Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015 09:24:16 +0000 (UTC) From: z119z 2000 <z119z2000@yahoo.com> Subject: A Country Weekend A Country Weekend z119z © 2015 by the author Thanks to JM for providing the inspiration for this story and to Ze and Bob for commenting on it. Comments are appreciated. Please send them to z119z2000@yahoo.com. Thanks. "They're a bit kinky." "What do you mean?" "Kinky—they like group sex. But don't worry. They're nice guys. They're not rough or anything like that." Lenny turned and looked at Jeff. His boyfriend was hunched forward over the steering wheel, squinting at the poorly lit road. Jeff's head was a darker profile against the darkness outside. The lights on the dashboard created odd shadows and blotches of unnatural colors—green, red—on Jeff's face. It was the face of a stranger. If I took a photograph of Jeff right now, Lenny thought, I wouldn't recognize the person in the picture as him. Sometimes Lenny wasn't sure that he knew Jeff at all. Many times when they were talking, Lenny would ask a question and Jeff would just clam up. In the three months they had been dating, Lenny had learned not to broach certain subjects. Jeff didn't like to talk about his past, for example, and he brushed aside questions about his job. Lenny couldn't say for certain exactly what Jeff did. When they first met, he had asked. Jeff had muttered something about running a hiring agency. Whatever he did, he must be successful at it. He always had lots of money. And after their first few dates, Jeff never wanted to go out. It was almost as if he didn't want others to know that they were seeing each other. The only time he had gotten angry at Lenny was when Lenny had casually mentioned that he had spoken about Jeff to some of his friends. Jeff hadn't liked that at all. He thought Jeff was going to hit him, When Jeff finally calmed down, he said. "I'm a private person. Just keep quiet about us. I don't want people gossiping." Along with the secretiveness was a tendency to be domineering. Jeff liked to be the one who made the decisions. At first he had consulted Lenny about what they would watch on TV or what takeout they should get delivered, but lately he just announced his decisions and expected Lenny to go along. Lenny supposed that he ought to be more forceful, but it wasn't his way. He didn't like squabbles, especially about trifles. It was just easier to agree with Jeff. Lenny knew that he tended to be passive. It was just his nature. Jeff had easily batted down his few attempts to be more assertive and state his own wishes, and Lenny had given up trying. And really, it didn't matter. It wasn't as if Jeff were forcing him to do things he hated. He might have preferred to have Chinese rather than pizza, and sometimes he felt a little uncomfortable with the things Jeff wanted to do in bed. But he could live with them. Jeff liked to experiment and try new things—that was all. There was nothing wrong with that. Since they had left the interstate just south of Greenfield, they had been traveling over country roads. The headlights revealed little more than the trunks of the trees that lined the road thickly on both sides. In the darkness, it was like traveling down a tunnel. The last village had appeared so suddenly that Lenny hadn't had time to read the name on the sign. The village wasn't large. It was really no more than a hamlet, a wide spot in the road, and it disappeared behind them as quickly as it had appeared. But it was the last evidence that the area was inhabited. They hadn't passed another car in the fifteen-twenty minutes since leaving the village. The countryside appeared to be deserted. There weren't any house lights or driveways that he could see. Lenny had no idea where they were. Jeff had told him nothing more than that they had been invited to spend the weekend with "a couple of guys I know on their farm in western Massachusetts. It's almost on the border with Vermont." That's all he had said. A weekend in the country had sounded inviting when Jeff had proposed it. Lenny had pictured a quiet weekend with his lover, a chance for them to take long walks along country lanes. But things had gone wrong almost from the beginning. Jeff had had to work late, and they hadn't been able to leave Hartford until 7:00, almost three hours later than they had planned. Then Jeff had wanted to get something to eat, and they had stopped at a noisy, crowded restaurant on the outskirts of Springfield. It took forever for their food to arrive, and that had delayed them even more. It was almost 10:00 by the time they reached Greenfield. Any chance of making good time had vanished once they turned off the interstate onto a narrow, two-lane road. It rarely went straight for more than a quarter of a mile. The road corkscrewed around unseen barriers and went up and down hills so often that Lenny would almost swear that they had doubled back on themselves several times. And now Jeff casually reveals that they're expected to have group sex with their hosts. Lenny didn't know what to think about that. It would have been helpful to know that beforehand. Maybe he wouldn't have said yes so quickly. He had never had sex with more than one partner at a time. There had been opportunities for that, but he didn't like to hop in bed with anyone who came along. Sex had to be more than just a casual meeting of body parts. He had promised himself that he would live by that rule when he had first discovered how promiscuous gay guys could be. He knew that lots of guys thought he was being ridiculous, but it was his life. And he had kept his resolution—mostly. If the guy was attractive and he pushed, Lenny usually gave in and had sex with the