvelous pieces of 'kiddy lit,' I would have remained a lost, lonely and forgotten child. If my father hadn't given me that very special gift, I might have just shriveled up and died shortly after he did.

As soon as I'd worked past the initial stage of unbearable grief over his tragic death, I would go out to my little sanctuary in the backyard and play out various scenes from those tales I loved so much. My private play area and the surrounding land served as the setting for every memorable adventure I participated in from that day forward. Over time, my play area would become Never Land, Sherwood Forest, an uninhabited island or any other location from one of those marvelous stories.

One day it might be transformed into Treasure Island and then the following day into a small patch of ground on the planet Mars. My little tree house might serve as a pirate ship, a horse-drawn coach, a castle, the space shuttle or even Tarzan's tree house. This haven from reality soon became the only bearable aspect of my life, because in my fantasy world I was someone who was important and loved. During those times, I was able to escape all of the pain and loneliness I felt during the rest of the day. Needless to say, I spent as much time there as I could possibly manage, so I'd be able to experience the immense joy I felt during my fantasy adventures.

Even school was a drag. First of all, I didn't have any real friends and the teachers were only friendly enough to perform their duties. Sure, there were a few kids who spoke to me and even treated me somewhat nicely, but I think they only did it because of my last name and the prestige it evoked in the socially conscious community in which we resided. We lived on the Randall family estate, which had been built by my great-grandfather. This grand home was suppose to remain in the family forever and would be handed down to the firstborn of each succeeding generation of Randall heirs.

Our home, if you could call it that, sat on several acres of well-manicured lawns and impeccably sculpted shrubbery. Our simple little abode consisted of more than thirty rooms, spread out over three levels, and was one of the most impressive mini-castles around. That is what I suspected had gained me the modicum of respect I seemed to enjoy. Other than my family name and fortune, I didn't have many other positive attributes.

Although many people told me I was cute, I was quite small for my age. I was also the odd boy who had no interest in the games and athletic activities that most boys my age reveled in. Instead, I was the proverbial bookworm with a vivid imagination. I had become an introvert and forced myself to be a loner, in order to keep from being emotionally scarred by everyone else. I was the square peg that didn't fit into any of the round holes life offered me. I had a nineteenth-century romantic's soul, but was forced to live in a twenty-first century reality. It appeared the cards had been stacked against me from the start and I'd have to find my own niche in life and attempt to survive this existence the best way I could.

It had now been three years since my father's death and my life had continued on this downward spiral – that is until the day I met Tad. He just turned up in my classroom one morning, a few days after school started for the year, and instantly became a breath of fresh air that had been swept into my otherwise stagnant world. His family had just moved to the area and it was my good fortune that he'd been assigned to the same classroom as me.

Tad was completely unlike anyone I had ever met before and even his appearance was different, because he had red hair, which was actually more orange in tint, green eyes and a milky-white complexion. To put it mildly, he stood out quite noticeably from the others that attended my school. I was slightly different, since I had extremely light blond hair to go along with my blue eyes, but even though my hair was lighter than most of the other blondes, I still didn't stand out as much as Tad did. Besides the varying shades of blond hair among our classmates, there were a lot of brunettes and children with jet-black hair, which seemed to be the norm around here, but Tad was the only redhead I could ever remember seeing. I guess I must have been staring at him on the playground at lunchtime, because he walked over and introduced himself.

"Hi, my name is Tad," he said, while flashing me a huge and very friendly smile.

I didn't answer right away, mainly because I was too busy still staring at him, but then I realized how rude I was being.

"Oh, yeah I'm sorry about spacing out there," I replied. "I'm Win. Well actually my name is Winthrop Aaron Randall IV, but I prefer to be called Win."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he concurred. "My full name is Thaddeus Albert Driscoll, but when I got old enough to decide what I wanted to be called, my mom said I could go by either Thad or Tad, so I chose Tad. I think it might be a nickname for Thaddeus, but it's also my initials."

"Hey, that's pretty neat!" I exclaimed. "My initials are WAR, but that's because I have a family name. My father was Winthrop Aaron Randall III and my grandfather was Winthrop Aaron Randall II, but I'm not sure if it was my great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather who was the first Winthrop Aaron Randall, but whoever it was, we all got our names from him."

"I was named after my mother's grandfather, Thaddeus, and her father, Albert," Tad explained. "Thaddeus became my first name because my great-grandfather had most of the money and my parents were hoping to get on his good side by naming me after him. It must have worked, because he left them a whole bunch of money when he died."

Tad stood silent and looked at me thoughtfully for a few seconds, before he spoke again.

"What did you mean when you said that your father WAS named Winthrop Aaron Randall III?" he wondered, since he didn't fully comprehend the implication of my statement.

"I said it that way because my father is dead," I answered. "He died in a plane crash three years ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know," he apologized, with a look somewhere between horror and regret for having brought it up.

"That's ok. It took me a while get over it," I responded, "but I've finally accepted the fact that he's gone. It doesn't really bother me as much as it used to."

"That's good… that it doesn't bother you as much any more," Tad clarified.

"Thanks," I replied, totally impressed by the fact that he appeared to be truly sincere. "Why aren't you playing with the other boys?"

"I'm not into sports or those types of games," he offered. "I'm not very good at those sorts of things, so they don't really interest me."

"Me either," I concurred. "What do you like to do for fun then?"

"Oh, I like to mess around on my computer, play video games, swim and I read a lot," he confessed.

"Really? I like to read too," I replied, very excited. "What types of things do you like to read the most?"

"Almost anything, but I like adventure stories the best," he offered. "I like to think I'm part of the story, because doing that makes it seem real and more interesting. Do you like adventure stories too?"

"Uh huh. They're the best," I agreed. "Have you ever played any games like that?" "Like what?" he countered, not quite understanding what I meant by my question.

"Adventure games where you act out one of the stories that you've read," I answered. "You know, you play one of the characters from that story and pretend the rest of the characters are all there too."

"Unt uh," he said, giving me a negative response. "I just think about being part of what's going on while I'm reading the story, but I've never done anything more than that."

"Well, maybe you could come over to my house sometime and I could show you how I play out some of those stories," I offered. "We could do it together, if you would like to give it a try?"

"Yeah, it sounds like it might be cool," he agreed.

We told each other where we lived and then I explained to Tad how to get to my house from his, since he was new to the area and didn't know his way around yet. He didn't live in one of the big fancy mansions, like the ones that lined the street where I lived, but from what he told me though, he still lived in a very nice house. He informed me it had about twelve rooms, a fairly large lawn and they bought it after his father was transferred here with Lockheed Martin. In fact, they had only moved into the house this past weekend.

Tad wasn't exactly sure what his father did, but he knew his dad had a very important job and made lots of money. He also told me he was an only child, like me, so we had a great deal in common. I had a feeling Tad and I were going to become very good friends, so I didn't waste any time before trying to get to know him better. I invited him over to my house to play an adventure game this weekend and told him he could come over on Saturday. I even suggested that if he wanted to, he could stay over with me on Saturday night and he said he'd like that, but he'd have to check with his parents first and then let me know if they would give him permission. I was already beginning to feel better than I had since before my dad died.

The next day, Tad asked me if I would come home with him that afternoon, so he could introduce me to his mom. He explained that she wanted to meet me first, but he felt once she knew more about me then she would be willing to bring him over on Saturday and maybe even let him stay overnight. I agreed, so that afternoon I went to his house and I was introduced to his mother. She asked a lot questions about my family and myself, but I only told her the good things about us, although I did tell her about how my father had died. After we finished doing that, she drove me home to make sure she knew exactly where I lived and how to get there. I think she was very impressed when she saw the house, because the following day Tad told me that not only would he be able to come over on Saturday, but he could also stay overnight. This was going to be great.

This was the first thing that had excited me in a very long time and now it was all I could think about, because I was looking forward to spending Saturday with Tad. From that moment on, it seemed as though Saturday might never happen, but finally it arrived and so did Tad. When the doorbell rang, I raced down the stairway from my bedroom and got to the door just as the butler opened it. Tad's mother was with him and I invited them inside. I told them my mother was out, although I didn't tell them this meant she was passed out drunk in her room, but there was plenty of staff to watch over us.

I then asked if they would care for a drink or something to eat, but they declined, so I gave them a quick tour of our little shack instead. I conveniently bypassed the master suite, by telling them I wasn't allowed to go in there without my mother, and when we got to my bedroom, I had Tad leave his overnight bag there. His mother's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she saw my room, since it was probably larger than her master bedroom, although she had been extremely impressed by everything she had observed. Once the tour was over, she excused herself and returned home, so I dragged Tad out to the backyard to show him my little play area and teach him how to play one of my fantasy adventures.

He was impressed with my little sanctuary and told me he thought it was even much nicer than the playground at school or the one in the park. Of course I agreed, because my father had this one specially designed just for me. Starting on the left side, there was a huge spiral slide that rose about 16 feet [5 m] above the ground, but you had to climb up to the upper perch first, if you wanted to use it. The upper perch rose about 20 feet [6.5 m] from the ground to the top of its roof and looked sort of like a medieval spire. The perch had a ladder leading up to it from the ground and a ramp that led to a lower perch that was located next to it.

The lower perch was almost identical to the upper perch, except it only rose up about 16 feet [5 m] from the ground to its roof. Other than going back to the upper perch, there were only two other ways to get off the lower perch and they led to the tree house. The first was by using the monkey bars and grabbing ahold of the rungs with your hands, as you swung from one rung to the next in order to make your way across. If you didn't want to do that, you could walk across a rope bridge, which was about 10 feet [3 m] above the sand pit below it. The rope bridge moved with each step you took as you crossed it and swayed from side to side.

No matter which of those ways you used, each led to the lower level of my bi-level tree house. Actually, there was no tree at all and my father had a huge telephone pole buried in the ground and then constructed two circular floors attached to it. The bottom floor had a wall that ran completely around it, but was only waist high. The upper floor was completely enclosed had and a slanted roof covering the entire area. In order to get up to the upper level, you had to climb a rope ladder that was attached to a hole in the upper floor. My dad thought this would be more fun for me to use, rather than a stairway, but it also took up much less space.

On the right side of the lower level of the tree house there was a rainbow bridge that led over to the porch of the playhouse. The rainbow bridge was just a wooden bridge that arched slightly skyward and often served as the drawbridge to my imaginary castle. The playhouse had two doors leading into it, with one in front and the other across from the rainbow bridge, and they both opened into a 12' x 12' room [3.5 m by 3.5 m] with an 8 to 12 feet [2.5 to 4 m] high slanted ceiling. There was also at least one window on each wall and this usually served as the Great Hall of my castle in all of my fantasy adventures that had a medieval setting.

Now that Tad had seen the entire layout of my own personal fantasyland, I asked him what type of adventure he wanted to take part in and he suggested a pirate adventure to begin with. I quickly agreed with his idea and explained how the playground would fit that scenario. The upper perch was now the taller mast with the crow's nest, the lower perch was the other mast, the lower level of the tree house was the forward deck of the ship and the playhouse was the captain's cabin. Being a good host, I let Tad be the captain, while I served as his first mate.

Over the course of the day, we made several raids on other ships and plundered a bunch of small towns and villages along the coast, but we also took part in a big naval battle with Queen Elizabeth the First's navy, the one that defeated the powerful Spanish Armada. In the end, we defeated Sir Francis Drake in a huge sea battle and then left to rest up on a small tropical island, which in our case was the sand pit below the rope bridge. We pretended there were lots of hula girls and other natives who didn't wear very much clothing, so we decided to live like the natives. To do this, we stripped down to our tight, white briefs that now served as our loincloths.

After a while, Tad decided he had to pee, but he didn't want to get dressed again just to use a toilet in the house, so I took him over to the small grove of trees in the corner of the lot, where he could relieve himself. That area was only a few feet from our pretend ship and served as Sherwood Forest during my Robin Hood adventures. As long as we were there, I decided I might as well go too, but I was surprised when Tad pulled his underpants completely down first, before he began to pee against the bark of a tree. I merely lowered the front of my briefs and placed the elastic band under my balls as I urinated, but I watched Tad the entire time.

"Tad, why does your weenie look so funny?" I asked, since his penis appeared different from mine.

He looked over at my penis next, before he answered.

"It doesn't look funny, it's just that I wasn't circumcised like you were," he announced, as if it were an everyday occurrence.

"What do you mean?" I followed. "I don't understand."

Tad finished peeing first and then waddled over so he could stand beside me, with his underpants still around his ankles.

"My dad explained to me that boys are all born with this piece of skin over their penis, but some parents have the skin cut off after their sons are born," he informed me. "Your parents must have chosen to do that with you, but my parents wanted me to remain natural. It was because my great-grandfather didn't believe in circumcision, that's what they call it when they cut the skin off, and since they were trying to impress him, it wasn't done to me. It's really the same and I'll prove it to you."

After saying this, he took his hand and pulled the extra piece of skin back, until the pink head of his penis popped out.

"See. Now my penis looks the same as yours," he noted. "Most of my friends where I used to live were cut like you, because I saw them when we went skinny-dipping in the old pond behind one of my friend's house."

Damn. I was totally amazed, because I'd never seen anything like this before and couldn't get the image of the transformation out of my mind. For that reason, I just stood there and stared at Tad's penis.

"Do you want to try it?" Tad eventually offered, when he saw how fascinated I appeared with his small piece of flesh.

"Try what?" I responded naively.

"You can pull the skin back and forth if you want," he clarified, as he thrust his hips out in my direction.

"You mean… touch your weenie?" I asked, totally shocked.

"Uh huh. I don't mind," he confirmed. "You can slide the skin back and forth if you want, so you can see what it's like. Do you want to try it for yourself?"

"Sure, if you don't mind," I quickly agreed.

"No, I don't, so go ahead," he offered again, while once more thrusting his hips in my direction.

I tentatively reached my hands out to grab the piece of meat that dangled between his legs, and as my left hand grabbed it around the base, my right hand began to slide his foreskin back and forth over his shiny glans. I was totally fascinated as the head popped in and out, but I think Tad enjoyed it too, because his little penis got hard and pointed straight out toward me.

"Wow, that's neat!" I exclaimed. "It's really fun to do that too, so thanks, Tad. You can touch mine now, if you want."

All I heard was a faint response of "uh huh" and Tad's hand reached out and his fingers started to rub over and around my exposed glans. It didn't take long before my little penis became very stiff too, just like Tad's had done.

"Man, that feels really good," I told him. "You can touch my weenie whenever you want, because it makes me feel all tingly inside."

"And you can touch mine whenever you want too," he agreed. "It felt really cool when you touched me like that, so I want you to do it some more."

Since the area we were in could possibly be seen from the house, we decided to move further into the wooded area first, before we continued to stroke each other's immature penises. Nothing more happened as a result of what we were doing, other than a few very pleasurable sensations, but Tad and I now had this unique bond from this special type of contact. It was something neither of us had ever enjoyed before, but it was one small pleasure we knew we would want to repeat again and again.

Tad and I had just spent a marvelous day together, but it was now getting late, so we went up to my bedroom to get ready to sleep. We both took a shower first, but we did it separately, because it never occurred to either one of us that this was something else we might do together. What we did do together was spend the rest of the night without any clothes on at all. I didn't have to worry about anyone coming into my bedroom unexpectedly, since my mother never came to see me and the help had been instructed to knock first. Then, they were to wait for me to answer the door or tell them to enter before they came inside, so I knew we were safe from being discovered.

Once we got under the covers of my queen-size bed, we moved really close to each other. Although we didn't know for certain exactly what we were doing, we kept rubbing each other's penis, because it felt so good. We continued this until we started to get a little sore from the stimulation and then we finally drifted off to sleep. To say the least, I think we both slept extremely well that evening.

The following morning, we got up and played on my computer for a while first, before we got dressed and went downstairs for some breakfast. Tad was a little surprised by the choices he was given and the fact that he was allowed to select anything he wanted for breakfast and the cook would prepare it for him. Once he'd told her what he wanted, he admitted to me that he thought it was like going out to a restaurant to eat, without having to pay the bill.

Even though Tad was used to having a nice home and a good life, he wasn't used to having so many people around to take care of his needs. Here, we had a cook to prepare the meals, maids to do the cleaning and look after my mother, a laundry person to wash and iron the clothing, plus a butler to run the household and answer the door. They would also take turns acting as the chauffeur, whenever my mother or I wanted or needed to go somewhere. The only person we didn't have was someone to love and care for me personally, at least not after my parents opted to discontinue the nanny when I started school. From that point on, my father was always there to fill that role, but after he died, I had no one left to be there for me. I guess I didn't count for very much after my father was gone.

Once Tad and I finished breakfast, we went outside to play. This time we were Robin Hood and Little John, but we agreed to switch roles halfway through, so we would both have an opportunity to be Robin Hood. Around midday, we quit to have lunch and that's when Tad asked me a question that really bothered me for a while.

"Win, how come your mother never eats with us?" he wanted to know.

"She is very busy most of the time and either skips the meal or eats at a different time," I lied.

I hoped that would suffice, because I certainly didn't want to tell him the truth and admit that all of her meals were taken up to her room, where she ate alone while downing even more booze. Tad merely nodded and looked at me for a moment, before he spoke again.

"It just seemed really strange is all," he observed, and I could only agree with his sentiment.

Tad had to go home shortly after we finished eating, but we took a moment first and promised we would make this a regular activity. Tad even agreed he would check with his mother to see if we could get together at their house the following weekend, so we could spend some time there too. He explained he didn't have a play area like mine, but we could find other ways to carry out our fantasies, so I agreed. I didn't care what we did or where we did it, as long as we did it together.

After Tad left I was depressed, but I was also excited knowing I now had someone in my life that actually cared about me. I could hardly wait to go back to school on Monday now, just so I could see him again and find out if we could spend the following weekend together too. Throughout the rest of the day, I found myself experiencing all kinds of strange feelings and couldn't get Tad out of my mind. My heart seemed to be beating faster than normal, my skin felt cold and clammy, and I had a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I thought I might be getting sick, but then I realized this was all due to the fact that I missed Tad so badly. I wanted to call him, but I'd forgotten to get his telephone number. Even if I had it, however, I probably wouldn't have called, because I didn't want to become a nuisance and cause his mother to change her mind about allowing us to hang out together. Instead, I just had to force myself to wait and see him in class, although I wondered if Tad was missing me as much as I missed him.

