Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 16:51:43 -0600
From: dnrock@rock.com
Subject: Of Man and Boy 11

Of Man and Boy
by:  dnrock(dnrock@rock.com)


11: Truth and Consequences

Junior made the bed and put away his clothing.  Grant made his and picked
up his room a bit.  He sported his new belt and buckle and his new boots,
still not warn outside but he could put them on and take them off without
help now.  Mrs. Slocan was due any minute.  PA did a last minute tour of
the house picking up any stray underwear and socks.  Grant had been a real
help in cleaning up around the place, in fact so had Junior.  Not that any
of them are messy but young boys do tend to clutter.  PA just didn't think
it was fair for Mrs. S to pick up after them, when they could do it
themselves.

PA had taught Junior how to be independent and to look after himself.  He
was pleased to see Grant being taught the same things.  Since his mother
had moved into the nursing home and until about five years ago, their
hadn't been a female in the Stum ranch house, except as a visitor.  PA's
mother had been in poor health for several years before Junior came to live
with him.  His father was never interested in domestic things of any kind;
he had spent 40 years or more working on the ranch and she had spent almost
as long taking care of the house, her garden, chickens and things like
that.  PA had learned to do sowing, cleaning and cooking, partly to help
his mother and partly as a method of self preservation.  He knew he would
never find a male or female life partner, he knew if he wanted or needed it
done, he would just have to learn how to do it himself.  He did.  His
mother was a willing teacher, Ruth Hoffman helped in that respect too,
after his mom went to the home.

While his dad lived, between them they could care for her and the house but
after he had his first stroke and with her ill health, it was way to much
for him alone.  Dad went first, into the home, his mother about a month
later.  His dad lived another six months and his mother several years.  He
would drive into Harlo three or four times a week to see them.  After
Junior came to him they went together twice a week to Harlo and twice a
week to Lewiston (Sat. and Wed. due to the distance.)  His mother liked
Junior right off.  She knew him of course, as a neighbor and Corona Stein,
Junior's mother and her parents, since grade school days.  Herman Stein and
his father Gus had served together in the second war.  The only way he
could get his mother to agree to the home, was to have Ruth Hoffman come in
and inspect on a regular basis.  Ruth quickly figured out that would not be
necessary.  After Junior came to live with Paul she and Gerald were
frequent visitors anyway.  They both liked Junior a lot, after all they
were his grandparents although Junior was never told about it.  When Junior
started to work for Jerry he spent a lot of time at their place and her
visits dropped off.  By then PA had this domestic stuff down to a fine art.

He taught Junior all his tricks and ways, including how to mend and patch
his clothing and how to cook.  The one thing he never had much time for was
baking.  Not that he didn't like baked goods, lets face it only someone
with no taste buds could not like a good apple strudel or pie, black
Forrest cake or cookies.  He simply didn't have the time for this.  Ruth
kept them supplied.

Mrs. Slocan likes to bake and right after breakfast started in with pies
and cookies.  Junior was not a big baker but his pie crust was about as
good as anyone's, something his grandmother and Ruth had in common, was the
same receipt.  Junior is not flush with time and living in a tropical
location not keen on making a hot kitchen even hotter.  Mrs. Slocan asked
Grant what his favorite cookies were.  Ginger Snaps and Chocolate Chips it
would be.  He stayed with her most of the morming, helping and learning how
it was done.  Getting to eat raw cookie dough from the bowel was just a
bones.  Ok it is the major bones when your eight.

Junior wanted to laugh but PA poked him in the ribs, to signal he was not
to embarrass the boy.  Grant did look just a bit odd, he had an old
flowered apron on, his cowboy boots and a western shirt.  His little blue
butt stuck out in between the folds of white and pink apron.  In reality it
was as funny when compared to his bare butt sticking out of a plain apron
in their island home.  Nude cooking has dangers but the islands aprons are
just plain.

On New Year's Eve Gerald Hoffman was coming to visit, he would stay two
nights and then go to his own home, a few miles down the road.  Gerald was
visiting his daughter's family in Denver.  Junior did not like the idea of
Gerald driving all by himself, but he could do nothing about it.  Harlowton
to Denver is only about eight hours on the Interstate system.  It might as
well be days for the number of times the daughter comes to visit.  The
grand children are even less willing to visit.  Gerald does not mind
anymore.  When Ruth was alive he would get a bit upset, mostly because of
her feelings being hurt.  Once Junior came to live with Paul and started
spending time with him and Ruth, the hurt diminished.