guy. He tried to tell himself that he wasn't going against his principles. He wasn't an easy lay. He didn't have sex with just anyone. He had standards. None of which helped him right now. What if he didn't like the guys? Would he be able to say no? He was sure that Jeff wouldn't force him do things he didn't want to do. After all they loved each other, and Jeff knew about his promise to himself. On the other hand, Jeff knew these guys. If he couldn't trust Jeff to find safe and suitable partners, who could he trust? Should he just be a good sport and take part in whatever happened? Maybe he was worrying about nothing. It might never come up. He should wait to see how the weekend went. Who could predict how things would turn out? The guys might not find him attractive. Lots of guys wanted big, muscular men, not short, slender guys like himself. He would take his cues from Jeff's behavior. Keep an open mind. It might be fun. Jeff had told him several times that he ought to expand his repertoire. Maybe this weekend would be a good chance to do that. He knew that Jeff had much more experience with sex than he did. He had already learned a lot from Jeff. This weekend might teach him even more. Relax and stay cool. That's what he should do. Jeff seemed to sense his ambivalence about having sex with their hosts. When Lenny started to say something about it, he quickly cut in. "Shhh. Let me concentrate. Their driveway should be coming up soon. I've never driven this in the dark. I don't want to miss it. There's a big grove of birch trees just before it. It's on your side. Watch for a patch of white in the dark." They drove for what seemed another couple of miles before Jeff heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Finally. There are the birch trees. I was beginning to think I had gone too far. This is it." He slowed the car and then cautiously turned into a gravel driveway. After fifty feet or so, the gravel petered out. The beams of the headlights picked out the packed soil of two ruts separated by a hummock of grass. Jeff's car bounced and rocked from side to side as he drove cautiously up the road. It was hard to judge in the dark, but Lenny thought they traveled at least a half-mile before the road curved around a stand of trees and stopped in the middle of a cluster of buildings. A faint light shone through the front windows of an old two-story farmhouse. Jeff had barely stopped the car when someone opened the front door. The silhouette of a big, heavy-set man filled the doorway. He lifted an arm in greeting. Jeff jumped out of the car and shouted, "Sorry to be so late." "Don't worry about it. Better late than never." The man's voice was raspy, and the effort of speaking made him cough. Oh great, thought Lenny. They're smokers or boozers or both. He pushed the car door open and stretched. Jeff was already walking up to the house. Their bags were in the trunk, but Jeff hadn't triggered the lock. Ahead of him, he heard Jeff say, "I need to take a piss." The man motioned Jeff inside and then stood there waiting. Lenny hesitated. Maybe he should stay by the car until Jeff returned and help him carry their things in, but the man was clearly expecting him to come inside. After a few seconds, politeness won out. He extended his hand as he approached the man. "Hi, I'm Lenny." The man had a firm grasp, and his hands were rough with calluses. In the light spilling from the open doorway, he looked about forty. He was tall and towered over Lenny. "Jeff said you was English. I can hear it now. Come on in. I'll gitcha a beer. Close the door, will ya?" The man turned around and headed down a hallway running along the left side of the staircase leading up to the next floor. Lenny found himself standing in a large room crowded with furniture. Even in the flickering light coming from a TV set in the corner, he could see that all the furnishings were old and worn. The outlines of years of buttocks settling in were visible on the chairs and the sofa. The room was hot and damp. It stank of cigarettes. It smelled as if no one had opened a window in months. A stone fireplace dominated the far wall. The mantel was crowded with junk apparently left there because it was too much trouble to move it elsewhere or throw it out. Every flat surface in the room similarly held its burden of debris. It took Lenny a few seconds to realize that a second man was lying almost prone on a recliner in the corner opposite the TV. He had elevated the foot rest, and, from Lenny's viewpoint, the soles of his stocking feet framed his face. Lenny sketched a tentative wave in the air and mumbled "hello." The man didn't react to Lenny's presence. Lenny thought the man was asleep until he saw his eyes glinting. The man was examining him. The first man returned and thrust a cold can of beer in Lenny's hand. It was wet and slippery and Lenny almost dropped it. "Take a seat," the man said. "Make yourself comfortable." He motioned toward the sofa as he popped the top on the can of beer he held. Some of the beer sprayed out over his hand. He licked it off before lifting the can and tilting his head back to take a drink. He swallowed several times. Lenny guessed that he had drunk most of the can in one go. "When Jeff gets back, we can get the party started. We've been looking forward to meeting you since Jeff told us he had a new boyfriend. We've had some good times with Jeff's boyfriends over the years." Lenny wasn't sure that he wanted to sit down. Nor did he think he was ready to party, and he didn't welcome the news that he was the latest of Jeff's boyfriends to show the men a good time. He edged backwards toward the front door and said, "I'm a bit stiff from riding in the car. I