Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:29:02 -0500
From: fireflywatcher_ford <fireflywatcher@gmail.com>
Subject: Judging 5 - True Blue

JUDGING 5 - ACER'S STORIES - The Lover Left Behind

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Thanks to Jamies_Jottings, Stories_byFantastic, and Hotcowboys groups for
posting my stories, and to Miguel Sanchez, Rock Lane Cooper, and George
Grassby for their encouragement.

My stories can be found at

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respect copyright and intellectual property right laws.

Phil Ford



JUDGING 5 - ACER'S STORIES

True Blue

by Phil Ford

Texas country women, cowgirls, will do everything for their man. They will
have the children, raise them, pay the rent and the bills, put the food on
the table, and let it slide again and again when her man comes home drunk or
having blown his whole paycheck. They won't pay his bills. They won't
tolerate it if he sees other women. The worst he can do is to dip into their
money and if he does that, she'll cut off his balls. She might not literally
cut them off, but he'll sleep by himself and likely on the couch until he
makes it right. If making it right is impossible, then she'll start
sharpening the knife.

"Blue, Blue, Blue, what kind of mess have we gotten ourselves into now?"
Acer said to himself. Acer had just passed two weeks in New Mexico, one week
in Gallup and one week in Silver City. He was headed east toward Roswell,
turning north to Clovis and Hereford, and back to Amarillo.

Blue was his partner in business and in life now. The trouble wasn't of his
making and he wasn't able to stand on his own yet. He needed Acer. Blue had
met Acer on the road three times since the rodeo and stock show season
began. Now this had come up and Acer found a ten day break in his schedule.
He was pulling his trailer with his horse in the back end with the pedal to
the floor down less than desirable side roads for that speed.

Acer had seen the same situation before. One of Acer's cousins had married a
city boy. Later on she inherited land, free of debt. He persuaded her to
borrow against it for his business and then went belly up, leaving her stuck
with the debt. They came home at Christmas and stayed at her house there
planning to do some deer hunting. After going into town one evening for a
night of dancing at a little bar, when they got back to the house he shot
her dead and turned the gun on himself. Maybe she'd planned to make up.
Maybe she flirted too much in the bar. Maybe another cowboy went back with
them and everyone knew her husband was a jealous son of a bitch, but there
was no one to tell the story. Her husband survived, if you'd call it that.
Only his body remained to serve the sentence for murder.

Blue's dad had done more or less the same thing and with much the same
ending. His mom would be at home teaching school as she always had, but his
dad would be locked up for a long time. She'd borrowed a hundred thousand
dollars to buy him a rig and a cattle trailer to haul stock from ranches to
auctions, seller to buyer, or just to move a rancher's stock. It was a small
debt on ten sections of prime land. Her brother leased the place to cover
the payment and as a condition of the loan. When Blue's dad didn't find
enough work to justify the investment, he went into a cattle business of his
own making. He'd drive the truck onto a rancher's land, round up enough
stock to fill it, and haul them to auction. He'd become a modern day
rustler.

Auctions didn't bat an eye. They were accustomed to seeing him, handing him
the check after the sale was no problem. That damn cow with the chip in its
neck brought him down. The law seized the truck and trailer and cleaned out
his bank accounts. They left his mom and the house in her name alone and
would have done the same with her land but it was collateral for the loan on
the truck. Her only option was to sell it to someone for the amount of the
loan. Otherwise the bank would take the property or any excess amount would
be seized by the law. None of her family was in a position to come up with
that much money. Finding another buyer would be giving the land away. She
had to find a way to sell it to Blue and she was sharpening her knives.

It was May. Blue's uncle was getting in his onion crop and Blue could take
possession even if the lease wasn't up until December thirty first. He had
seven months to make the loan money from the property. Acer's feeder calves
were sold at the end of April. He bought in September, grazed and fed
through the cool, and sold before the pasture was bare and the heat made
them loose weight. What he'd bought with Blue had only been grazing for two
months on irrigated grass. They wouldn't sell until late fall. They might
come close to covering the loan, but Blue would be broke again and unable to
make any money. Acer would make enough by September to buy stock for his
place.