Monday morning, Tad was waiting for me in front of the school and immediately told me his mother had agreed to let me come over this coming weekend. In fact, she suggested that if it was ok with my mother, I could come over Friday afternoon, right after school, and then stay until Sunday afternoon. She was very happy that Tad had made a new friend so quickly and was willing to let us spend as much time together as possible. I was ecstatic, because of course it would be ok with my mother if I went there. Heck, she didn't know I was around even when I was at home, so I'd just inform the butler and let him know where I would be. I would do this in case anyone, possibly even my mother, should wonder what I was up to, even though I didn't suppose anyone would actually care. It was now set and I would stay with Tad from Friday until Sunday.

'Yes, Win, there is a God,' I told myself.

Throughout the week, Tad and I spent each noon hour together, so we could plan out the types of fantasies we would act out on the weekend. The first one we agreed on was to pretend we were living in Camelot. One of us would play King Arthur and the other one would be either Merlin or Sir Lancelot and switch between the characters as the story dictated. We decided after we finished that adventure, we'd be Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer next and pretend we were floating our raft down the mighty Mississippi River and getting into all sorts of mischief along the way.

This was going to be great, because we'd have new adventures to go along with out new location! Tad suggested we could use their deck to serve as both the castle at Camelot and the raft, but they also had a circular patio table we could use as the 'Round Table.' We could also pretend the patio umbrella was the sail on the raft when we were Tom and Huck, so we already had most of the essentials worked out. Yes, this was going to be super!

By the time Friday rolled around, we had all of our plans in place and could hardly wait to get started. When school ended that day, we more or less ran to Tad's house, and just as soon as we arrived his mother gave us some milk and cookies. Then, we took my things up to Tad's bedroom, before we went out on the deck and began our journey down the mighty Mississippi. Oh, what fun! We were chased around by Injun' Joe and then nearly captured by a bunch of slave traders who wanted to sell us to work on the cotton plantations. We did this until dinnertime and then came inside to eat with Tad's parents.

This was the first time I had met Tad's father and he seemed like a very nice man. He talked to us throughout dinner and wanted to know about school, what we had done earlier in the day and what we were planning on doing over the rest of the weekend. He seemed really interested in our games and even gave us some new ideas. In a way, he even reminded me of my own dad, but that also made me think about how much I missed him.

After dinner we went back to finish our adventure and played hard until it started to get dark. Then, we had to go inside, so we played some video games until it was time to get ready for bed. Unfortunately, we had to keep our underwear on while we were in Tad's bedroom, because his parents would often stop in at night to check on him, which now meant us, but that didn't stop our hands from slipping under the waistbands and playing with the other's penis. Within a minute after his mother had said good night to us and turned out the lights, we had our hands in each other's jockeys and both of our little wieners were rock hard and straining to break through the front of our briefs. We stayed up for quite a long time, as we continued to feel each other up, before we tired of that activity and fell asleep. I must admit we both slept well that evening.

Saturday, we got up and showered before we set out on another round of fantasy games. After that, we spent the morning in Camelot and even continued that adventure after lunch. During the morning session, Tad was King Arthur and I was Merlin, as we fought off an invading evil army and I had a magical duel with Morgana, the evil enchantress. During the afternoon, I was King Arthur and Tad was Sir Lancelot, but this time we were busy battling dragons and engaged in harrowing individual combat, but we also competed in jousts. In the end, we defeated all of our opponents and the dragons were slain. Oh, what valiant warriors we were!

After dinner, we switched over to being space explorers and went to visit several other planets. First, we helped to settle Mars and then set up a science research station on Jupiter's largest moon. To do this, we went out to the area of their yard where the previous owners had a garden and proceeded to get dirty digging irrigation ditches on Mars and excavating the foundation for the research station on Ganymede.

During another part of that adventure, we made first contact with a bunch of different alien races from distant galaxies, and at one point we even discovered a plot to overthrow the governments of earth. After we saved the world from invasion and kept the human race from either becoming enslaved or possibly eaten, our acts of bravery were rewarded and we were given seats on the international body that now ruled the earth. It was a day of great excitement and many accomplishments, so we were very proud.

That evening, Tad's mother insisted we take a bath, because she said we needed to soak in the tub, in order to be able to remove the excessive quantities of dirt from our bodies. She claimed we looked as though we had painted our skin with dirt while playing outside, so we didn't argue with her. In fact, we decided to take our bath together, so we could help each other get clean. She was kind enough not to come in to help us, since we were both old enough to have been embarrassed if she had seen us naked. After washing ourselves and getting most of the dirt off first, we drained the tub and then refilled it with clean water, so we could remove the rest of the grunge. We also washed each other, just to make sure we were really clean.

We remained pretty much in control of ourselves until Tad started to break wind under water. All of the sudden I heard a strange noise, noticed a bunch of bubbles coming to the surface and Tad was in hysterics. It took a while for me to figure out what had happened, but when I did, I immediately jumped out of the tub. I certainly didn't want to stay in the water, or even in the bathroom, after Tad had farted like that. Once I was out of the water, I grabbed a towel and ran to Tad's room. I think his mother got a good look at my bare butt as I raced down the hallway, because I heard her ask Tad through the door what had happened. I could also hear Tad laugh as he told his mother how he had broken wind in the tub and how I bolted from the bathroom.

She wasn't quite as amused as he was and told Tad that his actions had been very rude. She even suggested he should go apologize to me immediately and he agreed, although hesitantly, but when he joined me in his bedroom, he told me he was sorry. We both started laughing as we discussed what he'd done and I told him he was a pig, before I changed my mind and told him he was worse than a pig. Tad couldn't understand what I was so upset about, since he claimed it was a very natural thing to do, but that's when I informed him that even though it might be natural, it wasn't something one did in a social gathering. Tad then responded that he didn't realize a bath was considered a social gathering or he'd have invited guests, which got us both laughing again, when we thought about having others in the tub with us.

After that, we hopped into his bed and I rolled over to go to sleep. I was just too tired from today's activities to even think about doing anything else and began doze off almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was nearly asleep when I felt Tad's breath on my cheek, so I struggled to open my eyes to see what he was up to and discovered Tad was leaning over me. When he saw my eyes open, he very slowly lowered his head and put his lips against mine, and we started to kiss each other, although neither of us really knew how to properly kiss. For that reason, we ended up giving each other the type of kiss you might give your mother, but it had been enough to wake me up completely.

Our lips puckered and we made little smooching noises with our mouths, as we merely let each other know how much we cared for him. Before I realized what was happening, Tad had crawled on top of me, with his body gently sliding against mine, while our little wieners rubbed against each other through our briefs. Shortly after that, we began to instinctively thrust our hips into one another, so it didn't take very long before we were feeling those wonderful tingling sensations that we enjoyed each time we rubbed each other's penis. We did that for a few minutes more and then Tad rolled back into his own spot again.

"What was that all about?" I asked, but more out of curiosity than anger.

"I don't know. I was just lying here watching you and thought I should kiss you good night," he explained. "I was just going to give you a quick kiss on the cheek, but when I saw your eyes open, I decided to kiss you on the lips instead. I didn't mean for it to go on for so long, but I really started to like it and knew I had to give you more. I don't know why I got on top of you, but it just felt right at the time. You aren't mad at me, are you?"

"Heck, no!" I exclaimed. " It felt great and I wouldn't mind doing it again."

"Really? You're not mad at me?" he asked once more, since he seemed uncertain as to whether he'd heard me correctly.

"Aren't you listening? I said I'm not mad," I reiterated. "I liked it and what we did felt really nice. We'll try it again the next time you stay over at my house too. Ok?"

"Sure, I'd like that," he agreed. "It felt really nice to me too."

"Great!" I confirmed. "Tomorrow you can ask your parents if you can come over to my house next weekend, from Friday until Sunday, because we'll have more privacy there. We can even do it without anything on and won't have to worry about getting caught. Is that all right with you?"

"Of course it is," he concurred.

Sunday led to a new round of adventures, but this time we were Robinson Caruso and his servant, Friday. We were living on a small island, which of course was their deck, as we attempted to survive on our own. We spent our time avoiding the cannibals who lived on nearby islands and came to our island searching for food. We also had to lookout for the headhunters that lived on the other side of the island we were on, because they would shrink the heads of anyone not from their group, as part of their religious ceremonies. It was a wild day and we had a great time, so when his mother called us in for lunch, Tad asked her about the following weekend. She readily agreed to let him come over to my house again, after seeing how much fun we'd been having together with our youthful imaginations, and she even said she thought the friendship was good for both of us. In that case, who were we to disagree?

After lunch, Tad's mom drove me home, even though I told her I could either walk or call for someone to get me, but she wouldn't hear of it. She told me she was happy to be my chauffeur for the day and would drive me there. Tad and I sat in the backseat and he gave me a hug before I got out of the car. I don't know if his mother saw this or not, but if she did, she didn't say anything about it. I got out and stood next to the car, so I could wave at them as they drove down the driveway, but before they turned onto the road, Tad's mother yelled out her window to me.

"Goodbye, Win. I'll see you next weekend when I drop Tad off, she announced. "Be good, honey."

That was nice. I don't remember my own mother talking to me that sweetly since I was very little. I certainly wished my mom were more like Tad's mother, because I really enjoyed being around Mrs. Driscoll. Even though I missed my dad, I missed having my mother show me affection too. My dad was dead and there was nothing I could do to change that fact, but my mom was here and just didn't seem to care. Sometimes that hurt even more than the fact that my dad was no longer around, so I thought maybe I should try to do something to change it.

Once I was in the house, I went upstairs to the master bedroom suite and knocked lightly on the door. There was no response, so I opened it a little and peeked my head inside. I could see my mother lying on her bed and quietly walked over there, as I stood beside her prone form. She was lying there with her eyes closed and I assumed she was asleep or passed out in another drunken stupor, but as I turned to slink back out of the room, I heard her speak.

"What are you doing in here?" she demanded.

"Hi, mom," I said, trying to sound happy. "I just wanted to come in, see how you were and say hello."

"Hello," she said brusquely, while rolling her eyes. "You know you're not supposed to be in here."

"I knock first, but I guess you didn't hear me," I replied. "I haven't seen you in a while, so I wanted to come in and tell you that I missed you and love you."

"Very well, you've said it, so now you can leave," she countered.

After saying this, she sat up on the bed, picked up a glass from her nightstand and took a swig of its contents. The fact that she had just so casually brushed me aside in this manner hurt very deeply and caused me to wonder if she ever loved me at all, so I just had to find out.

"Mom, may I have a kiss?" I asked, as I watched her sit with her feet dangling over the side of the bed, while at the same time trying to flash her my most pathetic expression.

"Oh, all right. Come here," she agreed.

Yes, I did it. Thrilled, I walked over to where she was sitting, but as I moved my head forward for the kiss, she turned her cheek and leaned toward me, so I could kiss it. What was this? Wasn't she even going to kiss her own son? As I started to lean in and kiss her on the cheek, I decided to just let my lips brush against her skin, because I no longer wanted to kiss her. Then, I turned away quickly and raced out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I don't think my mother even noticed that I hadn't really kissed her or understood why I left in such a hurry. Once I was out of her bedroom, I raced down the hallway to my room and went inside, slamming the door behind me.

Does she think she's the queen and was merely allowing one her lowly subjects to kiss her noble cheek? Or does she think she's the massa's wife and was obligated to let one of her poor slaves take a peck at her aristocratic face? Maybe she thought she was a saint ministering to the wretched poor and allowing one of the unfortunates to make his prayer of supplication by kissing her radiant countenance.

Damn it! Who does she think she is? She's none of those things. She's my mother and she's supposed to kiss her son, not merely allow him to kiss her cheek. She's supposed to have feelings for me and I for her, but this was beginning to look as if it was a one-way street. Even when I tried to show her my love, she was merely going to go through the motions of returning it. It's obvious she doesn't have the same feelings for me, if she had any feeling at all.

Suddenly my thoughts shifted and I began to wonder why my father had to die? Why wasn't it my mother instead? If I had to lose a parent, why couldn't I lose the one that didn't love me, rather than the one that did? As all of these thoughts continued to race through my mind, I buried my face into my pillow and began to cry. No, that's not quite right. I didn't merely cry, I sobbed… no I bawled. My chest was heaving, the tears were flowing and the sounds of anguish escaped from my lips, but crying wasn't all that I did. I also swore into that pillow as I beat on it, in the same fashion that I wished I could have beaten on my mother for hurting me. I needed to let my anger and hurt out, so that poor pillow wound up taking the brunt of my frustration and anger. How could anyone be so cruel and so thoughtless as my mother had just been? How could I be so unworthy of my mother's love?

After a time, I cried myself to sleep and remained that way for over an hour. When I awoke later, it was late afternoon and suddenly everything I had been feeling earlier came flooding back into my mind. At that moment, I resolved I would never let her hurt me like this again. From this day forward, I would have nothing more to do with that woman, because I no longer considered her to be my mother. Whether Mrs. Driscoll knew it or not, she now has another son. She's much nicer to me, so I'll just think of her as my mother instead, and my own mother can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned.

The following Friday, I went with Tad over to his house to get his things. When we entered the house, his mother was in the kitchen and said 'hello.' When she did, I ran over and gave her a hug.

"How sweet, but what brought that on, Winthrop?" she wondered, while looking at me strangely.

"I just missed you since last weekend," I confessed. "I like you a lot, because you're really nice to me."

"Well, thank you, dear. I like you a lot, too," she agreed. "You're a really sweet young man and I'm glad you and Thaddeus have become friends."

"It's TAD, Mom, and he's WIN," Tad corrected her, while also showing his irritation. "We don't like it when you use our other names."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, dear. I shall try to remember that," she apologized. "Will you forgive me Winthrop… I mean Win?"

I just grinned and nodded my head up and down.

"You can call me whatever you want, Mrs. Driscoll, because I like it no matter which name you use," I replied. "Tad's just an old grump sometimes and acts like a cranky old man who's trapped in a young body."

Tad shot me a dirty look after I said this, but his mother began to laugh.

"You're right, Win, dear. Sometimes Tad is an old grump in a little boy's body," she confirmed. "I hope you will be a positive influence on him then and get him to change his ways."

"Mom!" Tad screeched.

"I shall try, Mrs. Driscoll, but it's not going to be easy," I joked. "You'll have to give me some time to work on him first, before you can expect any miracles."

"Certainly, dear. Take as much time as you need," she agreed. "I know it takes time to perform miracles, especially one of this magnitude."

Tad was totally exasperated listening to our conversation by this point.

"Mom, I'll go up and get my things and you can start the car," he suggested. "I'll be right out, but Win, you come with me."

That last statement sounded more like a command than a suggestion, and I hadn't heard Tad speak so forcefully before.

"What the hell were you trying to do to me down there?" Tad nearly screamed, as we walked up the stairs.

"I was just having some fun with your mother," I offered. "If she likes me, then she won't try to keep us from seeing each other. I just want her to think I'm a nice guy, so we can spend all of our weekends together."

"Yeah, but you don't have to make me look like a dork while you're doing it. Do you?" he wanted to know. "If you keep that up, then she's going to like you better than she likes me."

"No, she won't," I countered, forcefully, since I knew blood was still thicker than water, just not at my house. "She's your mom and she loves you, but I just want to make sure she likes me too."

"Ok, but don't overdo it," Tad warned.

We then returned downstairs and went outside to get into the car. After Tad's mom drove us over to my house, the two of us got out and thanked her for the ride. Tad also kissed his mother goodbye, before we started for the front door.

"Winthrop, haven't you forgotten something?" she asked.

Puzzled, I spun around and looked at her.

"Ummm… I don't think so," I responded. "What do you think I forgot?"

"My kiss," she replied, with a smile. "You forgot to give me a kiss, young man."

Excited, I ran over to the driver's side window and gave her a kiss. Then, I waved to her as she drove down the driveway. That confirmed it. She loves me more than my mother… I mean Mrs. Randall, the woman who lives upstairs. I hurriedly walked back and joined up with Tad again and we continued our journey to the front door.

"See! She's beginning to like you more than me," Tad stated, in a strange sounding voice.

"No, Tad. Maybe as much as you, but never more," I countered, which caused him to glance over at me. "Besides, you'd already kissed her goodbye, so she didn't need to tell you that."

"Ok, maybe your right then," he relented.

After we went inside, we rushed upstairs to put Tad's things in my room. After that, we headed down the back stairway to the kitchen for a snack. Since the staff was aware that Tad was coming over for the weekend, the cook prepared something special for when we arrived. She had a slice of cake and glass of milk ready for each of us when we came into the kitchen. We devoured it almost immediately and then thanked her for the excellent treat, before asking her to bend down. I think she was expecting us to whisper something into her ear, but when she bent down we both gave her a kiss on the cheek, one on each side. She blushed and smiled at us, as we ran outside to play.

Believe it or not, that had been one of the nicest days I've had since I lost my father. It was also the most affection I've felt or been shown since that dreadful day as well.

Tad and I shared many weekends together over the months that followed and we even continued to alternate staying at each other's house, but staying at the Randall mansion went from happening every other weekend, to every third weekend and then to every fourth weekend, so we were only there once a month. One thing that didn't change, however, was the various adventures we played, even though the themes differed from week to week.

We each portrayed so many different people that we eventually lost count. We had been kings, explorers, castaways, warriors and pirates, while sometimes portraying adults and other times mere boys. On some occasions, the action would take place long ago, but there were other times when our adventures happened in the present or even in the future. Sometimes, we were real people, but mostly we were fictional characters that never really existed, except in the books we so desperately loved. No matter who we were, we were brave and daring, but we were also honest and truthful, both loved and respected. Why can't life be more like this?

We were looking for another new adventure when Mr. Driscoll suggested a set of books that he had liked as a boy. He even went out and bought us each a copy of the book, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' by C. S. Lewis. It was part of the 'Chronicles of Narnia' series, which was full of strange and exotic creatures, as well as wondrous adventures. This led us to a whole new set of adventures that would eventually consume us for the next few months. When he saw how much we liked that story, Mr. Driscoll bought us the other books in the series as well and Tad and I read them all.

We had full-fledged adventures in Narnia from that time on and would be either Peter or Edmund, as we traveled around Narnia with Aslan, the lion, or Mr. Tumnus the Faun, which is a creature that was half-goat and half-man. We would battle against the White Witch and her allies, while other times we'd make up new enemies to fight, but sometimes we'd even be with Prince Caspian and fight the wicked King Mirax or the evil Telemarines. Later, we would travel with King Caspian and take voyages on a ship called the Dawn Treader and sail the sea, while battling enchanted foes and sea serpents. We spent so much time in Narnia that I had to watch myself when we weren't on one of our adventures, in order to make sure I kept myself grounded in the real world.