think I'll stand for a while. Work the kinks out." Both men laughed when they heard the word `kinks.' The first man stepped closer and tugged at Lenny's T-shirt. "Yeah, we've had some real good times. I got a feeling you're gonna show us a real good time too, ain't ya, Lenny. We were talking about it. Neither of us ever had an English boy before. Kinda hoping you got some tricks we ain't seen. How's about you get out of those clothes and show us what you can do?" The man shoved his hand inside the waistband of Lenny's jeans and yanked him forward. Their groins collided. Lenny instinctively jerked the can of beer he was holding up out of the way, The beer sloshed out onto his tee. Lenny half-turned away. He set the can down on a table and tugged the wet shirt away from his body. The man took this as a signal and grabbed the bottom of the T-shirt. Lenny became tangled in the shirt as the man pulled it partway over his head, obscuring his vision. Lenny lifted his arms in an attempt to free himself, and the man seized the opportunity to remove the shirt completely. He tossed it on the floor. "That's better." He grabbed Lenny by the jeans again and swept him into an embrace. The man gave Lenny a hard kiss on the mouth. The smell of stale cigarette smoke and beer slapped Lenny in the face. He tried to push himself away, but the man wrapped his free arm around the back of Lenny's neck and then bent his arm so that Lenny's neck was squeezed in a vise formed by the man's bicep and forearm. The man's muscles were hard. He rested his can of beer on Lenny's chest, and gave Lenny another rough kiss, pushing his tongue between Lenny's lips and into his mouth. He swung Lenny around so that he stood between Lenny and the door. Lenny was so shocked by the first man's assault that he didn't realize the other man had stood up and walked over until he felt the man's hands fondle his ass. "Nice and firm. I bet he's real tight." Lenny jumped. The man's mouth was right behind Lenny's ear. He tried to escape, but the two men pressed up against him. Both were well over six feet tall, and Lenny found himself sandwiched between their bodies. The second man wrapped his arms around Lenny's chest, dragged him across the floor, and fell backward into his chair. Lenny suddenly found himself pinioned in the man's grasp, his legs in the air and his body exposed. Whatever the man did for a living had given him strong arms, far stronger than sporadic visits to the gym had given Lenny. The first man swiftly snatched Lenny's shoes off and then unzipped the fly of Lenny's jeans. He tugged at the legs and yanked the jeans off. Jeff liked sexy underwear, and Lenny had put on a red thong. It was one of Jeff's favorites, and it got him aroused every time. Lenny had been looking forward to surprising Jeff when they undressed for bed that night, but the men forestalled that. The thong was pulled off his body as fast as his jeans had been. Obviously neither man cared much for underwear. "Wow, now that is pretty. Stand up and let's get a good look at you." The first man grabbed Lenny by the hands and lifted him to his feet. "Turn around so that we can both see you." Lenny was so dazed by the suddenness of his disrobing that he complied without thinking. When he turned to face the second man, he discovered Jeff leaning against the door to the hallway leading to the back of the house and watching them. The first man said, "Now that is just plain gorgeous. Jeff, you've been holding out on us. This one's a winner." The man laid a proprietary hand on Lenny's shoulder and pulled him close. The heat of the man's body came through the shirt he was wearing. Jeff yawned. He looked bored, Lenny decided. The two men were treating him like he was their boyfriend and not Jeff's and Jeff didn't even seem to care. Well, fuck him then. If Jeff didn't care, neither did he. Let Jeff join in—or not. It didn't matter. If Jeff wanted a show, he was going to get one. The first man wrapped his hands around Lenny's chest and began fingering his nipples. Lenny half-turned and smiled at the man."Keep that up and I'll do whatever you want." He tried to sound sexy. He arched his back and pushed upward on his toes so that he could reach the man's lips. As he shoved his tongue into the man's mouth, he wriggled his hips so that his cock swung back and forth. It had to be about eye level for the second man. "Sugar, you are going to do whatever we want," said the second man. Both men laughed Lenny joined in the knowing laughter. Yeah, he would do whatever they wanted. Let Jeff think he was getting into the mood of the party. It was no more than he deserved. If Jeff wanted group sex, he'd show him group sex. Lenny the swinger. That's what he would give Jeff. Lenny the sex addict. Lenny bent forward and kissed the other man, shoving his ass into the groin of the man standing behind him and moving it suggestively. "Who wants to get sucked off first?" The man sitting in the chair unzipped his pants and hauled out his cock. He didn't say anything. He just lifted it toward Lenny. Lenny lunged forward and swallowed it. The man's clothes smelled of cigarette smoke and the zipper on his jeans caught at Lenny's face. And his cock tasted sour. But Lenny didn't care. Let Jeff get an eyeful. At least these guys appreciated what he had to offer and were honest about what they wanted from him. The man grasped Lenny's head in his hands and pushed it down onto his cock. "The kid knows how to suck a cock," he gasped. The other man spat in his hand and began lubricating Lenny's ass. Lenny hoped that the man would give him a rim job, but no such luck. He got one finger and then a second one and a third in quick succession. Lenny squealed