"Oh Blue," Acer lamented. "I'll lay it all on the table for you bud, but if
it comes up aces and eights to my pair of jacks, I'll be one sad cowboy."
Acer pulled the truck to the side of the road right before a store, entering
Las Cruces. He bought a large sweet tea and a power drink. The tea went
straight down and he tossed the cup in the trash. He waited fifteen minutes
for the inevitable and stepped behind the building to get rid of what
remained of the tea. It always made him piss.

A young Mexican man had watched him walk to the back and surely heard the
piss hitting the dirt. He was looking at Acer as he walked to the front.
Beside him on the ground was a duffel bag. "Senor, buscando trabajo, " (Sir,
I'm looking for work) the young man stated. This close to El Paso wasn't a
good spot for an illegal to be sitting in public with all his possessions.

"Caminandas sola?" (Are you traveling alone?) Acer asked.

"Si, tenaba un socio, pero el regresaba a Mexico," (Yes, I had a partner,
lover, fuck buddy, but he went back to Mexico.) he replied.

Acer asked what kind of work he was looking for and he answered, 'Whatever,
work, just work.' When pressed he said he'd only done farm and ranch work.
Knowing Blue would need help with the larger place, he told the man to get
in the pickup. He learned the guy's name was Alfredo. He was seventeen and
considered himself a grown man. When Acer asked if his socio was his lover,
he protested that two men couldn't be in love. They were friends who took
care of each others needs, fuck buddies.

Alfredo nodded off until Acer turned on the road through Ruidoso to Roswell.
Acer talked with Alfredo some more as they drove. Sex was the main topic,
being two men who enjoyed other men. "Da me una muestra. Mame me la verga,"
(Give me a sample. Nurse on my dick.) Acer said to Alfredo finally.

Alfredo leaned across the pickup seat, unfastened Acers belt and slipped his
jeans down some, and went to work. After Acer came twice he had to tell
Alfredo he did a good job to get him to stop. Some miles further Alfredo
offered Acer a sample of his ass. It was two in the morning by then. The tea
and energy drink had lost their effect, so Acer began watching for a place
to park. A roadside picnic area came into view and Acer parked there. They
both got out and locked the truck up. Acer opened the trailer where they
stripped and climbed into the high bunk above the gooseneck.

Acer decided to give back in kind first and gave Alfredo a good blow. He
held the load in his mouth and Alfredo tried to turn aside thinking he was
going to get kissed, but Acer persisted and fed him his own load. Alfredo
had a lot of rules. Kissing was taboo but swapping loads was fine. He tried
getting in position to take Acer doggie style but there wasn't enough
headroom for that. He wrapped his legs around Acer's waist and let Acer go
to work. Acer had always been slow to reach a second climax. Alfredo
rejoiced in that duration. He clawed at Acer's back with his nails and a
deep moan sang out from his throat. This boy man was a true natural bottom
built in some special way right down to the rippling muscles of his inner
gut that grabbed and massaged Acer's rod with each inward thrust and the
withdrawal that followed. Where it carried Acer superimposed and
interchanged the identities of his matching partner between Alfredo and Blue
until everything was a blur and he exploded in release.

Acer wondered at the thought that the physical expressed in lust and the
emotional expressed in bliss could be felt for two who were so different, at
the same instant. Blue held his heart but Alfredo was the best fuck he'd
ever had. When he withdrew he offered Alfredo his ass. Alfredo wasn't
interested. He laid there drifting off to sleep muttering 'Manana" and
Alfredo continued to nurse.

Acer dreamed through the night. In one dream he watched as a friend was
beaten and took no action. The dream repeated with Blue as the friend and
just by raging his objection the attack halted. In another dream Acer's
jealousy and doubt had cost him a lover. With Blue in that place, the
incident became a comedy where the advances of another were rebuffed and the
two were inseparable. Every scenario in his dreams repeated with Blue in a
newer version of the original events and all ended with a positive result.
When light flickered through the window, Acer rose and in the clarity of
those first awakening thoughts, he wrote all of it down.

Making coffee with his old camp pot, the aroma saturated the room. That woke
Alfredo. Carrying two large cups, they began the six hour drive that
remained. At the halfway point while gassing up they got some food. Just
before noon they pulled in at the house. Blue was there waiting.