My birthday was on December 8th, so the cook baked me a birthday cake and the staff gave me a few, small gifts. The butler also gave me a large gift that he said was from my mother, but I assumed he had purchased it out of the household account and then merely gave it to me from her. My mother never even came out of her room to see me or wish me a happy birthday, so due to her utter indifference, the gift from her meant nothing and I didn't even both to open it. I just put it in my closet and left it there, but I was courteous enough to thank the staff for their gifts and left it at that.

That weekend I was scheduled to stay over at the Driscolls' house again and after dinner, Mr. Driscoll took Tad and I for a ride. When we returned to their house, I walked through the door and a bunch of people yelled 'surprise.' Tad's parents had obviously planned a surprise birthday party for me and Mrs. Driscoll had used the time while we were gone to set up for it. Tad had even invited a few of the other kids from our class, two girls and a boy whom we were friendly with, and they all sang 'Happy Birthday' to me. As I blew out the eleven candles, I was afraid I was going to cry, because I hadn't had anyone, other than the staff, do anything this nice for me in ages.

As soon as the candles were extinguished, Mrs. Driscoll gave me a big kiss, wished me happy birthday again and then handed me a present from her husband and her. I hurriedly ripped the fancy wrapping paper off of it and discovered a collection of books. It included 'The Hobbit' and the complete set of the 'Lord of the Rings Trilogy' by J. R. R. Tolkien. Mr. Driscoll said it might be a little difficult for me to read the books other than 'The Hobbit' just yet, but added that he would be happy to read it to me and explain the things I didn't understand. I thanked him for the gift and told him we could do that on the evenings I stayed over, and of course Tad would be included too. This sounded like great fun and I was quite excited about it. I had heard about these books before, and with the information I believed these books contained, I expected they would be exciting and add numerous new adventures for us to pursue.

I was just getting over my excitement about the books when Tad handed me his present. I opened it quickly and discovered it was a computerized fantasy game that we could play on either of our computers when the weather was bad. The other kids gave me their presents too, which I opened in their presence and then thanked each of them for their gifts, and then we settled in for the cake and ice cream. This was a great birthday surprise and my 'new' family had done more for me than I could have ever hoped. After the party, I kissed Mrs. Driscoll and thanked her and Mr. Driscoll for the wonderful time and their thoughtful gift. In return, they told me I was very welcome and hoped I'd had a good time.

Later, when I went to bed with Tad and were alone, I gave him a kiss and a hug, as I thanked him for his gift.

"How did you know it was my birthday? I never told you that, did I?" I wondered, since I was totally surprised.

"No, you didn't tell me, but your butler did, a couple of weeks ago," Tad informed me.

"Wow! I guess I owe him for that too," I observed, mostly to myself.

Later, when we were lying on Tad's bed, I thought of something else and decided to ask Tad another question.

"Tad, I need to ask you something, but I don't want you to get mad at me," I began. "You have to be honest and tell me what you really think though, because this is important to me."

After saying this, I hesitated briefly, as I tried to get my thoughts in order, and Tad grew impatient.

"What is it, Win? What do you want to ask me?" he pressed, when I wasn't immediately forthcoming.

"You know what it's like at my house," I began anew. "I hate it there, because no one really cares about me. The staff does to a certain extent, but I think they mostly do it because they feel it is part of their job. They're not mean or anything, but I don't really have much to do with them either, so I pretty lonely when I'm at home. I want to have a real family like you do, so I would love to be a part of this. Would it bother you if I asked your parents if I could start calling them 'mom' and 'dad'?"

Tad didn't answer my question right away, but after a few excruciating moments while I awaited his reply, a smile began to creep over his face.

"That would kind of make us brothers then, wouldn't it?" he asked, somewhat rhetorically.

I nodded my head in response, although I still gave him a verbal answer.

"Yes, I guess it would in a way," I agreed. "Would my doing that bother you? Would you mind if I did it?" "Are you kidding? I've always wished I had a brother and I already love you like one, so why would it bother me?" he answered in a rather roundabout way. "I think it would be great, and I'm fairly certain my parents like you well enough that they wouldn't mind either. Do you want me to go down and ask them for you now?"

"No, we can do it together tomorrow," I replied. "I want to tell them why I want to do this, so they'll understand it too. That's also kind of why I don't want to do it now, because that story will take a long time to tell and it's already pretty late. We'll go to sleep now and then I'll ask them about it tomorrow, right after breakfast."

"Ok. It sounds like a plan to me," Tad concurred.

Since this had been agreed to, we cuddled with each other until we fell asleep. We were both lying on our sides, facing each other, with our arms draped over the other's side, and we were still in that position when we awoke the next morning. I woke up first, probably, because I was so excited about what I was going to do, but I continued to lie there, so I could study Tad's face and examine how his red hair gently caressed his face. Then, I began to study his alabaster skin and observed how the same paleness enveloped his entire body and not just the part that had been covered by his clothes. I was in the process of checking out the shape of his nose when I noticed his green eyes flutter open, as he stared expectantly at me.

"What the heck are you doing, Win?" he immediately wondered.

"I was just looking at you and memorizing everything about you," I replied.

"Why would you do that?" he asked, while looking slightly confused.

"I was just taking notes about of how you look, because I never want to forget this moment," I confirmed.

"But why?" he persisted.

"Because I want to remember everything about you and how you looked from the first day we met," I added.

"I still don't understand why you'd want to do that," he confessed.

"You're beginning to sound like me when I was about two years old. Why? Why? Why?" I teased. "My dad would always start to mock me when I asked that question too many times in a row, kind of like you just did with me. He said I did it because of my age at the time, so what's your excuse?"

"I don't need an excuse, so why were you staring at me?" he countered, undeterred.

"Because I don't ever want to forget what you look like," I stated again. "Sometimes I have trouble remembering exactly what my dad used to look like, so I have to dig out the old photo albums and study his picture for a while, so I can store the image back into my mind. It always bothers me when I can't remember something about him, so I don't ever want to forget what you look like now. I want to remember every detail about you, even when I'm 100."

"But why?" he asked, although this time he giggled after saying it.

"Because I love you, silly. That's why!" I adamantly confirmed.

"So why didn't you just say that in the first place?" he asked, while releasing another small giggle.

Soon, we were both laughing, so I decided to tickle him, as a punishment for his insolence. I dug my fingers into his sides and worked my legs up and over his body until I was straddling him. He was squirming and writhing on the bed, while also bucking his hips upward, in an effort to throw me off. I kept running my hands all over his midsection and moving my fingers rapidly as I went. He was laughing hysterically at this point, but I wouldn't let up. Finally, he cried 'uncle.'

"Alright. Alright, you win," he shouted, in between fits of laughter. "I give up. You may be victorious this time, but you fight dirty. Now, get off of me."

"You promise you won't start anything like that again, with all of those 'whys'?" I demanded, while looking down at him with an air of superiority, while maintaining dominance over him, now that I had conquered my foe.

"I promise," Tad reiterated, so I rolled off and let him get up.

"Come on, let's go downstairs," I told him.

He bolted for the door, but then stopped, and looked at me.

"Why?" he taunted, before bolting out of the room.

That was enough to get me going again, so I chased him down the stairs and into the kitchen. His parents were already sitting at the table as we came flying in, so they looked up, startled. After a moment, they turned and grinned at each other.

"Well, what are you two up to?" Mrs. Driscoll asked, while suppressing a giggle. "You seem to be in exceptionally good spirits this morning."

"Yeah, we had a good night's sleep," I told her. "But then Tad started teasing me and I was just trying to get him back."

"You started it," Tad shot back. "You were making fun of me and then you started tickling me."

"Whatever, " Mr. Driscoll said dryly. "You must have been in a big hurry though, because neither of you even took the time to get dressed."

We looked down at our bodies in mild horror. We hadn't realized it before, but we were both still in our tighty whities. How embarrassing, and in front of his mother too. We both turned around and raced back upstairs, so we could put on our clothes before we returned to the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," I said, as we entered the kitchen again. "I was so interested in getting Tad that I forgot to get dressed first."

"And I just wanted to get away from Win," Tad added.

"That's okay, boys," Mrs. Driscoll told us. "We didn't mind. I've seen Tad and other little boys naked before, but at least you two had your briefs on."

"Mom!" Tad yelled, as he squirmed in his chair.

"Well, you were the ones that came down with hardly anything on," she stated indignantly.

"But we had our underwear on," Tad retorted. "We weren't naked, so can we drop it now?"

"Certainly, honey. What would you boys like for breakfast?" she asked next. "Would you like cereal, eggs or pancakes?"

We both wanted pancakes, so Mrs. Driscoll got out the Hungry Jack pancake mix and whipped up a batch. Tad and I ate three pancakes each and Mrs. Driscoll looked pleased. After we finished our meal, I asked the Driscolls if I could speak with them about something.

"Sure, honey. What's up?" Mrs. Driscoll answered.

"I just wanted to tell you something first, but then I need to ask you a question," I answered.

They nodded their consent, so I began my tale. I told them about my life before my father died and admitted a little about what it's been like for me since then. I even told them about the last time I went in to see my mother and how she didn't actually kiss me, but turned her cheek for me to kiss her. When I looked up, Mrs. Driscoll had tears streaming down her cheeks and Mr. Driscoll didn't look much better. I wasn't sure if I had already said too much by exposing our family secrets, but I needed them to understand why I wanted to do this.

"What is it the question you wanted to ask us then?" Mr. Driscoll prodded, when I didn't immediately continue.

"Well… I just… I don't think I can do this." I said, as I bent forward and put my head down on the table, while wondering why I had put myself in this position. Did I go too far, too quickly?

"He wants to know if he can call you 'mom' and 'dad'," Tad told them bluntly, in an attempt to help me out.

I sat up and stared at him, but I wasn't angry. I knew Tad wanted this to happen as much as I did, because in his mind, this small act would actually make us brothers. Why this would be any more significant than anything else we had already done up to this point, I wasn't sure, but Tad did, so he sincerely wanted his parents to agree. I wanted it to happen too, so I would feel like I belonged somewhere.

"Well, of course, dear," Mrs. Driscoll agreed. "We would like that very much and be honored to have you call us 'mom' and 'dad'."

"We certainly would," Mr. Driscoll added. "Why, you're already a big part of this family, so I don't know why we didn't think of it earlier. I would be proud to have another son, especially one as terrific as you. How about you, Tad? Would you like to have a brother?"

"I definitely would and Win knows it," Tad replied, while beaming from ear to ear.

"Then it's settled," Mr. Driscoll said, with tremendous authority.

I thanked them all for agreeing, but I thanked Tad privately later for bailing me out when I couldn't continue.

"You would have done it yourself, eventually," Tad responded, as if it wasn't a big deal. "I just wanted to hurry things along."

I hugged and thanked him again, and then we began one of our fantasy adventures.

I spent a lot of time with them from that point on, but most importantly, I spent Christmas and New Year's with them and it felt as if I were truly part of a real family again. I even had the butler take me shopping after my birthday, so I could buy them all gifts. Of course they bought presents for me too, but I didn't really care about that, because it wasn't important. What was important was that I was happy when I was with them and always had a great time. That alone was present enough.

One weekend in February, I had just returned home from staying over at Tad's house when a strange man suddenly appeared at our door. Once the butler let him in, he went directly up to the master suite to see my mother. Since, I had no idea who he was, I asked the butler about him.

"He's supposedly one of your mother's old friends, Master Winthrop," he answered. "I'm not quite certain, but I think he mentioned the two of them had dated before she married your father and your mother agreed to see him. He's been coming to the house and talking to her on the telephone off and on for the past couple of months, so it would appear she might still have some feelings for him. She's even been drinking less since he's been in the picture, but he either shows up when you are at school or comes on the weekend. It has just worked out that his weekend visits happened to coincide with the times you've stayed over at your friend's house."

Normally, the butler would never have discussed my mother's drinking problem with me, or any of her personal business, but I was under the impression he felt I should be aware of what was going on. I had confided in him on several different occasions and complained about how much her drinking bothered me. I even asked him why they either bought the booze for her or allowed it to be delivered to the house, so he answered honestly. He said she paid their salaries and gave the orders, so they had to do as she wished or they would have been fired. If that happened, then she would merely hire someone else who would buy the booze for her, so nothing would change. Therefore, they continued to do what she wanted, even though they didn't agree with her drinking habits and knew what it was doing to me.

"How often has he been here then?" I pressed, hoping to find out more about this mystery man.

"I haven't counted his visits, but he's been here multiple times," the butler confirmed. "I'm not sure if it's done intentionally and planned to happen this way, but until now he's shown up when you weren't around."

I thought about this information for a minute and then made up my mind. I was determined to confront this man and discover what he was up to, so I waited patiently in the hallway for him, while he was in my mother's room. A short time later, he exited her bedroom, shut the door behind him and started down the hallway toward the staircase. Before he could get there, however, I stepped in front of him and held out my hand.

"Hello, I'm Win, Winthrop Aaron Randall IV," I announced. "Who might you be?"

I thought if I was formal and exuded an air of confidence, I might impress or intimidate him, even though I was only a child.

"Hello, Win. I'm Bart Sovie and I was here visiting your mother," he replied.

He wasn't very tall for an adult and a little on the stocky side, but his clothes still appeared to be much too big for him and hung limply on his body. He also had a high-pitched, squeaky voice that didn't sound as if it should be coming out of a man's body, so I had to suppress my mirth in order to keep from giggling whenever he spoke. Between the combination of his looks and voice, it gave me the impression I was chatting with the Pillsbury Doughboy in a suit. He certainly wasn't impressive physically and their voices sounded an awful lot alike, so that was how I thought of him. As comical as he appeared and sounded, I was still hoping he might say something that would make me feel better about his being here.

"I know you've been calling on my mother and coming around recently, but why haven't I seen you before this?" I continued. "I have never heard my mother mention you either, and since she doesn't leave the house very often, how did you meet her?"

"You're quite impertinent, aren't you?" he stated, as if offended. "Well if it's any of your business, we met long before you were born. I used to date your mother back in high school, prior to her getting married."

"I'm not impertinent and only wish to protect my mother," I responded, once he'd finished speaking. "Why did you wait until now to get back in touch with her then?"

"I only found out about your father's untimely death a few months ago, at our high school reunion," he answered. "Since I'm divorced, I thought I should look her up, to see if she was the same person I remembered. You see I almost asked her to marry me before your father did, so I thought we might still share some feelings for each other. By the way, what do you think you are protecting her from?"

"From people who would hurt or try to take advantage of her," I answered.

I hoped my insincerity about my concern for my mother didn't show through my answer, because I actually couldn't care less if she got hurt after everything she'd done to me. On the other hand, I wanted to see who might be trying to work his way into my life, so I could make certain he didn't attempt to fleece my mother out of everything we possessed.

"I have no intentions of hurting your mother, young man. You can rest assured of that," he stated, although not very convincingly. "I loved her once and believe I still may."

"Does she still love you?" I asked, very matter-of-factly.

"I'm not sure about that, but I am doing my best to see if any spark still exists between us," he answered. "That's why I have visited her so often and am now attempting to get her to leave the house and go out on a date with me. I believe I nearly have her convinced to do it."

"You know she drinks a lot, don't you?" I added, hoping to dissuade his interest in her.

"I've heard the stories and seen some of it for myself, but she has been cutting back, at my request," he added, while puffing out his chest. "I believe she may still be able to get her problem under control, with a little help of course."

"And what about me? How would I fit into your plans with my mother?" I pressed, even though I didn't exactly fit into her plans as it was.

"That would depend on you, young man," he countered. "Would you like to have a new daddy, if it came to that?"

"I don't know, because I've never considered that possibility," I replied.

I wasn't exactly telling him the truth though, because it was something I had thought about a great deal since my father had died. I just wasn't convinced he would be the right guy.

"Well that's an honest answer," he acknowledged. "I guess I've never thought about having a son either, because I didn't have any children with my wife, but I've also never been around many young people. I have some friends who have children, but for the most part they've never been a part of our social gatherings. I suppose I'm like you in that regard, because I haven't thought that far into the future and hadn't considered if it might be something we should consider changing."

After he said this, I wasn't sure what he meant by his statement. Did he feel he should change the fact that his friends' children hadn't been included in their activities, change the fact that he didn't have children or change the fact that my mother had a son? Even though that idea was a bit unsettling, I went back to listening to what he had to say.

We spoke a few minutes more, and although he seemed polite, he was also sickly sweet, so I still had my doubts about him. There was just something about this guy that made my skin crawl when he was near me and even more so when he spoke. Maybe it was due to the fact that everything he did or said was just too smooth and too polished to be real. I hoped it wasn't just my imagination, but I suspected his earlier comment had indicated there was something there that I'd have to watch out for. I wasn't exactly certain what it was, but I was certain I'd know it when I saw it.

Unfortunately for me, Mr. Sovie became a regular visitor to our house from that point on and after a few weeks of trying, he finally coaxed the woman living upstairs into leaving the house with him, although none of us knew where they went or what they did. They might have gone on a date, as he had mentioned wanting to do before, but they went out during the middle of the day, which we thought was a bit odd, since this happened on a weekday. Didn't this guy have a job?

My feelings about Bart Sovie never changed though and I kept both eyes open to see what he was up to. He seemed to be somewhat friendly towards me when we were in the house at the same time, but I was always uneasy whenever he was around. It's possible he was doing this because he thought it would be necessary for him to get me to like him first, in order for my mother to consider him as a serious beau, but I wasn't sure. To tell you the truth, as long as they both left me alone and didn't ruin my life, I didn't care what they did with each other.

Over the many weekends I'd spent at their house, Tad's father had been reading us chapters from The Hobbit and we had only one chapter to go. It was a great story and gave us so many new characters we could pretend to be and even more new foes to defeat. Mostly, we switched between playing Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard, as we traveled all around Middle-earth. We fought goblins, giant spiders and a dragon named Smaug, as well as a nasty little creature named Gollum, who constantly referred to his birthday present as 'my precious.' With all of these newfound villains to occupy our time, the weekends passed by quickly. During the bad weather days, we would play the fantasy game Tad gave me for my birthday, so there was never any downtime. Even though the video game might not have been as good as our own exploits, it was good enough to keep us busy and happy.