and then fake-moaned in pleasure to spite Jeff. The man didn't believe in long buildups. Within a minute, he unzipped and thrust his cock into Lenny. That did hurt, and Lenny's gasp of surprise and pain was genuine. But he quickly got into the rhythm of the fucking and let the man's thrusts propel him forward onto the other man's cock. It didn't take either man long to cum. It didn't seem much longer than five minutes. The two men came almost at the same time. Lenny barely had time to swallow the first man's load before the second man shouted and then rammed his cock deep inside Lenny and held it there until he too had come. Lenny hung suspended between the two cocks. "God, what a beautiful tight ass." The man slapped him on the buttocks as he pulled out. "You go get cleaned up. The bathroom's down the hallway." he pointed. " Second door on the left." There were several washcloths and towels hanging in the bathroom, all of them dark with dirt. Lenny sniffed at one. It smelled of mildew. He examined his face in the mirror. He didn't look so good. His face was streaked with red welts from the zipper. Probably they would fade by the morning, but for now he couldn't do anything about them. At least, they would remind Jeff of what he had done. He was beginning to feel a bit disgusted with himself. He hadn't really enjoyed having sex with the two men. It had all been so quick and perfunctory. He didn't even know their names. But he had to admit that he had enjoyed rubbing Jeff's nose in it. Jeff'd think twice before he took Lenny away for a weekend without telling him that he was just the latest of Jeff's boyfriends to be offered up to some rubes. Jeff was going to pay for that. Lenny dawdled in the bathroom for as long as he could. He thought about taking a shower, but he decided that he didn't want to wash the odor of the two men off him. Let Jeff smell that all night long. What he really needed was to brush his teeth. His mouth tasted foul, but his toothbrush and mouthwash were in his bag in the trunk of Jeff's car. When he got back to the living room, one of the men was just coming in the front door. Lenny overheard the second man say something like "How much did you give him?" The first man saw Lenny coming down the hall. He shook his head. "I'll tell you later," he said. Lenny looked around. "Where's Jeff? Is he bringing the stuff in from the car? I should go help. I need my bag. I want to brush my teeth." "He left. He'll be back on Sunday to pick you up." "He's gone?" Lenny couldn't keep a tremor of fear out of his voice. What the fuck was Jeff up to? Abandoning him to these two guys. "He told me that we would be spending the weekend together." The men looked at each other and smiled. "You don't need Jeff. You got us. Anyhow he said he had to get back to Hartford to take care of some unfinished business. Something about one of his boys acting up. He said he'd almost decided not to deliver you, but he didn't want to spoil our weekend. I guess he was in such a hurry to get back to Hartford he didn't remember your bag. But don't worry. You won't need your stuff. We've got everything you need." The other man shook his head and said, "Yeah, we got what you need. And you got what we need. You show us a good time, and everything's going to be fine. You don't want Jeff getting mad at you. You know what he's going to do that boy back in Harford when he gets there. You don't want that happening to you." Lenny's heart lurched. The men were talking about Jeff like he was a pimp or something. God, did they have the wrong end of the stick. But he wasn't going to explain that to them. He just wanted to get out of there. Lenny suddenly became aware of just how small he was in comparison to the two men and how far he was from help. He was stuck somewhere in the middle of a wilderness with two guys he didn't know. All he really knew about them was that they liked threeways. He looked around for his clothes. They seemed to have disappeared. "I want to get dressed. I'm going to leave." He tried to speak decisively, but he could hear the fright in his voice. "Where you gonna go this time of night? It's easy to get lost around here. You could end up wandering for hours and not get anywhere. Wait until morning and see how you feel. If you still wanna leave, I'll drive you into town. You can try to hitch a ride into Greenfield. Or walk. It's about eighteen miles. They got some sort of bus that stops somewhere in town, I think. Should get you back to Hartford by tomorrow night. Now it's late. Jeff was supposed to deliver you hours ago. We should be in bed by now. You're sleeping in the bunkhouse. It's back here." Both man stood up. Lenny still didn't know their names. The second man put a hand in the middle of Lenny's back and pushed him toward the hallway. When Lenny tried to break away, the man transferred his hand to Lenny's shoulder and squeezed it hard. With his other hand, he slapped Lenny's ass hard. "Behave yourself. I got more where that came from." Lenny winced at the pain. Both men were behind him, blocking the escape route to the front door. They were bigger and stronger than he was. They'd grab him before he got too far. Who knew what they'd do to him then? Even if by some fluke he made it out the door, they knew the area. If he ran for it, he would have no idea where to go. Besides he was naked, and his clothes had gone missing. Damn Jeff. The bastard had abandoned him, and now he was being treated like a prisoner. "Hey," he protested. Even to his own ears, it sounded feeble. He rubbed his ass. The situation was getting out of hand. This wasn't the weekend he had agreed to. He needed to play the men for time. They were drunk. He could wait an