"You drove like a bat out of hell," Blue observed.

"Naw, I stopped to sleep, sort of," Acer replied. "I never asked if you
speak any Spanish. I brought you some help."

"Are you kidding? My mom teaches Spanish and French, and Grandpa Otto spoke
German at home. I've got those three and English down pat."

"I never would have guessed, you're so damn quiet," Acer told him, grabbing
him in a bear hug that squeezed the breath out of the big guy.

"Who is this help you brought me?" Blue inquired.

"I ran into him the other side of Las Cruces sitting there with a sign in
his hand that said, 'Immigration, send me back to Mexico.' He said he was
looking for work and his boyfriend took off on him. I asked if they were
lovers and he said men don't fall in love with other men, they were fuck
buddies. I didn't want you sniffing around for my replacement and knew you
were going to need help. He fit the job description." Acer fumbled for a
second and said, "I had to test him out. Guys will lie to get a job and
finding out he was a virgin to man sex wasn't something I wanted to do here.
He can suck a dick like nobody's business and has an ass that should keep
you happy when I'm not around."

"Damn, you think of everything," Blue replied.

"I don't think he see sex as a job requirement. He looks at it as a benefit.
Just don't go falling in love. I'm putting everything I've got on the line.
Win or loose, we're stuck with each other, OK?"

Maybe we should find him a partner that will let me come and play when I get
to missing you," Blue suggested.

"I'll see what Cotton can do along that line," Acer assured Blue.

Introductions were made and with Alfredo riding bitch and the trailer
parked, they took off to look at the farm. Blue's uncle certified that all
the irrigation systems were in working order, the shame was planting it in
grass. Growing onions takes nearly weed free ground and that was how it
stood now.

"How's your mom holding up?" Acer asked.

"She'd like to kill daddy and have his hide made into footballs. She filed
for divorce last week. He had plenty in the bank. He could have paid off the
bank and retired on what was left. As it is, what ever she gets above the
loan amount, the government takes. It's valued above two thousand an acre
and the equipment is worth a lot, too. She's sick about it, but they can't
take the land. It's the bank that's forcing the sale. Rustling is still a
hanging offence in Texas. He got twenty five years on a plea bargain. He'll
be seventy eight when that is done, the damn fool."

"Are you going to visit him?" Acer asked.

"I was never good enough for him. I wasn't smart enough. I wasn't strong
enough. My picture didn't make the front page of the paper. I didn't get
scholarships to college. I didn't date the prettiest cheerleader. I could
have done all that if I'd had a mind to. If he said go forward, I backed up.
I hate the bastard. Nothing about this changes that. At least he never hit
mama."

Acer took that as a 'Hell no' and moved on. At the far end the sprinklers
were running. Ahead of that the spriggers were working their way through the
fields. At the front, ammonia trucks were fertilizing.

"I switched to the feed with growth hormone. It may be legal and the way
things are done now, but I ain't eating any of that beef," Blue declared.
"Next year we ain't using hormones." Acer hoped the increased weight gain
set in so there would be a next year. If the feeders came up short, the
expenses ate up the profit and could even result in losses. His home place
didn't have the expense of pumping water but drought could have the cattle
eating the profits from the feed trough. If that happened two or three years
in a row, you went broke. Here there was this year to make it and no deer
for lease money if you lost your herd.

"I've learned more about you in the last hour than I have in the last two
years," Acer told Blue. Three thirty in the afternoon had arrived by the
time their tour was finished. "I think the four sections we're sprigging
will be more than enough pasture to meet our needs," Acer confirmed. "If you
were better at cultivating, cotton would make a crop on the rest if we got
it planted by the end of May. A rope wick would catch the high weeds. Do you
think you could keep the tires between the rows, Blue?"

"I'd give it my best, you know that Acer. With six sections, I aught to get
the hang of it before I run through it once," Blue answered.

"Hay cultivada labores de algolon antes" Acer asked Alfredo (Have you
cultivated cotton fields before?).