There were a few other things that kept us busy as well. We had continued our earlier sexual activity at both houses, although we had to be more carefully if we attempted to do anything while we were at Tad's place. Once we had experienced how great humping against each other felt, after we'd done it at Tad's house, the next time we stayed at my place, we tried it again, only this time we did it without anything on. When I climbed on top of Tad to give him a kiss, we started grinding our hips into each other, but before long we both had to reach down and adjust our wieners. My penis had slipped under his scrotum and got hung up there, while Tad's was now bent so it was pointed at his toes, instead of at his navel.

After we repositioned our penises so they were now side-by-side and rubbing against each other, along with being tightly pressed between our abdomens, it felt much better. We then continued our juvenile humping in that fashion until we got those tingly feelings in our stomachs again, but we didn't stop there. We kept going even longer, until excessive friction made our pride and joys start to hurt, which made us cease what we were doing. The slight bit of pain we experienced, however, wasn't enough to diminish how much we enjoyed the feelings we got from this particular activity, so we did it quite a few more times after that. Once in a while though, we'd just rub each other's boners with our hands, for a little change of pace.

Tad's birthday was on April 7th, so his parents threw him a party, except it wasn't a surprise party. Mom D even invited the same two girls and the boy who had come to my party too and we all had a good time. I bought Tad a different fantasy game, so we would have a choice in what we wanted to do when the weather was bad, and he was very happy with it.

The next couple of months flew by, because Tad and I spent every weekend together. Unfortunately, Sovie continued to show up to visit the woman upstairs and they had even started to go out together more often. She had also begun to come down from her bedroom for meals and was talking to the staff. She even tried to talk to me one day after school, but I just brushed her off and went to my room. I did it because I wanted her to know exactly what it felt like when someone ignored her and acted as if she was worthless, the same as she had done to me. I wanted to give her an indication of how she had made me feel when she ignored me all of those times when I reached out or needed her.

She may be overcoming most of her other problems, but she was going to have a much more difficult time when it comes to dealing with me. I wasn't going to make this easy for her and would do everything in my power to cause her to suffer and squirm as much as I had. Now that I had a family to be a part of, I was learning how much fun it was and how happy I could be with them. I was also beginning to realize how much of my life she had actually stolen from me, which happened from the time I was seven, when my father died, until I was ten and became close to the Driscolls.

She was the one who basically robbed me of the happiness I should have enjoyed as a child and instead replaced me with a bottle of booze. What for me should have been wonderful years filled with memories of being loved, she left me with feelings of inadequacy, loneliness and sadness. For that, I am going to make her suffer.

I was spending another of my weekends at Tad's house when his parents decided to take us to the zoo, which turned out to be a truly wonderful day. Sure, I knew all about the various animals before we went there, but until that trip, I never fully appreciated how impressive or unique the different species were until I saw them for myself. I couldn't believe the enormity of the elephant or how long the giraffe's neck was. I didn't realize how big the lion's teeth were or how long and big around some of the snakes grew to be.

This was really going to help Tad and I when we had adventures where any of these animals were involved, because we'd be able to appreciate the dangers much better. I would now be even more impressed when I was standing beside Aslan, because I would realize how vicious he could be, if he wanted to. It would also make a difference when we were pretending to be explorers in the jungle, because from now on I'd have to think more about the animals that might be around and not just concentrating on the natives in the area. This would double the suspense, danger and fun, so it was really going to be great.

That night at Tad's house, once we were alone in his bed, we were talking about how we would include the animals we saw in our upcoming adventures. Out of nowhere, Tad suddenly asked me if he could kiss me again, but this time he wanted to do it the same way he'd seen people kiss on television and in the movies we'd watched with his parents. He told me he had noticed the onscreen kisses were different, but we'd also heard some older kids at school talking about kissing with their mouths open and using their tongues. So for some reason, Tad was insistent that he would try this with me.

Tad seemed determined to give me a grown-up kiss, and not merely a baby kiss, like the ones you'd give to your mother. Even after I'd said 'ok,' I still wasn't completely sure what to expect, so I instinctively started to pucker. When Tad saw me do this, he scolded me and told me to relax, with my mouth hanging slightly open. I did what he'd suggested and he put his lips on mine, but then I felt his tongue enter my mouth. I still wasn't certain what I should do in response, so I froze and Tad pulled back.

"What's wrong?" he wanted to know. "Don't you like doing this?"

"I just don't know what I'm supposed to do," I admitted, while feeling rather stupid.

"Why? You watched the same programs and movies that I have, so you must have seen what they were doing too" he insisted, which made me feel even dumber.

"I'm sure I have, but I guess I wasn't watching it as closely as you were," I confessed.

"Well, I'll explain it to you then," he offered. "First, we open our mouths over each other's and sometimes suck on the other's lower lip. Then, when I put my tongue out, you're supposed to do the same thing, so we can let our tongues rub against each other. After we do that, we can suck on each other's tongues too. You know, kind of like sucking on a lollipop."

"Ok, I can do that, even though it sounds kind of gross," I relented, while being honest. "Who sucks on whose tongue first?"

"That's up to you. Do you want to go first or do you want me to?" he wondered.

"You go first, so I'll know what to do afterward," I stated. "I want to see how you do it and then I'll do it back to you. Is that ok with you?"

"Sure," he agreed.

We started again, but this time after we'd finished kissing with open mouths and Tad sucked on my lower lip a little, Tad put his tongue into my mouth. When he did that, I let mine dart out to meet it and we slid our tongues around together for a while and then he took his tongue back, but I left my tongue where it was. Tad started to suck on it for a while and it felt kind of funny and even tickled a little, but it made my wiener suddenly get hard too. Within a few seconds, my penis was so stiff that I think even Superman would have had a tough time trying to bend it. It did feel good though, and after Tad stopped sucking on my tongue, he stuck his tongue back into my mouth.

I immediately began to suck on his tongue next, the same way he had done to mine. I was curious if our kissing was having the same effect on Tad as it had on me, so I reached over and touched his penis. Sure enough, it was as hard as mine. Once I discovered that, I started to play with it and rubbed it up and down through his briefs, and before long I felt Tad's hand doing the same thing to me. This was a lot better than the old way of kissing and we kept doing it for a whole lot longer too. When we finally stopped to go to sleep, I think we both knew we wanted to do this again and were ready to try even more new things.

Mom and Dad D kept us really busy throughout the summer and took us to all kinds of places. We spent Memorial Day camping and on the Fourth of July they took us to a concert, where we saw a massive fireworks display. We spent another weekend on a beach along the Gulf of Mexico and on another weekend trip we went to San Antonio to see the Alamo, but we also spent some time at the River Walk and visited Sea World San Antonio.

The highlight of the summer, however, was when they took us for a weeklong trip to Disneyland. Once I heard what they were planning, I made my so-called mother cough up some money to pay for my way, along with some spending money. Although Dad D didn't want to take it, I told him he had to or I wouldn't go. Since I'd put it that way, he accepted the money and used it to pay some of the expenses, but I made sure there was enough there to cover some of the other trips we'd made too. I can't tell you how much fun Tad and I had on that trip, especially in the room we shared, but it was definitely the most fun I'd had since I'd lost my dad.

School was a little harder that fall, but it was nothing we couldn't handle, although we did have to spend more time studying. We still found plenty of time for our adventures and reading though and I went Trick or Treating with Tad at Halloween. Dad D made our costumes and we went as a pair of dice, with Tad's head poking through the middle dot on the 'three' side of his die and my head poking through the middle dot on the 'five' side of my die. It was a lot of fun and many people commented about how clever they thought our costumes were.

The Driscolls threw me another party for my twelfth birthday and it was really great. On Saturday afternoon, they invited a few of the other kids from our class over for a party, but they were different kids this year, because they didn't want the other three to think we were only inviting them to get presents. We played all kinds of games, but had cake and ice cream too, so it was a lot of fun. That wasn't all they had planned though.

After the other kids left, we helped them clean up the house quickly and then they sent Tad and me up to take a shower and get dressed in nicer clothes. Once we were ready, they took us out to dinner at a really nice restaurant and we had a wonderful time. The food was good and the company was fantastic, so all in all, it was a truly marvelous day. I thanked them over and over again when we got back to the house, because they just continued to do so much for me and made me truly feel like part of the family.

After that, I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's with them again too. It was not only the first real family Thanksgiving celebration I'd been involved in during the past five years, but the other two holidays were great as well. Even though I had to go to my house in between these occasions, I actually felt as if I was part of their family and I was happy and felt needed and loved again.

A few weeks after the New Year started, I received another surprise, but this one took place at my house. When I came back from spending the weekend with Tad, the butler called me aside to speak to me in private.

"I know you haven't spoken very often with your mother, Master Winthrop, so I am taking it upon myself to tell you the news," he began. "Your mother and Mr. Sovie have announced they are planning to go away to get married."

"What? You mean he's going to be my new father?" I asked, since I wasn't prepared for this.

"To be precise, he'll be your stepfather, Master Winthrop," the butler clarified. "You seem to be troubled by this news, Master Winthrop, so I take it you aren't very fond of Mr. Sovie. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, it's correct," I confirmed. "He tries to be nice to me, but he gives me the creeps. I don't know what it is, but I just don't trust him. Something just isn't right and I have a bad feeling about this. When is it going to happen?"

"They are closing the house down for two weeks, so they can go Las Vegas, where they're going to get married," he explained. "Then, they're going to go on a honeymoon afterward, but they haven't disclosed where that will be."

"What about me? What am I supposed to do?" I wondered, confused and perplexed.

"Well, no one has mentioned anything about that to me directly, although some of the staff will be staying in their quarters on the third floor," he offered. "If you should end up staying here, there will be others around to assist you, although the rest of the house will be closed down for all practical purposes. I imagine I could get one of the others to watch over you and take you out for meals, if you'd like me to arrange that."

"You mean no one has even bothered to consider what I was going to do during this time?" I challenged. "You mean my so-called mother didn't even take the time to make sure I was going to be all right?"

"I'm sorry, Master Winthrop, but it must have slipped her mind," the butler apologized, although I think he knew better.

"Like heck it slipped her mind," I shot back. "She just doesn't care anything about me and this guy must not either, but don't worry about me though. I'll get Tad's parents to let me stay with them while my worthless mother and stepfather are away. The Driscolls are my real family anyway, so they'll let me stay there and make sure I'm taken care of. If anyone asks, although I doubt that will happen, please tell whoever it is that I can take care of myself."

"But Master Winthrop, you shouldn't talk that way about your mother," the butler objected. "I'm sure she was just so excited about the idea of getting married again that it just slipped her mind."

"I slipped out of her mind long before that," came my retort, which was dripping with sarcasm. "She hasn't had a thing to do with me since my father died, maybe even before that. You don't know what it's been like for me to live in the same house with her and know she never even thinks about me."

"It was probably the drink, Master Winthrop," he offered, although lamely. "It clouded her mind and took over her life."

"What about now? I was told she's been off the booze for a while now, but she still doesn't think about me," I challenged. "She doesn't speak to me any differently than she does to you or the rest of the staff. To her, I'm just one of the hired help. I'm not her son and she doesn't love me. I hate her, I hate him and I hate living in this house."

"Master Winthrop, you shouldn't feel this way," he stated, but I believe he also understood my position. "This is your home and she is your mother."

"Maybe I shouldn't feel this way, but I do," I confirmed. "This may be my home, although I was always told a home was filled with love, and this one isn't, but she is no longer my mother. She may have given birth to me, but she doesn't care anything about me. I still hate her, no matter what you say. When are they leaving?"

"They will be leaving a week from this Friday, Master Winthrop," he answered. "I believe they are getting married the following day and will be enjoying their honeymoon after that."

"Fine," I huffed. "When I go to Tad's this weekend, I'll just take all of my clothes with me and then stay there for as long as I can."

"But they aren't leaving until the week after that, Master Winthrop," the butler pointed out, although it didn't matter to me.

"I don't care. I'm leaving THIS weekend and I'm not coming back until I absolutely have to," I shot back. "I'll go to the Driscolls after school tomorrow and talk this over with them and hopefully they'll agree with my plan. Right now, I'm going up to my room and pack all of my things. Would you please have someone bring up one of the larger suitcases for me to use?"

"Very well, Master Winthrop," he agreed. "I will see to it that the proper suitcase is delivered to your room. Will you be needing anything else?"

"No, that will be all," I confirmed. "Thank you for your help and the information, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have known about any of this until after it happened."

I then went to my room and started to get my things together, but my mind was racing a mile a minute. How could she plan to leave and not inform me about her plans or even worry what I was going to do? I was only twelve years old, for God's sake, not twenty. How could she forget about her only child? How could I mean so little to her that she could go away without knowing where I'd be or who would be taking care of me? Damn, I hated her more and more every minute. As I began to select the clothes and other things I would be taking with me, it was difficult to see through my tears. I kept wiping the moisture from my eyes, but I was determined not to let it stop me from finishing my task. I wanted to be ready to leave here as soon as I got the Driscolls to agree to my request.

The next day after school, I went home with Tad and told his parents my story. Without hesitation they said I was welcome to stay with them for as long as I wanted or needed, just as I knew they would. I could see they were as shocked by my mother's actions as I was, even though they tried to hide it. They were very understanding and sympathetic, but they were also very comforting. Within minutes they had me feeling better about myself again, by letting me know how much they loved me. They also made certain I knew that I would always have a home with them, if ever I needed one. I can't begin to explain how good it made me feel, just to know they really cared about me.

That Friday, I went home with Tad and then his mother drove us over to my house to pick up my suitcase. I went into the house and the butler followed me up to my room, so he could carry my suitcase downstairs and put it into Mom D's car. I thanked him again for all of his help and then started to shake his hand, but I felt it wasn't enough. For that reason, I threw caution to the wind and hugged him instead. I think this surprised him, but I could tell it meant a great deal to him as well.

"Master Winthrop, I want you let me know if you need anything," he offered. "I'll be stopping by the house from time to time while your mother is gone, so I can keep an eye on things, and I'll pick up any messages at that time. You take care and I hope to see you again when I return."

"I'm sure you will and thank you," I replied. "It's nice to know at least you care."

We left my house and drove back to the Driscolls' place, but neither Tad nor his mother gave me time to feel badly or get down about the reason for this visit. Instead, they had the entire weekend planned out for us, from the minute we arrived and every second thereafter. As soon as we got there, Mom D had us go upstairs and change, but she told us to put our swimsuits on under our shorts. I had originally wondered why she had suggested I make sure I brought it with me when I came that weekend, but now I knew. That afternoon she took us to 'Play Land,' which was one of those areas that had all sorts of things for kids our age to do. Before Tad and I stripped down to our swim trunks, we rode on the go-carts first and then tried scaling a rock-climbing wall, which we had to be put into a harness first, for safety reasons.

After that we played a bunch of the arcade type games, but these had much larger screens and better graphics than most, so it was a whole lot of fun. Once we stripped down to our swim trunks, Tad and I went down the waterslide, rode down rapids on tubes and even tried our hand at surfing, although we didn't do very well at that. We must have stayed there for more than three hours and had an absolute blast. Once we finished up there, we went back to their house, to meet up with Dad D when he got home from work. Before he got home, Mom D had Tad and I go upstairs to dry off, removed our swimsuits and get dressed again. As soon as Dad D got there, we went out to eat.

It was another nice meal, although this was more of a family type restaurant, compared to the one they took me to for my birthday, but we still had a nice meal and enjoyed ourselves. On the way home in the car, Tad and I thanked his parents for the great day, but they told us it wasn't over yet. When we got their house, we discovered our next surprise. They had a bunch of videos they bought for us to watch, but we would get to choose when we wanted to see them and in what order, since it didn't have to be done in one weekend.

Among the videos we had to select from, was the animated version of 'The Hobbit,' the entire 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy series, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' 'Prince Caspian,' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,' 'Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,' the musical 'Camelot,' 'Robinson Crusoe,' 'The Swiss Family Robinson,' and the old Disney version of 'Treasure Island.' Although I couldn't believe he had bought so many different DVDs, they had even purchased the box set of the 'Jurasic Park' films, the 'Indiana Jones' box set, as well as the complete 'Pirates of the Caribbean' series.

By doing this, Mom and Dad D had provided Tad and I with a smorgasbord of all the adventure classics we loved to play and I figured it might take us an entire year just to watch all of these movies. When we watched each one, Tad and I were going to see if we could come up with even more ideas that we might want to try, but hadn't thought of yet. They also informed us that they'd purchased all of these DVDs so Tad and I could watch them over and over again, whenever we wanted, so we both went over to hug and thank them for their thoughtfulness.

Once we were ready, Tad and I decided to watch 'The Hobbit' first and his parents sat down with us, so we all watched it together while sitting on the family room sofa. Tad and I sat between them and they both placed their arms on the back of the sofa behind us, so not only did we enjoy the movie, but it felt really super too. When it was over, we went to bed, but I was still so excited that I just lay on the bed, while thinking about what a wonderful evening it had been. I really loved being here with them.

Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast and then dressed in some older clothes, because Tad's mother informed us she was taking us to the park. Once we got there, Tad and I ran around and played on the various apparatus, while acting out another one of our adventures. This time we chose to imagine we were exploring in the Amazon jungle, to take advantage of all of the equipment there to help us. We were climbing mountains when we scaled the jungle gym, plummeted over waterfalls when we went down the slide and were exploring caves when we crawled through the large concrete pipes.

We also pretended to fight ferocious beasts while bouncing up and down on the teeter-totter and were climbing up the branches of a huge tree when we swung on the monkey bars. Then, we crossed over crocodile and piranha infested rivers by swinging on vines, when we stood on the swings and swung back and forth a few times before jumping off, in order to get to the other side of the river. We also walked through marshes while looking out for dangerous snakes when we tromped through the wading pool. Finally, we explored an old jungle temple when we entered the recreation building, but we also studied different groups of natives, as we watched the other people move about the park. It was really cool.

Tad's mother watched us the entire time while she was getting some sun, lying on a chaise lounge she had brought with her and placed on the far side of the wading pool, so she could see us almost anywhere we went. She seemed to be totally amused and fascinated as she viewed us taking part in our adventure and told us she had probably enjoyed watching us as much as we'd had playing the scenario out in our imaginations.