hour until they were sound asleep and then sneak out of this bunkhouse, whatever that was, find his clothes, and leave. He tried to placate the men with humor. He winked at the men. "Oooh, if I knew you liked that, we could have done that earlier. Jeff didn't tell me you guys liked it rough." That was the right tactic. The man behind him grunted in response. "That's better. Be a good boy and cooperate with us, and we'll treat you good." His hand still gripped Lenny's shoulder, and he guided Lenny down the hall and into the kitchen. There was a closed door in one wall. Unlike the other doors in the house, which were made of wood and looked like they had been part of the original house, this one was metal and a recent addition. Instead of a doorknob, it had a lever. One of the men opened the door. He reached around the corner of the door and flipped a switch. A weak overhead light came on. Lenny could see three narrow beds lined up along one wall. Two of them were occupied. One of the occupants was lying on his side, facing away from the door. He pulled the blanket on his bed up over his eyes to shield them from the light. The other person was lying on his back. His eyes opened briefly. He barely seemed to register the change in the room before going back to sleep. "The toilet's off to the right," one of the men said. "Don't worry about making noise. These guys won't mind. See ya in the morning." With that, the door closed, and Lenny found himself naked in a room with two guys he hadn't known existed. Where had they been while he was getting shafted? Had they been in the "bunkhouse" the whole time? Or had they been watching? And who were they? Both of them appeared to be asleep. Or maybe they just didn't want to talk with him. Lenny wondered if their so-called lovers had dropped them off for a weekend of fun on the farm too. He couldn't tell for sure because of the blankets, but they appeared to be as nude as he was. At least there were no clothes in sight, and no place to store any. The bunkhouse was almost as bare of things as the rest of the house was crowded. The only pieces of furniture were the three single beds. Even they were minimalist. Just metal frames with a mattress on top, one thin pillow and a green khaki blanket on top. Lenny checked out the bathroom—it, too, held only the bare essentials: a toilet, a sink, and a stall shower. Half a roll of toilet paper and a half-used tube of toothpaste sat atop the toilet tank. A cracked and dirt-streaked sliver of soap was caked to the rim of the sink. That was it. The plumbing looked DYI. In fact, the whole bunkhouse looked like it had been run up by amateurs. The walls and ceiling were unpainted plywood. A sheet of stained linoleum covered the area in front of the beds, but the rest of the floor was bare wood. The electrical cord leading to the single overhead light bulb was tacked to the surface of the plywood with metal staples. Lenny shivered. Unlike the rest of the house, the room wasn't heated. He wrapped himself in the coarse blanket that covered the bed. There weren't any sheets, and the mattress was thin. He could feel the springs in the bed frame. He tried to figure out the time. Jeff and he must have arrived about 10:30, 11:00 at the latest. The whole sex thing hadn't taken half an hour. So, say, it was midnight. The sun was rising about 5:30 now. So he'd give the guys an hour to go to sleep. Then he'd sneak out. Their bedrooms had to be upstairs and if he went slowly and carefully, he wouldn't wake them. He figured he would have about four hours to put some distance between himself and the men. If he heard a car coming, he would hide in the trees. They'd never find him. He ought to be able to make it to Greenfield. His phone was in a pocket of his jeans, and he could use it to call up a map of the area. Once he got to Greenfield, he could decide what to do. Would the moon be shining bright enough that he could see his way around? He didn't know. He never paid any attention to the phases of the moon. He wished he knew. But for sure he needed to let his eyes adjust to the dark. With the blanket still wrapped around his body, Lenny stood up and turned off the light. The room was dark, and he carefully traced his way back to the empty bed, bending over and feeling with an outstretched hand for the bed. The room had no windows, and no light seeped around the doorframe. He sat down on the bed and arranged the blanket to cover his body. He yawned suddenly. Tension and exhaustion were getting to him. Could he risk a nap and try to wake up in an hour? Best not to, he decided. He was so tired, he would sleep till morning. He went over his plan in his mind. He'd wait for an hour and then quietly ease over to the door. In fact, maybe he should wait by the door. That way, he wouldn't wake up these other two guys when he left. If he made the noise now, they'd be sound asleep again when he left. He stood up slowly. The springs on the bed protested. He waited a minute to make sure that he hadn't woken the others. They he crept across the room, his hand outstretched, until he felt the wall. He trailed his hand over the plywood until he found the door. When he felt the metal frame, he sat down on the floor. And then it occurred to him. Had the men locked the door behind him when they shoved him into the room? He hadn't checked. He stood up cautiously and felt around. Smooth, cold metal met his fingertips. The handle had to be there somewhere. Maybe it was on the other side. When the man opened the door, had it swung back to the right or to the left? He thought it was to the left. He searched all around the door, even on top, in a growing panic. He continued to run his hands over the door even