He replied that he'd done it every year since he was twelve and could run a
straight line down the rows all day long. Alfredo said he was from the
desert country near Durango where cotton was one of the main crops. "I'll
talk to my mom and see about borrowing my dad's tractors. She contracts the
field work since he passed away and the equipment sits in the barn."

At the house, Acer went straight to his office and started making calls. His
mom was first, then Cotton, and last he called his boss. His boss offered a
loan if needed when the time came, but Acer wouldn't take it except as a
last resort. He wouldn't tell Blue, either. Cotton and Logan were coming as
soon as they could get there.

Blue had something cooking and was leaned against the counter. Alfredo sat
Indian style in front of the TV watching sports in Spanish. He was tall,
maybe five eleven and a hundred and fifty tops, but looked like he was tied
in a knot sitting like that. "We'll joing the civilized world some day and
have pizza delivery out here," Blue swore. "Until then, I'll just make it.
You've got every gadget that exists in this kitchen, Acer. Are you playing
that game of 'he who has the most kitchen gadgets wins' or something?"

"Naw, I'm just lazy. It looks like you figured out how to use them though.
You've got everything cut up that can go on a pizza except anchovies," Acer
remarked.

"I ate the anchovies in a salad last week and haven't bought more. I love
those salty little fishies," Blue told him. Two pizzas were in the oven and
two more were on the counter ready to go. All the ingredients were in
containers to be put away. Blue exchanged the finished pizzas for the other
two while Acer packed away the containers. Alfredo followed the aroma and
they all ate their fill without taking a seat at the table and washed it
down with cold beer.

Acer looked at Alfredo and asked if he wanted dessert, pointing to Blue's
zipper. He dropped to his knees and fished out Blue's pole. Then he went to
work. After a couple of minutes Acer told Blue, "Hit that ass man," and
smeared a glob of Crisco from the can on the counter into Blue's hand. Blue
rubbed in most of the grease, stroked his stick twice, and jacked Alfredo as
he rutted. He bent forward over Alfredo's back and chewed on his neck the
whole time. Alfredo cave out a cry and splattered the concrete floor beneath
him. Blue's expression said he was doing the same thing up inside Alfredo.
"Concrete is rough on the knees," Blue complained as they separated. Acer
had watched transfixed on the scene before him.

Alfredo was asleep on the couch when Cotton started shaking Acer awake at
four. "We're hitting the sack," Cotton told him. "Billy Martinez drove your
dad's truck. He said he'd work for beer food, and ass until you had the cash
to spare. You might have to buy him some smoke, too. You know the boy likes
his weed. Wake us up at eight."

"He can smoke all he wants if he keeps it outside. I don't want my house
stunk up," Acer answered. "I'll wake you up." He got up to make coffe and
get the day started. Billy passed him in the hall. He had Alfred over his
shoulder and Alfredo was smiling.

"I've got to tap this," Billy said, slapping Alfredo on the butt. "It'll
help me get to sleep faster." Acer told Alfredo coffee would be ready when
Billy went to sleep as the two entered the back bedroom. Alfredo nodded a
yes, still smiling.

Acer worked to get the tractors set up while Blue ran to the Co-op for seed
and a second run for diesel. Each of the three would cut a thirty foot path
through the field, busting the soil with chisel plows in front, breaking the
clods with disk harrows, and forming the rows and planting the seed at the
back. In an hour they could make three trips down the three mile long field.
Thanks to Blue's uncle keeping the ground cultivated, it was an easy task on
the level ground. Cotton took the lead with Logan riding beside him in the
cab. Blue was at the back with Acer giving him pointers. Alfredo had Billy
instructing him because the young man had never used equipment this size,
but he caught on quick. They used the lights for the last half hour
finishing up the half mile wide field.



Acer and Blue had talked all day long. Acer could have gotten out and gone
to do other things. Cotton and Logan could have, too, but the critical
lesson came at the end of each row. With a tractor that size set up as it
was, it was impossible to back up. Then the turn and getting lined up to do
the next run had to be dead on. With three tractors it gave more turning
room where a single tractor would have been a real bitch to negotiate. Acer
stayed in the cab and they talked. Grandparent love and are loved by their
grandchildren, even one as gruff as old Otto. Their mothers were both
teachers and alike in many ways. Their fathers were total opposites. Acer
learned Blue had a sister ten years older killed in a car wreck when she was
sixteen. Blue's remorse was that he didn't miss her. He didn't feel any
grief. They'd never been close and she acted as if he was a pain in the ass.
Without any closeness Blue had nothing to miss, she was never there involved
in his life anyway. By the end of the day when they parked the tractors,
Acer had touched on everything they had experienced in life.