Mrs. Slocan was doing the baking today and would make the main meals for
the next couple of day.  She would roast rabbits and venison.  It would be
a wild meat feast on the first and good German feed of kraut, ham, sausage
and vegetables on the 31st.  Lots of beer too, but this time Junior would
take it a bit easier.

Grant had seen photographs of Dr. Hoffman.  Their was something about them
that puzzled him but he was not exactly sure what that was.  PA and Junior
had talked a lot about him.  His dad thought he walked on water, Grant
could tell that.  In some ways Grant felt he already knew the man.  Within
five minutes of his arrival Grant knew exactly why he felt that way, his
dad and Jerry, as he informed Grant he was to be called, looked a lot
alike.  They looked so much alike that if one was a lot older or a lot
younger, they would look like brothers, at least that's what Grant thought.
Grant was sure of that.  Grant had thanked Jerry for the present before he
even had his coat off.

While Jerry took a nap in the guest room, Grant dug through the old photo
albums in PA's office.  Their it was, a good clear shot of Jerry in 1964,
that would make him about 30 since he was now about 70 and that was 40
years ago.  He was dressed in jeans and a blue open collar shirt.  He was
tall like his dad, blond with a long lean face, massive shoulders and
narrow waste.  Grant studied the photograph.  If he didn't know better it
could be his dad.

Now this was a puzzle of the first order.  Grant did not know all that much
about genetics.  He did know from observation that kids looked like their
parents and brothers and sisters often look a lot alike when you correct
for gender.  He did not think quite in the terms used but his understanding
was the same.  He knew he looked a lot like his mom.  She had red hair and
freckles.  He was blond like his dad with no freckles.  His facial features
were hers.  When he told people he favored his mother he was being very
truthful.  He had seen pictures of dad's mother Corona and dad did not
favor her or her parents.  He did not look much like Gramps but he was
adopted so why should he.  Oh sure it is that Dutch/German heritage, they
all resembled one another to some degree, hair color, stature and eyes etc.

Grant began speculating and wondering.  This was a mystery like a Sherlock
Holmes story.  Grant likes puzzles and mysteries.  He could not get over
the reverence that dad treated Jerry with.  PA treated him with respect and
friendship.  With dad it was that but more.  He figured his dad felt toward
Jerry the way he felt toward his dad.  Not the child parent thing, not the
man boy thing but the teacher mentor kind of thing.  A deep friendship kind
of thing he could not explain.  He knew dad was trying to get Gramps to
tell him something since they arrived and Gramps had been putting him off
until Jerry arrived.  Well Jerry was arrived.  Grant would keep his ears
open.

After a couple of hours Jerry woke up refreshed and ready to party.  Well
party as much as a seventy year old ever gets to party.  He used the
washroom and headed to the stairs.  Grant was in his room studying.  Jerry
gently knocked on the open door.

"Hi sir, please come in."

"Thank you Grant.  You can call me Jerry please, sir is just way to
formal."  The old man sat on the bed.

"How about great grand father?" Jerry's eyes lit up.  He wondered if the
kid knew something, had just guessed or had been prompted to show age
respect.

"That would be Ok but still formal don't you think?"

"Ok Jerry."

"Studying?"

"Yes, I found this book on the shelf, I'm memorizing it."  He held up the
old well warren copy of Gray's.

"That is heavy going for an eight year old don't you think?"

"No, dad told me you gave it to him when he was sixteen."

"Yes that it true, it was one of my university text books, they still use
it today you know."

"Yes, so I am studying it, I'm about three quarters through.  Want to test
me?"  He handed the book to the old man.

"Let me see, how many bones in the human body?"

"That easy one hundred and six."

"Can you name them?"

"Sure, shall I start at the head or the foot."

"The foot."

"The foot, or pes, 26 bones of the ankle, instep, and the five toes. The
ankle, or tarsus, is composed of the 7 tarsal bones which correspond to the
carpals in the wrist. The largest tarsal bone is called the calcaneus or
heel bone. The talus rests on top of the calcaneus and is connected to the
tibia.  Directly in front of the talus is the navicular.  The remaining
bones from medial to lateral are the medial, intermediate, the lateral
cuneiform bones, and the cuboid bone.