after he knew there was no handle. Finally he gave up and sunk to the floor. He was trapped. A prisoner. He pulled the blanket up over his head. He was shaking violently. He had to fight back the tears. If he started sobbing, he'd wake the other two guys. He knew they wouldn't offer him sympathy. They'd probably beat him up. The muted sounds of a conversation woke him. He couldn't make out the words, just the different pitches of two different voices. For a moment he was disoriented. He had been dreaming about lying naked outside on the ground. The ground was cold, and it was dark. The moon and the stars were hidden behind thick clouds. For a few seconds the voices became part of his dream. He was curled up under the rough blanket, with his knees drawn up almost to his chin and his arms wrapped around his legs. He shivered as the cold hit him. He remembered now. He was in the bunkhouse. It was totally dark. He got to his feet and felt for the light switch. The bare plywood was gritty beneath his fingertips. Fuck this, he thought. All I'll find is a handful of splinters. He pounded on the wall and shouted "Hey!" The voices stopped speaking. A second later the door opened, and light spilled into the room. "Oh good, you're up. I was about to come in and get you." "I couldn't find the switch," Lenny said. He didn't know why he felt the need to apologize. He was the one who had been left to rot in a cold, dark room, but he didn't want to do anything to antagonize the men. He was dependent on them until Jeff returned . . . if he returned. The man stepped into the room. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes. You guys get cleaned up and get your butts out here." Lenny heard the squeaking of springs. He turned around. The two guys he had shared the bunkhouse with were sitting up. Like him, both were naked. Unlike him, neither of them seemed to find the situation at all unusual. One of them stood up and trotted into the bathroom. He didn't close the door. The other followed him. It was embarrassing to watch them. Lenny had seen other men nude before, many men in fact, but being nude with these two embarrassed him. He didn't want to share a bathroom with them, but the sound of them pissing triggered an urgent need to piss. He also wanted to take a shower. He felt filthy. "Can I use the other bathroom?" He sounded plaintive. Why was he begging? He should be asserting himself and demanding to be released, but here he was trying to please the guy and not antagonize him. The man looked at him. Lenny's request amused him. "They'll be done in just a second." The man's word was immediately borne out. Both guys exited the bathroom and headed for the kitchen. "You can use the bathroom now," said the man. "Don't be long. You've got a busy day ahead." Lenny hurried into the bathroom. Suddenly his urgent need to urinate took second place to distancing himself from the implications of "a busy day ahead." He tried to close down his mind, but the effort only reminded him of his predicament. He couldn't stop shaking. He had to get away. He trembled as used the toilet and washed his hands. Last night when he wanted to leave, one of the guys had said he could decide in the morning. Well, it was morning, and he had decided he wanted to leave. What would they do when he told them that? Would they just let him walk away? He would have to wait for a good moment to bring up leaving. Maybe after they had had breakfast and were feeling full. He had to time the request—no, it wasn't a request. He mustn't think like that. He mustn't ask for permission to leave. That would make it seem like it was the men's decision. It was his decision. He would tell them he was leaving. That's how he had to think. The water coming out of the faucet was cold. The hot water didn't seem to be connected. So much for grabbing a shower. There were no towels, and he waved his hands in the air to dry them. He rubbed his hand over his chin. There was some stubble, not a lot. His shaving gear was in his suitcase, and that was in the trunk of Jeff's car. His two roommates in the bunkhouse had shaved heads, and the brief glances he had allowed himself of their bodies had revealed that they had no body hair. So there had to be shaving stuff somewhere. He didn't want to ask—what if they decided to shave his head? It really bothered him that he couldn't shave. He couldn't quite figure out why. He often went for a couple of days without shaving. He didn't have a heavy beard, and it was light-colored. Even after two days, it was barely visible. It took him almost a week to develop the scruff that many man got in a couple of days. He would, he decided, have liked to have had a choice about shaving. It was the fact that he had no choice that rankled. The two men weren't leaving anything to his discretion. They were deciding everything. How far would they go? Would they stop if he asked them to? And who or what were these other two guys? He couldn't stay in the bathroom forever. In any case, the door was just a sheet of plywood on hinges, and there was no lock, not even one of those hook and eye things or a sliding bolt. The door wasn't even hung so that it stayed shut. It gaped open an inch. Privacy wasn't an option. If there had been a towel, he would have wrapped it around his waist, but somehow he knew that the men wouldn't find that acceptable. It would be whipped off him as soon as they saw it. He had better get out there. They would come get him if he didn't show up soon. Just to gain another minute, he used his finger to brush his teeth. If one of the men came, he would at least know that Lenny had an excuse for delaying. He dragged it out as long as he could, even carefully sluicing the