When we got back to their place, Tad and I went in to watch the DVD of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' while Mrs. Driscoll went out to start working on dinner. She came in and watched some of the movie with us, and after Tad's father got home from having to work on Saturday, we had a big dinner together. Afterward, Mom and Dad D took us out to the theater where we watched a newly released movie, as opposed to the ones they had purchased for us. It was a new Disney film, so once again we went to bed that evening very satisfied with our day. Tad and I were both quite tired that night, so we went right to sleep without fooling around first.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast together and then went to church. When the church service ended, they took us out to eat a quick lunch next, before taking us see the local children's theater matinee production of the musical 'Oliver.' I hadn't seen this before and found it very interesting and quite well done. It was a story about a boy whose mother had died, leaving him all alone, so he was forced to live in an orphanage. Oliver was even treated worse than I was at home, because at least I always had something to eat and the staff was nice to me.

When Oliver Twist sang the song 'Where Is Love?' I could really relate to what he was feeling, because I'd often felt the same way. I thought about my mother as he sang the song and wondered why I couldn't get her to love me the same way other mothers love their children. What did I do to make her hate me so much? I felt really good for Oliver at the end of the story, when he got to go live with his grandfather who loved him and had been searching for him. In the end, it left me hoping that maybe someday I'd get to live with someone who loved me the same way.

After the matinee we went home, but during the ride there I began to wonder if they had picked this particular performance specifically for my benefit or if the similarities between Oliver and me had been merely a coincidence. Whichever it was, it gave me a fresh perspective and maybe even a little hope that possibly someday my situation, like Oliver's, would improve.

Once we got back, Tad and I changed our clothes and then played outside for a while, before we were called in for dinner. After dinner we watched some television together, all of us, and then we went to bed early, because Tad and I had school the next day. I thanked Mom and Dad D before I went up to Tad's room and told them I appreciated all they had done to make me forget about my problems. They smiled and told me it was their pleasure, before they both kissed me good night, Mom D on the lips and Dad D on the forehead. I slept very well after that.

The school week went by quickly, but I was beginning to feel sad as the following weekend approached. I think Mom D must have sensed it, because she tried her best to distract me, but this time it just wasn't working.

"Win, dear, why don't you tell me what's troubling you?" she prodded, when she couldn't distract me, although I think she already knew what was on my mind. I looked her straight in the eye when I answered.

"It's my mom's wedding," I replied. "I can't believe she didn't tell me about it and didn't want me there with her."

"I know, honey," she answered sympathetically, while giving me a hug. "I don't understand why she did that either, but you can't let it bother you. Just concentrate on being a boy and having fun. Everything else will work itself out eventually. In the meantime, you have us and we'll make sure you're well taken care of."

"I know you will and I appreciate that, Mom," I responded. "I really love you, Dad D and Tad too, and I don't know what I'd do without you. I just can't figure out why my mom doesn't love me the same way."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that right now, because you have us and we'll continue to be here for you as long as you need us," she assured me. "Now, why don't you and Tad run along and play one of your games?"

She then turned me around, so I was facing in the opposite direction, and then swatted me playfully on the butt, as she urged me to get going.

"Tad," she announced, getting his attention too, "I want you boys to go outside, have some fun and keep out of trouble."

We took her advice and had a good time, but it also helped to make the weekend pass by quicker. Not only the weekend flew by, but the next two weeks did as well. Before I knew it, my mother and her new husband were expected to return home, so the butler called the Driscolls' house to tell me they would be returning Tuesday evening. The staff was going to open the house up that weekend to make sure everything was clean and in order before they arrived.

Once he gave me that information, he explained the construction crews had left quite a mess, so there was a lot to do before they got back. When I asked what the construction crews had been doing and why they'd been necessary, he told me a few more things that I hadn't known before. It seemed as if Mr. Sovie had ordered a new fire protection system to be installed in the house and a new security system put in as well. I couldn't believe it. He must have arranged for this to happen even before they were married, which meant he had already been taking over before anything was legal.

I informed Mom D about what I had been told and she explained I would probably be better off learning to accept it, since he was now presumably the head of the household. She also told me I should probably be at the house when they arrived home, so I could congratulate them on their marriage. When I balked at the idea, she said that if I hoped to mend fences with my mother and not have future problems with my stepfather, then I should be there when they returned. I knew she was probably right, so I gave in and she took me home Sunday evening, so I could get things unpacked and check out the new changes before they arrived home. She knew the staff would be there to meet my needs and look after me for the next couple of days, as they had always done, so she didn't have a problem doing this.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the new security pad by the front entrance. There was an identical pad next to each of the other doors leading outside as well, but I didn't understand why we needed them. The staff was in the house all day long, with the exception of the past couple of weeks while all of this stuff was being put in, so there was always someone here, even though different people worked different shifts.

The next thing I noticed were the new smoke detectors, which were now located in every room. I was told all of the controls for both systems were kept in the new entertainment center that had been placed in my father's old office and would be kept under lock and key. That's when I was also informed the office was now to be used solely by Mr. Sovie, so no one else was allowed to go in there, but he had also taken over complete control of the daily operations of the household. In my opinion, I think he wasted a whole lot of my mother's money putting this stuff in, but hey I'm just a kid, so what did I know?

When they arrived home, I was waiting at the front entrance with the entire staff. My mother and Mr. Sovie came in and said hello to everyone, but they both also tousled my hair. There were no hugs, no kisses and no 'we missed you dear.' I was just another member of the household staff, although I was younger and smaller than the rest, but I didn't mean any more to my mother and stepfather than any of the others did.

I'm so glad I came back to greet them. NOT! I happened to run into Bart Sovie on a few occasions after that and he made sure to let me know where I stood. He advised me that children were to be seen and not heard, so that's what he expected from me. He also told me I could basically do whatever I wanted, as long as I didn't get in his way or mess anything up. What a loving stepfather I had. Yeah, sure I did. My life is so much better now. NOT!

We started out spending every other weekend at my house, because the Driscolls suggested we should give it another chance, since the situation might be different now that my mom was remarried and no longer drinking. I acceded to their request, because I figured this way Tad could also see what it was going to be like for me to live in that house, so he could back me up later, when I pled my case to his parents again. Even though we tried hard to keep out of Mr. Sovie's way, he always seemed to be mad at us about one thing or another.

When he threatened to stop letting us play together any longer, we confronted Mom and Dad D about the situation. Since Tad was able to back up my claims about everything, they started to let us start spend the majority of our weekends at their house. We would only spent one weekend at my house each month, if that, although I still had to spend all of my weekdays there. I did my best to keep to myself after school and usually just stayed in my room, totally alone. I was beginning to hate Bart Sovie more than even my mom.

If this wasn't depressing enough, things began to go from bad to worse. That's because my mother started drinking again, about a month after they got back from their honeymoon, which meant she was spending her time entirely in the master suite again and Mr. Sovie made all of the decisions about the household without any input from her. The only good thing was that at least he wasn't home all day long. During weekdays and for part of Saturday he would disappear, but I had no idea where he went. As far as I knew, he didn't have a job, but as long as he left me alone and wasn't on the premises, I didn't really care.

One day, however, I overheard the butler say something about Mr. Sovie being a veterinarian and that he had his own practice. I guess that explains where he goes and why he didn't arrive at the house until a couple of hours after I got home from school. Too bad he couldn't work more often or spend more time with the animals.

Tad's house now became my sanctuary, the oasis where I would go to rest up and be refreshed, after leaving the desert where I thirsted for love, which some people referred to as my home. The Driscolls' residence was also my emotional home base and refuge, the place where I was allowed to be a child of twelve and discover the things boys my age should know. I also got to enjoy the things boys my age do, although it was hardly ever planned that way. It was during one of these times that Tad and I stumbled into learning about puberty. We were dressing one morning when I made a discovery.

"Tad, stand still for a minute," I told him, after noticing something.

"Why? What's the matter?" he wondered.

I walked over to Tad, who was standing completely naked by his bed, since he had just stripped off his old pair of briefs. He had been getting ready to put on a new pair when something caught my eye, so I bent down and moved my head in front of his crotch, so I could inspect it.

"Win, what are you doing?" he demanded, since I hadn't told him anything.

"You've got some hairs down here," I advised him, since I hadn't ever seen anything like this before.

"Where? Show me," he urged.

"See. Right here," I pointed out.

Tad bent his head down to check, and sure enough he spotted four or five lone red hairs scattered just above the base of his cock.

"Wow! I wonder when those got there?" he exclaimed.

"You don't know?" I asked, totally surprised that he wasn't aware of this new development.

"No. I didn't notice them until you pointed out they were there," he confirmed. "Do you have any hairs down there?"

"I don't think so, but let's check," I answered.

I lowered my briefs and we both looked down at my groin, as we examined the area very closely. Suddenly, Tad spoke excitedly.

"I think I see a couple right here," Tad said, while pointing just to the left of my penis, "but your hairs are so blond that they're really hard to see."

I bent over to look where he was pointing and strained my eyes to scan the area he had indicated. Yes, he was right. There was something there, although the light-colored hairs were extremely difficult to detect. Not only were there two lone hairs sticking out where he'd spotted them, but there were a few others, both above and to the other side of my penis as well. The problem was, you really had to look hard to see them, that's for sure.

"What does it mean, you know, if we have hair down there?" I asked Tad, since he always seemed to know more about these types of things than I did.

"I guess it means we're almost men," he answered. "Where I used to live, my old school would take us to the YMCA for swimming lessons and sometimes there would be older boys and men at the pool too. When I would see them in the showers or when they were changing, I would sometimes notice they had hair around their penises and on other parts of their bodies too. Although some had only a little hair down there, others had a lot and their penises were a lot bigger too."

"Really? When do you think that will happen to us?" I wanted to know. "Do you think other things will change too?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess maybe some of the changes are starting now," he reasoned. "I don't know if getting hair and having a bigger penis is all that will happen, but I kind of doubt it. Like I said, some of the men I saw were hairy all over and I've noticed guys' voices seem to get deeper too, so maybe that will happen to us as well."

"Do you think your dad would know?" I wondered, thinking he should probably know about these things.

"Yes, of course he would know. Why?" Tad asked, because he didn't quite understanding why I was asking.

"I think we should ask him then," I suggested. "Maybe he could tell us about all of this and more."

"Ok. I don't see why not," Tad agreed. "He's told me about a lot of other stuff, like when I asked him about the difference in my cousin's and my penis. That's when he explained to me about the difference between being circumcised and uncircumcised."

Since we were hopeful we were about to find out more about these mysteries, we went downstairs and found both of Tad's parents sitting at the breakfast table. Being very naïve, but also very comfortable around Mom and Dad D, I went right up to him and asked my question.

"Dad, Tad and I are getting some hair around our wieners and we were wondering what it meant?" I basically blurted out.

He looked up at his wife and smiled, before he answered my question.

"I think that means its time for me to sit down and have a little talk with you boys after breakfast," he replied. "Why don't you two tell us what you want to eat this morning, and when you've finished, we'll go have our little chat."

"Great," we both responded in unison.

Tad and I each had eggs and toast, which we hurriedly wolfed down, because we were eager to hear the answer to our question. Once we finished our breakfast, we went with Dad D into the living room, so he could tell us what we wanted to know. He began by explaining all about the changes we could expect to take place in our bodies over the next few years, like all the different places where hair will start to grow and some of the other stuff Tad had mentioned earlier. He also taught us all of the correct names for our body parts, but he also told us some of the common names that grown-ups and older kids used when talking about them too. Boy, there sure were a lot of different names for everything.

I don't know how long we talked with him about this stuff, but it was definitely quite a while. He followed up our little session by answering all of our questions, and then he told us whenever we had any other questions that we should come to him, no matter what the questions were about. He said he would try to answer our questions the best he could, so we should never hesitate or feel embarrassed about coming to him. We thanked Dad D for his help and then went up to Tad's room to talk about this some more, but this time it would be just the two of us.

"Wow, that was neat," I told Tad, as soon as we entered his bedroom.

"Yeah, it was. I learned a lot from him, but it's also going to cause me some problems," Tad confessed. "I don't think I'll ever be able to look at Dick Thomas again without laughing and thinking that he's some giant penis. I'm also going to have to be careful that I don't say something stupid like, 'Oh, Dick, may I see your dick'?"

"Or asking Peter Bogart how his peter is," I added.

"Or asking Rod McGregor what's up with his little rod," Tad countered, and we were both laughing loudly now.

"What about Wendy Cox? Do you thinks she's ever had or seen any cocks?" I followed, and Tad broke up and fell to the floor.

"What about Gary Ball or Mike Nutt?" I added, do you think they've ever been hit in their namesakes?" We laughed some more.

"I didn't know there were so many different names for our weenies," I confessed, as Tad was trying to recover from his last bout of hysterics.

"Me, either," Tad agreed. "I just knew the correct name for it was a penis, because my mom and dad always insisted I used that word for it, rather than things like pee-pee, wee-wee or ding-a-ling."

The rest of the day went by pretty much as usual, except that we later found another occasion to begin a new round of jokes concerning the information we had gained from Dad D that morning. No matter how dumb the comments actually were, we both started laughing hysterically and couldn't stop until our sides were hurting. Just as soon as we calmed down again, one of us would say something else and we would both be rolling around on the floor once again, with tears streaming down our cheeks from carrying on so. We'd been having so much fun that I was even sadder than usual when it was time for me to go back home.

On the weekends that we stayed at my house, we would spend most of the time in my bedroom, so we didn't accidentally get into trouble with Mr. Sovie. He had made up all kinds of new rules for me to follow and was constantly showing up to check on me, even when I was alone, and some of the time I caught him staring in my direction, which made me all jittery. I wasn't sure what he was up to, but it certainly made me very nervous wondering what his intentions were.

It was due to our voluntarily confinement in my room that we started spending more time on my computer, and not just playing games either. When we got bored with the games, we started to look for new stories from which we hoped to glean additional ideas for our adventures. It was during one of these searches when we first ran across a group of sites that had stories about people having sex.

Some of these stories had boy-girl sex, but others had boy-boy and girl-girl sex. Other stories had a little of all types of sex in them, but some had some pretty weird stuff too, such as tying people up, plus spanking or whipping them. How could people like to be spanked? I know I hated it, whenever it happened to me, although I only got spanked a couple of times. Other stories told about boys dressing up like girls or about people peeing on each other, but we quickly agreed we'd never do any of that stuff to each other.

Even though some of the stuff seemed a little gross or just plain weird, most of the stories were really cool. Here was a whole lot of information we had never heard about before, so we knew we would be trying out more than just a few of the ideas we'd read about on those pages.

This discovery had a whole bunch of other benefits though and led to a new sort of education for us, sort of an independent study course that we could pursue by ourselves late at night. In fact, we tried out the first of those lessons later that evening. We went to bed early, totally naked of course, but not to sleep. We locked my bedroom door and started by giving each other the 'grown-up' kisses we had been practicing. The contact from our lips and the exploration of our tongues soon had us highly aroused, so we quickly found our penises as stiff as a board. So hard, in fact, that it was becoming a little painful, so we knew we'd have to do something about it soon.

"Tad, would you mind if I put my mouth on your dick, like it talked about in some of those stories?" I asked, although somewhat timidly.

"Heck, no. I think I'd like that," he answered, with more enthusiasm than I'd expected. "I've been wondering what it would feel like ever since we read about it, so if you'll do it to me, then I'll do it to you afterward."

I didn't say another word and merely slid down the bed until I was looking at Tad's uncut pole, as it pointed up at his chin. I thought it was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen, possibly because it was so different from mine. That's probably why I was so fascinated with it, but whatever it was that held my interest, various other parts of my body seemed attracted to it like a magnet. I wanted to see, touch, lick and taste it. There was one particular area that made me the most curious though, and that was Tad's foreskin. I could play with that extra piece of flesh for hours. I loved to stretch it, pull it apart and slide it back and forth over his shiny pinkish helmet. I was so mesmerized with that cute flap of skin that I just wanted to remain there and worship it.

"What are you waiting for?" Tad wondered, and his query snapped me out of my reverie.

"Oh, uh… nothing. I was… uhhh… just…uh… looking at it."

"Is it too big for you?" Tad asked, and then giggled.

"Very funny," I shot back. "As a matter of fact, I was thinking that it might be too LITTLE to do this. I wouldn't want to hurt it, or God forbid, accidentally bite part of it off and swallow it. Then what would you do?"

"You can swallow it, as long as you don't bite it or try to digest it," he offered in encouragement.

"Well, maybe I'll bite it off, swallow it, digest it and then SHIT it out," I informed him, in between giggles. "Then what would you do?"

"NO! Then what would YOU do?" he countered, which made me think about it for a second.

"You're right. I would never let anything happen to it or you," I assured him. Why don't I just lick it for a while?"

Tad had been rolling around on the bed in fits of laughter over our most recent exchange, so I had to hold onto his legs to keep him still long enough so I could get close to his marvelous little prize. The minute my tongue came into contact with his nut sac, he gasped and stopped laughing almost instantly. He was still squirming, but now it was from pleasure, not jocularity. I licked all of the wrinkled skin that housed those bean-sized nuggets and Tad was flopping around on the bed like a fish that had just been removed from the hook and placed on the dock.

"Oh, oh, oh God," Tad panted. "That's… uh… ohhh… so wonderful!" he exclaimed, in halting breaths.

I didn't need any more encouragement than that and finished up washing his tiny scrotum with my tongue, before I began to lick my way up his boyhood. This caused Tad to gasp again.

"Oh, Win. That's it," he yelped. "Yes, keep going. Please!"

His eyes never opened and his head rolled from side to side. His mouth was hanging open and his breathing was shallow and irregular. I could almost hear his heartbeat from where I was, but I could definitely feel it pulsing in his dick with every beat of his heart. I pulled the skin completely away of the shiny glans and licked around the exposed coronal ridge.

"Oh, damn. Oh, oh," he panted, with his mouth gaping open even more and his head jerking violently from side to side. "Oh, yes, yes. That's incredible. Oh, Win… Win, yesss!"

That last word was uttered just as I slid my mouth over the tip of his penis and my lips began to glide down the sides of his steely member. At that second, his hips catapulted off of the bed, as he jammed his cock deep into my mouth. His thrusting motion didn't stop there, however, and I had to use every ounce of my concentration just to keep him from accidentally extracting his hard-on from my mouth, due to his spasmodic writhing. At that moment, I felt his boner throb even harder, just before he pushed his erection back into my mouth, as far it would go, and then held it there, while he had a very satisfying dry orgasm.

After leaving himself embedded in my mouth like that for many more seconds, his body collapsed onto the bed again and pulled his manhandled pecker forcefully from the moist confines of my oral cavity. He lay on the bed, his eyes still glazed over, but his breathing was beginning to return to its normal rhythm. He stayed this way until he had completely recovered from this new encounter.