The metatarsal and phalanges bones of the foot are similar in number and
position to the metacarpal and phalanges bones of the hand.  The five
metatarsal bones are numbered I to 5 starting on the medial side with the
big toe. The first metatarsal bone is larger than the others because it
plays a major role in supporting the body's weight.  The 14 phalanges of
the foot, as with the hand, are arranged in a proximal row, a middle row,
and a distal row, with the big toe, or hallux, having only a proximal and
distal phalanx.

The foot's two arches are formed by the structure and arrangement of the
bones and are maintained by tendons and ligaments. The arches give when
weight is placed on the foot and spring back when the weight is lifted off
of the foot. The arches may fall due to a weakening of the ligaments and
tendons in the foot."  Grant went on to name all 106 bones and assure Jerry
he could label all the part of a skeatel drawing.

"You did very well and I suppose you can name all the muscles and organs
too?"

"Yes up to my bookmark.  Would you like to help me put the skeleton gift
together?"  Grant knew he would answer yes.  He could see the glint in the
old man's eyes as he rattled off the names of the bones.  Grant started
telling Jerry about his plans to become a doctor like him and dad and his
experiences with Julia and on and on.  He just talked and talked.  Jerry
listened attentively asking the odd question.  Finally PA came up to see
what was holding up the process and get the family together at the dinner
table.

After dinner and a sumptuous one it was, Junior and Grant cleared the
table, put stuff away and got the dishwasher going.  Jerry and PA were
settled in the living room enjoying another beer and watching the news on
the television.  Grant had ginger ale and Junior black coffee as they
entered the room.  Grant curled up on the sofa next to Junior.  All the
while he studied this old man and and his dad.  Their was no doubt in his
mind, these two men were related.

Jerry began telling Grant a little about the history of the community he
now found himself in.  Noting that he was the attend physician at PA' and
Junior's birth and that of Junior's mother as well as his biological
father, "and contrary of popular opinion he (Junior) did not come out full
grown but a rather long, red, squalling naked baby."  Grant giggled, until
he was reminded all babies come out looking red and squalling.

"I have been in attendance for more births than I can count, even for some
I, in all honesty, can't remember," he said looking at Grant.

"Ok you two have been dancing around the truth for 30 years now.  Don't you
think it is time someone let me in on it," Junior said.  Grant looked a bit
puzzled.

"Just who was the sperm donor that made the deposit that produced you,"
Gerald asked?

"Dad said when you came all would be revealed, so start revealing," Junior
said.

"Jerry and I were sworn to absolutely secrecy along with your grandparents
on both sides; that we would never tell you who he was.  Paulie it was what
she wanted.  I guess now they are all dead and you have a son..." Paul
Sr. said.

"She was very insistent and your grandfather and grandmothers went along
with it.  The women stuck together and he was so devoted to his daughter so
did he.  Your other grandfather was given no choice in the matter by his
wife.  To keep peace in his family he acquiesced.  I know this because I
was their and I am that other grandfather." Jerry added.  Grant was getting
so excited he started to bounce up and down.  That got Junior's attention
as he almost caused dad to spill his coffee.

"I suppose you figured that out didn't you," Junior said to Grant.?

"Not the details but I knew you two looked too much alike not to be related
somehow."

"Then my biological father was your son Eric," Junior said?

"Yes, that is correct.  Corona did not want to admit this but we knew he
was the only boy she had dated in the months preceding her beginning to
show.  We knew, in a community this size one can not hide things like
that," Jerry told them.

"But how did I get the name Paul," Junior asked?

"I will answer that because I know and Jerry probably does not.  Eric and I
were best friends from the time we were little, like grade one age.  We
were a lot more than friends from about grade eight on too.  In fact, I
loved him.  Eric was loved by everyone but we were lovers.  Not that we
didn't chase after girls too.  Oh, we did that.  In high school I fell for
Corona like a load of bails dropped from a wagon.  Corona would have
nothing to do with me, she only had eyes for Eric.  I dated around but the
only woman I was interested in wasn't interested in me.