foam he had spat out down the drain to make sure the sink was clean, not that it made much difference. The other two guys from the bunkhouse were already seated at the kitchen table. The two men were busy getting breakfast on the table. Both men were wearing heavy work boots, jeans, and unbuttoned plaid flannel shirts over white tees. One was at the stove cooking eggs. The other was pouring orange juice into glasses. The man pouring the juice held the carton up and wagged it back and forth in Lenny's direction to ask if he wanted juice. That was a good sign, Lenny decided. At least they were letting him decide some things for himself. He shook his head no and said, "Can I have a cup of coffee? Is there anything I can do to help?" The two guys from the bunkhouse didn't have coffee cups in front of them, and they were just sitting there waiting to be fed. Lenny wanted to distinguish himself from them. He was a guest, not a prisoner, or whatever it was that these guys were. Maybe if he reminded the men of that, they would let him go. "Nah, just sit down. We've got everything covered. You can help wash the dishes later." The man at the stove said, "It'll just be another minute. Hope you like scrambled." He nodded toward a cabinet. "Don't forget the boys' pills." "Oh yeah, We don't wanna forget those." The other man pulled a white plastic bottle from a cabinet and shook two pills out onto the palm of his hand. He placed one in front of each of the two "boys." Each of them dutifully placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed it with a drink of juice. Their response is so mechanical, thought Lenny. The man put the pills in front of the boys. They swallowed the pills. No comment, no hesitation. Like well-trained dogs responding to a command. Lenny sat down in the chair the man had indicated. There were empty chairs on either side. So that meant that he would be sandwiched between the two men. He didn't think that was accidental. He was opposite the two guys from the bunkhouse. They were young—late teens, early twenties, he thought. It was hard to tell. Both were skinny. Except for the bald heads, they looked like typical twinks. Not that much different from me, Lenny thought. He offered them a tentative smile and said, "How's it going?" Neither responded. In fact, they didn't even look at Lenny. It was as if he hadn't spoken. If they had heard him, they didn't think he was speaking to them. "Looks like it's gonna be a nice day." The man at the stove waved the spatula he was using to stir the eggs at a window. The window was surrounded by red check curtains with a fringed edging. It seemed so normal. In fact the entire setup was normal. It could be a kitchen anywhere, messier than those you saw on TV but no messier than those of several of his friends whose kitchens revealed a similar lack of devotion to neatness. It had all the standard appliances. The counter held a toaster and a coffee maker. A microwave sat on a shelf above the stove. A terry-cloth hand towel was looped around the handle on the refrigerator door. A fork stood upright in the silverware container of the dish rack next to the sink. The only oddities were the two naked guys at the table—well, three guys, Lenny corrected himself. He was naked too. When the men got everything on the table and sat down, they carried on talking as if Lenny and the other two guys were not there. They agreed it was going to be a nice day. They discussed which of them would take the garbage to the dump. They decided the man going to the dump should buy more beer while he was out because the liquor store would be closed on Sunday and they wanted to make sure they had enough for the football games on TV that weekend. After handing Lenny and the "boys" their plates of food, they largely ignored them. And the boys ignored them. They just sat there and mechanically ate everything on their plates. They didn't seem to enjoy eating, but they didn't seem to dislike it either. They just ate. They never looked up from their plates. When they finished, they sat there until one of the men said, "You boys wait on the beds. I'll deal with you later." Lenny didn't know if he was included in that order, but he wanted to get away. Now, he decided, would be a good time to ask for his clothes and tell them he was leaving. Maybe he should offer to help take the garbage to the dump. That would at least get him away from the house and somewhere more public. When they got to the dump, he could just tell the guy he was leaving and walk away. They couldn't stop him while other people were around, could they? The two boys dutifully stood up. They carried their plates and silverware to the sink and rinsed them off. They had yet to speak a word. Lenny pushed his chair back and started to stand up. The man seated on his right put a hand on his arm and said, "You stay here." The hand held him firmly in place. It felt like a statement of ownership, the sort of thing a man would do when he wanted a pet or a little kid not to move. Lenny settled back down on the chair. He shivered. He tried to tell himself it was the cold, but he knew it was fear. This wasn't going according to plan. The two men seemed to assume that he was going to do what they wanted and be what they wanted him to be. They were so casual about it. It was like he had been thrown into a game and nobody had explained the rules. He had to assert himself. He was almost envious of the two guys. At least they were being allowed to escape, even if only temporarily. Lenny nearly missed it. As they two guys turned away from the sink and walked back into the bunkhouse, he saw it but it didn't register on his consciousness at first. He saw what he expected to see, and