"Damn, that was incredible," Tad gasped. "It was like someone had set off fireworks in my brain and in my penis at the same time."

"Hehehe. It was that good, huh?" I responded.

"Yeah, it really was," he confirmed. "It was totally unreal. I expected it to be good, but that was more than just good. It was fantastic." Even as he was speaking, Tad remained on the bed, starring at the ceiling. "Just give me a few minutes to get my strength back, because I feel kind of weak after that. I'll do it for you just as soon as I'm ready to move again."

"Take your time. There's no hurry," I advised him. "We've got all night to do this."

We did have all night too, because no one would be looking for us until breakfast the next morning. While I waited for Tad to recover, I was surprised by how many minutes it actually took before he felt he was ready to reciprocate. Finally, he pushed me back onto the bed and crawled between my legs to pay homage to my cut staff. I think he was just as fascinated by the differences in our dicks as I was and enjoyed playing with mine as much as I did playing with his.

Once he was ready, he flicked his tongue out and let it come in contact with my ball sac. Electric shocks were generated by that quick connection and caused me to whimper from the pure pleasure that radiated throughout my body. Slowly, I became accustomed to this stimulation, as he continued to bathe my tight pouch with his tongue, but I yelped when his oral muscle touched the head of my dick, just before his mouth engulfed it completely. I just couldn't help myself. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought he had stuck my cock into an electrical outlet, instead of his mouth.

My groin was awash in a bundle of new sensations and rockets were going off in my head. I could feel my body stiffening and arching upward, as I rammed my penis into Tad's vacuuming orifice, and I was surprised I didn't loosen some of his teeth from the force of my thrusts. This was instinctive though, as my body attempted to make sure he stimulated every millimeter of my barely pubescent pecker. Tad must have thought he was wrestling an alligator, as he tried to hang on and give me my first ever blowjob.

As I reacted to his ministrations, I don't think a wrestler could have done better back bridges than I did, while I was forcing my mast in and out of Tad's warm, moist receptacle. Thankfully for him, my love muscle exploded in a series of dry spasms and I began to cease my bucking into his face. Instead, I collapsed on the bed, while feeling as if I had just gone ten rounds with the heavyweight-boxing champion, because all of my senses were still reeling from the conglomeration of new sensations I had just experienced.

When the room stopped spinning and my orgasmic-induced bout with vertigo had ended, I opened my eyes and saw Tad bent over me with the biggest grin plastered across his face.

"Pretty awesome, wasn't it?" he asked, very matter-of-factly.

"Damn straight it was," I whispered as loudly as I could at that moment. "Now, I understand why your body was flopping all around the bed when I did it to you."

"Yep. There's no way you can stay still when it feels that good," he confirmed.

"I can't imagine anything could ever feel better than that," I added. "When we read those stories, I thought the authors were making it sound great so people would read their stuff, but if anything, they didn't make it sound as good as it really was. We've got to do that again."

"We will, just not for a while," he replied. My penis is really tender right now, especially the head, because it has never received so much stimulation before."

"Yeah, I guess mine is too," I confessed. "Maybe it just feels this way because it was our first time."

"Yeah, probably," Tad agreed, although he didn't seem convinced.

"Are you ready to go to sleep yet?" I followed.

"Yes, I'm pretty tired after that," Tad confirmed. "Do you think we'll still be able to cuddle?"

"Of course!" I answered. "I don't think it will hurt our wieners, I mean cocks, if we do that. If they do start to become sore, then we can stop for a while. Hang on a second, while I go over and turn off the light."

I walked over and flipped the light switch off, but there was still a fair amount of light in the room from the bright moon that shone through my window. When I got back to the bed, I looked at Tad lying on it, bathed in the soft, pale moonlight and noticed It had a surreal effect on his still form. It almost made Tad look as if he were a small angel, sprawled out in all of his glory. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a pair of wings sprout from his back and spread across the mattress or for a halo to begin glowing above his head. Maybe he wasn't one of God's angels, but he was certainly my angel and I could no longer imagine life without him.

I wasn't sure what quirk of fate had arranged for Tad's father to get transferred to this location or what brought Tad into my classroom, but I owe someone or something for bringing this little darling to me. Once he appeared, he rescued me from the loveless existence I had been forced to endure before he arrived. I didn't think I could ever find a more convincing argument to support the existence of God, as well as his infinite love and forgiveness, than my wonderful, redheaded angel. I've never been more tempted to shout out anything like this before, but now I wanted to scream, 'THANK YOU, LORD. PRAISE BE TO GOD, HALLELUJAH! AMEN!'

As soon as I got back into the bed, I pulled Tad tightly against my chest and spent the next hour or two just watching him, even after he fell asleep. I'd never felt so much love or completeness as I felt during this time and couldn't pry my eyes away from his features long enough to fall asleep myself. I don't remember when I eventually succumbed to my weariness, but the next thing I remembered was waking up with Tad leaning over me. He was lying on his side, his arm outstretched and bent upward at the elbow, with his head resting in his hand.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Nothing is the matter," he answered. "I was just noticing how gorgeous you really are. You looked so peaceful and so happy that I thought you looked like… oh, never mind. Forget it."

"Like what? What were you going to say?" I prodded, since I wanted to see if he was thinking the same thing about me as I had about him.

"Nothing. Just forget it," Tad repeated.

"No, I'm not going to forget it," I stated, defiantly. "If I tell you what I thought you looked like to me last night while you were sleeping, then will you tell me what you were going to say?"

"Maybe," came his non-committal answer.

Even though he'd left himself an opening so he wouldn't have to tell me, I decided to take a chance and tell him what I had been thinking.

"When I was watching you while you were sleeping last night, I could have sworn you looked just like what I thought a boy angel would look like," I admitted, somewhat shyly.

"No way. Really?" he gasped. "That's what I was going to say about you. Your golden locks looked like a halo around your head and you had a look on your face of pure contentment."

"That's because of you and what you did for me last night," I explained.

Tad looked away from me quickly, as a red tint began to creep over his skin, until it engulfed his face and ears.

"What we did for each other," he corrected, even more shyly than I had spoken to him.

"Okay. What we did for each other then," I relented.

I then leaned forward and placed my lips against his, as I let my tongue lick the fissure that separated his upper and lower lips. Just as I drew my tongue back into my mouth, his tongue darted out and entered between my lips, as it glided around my oral cavity. Soon, we were locked in an extremely passionate and tender kiss, one that expressed the quality of our love for each other. We only broke the kiss out of necessity, when I noticed the time on the clock on the nightstand.

"Damn. We'd better take our shower and get downstairs or we won't be able to have breakfast," I explained. "Sovie has given the cook strict time limits during which she can prepare various meals. He told her that there was to be absolutely no cooking outside of those times and if I don't show up in time for meals, then I wouldn't get to eat. I don't understand why he made that rule, but she doesn't dare to ignore it. So if we plan to eat, then we've got to hurry."

"Let's take our shower together," Tad suggested. "That should make it even faster."

"Great idea," I agreed.

We then raced to the bathroom and took a quick shower together. There was no time to fool around and we were strictly all business, so we made it down to the kitchen with less than fifteen minutes to spare. The cook whipped us up a quick breakfast and then cleaned up the kitchen while we ate. Just as we were leaving, Mr. Sovie came in to make sure his rule was being obeyed and gave us a bone-chilling glare as we passed by. Damn, that man gives me the creeps.

The following weekend we were back at Tad's house, because his parents were holding his twelfth birthday party on Saturday. Once again, they invited some of his school friends to attend too, but they took us all bowling first, before we came back to the house for cake and ice cream. It was a fun time, but I felt badly, because I didn't have an actually gift for him, so I told him he'd get his gift from me later, after we turned in.

Since the butler was no longer around to help me buy a gift for Tad, since Sovie had taken over responsibility for the household and felt the butler was no longer necessary, I ended up giving Tad the longest blowjob he'd ever had. I'd take him to the edge and then backed off for a while, so his body would cool down again, and after doing that several times, I finally let him shoot. He filled my mouth with the biggest load yet, and once he recovered from his release, he told me it was a great birthday gift, so I shouldn't worry about not being able to buy him one.

Even though he wanted to return the favor, I wouldn't let him, because that would negate his present. I told him I was more than fine just being away from Sovie for a few days, so we cuddled together and fell asleep.

Tad and I didn't stay at my house again for over a month, since I hated being there with Mr. Sovie constantly showing up and staring at me, because it gave me a real creepy feeling. I no longer felt safe there, so I wanted to be away from him as often as I possibly could, and Mom and Dad D were willing to help me accomplish that goal. Even though I had grown up in that big house, I now felt more alone when I was there than I had ever felt before. At least when my mother was locked in her room and drowning in a bottle of booze I still had the staff to keep me company, but this was no longer the case.

Sovie had the staff so paranoid about losing their jobs that they no longer had time for me either, at least the ones that were left. Since Mr. Sovie had taken over control of the household, he had let the butler go, since he was no longer needed to oversee the operation of the household, and that was the one person I had been able to count on the most. Sovie had even fired one of the maids, since he said my mother no longer needed the maids to look after her as much, so everyone else was leery the axe would drop on them next.

Out of desperation, I even asked Mom and Dad D to please let me stay with them permanently, but they said even if they were tempted to do that, they weren't my legal guardians and would have no authority to make such a drastic move. They advised me that if they tried to take me away to live with them, then Mr. Sovie would probably go to court and have a restraining order filed against them, which would then prevent me from being able to visit them any longer.

Since I didn't want to take the chance of that happening, I stayed at my house during the week, but then spent most weekends at the Driscoll house. To my dismay, Tad and I were spending this weekend at the Randall mansion, but we were doing our best to keep to ourselves and stay away from Sovie, at least as much as possible. With the exception of coming down to eat meals, we spent most of our time in my room, where we could be alone and not be bothered. At one point, Tad wanted to go out in the back yard to play for a while, which we did, but when I spotted Sovie watching us, I convinced Tad it would be best if we went back to my room.

We played one of the computer fantasy games and read some more stories online first, to help pass the time and keep from being bored. Before we went to sleep that evening, we did a little more mutual stimulation of each other and used both our hands and mouths for that purpose, as we sought as much pleasure as we could. We each had a couple of dry orgasms before we went to sleep and that helped us to pass into dreamland much more quickly than we probably otherwise would have.

Some time during the night, I thought I felt a sharp prick in my arm, so I opened my eyes quickly, but it took a few seconds for them to focus. When they did, I looked up and saw Mr. Sovie, but even though I tried to see what he was doing in my room, I just wasn't able. My eyelids were getting very heavy again, so heavy in fact that I was having difficulty keeping them open, so I ended up giving in and drifting back to sleep. I finally concluded that what I thought I saw and felt was just part of a dream, or maybe more like a nightmare, but I didn't remember anything else until I woke up again much later.

When I opened my eyes and began looking around, I noticed it was still quite dark out, but I couldn't imagine why. With the moonlight and outside lights shining through my bedroom window, my room was never pitch black like it was now. So why was I now in this all-consuming blackness? Then, I realized that I could also hear some sort of engine running nearby, but since my mind was still cloudy from sleep, I couldn't imagine where the sound was coming from. My room was at the back of the house and I'd never heard anything like this before, so what was happening? This was making absolutely no sense to me. Was it merely just another part of my dream or what? No matter how hard I thought about this, I just couldn't figure out what was going on.

Then another sensation unexpectedly swept over me, because it felt as though I was moving. No, it wasn't as if I was moving, such as if I were walking or running, but it was closer to the feeling you get when you're in or on something that was moving. But I was in bed, so how could my bed be moving? That would be impossible, so this had to be a dream. There can't be any other explanation for what I was feeling, could there?

It was then that my body was suddenly jerked upward, before it slammed back down again. Ouch! That hurt. Whatever I landed on was hard, so it certainly wasn't my mattress that I had just landed on. Where the heck was I? Bam. Another bump and I was slammed up and down again. My mind was racing, and while I was thinking about what was happening, it happened again.

"Damn!" I screamed.

"Win? Is that you?" someone asked, and I recognized it was Tad's sweet voice, but it sounded very small and extremely scared.

"Yes, Tad. It's me," I assured him.

"Where are we? What's going on?" he wanted to know.

"I'm not sure, but it feels like we're in a car, truck or maybe even a bus," I replied, although none of it really made any sense.

"Then how did we get here and why is this happening? Where are we going and why is it so dark?" he demanded, but I didn't have any answers for him.

I could hear the tension in Tad's voice, so I longed to reach out and soothe his concerns. I wanted to let him know everything was going to be all right, but I had to be honest and let him know I was just as baffled by all of this as he was.

"I can't answer any of those questions, Tad," I confessed, while trying not to cause him to panic. "I know as little about this as you do and all I can remember is that we were asleep in my bed. I thought I felt something earlier, so I opened my eyes and thought I saw Mr. Sovie, but then I went back to sleep. Later, I woke up here like you, but I don't even know where here is."

"You saw Mr. Sovie? Is he doing this to us?" Tad followed.

"I can't say for certain, but I can't think of any other possibility, unless this is just a dream," I reasoned.

"But how can we both be having the same dream?" he demanded, expressing his skepticism.

"Maybe we're not. Maybe you're in my dream or I'm in yours," I countered, since I had no other explanation. "That would explain how we could be talking to each other without having the same dream. Ouch! What did you do that for?"

"Have you ever felt pain like that in your dreams before, Win?" he challenged, after he'd pinched me.

I thought about what he'd just asked, but I couldn't remember if I had ever felt pain in a dream before. I'm sure there were dreams where I had been hurt, but I couldn't remember ever feeling the sensation of pain, such as he'd just caused me.

"Maybe I would have, if someone pinched me in my dream, like you just did," I mocked, while letting him know I didn't really appreciate his gesture.

"Win, I don't think we're dreaming and I believe we're in big trouble," he replied. "I don't know what's happening and I'm very scared about it."

"Yeah, I guess I am too," I agreed. "I just didn't want to worry you."

We stopped our conversation right then, because whatever we were in came to a stop and the sounds of the motor quickly died. Although we couldn't see each other in the dark, I knew our eyes were bulging from their sockets, our hearts were pounding in our chests and we were both holding our breath. Suddenly, there was a clicking sound and then a blinding light filled the area, temporarily blinding us. When our eyes adjusted to the brightness, it all started to become clear. We had been stuffed into the trunk of a car, which had just been opened into the sunlight. There stood Mr. Sovie and a man I didn't recognize.

"Looks like they came to during the ride boss," the other man observed.

"Doesn't make any difference now," Sovie responded. "We're too far away from civilization for them to get any help and no one will hear them if they scream. There's also no place for them to run, especially the way they're dressed."

I had been listening intently to the conversation and it finally dawned on me what Sovie was hinting at with his last comment. Tad and I were both still naked, the same way we went to bed last night.

"You grab the redhead and I'll grab my stepson," Sovie barked out, as he ordered the other man around.

They reached into the trunk and began to pull us out. One of Sovie's hands slid under my back and came around on the other side, and then he used it to grab my wrists, so I couldn't use my arms to fight him off. Once he'd done that, he snaked his free arm under my legs, so he could lift me out of the trunk. I then watched as the other man did basically the same thing as he lifted Tad out of the trunk. They eventually set us both down, so we were standing naked next to them.

"Where are we and what are you doing to us?" I demanded, in a very authoritative tone.

"You're going to be taking a little vacation, Winthrop, my son," Sovie scoffed. "The only thing is that only the four of us know about it. By the way, you won't be coming back from this trip either."

A cruel laugh filled the air and Sovie seemed to be enjoying his evil plan.

"Well I don't want to go anywhere and that includes wherever you're planning on taking us," I challenged. "I want to go back home, NOW."

"Listen, you rich little brat, you're not giving the orders here. I am!" he barked back. "I've been looking for a way to get you out of my hair ever since I met you, but I was having trouble coming up with an idea until you handed me the perfect plan on a silver platter. Only your plan didn't include just you. The unfortunate part was that you accidentally included your little companion in this as well. That didn't make a difference to me though, as long as you're taken care of. Very soon, we won't be seeing each other again."

"What are you going to do to us?" Tad asked, in a pleading voice.

I looked over to where he was standing and could see tears rolling down his cheeks and his body was shaking visibly. It certainly wasn't because he was cold, because it was very hot standing here in the Texas sun. At least I presumed we were still in Texas.

"Are you going to kill us?" Tad sobbed out.

"Not unless I have to," Sovie answered. "Like I said, boy, you two little queers are going on a little vacation, but this is one that you won't be coming back from. I have special plans for the two of you."

"Who do you think you're calling 'queer'?" I demanded, while hiding my shock at his terminology and doing my best to put forth my most macho facade.

"I'm calling you two little faggots queer," Sovie replied. "I've seen what you two have been doing in your bedroom, because those smoke detectors I had installed all around the house aren't just smoke detectors. They're part of a video surveillance system and I've got videos showing you two playing with each other while you were having your little sleepovers. Your little activities, my darling stepson, gave me the inspiration for how I planned to get rid of little Mr. Richie Rich. It was your friend's bad luck that he was the one you included in your little queer boy pleasures."

"You won't get away with this," I said with as much bravado as I could manage. "There are going to be people out looking for us and they're going to catch you."

"Oh, there will be people out looking for a while, but they're never going to find you," he stated, while showing a great deal of glee. "You helped take care of that for me."

"And just how did I do that?" I challenged, "What are you talking about?"

"Those videos I have of you two gives me the perfect story for your disappearance," he announced, while appearing very smug. "You see, you little cocksucker, I've been trying to find a way to get rid of you ever since I first arrived. I tried to have you sent off to a boarding school, but your mother wouldn't agree to it, because the school was in England. She thought that was just too far away, but it's where I had my contacts. I couldn't understand why see wouldn't agree to it, seeing she has nothing to do with you, but she claimed you'd suffered enough when your father died."

I was shocked. Did my mother actually still have feelings for me? Was she really concerned about what I was going through? I didn't have time to ponder this much longer, because Mr. Sovie was continuing his explanation.

"Seeing I couldn't get rid of you that way, I had to find a new approach," he continued. "You gave me the perfect alternative when you performed for my video cameras. I will now tell your mother, and your little friend's parents, that I caught you two in a homosexual relationship and confronted you about what you were doing. I can even show them the videos, if they choose not to believe me, and then I'll explain that I confronted both of you about it and ordered you not to see each other again. Then, I'll tell them that you two freaked out and must have run away later that evening, rather than being kept from seeing each other again."