Eric came here about 5 months before you were born.  We were in grand 12.
It was not unusual for him and I to study together and stay with each other
several times a week.  This night was a little different he could not
study.  If my friend could not study I could not study.  We had sex
instead.  That's when he told me, after we had sex.  I was surprised of
course and chided him for not using condoms.  He complained he didn't like
them.

I thought he should marry her after all she was carrying his child and so
on.  He would have none of it.  He didn't love her that much.  Eric told me
Corona wanted him to marry her but when he refused she closed him out of
her life.  I wanted him to say in the community, to stay with me.  I
thought we could go to college together and be lovers.  Eric was Eric, head
strong, very selfish and not about to be bound to anyone or any place.  On
our graduation night we made love the for last time.  I was sad.  He was
too.  He told me then that he would see that Corona received support for
the child and that he wanted me to keep an eye on him, be "his or her
godfather and a good uncle", and that she had agreed to name the child Paul
or Pauline, after his best and only friend.  The next day he was gone and
we never saw him again," Paul Senior explained.

Grant and Junior sat speechless, just listening.

"Eric broke Ruth's heart when he left like that.  It was you Junior that
made her want to live again.  You were the light of her life, I don't know
if you ever realized that, but you were," Jerry said.

"Eric was good to his word, son.  He sent your mother money every month
like clock work.  He knew we were never to tell you who he was.  That
didn't matter.  He broke my heart too but we remained loyal friends.  I
would write to him, so did Ruth and Jerry, we even sent some pictures of
you.  He never missed a payment and then one month they stopped.  It was
about a year after you came to live here.  Someone from his work wrote to
say he had died of complications related to Aids.  We never even knew he
was sick," Paul senior said.

"Eric was a good man, Junior.  He was a loyal friend and loyal son.  He
never missed a birthday or Christmas.  He talked to us lots on the phone
and wrote often.  He was very privet.  He was proud of his accomplishments
but not of the choices he made in his life.  He was to proud to admit that,
he was to proud to seek what he thought was forgiveness.  In reality he had
been forgiven by everyone except Corona, that was something she could not
do and something he would never ask," Jerry informed.

"I still don't see why no one would ever tell me," Junior asked?

"We had given our word, Corona did not want you to know, your father ran
out on you and her.  She never knew just how interested he was in you, we
never told her that either.  He may not have loved her but he respected her
wishes.  When I told him of her death he cried.  When I told him you were
coming to live with me he was delighted.  Little did any of us know how
sick he was at the time.  He never told us.

I tried to get Corona interested in me after you were born but she would
have none of it.  She did accept my friendship and when you got older you
will remember, she would let me take you places and well be that
uncle/godfather, I promised to be.  I don't ever want you to think my
interest in you was only based on a promise to a friend.  As I told you
son, I fell in love with you the first time Corona placed you in my arms,
you were three days old." Paul said.

"When Corona died it was sudden and unexpected.  I never felt so helpless
as a physician, trying to treat an embolism in this place, I could do
nothing, fortunately it was quick.  Ruth and I wanted you to come and live
with us.  Her parents, wanted to keep you with them.  Paul just strode in
and said, `I'm the boy's godfather, he needs a younger parent, it is best,'
and that was that.  I think you know the rest of the story," Jerry said.

"Jerry, why did you retire," Junior asked?

"I had been the local country doc here for over forty years.  It was time,"
Jerry replied.

"Cutting back on the work load, I can understand.  I know how much you
enjoyed your work, your love of medicine, of helping people.  You taught me
Jerry, just like I'm teaching Grant.  I'm sure it is a lot harder with Ruth
gone but their must be something more," Junior said.

"I just couldn't do it any more Junior, old people like Ruth, well I can
accept that but I started loosing to many of the babies I delivered, you
know, adults in their late 40's and early 50's," Jerry said.  A tear
started to come into his eyes.  Grant had been sitting quietly by taking it
all in.  Now he sprung into action.  In an instant he was in Gerald's lap
touching his face with his small boy hand.

"No G3, no you can't think that way," he blurted out.  Junior held up his
hand to stop Paul, it was a let the boy talk signal.

"G3?"