Acer had a big pot of stew slow cooking through the day. They hadn't stopped
for lunch and only carried a jug of water along, most of which they sweated
out. Stopping to piss, even just opening the door to spill it in the dirt,
took time away from the task. In his younger days Acer carried a bottle
along and used it so he wouldn't need to stop. They were all exhausted. They
ate quickly and hit their beds to rest up for the next day. Cotton and Acer
had breakfast almost ready by the time everyone was up the following
morning.

While Blue, Alfredo, and Billy went back to planting, Acer, Cotton, and
Logan set the sprinklers in motion. The long fields had one half mile wide
walking unit each that Blue's uncle had set to travel the three miles in two
days leaving an inch of water as it went. It would sit two days at the
opposite end of the field and make the trip again in the other direction.
Where the grass was sprigged, most of the fields had smaller walking units
and there were twelve circle units on one side. Huge natural gas powered
twelve cylinder engines ran the pumps. With all the water going, the three
more experienced men started building fence along lines dividing sprinkler
systems. It might take as long as two months to have enough grass cover to
graze stock on the fields. Acer was hoping for a month.

Trucks would come out from the Co-op to fertilize the grass but the cotton
should have been fertilized on planting. The tanks and injectors for the
ammonia would fit on the trailers in one trip. The first pass cultivating
would deliver fertilizer at the same time. It was the best they could do.

They had lunch and were in for supper at a reasonable time. Logan had even
timed how long it took to empty a seed bin on the planters and a pickup was
waiting in the right spot to refill them. Four more days passed and the
planting was finished, leaving four days before Acer would have to leave
again. Cotton and Logan went home saying they'd be back in a few weeks with
more equipment. Billy and Alfredo went out to work on the fence and water
every day and Acer got to spend some time alone with Blue. They went through
his schedule. He'd fly this time, leaving the truck, trailer, and Ranger
behind. Every few weeks either Acer would fly back or Blue would fly to meet
him

"I think we're going to make it," Acer told Blue.

"You're the best man I've ever know Acer Caldwell," Blue responded.

"You're a damn good man yourself, Blue, don't slight yourself any," Acer
answered him. "All I am is what my dad taught me to be. I don't quite
measure up, but I do my best. He was a church going man. Not anything
extreme, just Methodist like mama. He didn't drink but didn't get on me for
doing it. He said to live a good and honest life. He really only had two
rules: 'Love one another' and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you' as simple as that. If churches kept it that simple you'd see me there
more often. As it is, where I disagree with what they preach keeps me away.
I still live by those rules. I guess my church is in my heart."

My mom is Lutheran," Blue replied. "I don't think it's much different. I got
the good out of it from her. Daddy never went once, not even for the holiday
services. They might preach about men being with other men more often than
Methodists. They did enough of that to drive me away and leave me with a
guilt trip, but I got the good part." Blue hesitated a moment. "I'm having
papers drawn up making us business partners when we pay off the bank. If
something happens to either of us, the other one gets everything. You get
paid back, too. All I ask is for us to set up an account to take care of my
mom. If she'd sold this land and dad hadn't caused the mess, she'd have been
rich. She held on to it for me."

"That's the right thing to do for your mom, Blue. I'm all for it," Acer
responded. "If we get a couple of good years, I'll quit judging and do my
share of the work, too. Let's put my place here and my home place in as part
of the deal. It will make it a little more even and my money needs to be in
there or a partnership wouldn't be right."

For the next days, Acer and Blue spent most of their time making love. Blue
drove him to the airport. They stopped by Acer's office on the way and Acer
introduced Blue to his boss and the others who were there. Before he walked
down the ramp to the plane, Acer said, "I'll see you when I see you," and
then he was gone.