Mr. Sovie was nearly dancing around with joy as he was telling us this, so it almost appeared as if he had just won some special award. I knew he never liked me any more than I liked him, but I never expected him to do any thing this despicable.

"Everyone will be out looking for two little runaways, rather than searching for kidnap victims," he continued to rant on. "They'll be looking in a completely different direction from where you two will be located, so they'll never find you."

After saying this, Sovie began to laugh again, a loud, terrifying and maniacal chuckle. The sound of his mirth was sending chills up and down my spine and making me tremble in fear, as I thought about the possibilities of what was planning to do to us. I quickly glanced over at Tad and could tell he was just as frightened as I was, so I started look around, to see if I could determine where we were. The first thing I noticed was the little, wooden shack a few feet away from us and then I noticed the large, old oil derrick located a few hundred yards behind the building. The derrick looked really old and outdated, so I had to assume it hadn't been in operation for quite some time, which meant this place had probably been abandoned long ago.

At this point, we were roughly dragged into the little shack, and as we passed through the main entrance, I noticed there were just two rooms, the one we were in and another one off to the left. Tad and I were then taken to the other room, pushed inside and then the metal door was shut behind us. I could hear the sound of two clanks once it was closed, which told me two deadbolts had just slid into place. Tad and I hurriedly scanned the room, to see if we could find any way to get out of there and that's when we realized how hopeless our situation was. It appeared as if it had just been remodeled, but not in a pleasing manner, since it gave us the feeling we had just been placed in a dungeon.

Even though the shack was made of wood, the inside walls had been reinforced with cinderblocks, which seemed odd, until I concluded this had probably been done to keep us from getting out. The only window in the room was filled with those thick glass blocks that you can't really see any recognizable shapes out of, just blurry images. The reason for this is that the blocks are so thick that they bend the light in many different ways, thus distorting everything on the other side. The only good thing was that it would at least let the sunlight in and allow us to tell day from night.

As I tried to look through the window to see if I could recognize any other details about this place, all I was able to make out were colorful shadows, but that's about it. The blocks were all glued tightly together and were so thick that it would be difficult to break, especially since there was nothing we could use for that purpose. It looked as if there was no way out of this room, except through the bolted door

Since it appeared as if we were trapped in here, I decided to look around to see what it had to offer. There was a large mattress, but it was merely lying on the floor and wasn't part of a bed. There were also a couple of folded blankets tossed on top of it, but no sheets. The only other item in the room was a large metal bucket, which I assumed was place here to be used as a toilet. I came to that conclusion because there was a roll of toilet paper next to it.

I needed more information, if we were going to get out of this, so I walked over to the door and put my ear against it, to see if I could hear anything on the other side. Sovie and the other man were still talking, so I tried to make out what they were saying.

"How long do I have to babysit for those two brats?" the other man asked Sovie.

"Just until things die down back home," he answered. "Once everyone figures they're out of the state or dead, then I'll put the second half of my plan into action. You've got enough supplies to last you for a couple of weeks, so by then I'll either come back or send someone else out with more supplies, especially if it looks as if we're going to have to keep them here longer. You're going to get paid very well for doing this, so quit your bitching and I'll see you later."

Shortly after he said that, I heard the trunk lid slam closed and a car door shut. Then, I heard a car's engine start and the sounds of the tires spinning on the loose gravel over which it traveled. It didn't take long before we couldn't hear the sounds of the car's engine any longer, as it faded into the distance.

"Win, what's going to happen to us?" Tad asked.

When I looked over at him, he appeared absolutely terrified. All kinds of things were going through my mind, but I wouldn't tell Tad about what I was thinking, because I didn't want him to be any more frightened than he already was. I decided it was up to me to figure a way to get us out of this and keep Tad from losing hope.

"We'll be fine, Tad, so don't worry about it," I stated in the most confident and reassuring tone I could muster. "It may take a while, but eventually the police or our families will find us. I'm sure of that. We just have to keep our minds from thinking otherwise until they show up."

"How are we going to do that?" Tad wanted to know.

"Just like we did at my house, when we wanted to get away from Sovie and the loneliness there," I offered. "We'll set up our own fantasies and play them out in our minds."

"What kind of fantasy can we make out of this?" Tad challenged, unconvinced

"Well, let's see. We could always pretend we were thrown into the dungeon of a castle for some major crime, like treason, because we objected to the King's policies," I offered. "Or we could claim the prince had us thrown into the dungeon because we wouldn't let him make love to us after he had become taken with our good looks. Then again, we could just be boyfriends who have just moved into their own apartment and were going to be on their own for the first time, so we'd be busy setting up.

"You know, couples just starting out often have shitty little places," I continued, "so this would just be a little worse than most. If you don't like those ideas, then we could be POW's in Vietnam, stuck in the Hanoi Hilton, and then we fell in love to keep from being lonely and going insane. Maybe we could even be the captain and the first mate on a ship that were having a relationship, because they'd been stuck out at sea for so long. If you don't like those ideas, then one of us could be the ship's captain and he's getting it on with the cabin boy. Better yet, we could be Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn on a raft, as we take a voyage down the Mississippi River, and the mattress could be the raft…"

"Ok, I get the idea," he stated in a less than happy tone. "I like your last idea the best, so we can start with that one. Actually, I don't care who we are or why were on an adventure, as long as I get to touch and kiss you while we're doing it."

"Tad, that's why many of my suggestions I made had us being lovers too," I replied. "We don't have to use any fantasy or adventure if it doesn't have that as part of it, if that's what you want. Even if it doesn't, we can still do stuff with each other anyway."

"Thanks, Win. You're so thoughtful and brave," Tad responded. "I think I'll be able to handle this, as long as we're together."

After saying this, Tad walked over and wrapped his arms around my body, as he proceeded to squeeze me harder than he'd ever done before. When he broke this embrace, we leaned into each other and exchange a very affectionate kiss, as our hands began to tenderly slide up and down each other's body. As our fingers skimmed across the surface of the other's satiny-smooth skin, we'd occasionally take a brief detour, so we could play with a nipple, navel or erect penis. I slowly worked Tad backward, as I gradually moved him toward the mattress, and when we reached that destination, I temporarily pushed him away from me.

"Just a second, Tad," I announced after I'd done that. "Let me spread one of the blankets over the mattress first, so we can lie down on it."

I did it quickly and then pulled Tad against me again, as we lowered our bodies onto the blanket and resumed our kissing. After sucking on Tad's face for a while, I broke away from his mouth and I worked my way down his body. I paused briefly over the nipple that was closest to me and stuck my tongue out, so I could lick it quickly. This caused the little nub to spring to attention, so I clamped my teeth over it lightly, while only putting enough pressure on it to send some tingling vibrations through his upper body, but not hard enough to do any harm. Finally, I started to suck on that tiny piece of flesh, as I attempted to imitate the actions of the nursing baby animals we had seen during our trip to the zoo. Tad was moaning and panting from my ministrations to his body, as I released his breast and worked my way down his abdomen.

I paused when I reached his navel, so I could run my tongue into and around that cute little depression. Tad's squirming began anew and he was making so much noise that the guy in the other room knocked on the door and asked if one of us was ill. I merely advised him that Tad had banged his funny bone and was experiencing some temporary pain, so he seemed to accept my explanation and left us alone. After that, I warned Tad that he had to muffle his screams in the future, if he didn't want the guy coming in to investigate. He said he understood and would definitely try to do better.

At this point, I left his navel and started to move further down his torso, as Tad started to groan some more, since he thought I was ready to attack his penis. Instead, I bypassed his proud member for the time being, which caused Tad to whimper his disappointment until he realized I was zeroing in on his scrotum. He gave a quick yelp as my tongue made its first exploratory swipe over that thin skin covering, and his hips thrust skyward as his head began to flop from side to side. I spent a few more minutes dragging my tongue across that highly sensitive area, before I tried something new. I took both of his testicles into my mouth and I started to suck on them gently, which caused Tad to lift his hips involuntarily toward the ceiling once more. He was fortunate my lips were extended past my teeth when he did that or he might have lost some skin with his last gyration.

As I dropped his ball sac from my lips and resumed my journey toward his erect antenna, Tad sensed my approach and groaned in anticipation of the pleasure he expected to receive. Slowly I licked my way up the side of his little obelisk of sexuality and caused him to undulate with enjoyment. I carefully pulled back the remainder of the excess skin and slid it down his shaft, thus uncovering the glistening mushroom head for a new round of pleasure. His highly sensitive glans was now completely exposed to my tongue and I traced my way around the hard outer ridge, before I slipped my mouth over the entire crown and swallowed it down to the base.

After I felt a couple of his newly sprouted hairs begin to tickle the skin around my nose, I began pumping my lips up and down the saliva-slicked sides of his penis. I let my tongue flick at the exposed head just before I began every down stroke, but I also applied as much suction as I could with every upward stroke. This caused Tad's ass to yo-yo off of the mattress, as the electric pulses shot through his nervous system, because his body was now nearing full overload from the sensations. His waist lunged up and down, as he forced his penis in and out of my hot mouth in an effort to hasten the release he needed to lessen the aching tightness that had built up in his loins.

I rode his excited penis, as his body moved like one of the mechanical bulls that seem to be so prevalent in Texas establishments, until he made his final assault and experienced another mind-blowing dry orgasm. As the shuddering of his body subsided and he returned from his voyage to the 'Outer Limits,' Tad's backside sunk into the top of the mattress. His panting was now beginning to slow and his heart rate was gradually coming out of the stratosphere. I remained fairly motionless beside him, as I stroked his chest first and then his hair, until he rejoined me in the present.

His glassy eyes slowly opened and he gazed directly into my face. As soon as he was able to focus those gleaming hazel orbs once more, he scanned my face and discovered only vast quantities of love in my eyes. When he opened his mouth to speak, at first nothing came out. Then, he made a second attempt to talk to me and this time squeaked out a short sentence in a voice barely above a whisper.

"That was even better than the last time," he wheezed, since he had trouble getting it out.

I bent over his prone form and slid my arms under and around his body, as I drew him toward me in a powerful hug.

"I love you, Tad, and I'm so sorry you got caught up in this because of me," I told him soothingly. "I wish I could change things and get you out of here, but seeing I can't do that, I'll try to do whatever I can to make this less scary and somewhat enjoyable for you. You can consider what I just did as my first payment toward that debt."

"I'm glad that I'm here with you, silly Win," Tad countered. "I'd be going crazy and worrying myself to death if I were home and didn't know what had happened to you. Remember, Mr. Sovie said he made it look like you ran away, so I wouldn't be able to understand why you left without me. I would have thought you hated me for some reason, maybe because my parents wouldn't let you live with us, so I'd probably… no, I definitely would not have wanted to live without you in my life. No matter how you feel or how bad this seems, it's better this way, with both of us together. If this had to happen, then it's for the best that we are going through it as a team."

"That's just another reason why I love you, Tad. It's because you're so thoughtful and kind," I confessed. "I know I was first attracted to you because I thought you were so cute, but I think it's your thoughtfulness and kindness that made me fall in love with you. You always seem to think about me first and worry about how I feel before you think about yourself. Sometimes… no, most of the time I'm just plain selfish. I only think about myself and spend much of the time feeling sorry about how my life has turned out after I lost my father and thinking my mother doesn't love me any longer. Will you forgive me for being such a selfish idiot?"

"You're not a selfish idiot, so I can't forgive you, because there's nothing to forgive," he replied. "Win, you've done so much for me and you've even done things to help me, even when it was not something you wanted to do. You taught me how to have fun, not just merely exist, and my world would be extremely dull if you weren't in it. Winthrop Aaron Randall, I love you now and I'll love you forever, which means I want to be a part of every second of your life, even if it's a less than happy time, like now. We can survive this together, even if this situation might have been too much for either of us to handle on our own, we'll do it together. We're just going to have to share our strength and fight our way through this until we get back home with our families. Now. lean back and enjoy this, because I owe you big time."

Tad then pushed me backwards and crawled on top of me, locking our bodies together into another loving embrace and very passionate kiss. Once our mouths separated, he then returned the same tender, loving attention to me that I had just heaped upon him, as he used his hands and fingers, followed by his mouth and tongue, to bring me to the brink of ecstasy. He took me to the edge several times before he finally allowed my body to become flooded with the sexual bliss that he siphoned from my reproductive system. He had me flipping and flopping, squirming and writhing, as well as burning and tingling, before he let me enjoy the finest dry-climax I had experienced up to this point in my young life. It then took me many minutes to recover from my flight to the heavens, before I landed back on planet earth again and found myself in that tiny, isolated shack once more.

For the rest of the evening, we played out the remainder of our fantasy, as Tom and Huck rafted down the mighty Mississippi, before we spent our first restless slumber in our temporary abode. We clung to each other all through the night, as if we were afraid to release our grip for fear the other might disappear or be taken away. It wasn't until the first rays of early morning sunlight swept into our tiny island, which was located in the middle of the sea of despair, when we finally began to release our hold on one another.

When we heard the two deadbolts slide open, we moved closer to each other, as we waited to see what was going to happen next. Eventually, we saw our burly guardian enter the room with two bowls of cold cereal, with a little milk poured over it. He set the bowls down on the floor, just inside the doorway, and then exited again, making sure he locked the door behind him as he went. Now, we prepared to begin our second day in captivity.

We had been in the shack for nine days when Mr. Sovie showed up again. I knew how long it had been because I'd found a nail and used it to scratch a line in the plywood floor each morning, but I did it under the mattress where it wouldn't be noticed. That way, I could keep track of how long we had been cooped up in this place. When we heard his vehicle drive up, we placed our ears against the door to see if we could hear what was being said on the other side.

"How soon before we get rid of these brats, Bart?" the man guarding us asked my stepfather.

"It's going to be a while, because that other fag's parents have got cops roaming all over the place," Sovie replied. "They not only went to the local police when this started, but they have also involved the sheriff's department and the Texas Highway Patrol as well. It seems as if the kid's old man is close to one of his bosses and that guy is a good friend of someone high up in the Texas Highway Patrol. Every damn one of those agencies has a group of officers out working this case, so I ended up passing through four stop-and-go checkpoints just to get here.

"It doesn't look as if it's going to get any better for us either," Sovie continued. "Hell, the last meeting I had with Mr. Driscoll, he suggested the Highway Patrol was considering bringing the Texas Rangers into this and possibly the FBI, if the kids weren't found soon. That's why I brought you enough supplies to last for a month, just in case they start watching me to see where I'm going. I had to tell one of the cops that stopped me at the last checkpoint that this stuff was for my invalid mother."

"A fucking month!" our guard screamed. "I don't want to be stuck out here all by myself for no fucking month. Man, I'm so horny already that I'm about to explode. There ain't any way I'm going to last much longer, let alone go a whole month without sex."

"Cool it, Parker. I've got you covered there too." Sovie stated. "My friend, Dean, knows about this local place and he's going to bring you out a little company every few days. He'll stay in the shack and keep an eye on the kids while you go out somewhere with the prostitute and get your rocks off."

"Thanks, Bart. I should have known you'd have all the bases covered," Parker agreed. "You always take good care of me any time I do a job for you, so I'm sorry that I doubted you, boss. Sometimes I let my one-eyed friend do my thinking for me, and that generally gets me into trouble. You'd think I would have learned that by now."

"Yes, you should have," Sovie agreed. "You've got to get that thing between your legs under control before it lands all of us in a heap of problems. So have the brats been giving you any trouble?"

"None. I think they must be fucking each other's brains out though," Parker replied. "I hear strange noises coming out of there at all different times of the day and night."

"I don't think they're into fucking yet, but I'm sure they've been helping each other get off, just the same," Sovie responded. "Those two are pretty horny for just starting puberty."

"God, to have the stamina and sex drive of a teenager again," Parker mused, nostalgically. "Sure would be nice."

"Hell, from what I hear you don't have any problems when it comes to sex," Sovie quipped. "I've heard rumors that you can still put a stud bull to shame."

"Hehehe. Yeah, I can still hold my own, but not like I could as a horny teenager," Parker confirmed. "Those were the days when I had more pussy than I could shake a stick at and I could go for hours without having to come up for air. Man, I could shoot three or four times without going soft."

"I'm glad I wasn't one of your girlfriends then," Sovie jested. "Look, I've got to get back before someone gets suspicious about where I've been. If you need to get any messages to me, give them to Dean and he'll see that I get them. I'll try to get back here just as soon as the heat is off."

That was the end of the conversation, but we'd learned some important things from it. First, we discovered we were going to be here for a while, but this wasn't exactly a pleasant thought either. Second, we found out that other people were going to be coming in and out of here, so maybe one of them will mention us to somebody else. Even if they do it accidentally, it might still lead the cops to this location. Lastly, we knew Dad D had every law enforcement agency in the area out looking for us and was nearly ready to involve even more. That alone sure made us feel good, once we knew how much he cared and that he was doing everything he could to get us back. Hearing this, I became more confident the police would eventually find us and Sovie would go to prison for a very long time. That would be really great and I'd laugh in his face when the cops led him away in handcuffs and leg irons, just so he'd know I thought he was a stupid, arrogant fool.

Later that evening, we were given our second meal of the day, but this one was a bit of a surprise. We had been accustomed to having only canned foods served to us since we'd been here, but this meal was totally different. It must have been a direct result of today's delivery, because we had fresh potato salad, deli meats and Italian bread to go along with our one liter bottle of water. Tad and I pretended we were dining together at a big, fancy restaurant. You know the type with a valet attendant to park your car, snooty staff dressed in tuxedos and candles lit in the center of every table. In this little fantasy, we decided to be boyfriends out celebrating our first anniversary together. We capped off the evening lying on the mattress, with our groins even with each other's face, so we could suck each other off.

Nearly simultaneously, we started to lick and suck the other's prick, but I amused myself first by munching on Tad's foreskin for a while, before sliding it back and forth over the glans. While I was doing that, Tad licked my exposed dickhead and teased the little eye by flicking his tongue in it. We were soon as hard as rocks, so we finished our licking and then quickly swallowed each other's boner. Our heads were bobbing up and down, as we slid back and forth along the saliva-slicked sides of the erection in front of us. Our actions might have appeared to a casual observer to be about the same as dueling derricks in one of the local oil fields.

We sucked furiously, as we vigorously nodded on one another's masts, and soon our hips were thrusting up to meet the other's downward lunge as we sought relief. We were rapidly bringing each other to the point of no return and would soon reap the reward from our efforts. Since neither one of us could produce semen yet, our bodies shuddered in sperm-free convulsions, as our hearts pounded wildly in our chests, until the throbbing in our groins subsided. Our nearly simultaneous dry orgasms were still extremely enjoyable and provided us with a temporary moment of bliss in this otherwise dreary existence.