"Well if I'm P3 you must be G3, Great Grandpa Gerald.  You can't stop
making sick people well.  Dad said you taught him, `never give up your
dream.'  He told me medicine is like a naval battle, you are always out
gunned and out manned, so when it looks real bad and your ship is sinking
and your called on to yield, the only response is, `I have not yet begun to
fight," Grant said. (The quote: "I have not yet begun to fight," is from
John Paul Jones the revolutionary war naval hero, when in just such a
situation.  By the way he did win that battle even thought his ship sank.)
The old man began to laugh.  He looked at Grant's neck and open shirt and
smiled.

"I thought you said he was a gift from Poseidon?"  He took the Caduceus in
his fingers. "Looks more like a gift from Apollo to me."  (The Caduceus was
the symbol of Hermes messenger to the gods of Olympus, used by medical
people as their symbol, but Apollo was the god of medicine among other
things.)

Junior jumped in suggesting Gerald should spend his winters in the islands.
"Sid, Grant and I could use your expertise on a consulting bases."  They
were getting at least one new partner but that person would not have much
experience and Grant needs a mentor with more time than he had.  Grant
looked into G3's eyes and in his best half pleading half requesting little
boy voice said, "I need you G3, Julia and the other kids need you."

Gerald wanted to agree but he was a bit hesitant.  Paul assured him he
could accept some consulting fees and still be considered retired for
pension purposes.  Well he would come and see, he had agreed to come for
three weeks anyway.  Paul realized he may be coming back to Montana alone
but that was Ok, if his old friend would be happier, all for the better.
He also realized that Grant would probably come back to him for a longer
stay, maybe even all summer.

Over the next week Grant had fun with Dolphin, Goldie and Tiger, he learned
to ride quiet well.  Goldie was an ideal mount for a child, she just seemed
to understand them.  Tiger was not all that pleased when Grant made the
switch but Junior made sure he got to go along with them as they tramped
across the snow swept fields.  Dolphin trotted along next his mother and
his boy.

They made several short trips to Harlo.  On the last trip, Junior, PA and
Jerry took Grant into 201 A Street, the Wheatland County Court House.
Jerry had made up Grant's birth certificate, as Junior requested.  This was
a grand plan to put one over on them.  The great them, who ever they may
be.  It was naughty and rebellious and so boyish.  Just the right thing for
an old man with vivid and exciting memories of youth.

He went into the court house and while the County Clerk was out of her
office, slipped the paper work into her physical files, in the fire vault.
He was a cleaver one, after affixing her seal and tracing her signature,
placing it right behind, not in alphabetical order, another child born two
days before in the same year.  He was not the attending physician on that
birth.  Jerry unfolded the paper and touched his finger to his mouth.  In
his mouth was a hard candy, a yellow life saver.  He pressed the sugar
coated finger to the corner of the page and pressed the two documents
together and returned them.  That was several weeks ago.

Grant was introduced to the clerk who is an older woman; Grant thought she
came with the hundred year old building.  It is a large and stately two and
1/2 story, made of medium gray, rough cut dimension stone, with a copper
green roof and large glass doors in the arching entrance.  There is a very
impressive Veterans Monument just off to the side.  Junior ask for a copy
of Grant's birth certificate.  The clerk signed on to Montana Vital
Statistics and looked up his name.  "Your sure it is Paul Grant Stum the
Third," she asked no one specifically?

Yes, all four answered.  "In fact we were all present for the occasion,"
Jerry responded chuckling and Grant giggling.  "I was the guest of honor,"
he sang out.  The clerk smiled and entered the name again but came up
blank.  Their was no way she could or would challenge Jerry, he had filed
hundreds of birth and death certificates over her long tenure.

"Is something wrong," PA asked?

"Why I don't know Paul, his name does not come up.  Let me look in my log
book.  When were you born honey."

"August 24th, 1994 at 1:15 am on Grandpa Stum's ranch and I'm not equine or
bovine."  Ethel seamed to miss the humor in that.

"I would have brought the documents in a day or so later Ethel," Jerry
announced.

She looked up that date in her document log book but showed nothing, she
looked over several more pages.  She typed into her computer again but came
up blank.  Ethel asked them to sit and she rummaged through filling
cabinets in the fire vault, looking at each "S " surname.  Then she looked
in the R's and T's.  Still nothing then she moved to the P's and sure
enough in the middle she found it stuck to the back of the girl's, right
where Jerry had put it.