After a few minutes, I swung around so we were laying head to head again, and then we wrapped our arms around each other and kissed goodnight, as our bodies calmed down and our breathing returned to normal. It wasn't long before we drifted off to sleep, but throughout the night I kept waking up, because I thought I could hear the sound of a motor running every so often. I kept thinking Sovie had returned, but I couldn't figure out why he would come back at such a strange hour. Then I concluded I must have only dreamt the noises, so I put the idea out of my mind and went back to sleep.

Shortly after we awoke the following morning, I heard the same motor sound again and it was even louder when Parker came into the room to give us our cereal. That's when I had another surprise, because the milk on the cereal was very cold today and not the same as if it had been with the milk in an ice chest or as part of a freshly made batch of powdered milk. This seemed to be the missing piece to my puzzle, so I felt as if I now knew what the noise was from. I believe Sovie must have brought out a generator to be used to run a refrigerator, and as I learned later, a small microwave he'd supplied too, so Parker could heat up some of the canned food for all of us.

Unfortunately, this also helped to confirm that we were going to be here like this for a while, so it started me thinking. How the heck were we going to get out of this? Tad and I had already investigated the entire room to see if we could find a way out, but we came up with nothing. The only way in and out of the room was through the one door with the double deadbolt locks. I didn't want to give up hope completely, because I figured there had to be some way to get out of here so we could go back to Tad's house. We were still very scared about what was going to happen to us if we didn't escape, so we desperately wanted to find a way out of here. The one thing that kept us going and prevented us from giving up completely was our desire to get back home to Mom and Dad D, so we could resume a normal life.

We spent the rest of the afternoon considering our situation, but things continued to look bleak. The only thing we could find to do was to try to improve our immediate situation, so we thought of one change we needed to have taken care of right away. By the time Parker opened the door to give us our evening meal, I begged him to do something about the bucket in our room.

"Please, mister, won't you empty that bucket for us?" I pleaded. "It's filled almost to the top and it stinks in here. It's not like we can open a window to get rid of the smell. Besides, we won't be able to do much more in it before it begins to overflow and that will leave one heck of a mess. If we're going to be here much longer, that smell is going to get into your room too, and believe me, it's not a good smell to have to live with."

Hesitantly, Parker looked at the bucket and saw what I told him was true. He went over and picked it up by the handle and took it out of the room with him, but I still heard the locks click into place when he left. I'd thought about making a run for it when he went over to pick up the bucket, but where would I… or we go? When I took a quick look around outside when we first got here and were put in this shack, I couldn't see anything for miles in any direction. Besides, Tad and I were both naked, so we'd be burnt to a crisp in the hot sun, even if we did get away. Like it or not, I felt it would be best to pass up the opportunity and stay put. Before long, Parker came back carrying the empty bucket and set it back in the corner where it had been. Hopefully, some of the smell would now dissipate, seeing the contents had been deposited elsewhere.

That evening we had a meal similar to the one from the previous evening, but this time we imagined we were having a picnic on the beach. As the evening progressed and the bright moonlight began to filter into the room, we took a long, solitary walk on our make believe beach. In reality, we merely walked slowly around the room while pretending we were taking a stroll beside the moonlit ocean. In our minds, we were watching the waves as they crashed onto the shore, before we waded out into the cool water and splashed each other playfully. That put us in a very joyful and romantic mood, which led us to cuddle upon on the sand, otherwise known as our mattress.

After some energetic kissing and extensive petting, I found myself climbing on top of Tad's body, until our erect and pulsing wands were touching. Instinctively, we began thrusting and grinding our hips against each other, which created enough friction to set our cocks throbbing. In my mind's eye, I could see us lying there on that isolated strip of beach, making love in the moonlight. Once we had both climaxed, we fell asleep satisfied and temporarily free of our prison cell.

The following morning, Tad came up with another way to pass the time, when he began asking me questions about my family. We'd never really talked about any of this in great depth before, because it brought back memories about what had happened to my dad, as well as how I felt about my mother. Now, however, I thought it was the right time for Tad to learn more about my heritage, plus it would also be a good distraction.

"Tad, my great-great-grandfather started out as a cattle rancher and worked his way up until he had a very large spread just outside of Dallas," I began. "One very hot, dry summer, all of the ponds and streams on his ranch started to dry up and the only water source he had was the main well. Since the situation was getting serious, he decided to have another well drilled to provide a source of water for the cattle. The place where he chose to do this was near one of the better grazing areas, but it was quite a few miles from the main house, so he couldn't exactly haul water there during the drought. The funny thing was, they never found any water and struck oil instead."

"Wow! That was really lucky," Tad shrieked. "So he made all of his money from that one oil well?" "Not exactly," I answered. "After that, he had several more wells drilled at different locations around the ranch and that's how my great-grandfather became a very wealthy man. Eventually, he gave up his cattle interests completely and turned his attention to the oil business. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that old oil derrick we saw coming in here was one of my great-great-grandfather's original steel wells and this was the shack from which they controlled the operation."

"Really?" Tad asked, surprised. "So you think it's one of his?"

"It's possible. The very first wells were made out of wood, but they started building steel wells, like the one we saw, sometime in the 1920s," I confirmed. "That might have been one of them, although I don't really know for sure. At first, my great-great-grandfather only dealt in crude oil and sold it to other people who would then process it, but when my great-grandfather was old enough to get involved in the family business, he talked his father into getting into the refining end of the business too, instead of just selling it to others."

"Do you mean like making gasoline and motor oil?" Tad asked, since he wasn't as familiar with the industry as I was.

"Sort of," I agreed, "and it was my great-grandfather who was responsible for building the family's enormous wealth. Once he started breaking the crude down into other products, such as gasoline, kerosene, heating oil and engine oils, the money poured in and profits skyrocketed. Since he was involved in many more ventures than his father, he decided to build the home I live in now. Unlike my great-great-grandfather who still lived in the house on the old ranch, my great-grandfather felt he needed to be closer to the things going on in the city, so he built the Randall mansion in a nice area on the outskirts of Dallas. Now, it's now longer on the outskirts of the city, but it's still a nice area."

"Yeah, and I really like your house," Tad agreed. "I just don't like being there with Sovie.

"Yeah, I feel the same way," I agreed. "When my grandfather got involved in the business, he decided to branch out into even more stuff and started to purchase other businesses, such as barrel and drum-manufacturing companies. By doing this, they were now also making the containers their products were be stored, sold and transported in. A short time after that, he had the company take over the transportation and delivery end of the business too, so they were making money on both ends of the production process, by supplying the crude and then taking it to market. The growth of the family business, including all of these other subsidiaries, was phenomenal and my family ended up with more than its fair share of the profits."

"Wow! I knew your family had money just by looking at your house," Tad acknowledged, "but I never guessed you were that rich."

"We are and my father did his a lot to make the business grow even more," I confessed. "After he started working in the family business, things began to go sour in the industry as a whole, so my dad convinced my grandfather into getting involved in even more stuff and they spread out into other areas. My dad had the company take over various other businesses that dealt in the production of an assortment of other oil based products, such as paints, varnishes, lubricants, hydraulics and even plastics, because he said it seemed to be the most logical step to go there next."

"Wow! Your family is into everything," Tad observed.

"Yes, we do a little in a lot of different areas," I agreed. "All of those changes and expansions my dad made helped to keep the money coming in. I've also heard enough conversations to convince me that my father sometimes did some really sneaky things to take over some of these other companies though. By doing that, it not only made him extremely successful at what he did, but it also him really unpopular and even hated by his competitors. His deals were vital though, in keeping the family corporation afloat and helped to maintain our lifestyle by giving my dad a steady flow of income. That's pretty much all there is to tell."

I think I told Tad as much, if not more, than he wanted to know about the illustrious Randalls, but my briefing had also taken up much of the morning too.

After lunch, Tad and I started looking around the room again, to see if we had missed anything, because there had to be a way we could get out. The roof was obviously made of wood, so it would be the weakest point, but we had no way to reach that high, since there was nothing to stand on, except each other. I didn't feel that either of us was tall enough or strong enough to lift the other up that high, so we put the idea out of our minds. The floor was made of wood too, but even if we got through it, then we'd have to dig a tunnel. The shack appeared to be built right on top of the ground, so there was no way to crawl out from under it and we didn't have any tools to dig our way out either, so it looked as if we were trapped here.

After dinner, we heard Parker playing music in the other room, which was another first, although we weren't sure how he was doing it. Did he have a radio, iTunes, iPad or something else? Even though we weren't sure where the music was coming from, it gave us something to listen to, so Tad and I pretended we were at a concert. The songs that were playing weren't anything special, but they were enough of a diversion to make us forget about the terrible situation we were in, at least for a little while.

After telling Tad about my family earlier, I went to bed thinking about how much I missed my father again and how my once secure and comfortable future was now in doubt. Even though I hadn't been very fond of my mother for quite some time, my most vivid thoughts during the evening were about her. I wondered if my disappearance had concerned her at all or if she was just drowning her life in more booze. Did she miss me and was she worried about where I was, or didn't she even notice I was gone?

Nothing much happened for quite some time after that, but every few days a car would drive out to the shack and we'd hear another guy and a woman's voice in the other room. Before long, we wouldn't be able to hear Parker or the woman again for quite some time. Then, they would suddenly return, laughing and making a lot of noise, which told us they were drunk and had probably just come back from having sex somewhere.

Before they returned to the shack, the other guy, I think his name was Dean, would open the door to check up on us every so often, but he never said anything. Sometimes I thought he looked as if he was going to speak, but then he would change his mind and merely end up looking really sad, as he turned around to leave again. I think he might have felt bad for us, but he never did or said anything to confirm my suspicions. He would just stare at us, but at the same time he would try to avoid direct eye contact if we looked at him. It seemed almost as if he was embarrassed to be part of this process, because he really didn't need to look in on us at all, since Parker never did, except at meal times. That's why I felt he must have a guilty conscience and the reason he came into our room.

Things remained about the same for the next few weeks. Tad and I talked about different things, participated in more of our fantasies and I kept track of the passing days by scratching more lines in the floor under the mattress. I organized the marks in groups of five with six groups to a line. When a row was filled up with marks it meant thirty days, or approximately one month, had passed since our arrival. There was now one full line, with three other blocks of five on the next line, and I was just about to add another line when we heard a vehicle drive in. We wondered who it was this time, since it was too early in the day for Dean to arrive with the prostitute, so we figured it had to be Sovie with more supplies. Tad and I raced over to the door and listened, because we wanted to see if we could learn anything new about our situation.

"Hi, Dean," Parker shouted, as the person entered the shack. "What are you doing here so early?"

"I'm just bringing you some more supplies," he answered.

"Where's Bart? Why didn't he come out with them?" Parker wanted to know.

"He says there's too much heat," Dean explained. "The Texas Rangers are involved now and there is a Ranger continually staying at both boys' houses. Bart didn't feel he could get away without raising suspicions, so he asked me to fill in. He said he was asked a whole lot of questions after he made his last supply run here, so he didn't want to take any more chances. Come on. You can help me bring the stuff inside."

We could hear them shuffling in and out of the shack, as they set things down on the table or floor after they brought them in from the vehicle. They made several trips each before we heard them start talking again.

"So, did Bart happen to say how much longer I'm going to be here?" Parker wondered, since he seemed to be getting fed up with how long this was taking.

"He doesn't know for sure," Dean confessed. "He said it all depends on how long the cops keep the pressure on. Even though the various law enforcement groups have both kids' pictures plastered everywhere across six states, they've had no reported sightings. Of course we know why there have been no sightings, but the cops have used the lack of information to conclude the boys aren't runaways. They don't believe two boys so young could have gone very far away without someone having at least seen them walking, hitchhiking or even stopping in to use a toilet somewhere. I guess they're treating this as a kidnapping now and might even bring the FBI in, so they're watching the movements of everyone close to either family."

"Son of a bitch. This has already been a whole lot more than I bargained for," Parker admitted. "How about you coming out here and staying with the two kids for a while, so I can get away from here for a bit?"

"I'll talk to Bart about it, but I don't think he wants anything to change until the heat dies down," Dean countered. "I mean, someone might get suspicious if I stop showing up for work or disappeared for any length of time. You've been out here long enough that no one would link you to this, but I'm a different story. You were out here a few weeks before the boys were found missing, while you did all of the work on the shack, so there is no connection with your leaving the area. People just think you took a job out of town, but if I were to leave suddenly, it might not look right. We have to remain very careful, so we don't blow it after all of this time."

"I knew it was a mistake to agree to fix that room up for Bart all by myself," Parker noted. "It took me a couple of days to get all of the supplies together and then I spent eleven days getting that room ready and making the other changes that Bart wanted. Now, I'm stuck here for God knows how much longer, so this sucks big time."

"Yeah, but it must suck even worse for the boys," Dean pointed out. "They didn't have any choice in this at all and they're not going to get anything out of the situation, so I feel kinda bad for them. I just got into this because Bart claimed we'd all make a great deal of money from it, but I'm not sure I'd have done it if I knew how young these kids were. The way Bart talked, I thought they were in their late teens or early twenties, but damn, those two don't hardly have any hair around their cocks yet."

"I know and I've thought about telling Bart I wanted out of this, but I know he wouldn't pay me anything if I left," Parker noted. "With him, you don't get paid unless you finish the job, so after all the time I've put in so far, I've got to get something out of it. I guess I never really thought about the kids or considered how they must feel and what they're going through. I've just felt bad for myself, but you're right though. I can't even imagine what they must be feeling, after being ripped away from everything they knew."

"Yeah, it's a shitty deal," Dean agreed. "I would look in on them when I was here, because I wanted to say something to make them feel better, but I never could though. Every time I opened the door, I started to choke up and couldn't get any words to come out. I wish Bart would give up this silly idea, because I can't figure why he's doing it. I think it has something to do with getting his hands on his wife's money, but I don't understand how the kids pose a threat to that, even though Bart feels he needs them out of the way for now. Hey, if this looks like it's going to go on for more than another month, then I'll consider giving my two week notice at work and taking over for you or at least split the job between us. Would that be ok with you?"

"Yeah, Dean, that would be great," Parker confirmed. "I'd appreciate that a whole bunch."

"Good. I'll talk to Bart about it, as soon as I can then," Dean added. "I'd better be getting back though, unless you need something else."

"No, I'm fine, so you go ahead," Parker told him. "I'll see you on your next visit, but Dean, thanks for everything."

Dean left and we heard his vehicle drive away, so Tad and I began to discuss what we'd just heard, when the door suddenly opened.

"Hey, you two. I've got something to talk to you about," Parker stated, which surprised us, since this was this first time he'd ever really said very much. "If you two will promise you won't try to run away, I'll let you spend part of the day out here with me. I have a radio and a small television I can plug into the generator and that way you won't have to be so alone. What do you say? Will you promise you won't try to take off?"

Tad and I looked at each other first and then nodded hat we agreed, but I also turned to Parker and said it too.

"Ok, we promise we won't try to run away, if it means we can get out of this room for a while," I confirmed. "Do you think we can get something to wear?"

"Look, I know your stepfather won't agree to that and I don't have anything for you anyway," Parker stated. "Maybe I can talk Dean into bringing something out for ya, but I'm not sure. Don't worry though, because I'm not into boys, even cute little ones like you two. I won't hurt either of you, unless you try to run away on me."

"Fair enough," Tad answered. "What are we supposed to call you?"

"You can either call me Frank or Parker. I'll answer to both," he offered. "Look, boys, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to be civil, but I thought we'd only be here for a few days. I never expected us to be here together for this long. I'm sorry if I seemed kind of cold and uncaring."

"That's all right, because I don't blame anyone for this except Mr. Sovie," I told him honestly. "Thanks for letting us come out here though, because it was getting pretty boring in here by ourselves."

"Look, kids, it's none of my business, but Bart, I mean Mr. Sovie, says you two are queer. Are you?" Parker asked directly.

Tad and I looked at each other again, as we tried to determine how honest we should be with him.

"Well, to tell you the truth, we don't know for sure," I answered. "We might be, but mostly we've just been trying things with each other to see what it was like. We didn't know Mr. Sovie was recording what we were doing or we would have been more careful."

"Hey, guys, it's ok," Parker replied. "All boys try things with each other. Hell, I did too when I was about your age. I really am sorry that I was so cold to you though. Hey, what do you say about watching some television? I'll see what I can find."

Parker plugged the TV in, but we had trouble finding anything right away. The first thing he found was a Spanish language channel, but then he found one in English. When he did, Tad and I were amazed that it was a station out of San Antonio, because that's in the southern part of the state, but it was better than nothing. After he found a station, we watched a couple of shows together and discovered Parker wasn't such a bad guy after all. Needless to say, that day went better than the ones before.

When it got to be bedtime, Parker locked us back up in our room again, but he told us he'd let us back out for breakfast the next morning. We thanked him again, went into our cage willingly this time and got on the mattress. Tad and I talked a little about the change in our situation, but decided we should get some sleep instead, so we would be awake when Parker was ready to let us out of the room again. Tad fell asleep quickly, but I had too much on my mind, so it took me longer.

While I was drifting off into the land of blissful slumber, I began to wonder how Tad and I had kept our sanity while being locked up like this for so long. I mean it was very lonely with nothing to do and only having one another for company. I guess if we hadn't had each other and our marvelous escapist fantasies, then I think we would have gone stark raving mad after only a few short days or weeks. Instead, we clung to each other, like a drowning man clings to a life preserver or piece of driftwood out on the ocean, and we managed to keep each other from being sucked under the surface.

If our attachment to each other hadn't been obvious before, it was certainly becoming more and more apparent that we were inseparably bound to each other on a multitude of levels. Even our fantasies were slowly and subtly changing from hair-raising, action-packed adventures to something calmer and much more romantic in nature. Not only had our fantasies changed, but our time asleep was now spent in a constant, although not always a conscious, embrace.

Before this nightmare began, we would cuddle together, but it didn't mean we would always stay that way throughout the entire night. Sometimes we would have separated before we woke up, but now we were emotionally and physically bonded together, which we maintained throughout the entire evening. Maybe things would change now that we had more freedom, but I doubted it. We still needed each other and were bound together in so many different ways. Even though we had told Parker we didn't know if we were gay, I think we'd already admitted this fact to ourselves. Down deep, I think we both knew what we were and that we would stay together always.

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