"Got it," she said as she returned from the vault.  "I'm embarrassed to say
it was misfiled."

"Those things happen sometimes," Junior commented.  Grant's face brightened
right up.  After all this was about him, he was the center of attention
here.

Ethel inspected the paper.  All the information was filled out, it had been
stamped received on the 26th and had the County's seal affixed and her
signature.  "This is the first time something like this has ever happened,
oh well."  She made a copy, affixed her seal and signed to certify it as a
true copy.  Junior paid her the ten dollar fee.  After exchanging more
gossip and other pleasantries they departed.  Ethel would now scramble to
correct the State's data base and get PGS III into the system.

"The Prince is dead, long live the Prince," PA boomed once in the car.  He
had to explain it to Grant.

Junior went over to the local school and registered Grant in the Montana
home school program.  He filled out the basic forms downloaded from the web
and let them make a copy of Grant's Birth Certificate listing the ranch as
his and Grant's official address.  His lawyer could deal with the
remainder.  That was the next stop.  Paul and Junior wanted Grant added to
their wills and made a partner in the ranch corporation.  That is when
Junior found out that the Hoffman property was officially part of the
ranch.  By seeding it to Junior a few years ago it made everything much
simpler when Jerry passed on.  "Their are huge tax implications you know."
His ranch house and a few adjoining acres would go to his daughter along
with any cash assets.  Junior thought this was to generous but Jerry just
smiled.  "It would have gone to Eric first but he obviously has no use for
it in his grave."

..................

Junior sat in the reading chair, a large piece of old living room furniture
that he brought up to his room as a boy.  It has a high back and the wide
arms flared outward.  It was great for a boy to curl up in and read books.
He sat in it now as an adult, dropping a bed pillow behind his back forcing
his hips forward toward the front.  His legs were spread wide apart as
Grant pushed a low hassock between them.  Junior's smooth almost hairless
skin shimmered in the low light of the bed lamp.  His blond treasure trail
pointing to his long, arrow straight, arrow shaped penis.  Precome was
already leaking from the urethra glistening on the cone shaped head.
Junior's public hair is tightly trimmed, neatly shaped his scrotum is
shaved and his legs have almost no hair on them what little they do have is
fine and very blond.  He muses briefly at how smooth his body is compared
to Grant's.

Grant stands on the low hassock facing away from Junior into the room as
Junior's hands travel the length of his boy's legs and slowly drift over
his round buttocks.  Junior dips his right index finger into the KY.  His
right hand the index finger stretched upward rests on Grant's right hip as
his left hand slips between the boy's legs at he knee and slowly moves up
causing Grant to adjust his footing and spread his legs apart.  Grant like
the fleeing of his man's hands on his body, he like the feeling of his hand
moving across the soft skin of his inner thigh and up to his butt's medial
line.

Junior eases his finger into the waiting anus and Grant relaxes himself
almost sucking the finger in.  Placing both is hands on the boy's hips
Junior guides him down onto the waiting phallus.  Grant settles in rubbing
his butt against Junior open crotch.  Grant leans slightly forward steadied
by Junior's hands and begins to raises and lower his body on the slick man
arrow, his hands on his knees for stability.  Grant is soon feeling the
pleasure, his mouth opens and soft cooing sounds emit from his throat.
Junior feel the warmth and tightness of the lads body and his cock slips in
and out until his feels his orgasm building.  Junior begins to illite his
hips in a circular and outward complex motion, something Grant finds extra
special.  He explodes into his boy pulling Grant back against his chest and
kissing his neck and shoulders as his hands inspect every inch of the
smooth boy skin they can reach.

Still impaled on his man's penis Grant leans back and flips his leg high to
clear Junior's face as his is spun around face to face, persona their lips
together letting their tongues invade each other oral pleasure palaces.
Paul lever himself up using his left hand and caries the still impaled boy
to the bed easing himself down onto his back.  His cock is shrinking now
being ejected by the lads tightening sphincter.  Grant coos in delight and
pressing his head into dad's chest falls asleep.  Dad followed in short
order.  That night Junior dreams of his boy and the boy's body.  Images of
the smooth curves, lines and angles made by Grant's slim buff body flash
through his REM sleep.