it took him a few seconds to realize what was missing. Neither of the two boys had balls. Their testicles and scrotums had been removed. Their cocks were still there, but both were small, far smaller than normal. Their groins were shaved bare, which made them looked even more like underdeveloped boys. Lenny's gorge rose and he gagged. The two had been castrated. He suddenly felt physically sick. His own scrotum tightened around his balls. It was as if he was pulling them into his body to protect them. If the two men noted Lenny's alarm, they chose to ignore it. They went on discussing their plans for the day as if everything was perfectly ordinary. Finally one of them said, "Well, these dishes ain't gonna wash themselves," and stood up. When Lenny just sat there, still stunned, the man said, "Well, get a move on, boy. Everybody earns their keep around here." Lenny mechanically copied their actions and carried his plate over to the sink. "Maybe we could let the dishes soak for a while." Suddenly there was a hand on Lenny's ass, squeezing it. The other man smiled and said, "Yeah, it wouldn't hurt to let them soak a bit. Why don't you take Lenny into the other room? I'll just be a second." The first man put an arm across Lenny's shoulders and guided him down the hallway and into a room that held only a single bed covered with a padded mat. The mat was heavily stained. "Your ass is so pretty. I'm looking forward to fucking it. Earl said it was nice and tight. Now you lie down on the bed. On your back. No, not that way. Crossways on the bed so that your head and your ass are at the sides. That's right. That's what we like to see. A nice obedient boy. No backtalk. You do what you're told right away. No hesitation." The man laughed. "You keep that up and maybe we'll just give Jeff a call and tell him not to come back." Lenny's mind wasn't working. He was operating on autopilot, and he didn't try to resist. The two guys had been spayed. He had to avoid that. If it meant going along with these maniacs, that is what he would do. They couldn't watch him all the time. He'd make a run for it when he could. "Ya think maybe Lenny here's a keeper?" The man named Earl joined them. He moved around to the side of the bed with Lenny's head. He unzipped his jeans and pulled out his cock. "Maybe. He sure is pretty." The first man grasped Lenny's ankles and lifted them up and back. Earl grabbed them and pulled them back even farther so that Lenny's ass was raised off the bed and exposed. Earl's cock dangled in front of Lenny's mouth. "Take it, boy. I wanna see how good you suck cock." Lenny did as he was told. He didn't have a choice. He was stuck out in the country. No one except Jeff knew where he was, and Jeff had abandoned him. Whatever Earl and the other man had planned, resisting them wouldn't help the situation. It might make them mad, and if nothing else, the two "boys" were proof of how far the two men were willing to go. Better to cooperate and get it over with. Maybe if he kept them happy, they'd let him go. Lenny opened his mouth and licked the head of Earl's cock. He would show Earl just how good a cocksucker he was. Earl, however, wanted no foreplay. He plunged his cock all the way down Lenny's throat and began fucking Lenny's face forcefully. The other man wasn't interested in preliminaries either. He thrust his cock into Lenny with one savage motion. Lenny's body bucked and twisted. Earl grasped his ankles even tighter and pressed down on Lenny's face with his belly. Lenny couldn't breathe. Earl leaned forward over Lenny's body, pushing his groin tight against Lenny's face, covering his nose. Lenny had to gasp for breath each time Earl pulled back a bit. He struggled to free himself, at least enough that he could breathe, but the attempt made the two men hold him down even more tightly. It felt like they were tearing him apart front and rear. Both men quickly escalated their attack, slamming into Lenny in unison. The man fucking Lenny started spanking him. "Yeah, hit the little bitch," said Earl. "Make its ass real tight. Didn't I tell ya it was a good fuck?" It was the roughest fuck Lenny had ever had. It was also one of the most impersonal. Once the two men became aroused, and they became aroused almost immediately, it was like he was just two holes for them. They didn't even talk to him. They talked to each other, and each of them fed on the other's excitement. They were having sex with each other, Lenny thought, and I just happened to be in the middle. They came together. Earl shot his cum down Lenny's throat at the same time that the other man pumped his into Lenny. Both men shouted "fuck" several times when they came. When they calmed down, they leaned forward and kissed. Both of their cocks were still inside Lenny. Both of them pulled out at the same time. "Now that was a good fuck." "Yeah. A good fuck. Gotta remember to thank Jeff. He outdid himself this time." The man slapped Lenny across the ass again. "You may have just earned your boss a bonus." Both men shoved their cocks back inside their jeans and zipped up. "Come on, boy, Let's get those dishes done," said Earl as he headed back toward the kitchen/ Lenny crawled off the bed and limped into the kitchen in a daze. His jaw and ass ached, and something wet was oozing out of him. The kitchen floor was cold. He wanted to ask if he could at least put his socks on. He desperately wanted his clothes. They wouldn't protect him against Earl and the other man, but he needed to do something to reclaim his status as a human being. Earl rinsed a glass in hot water. He upended it and shook the final drops of water out and then held it out to Lenny. A dishtowel hung over the handle on the oven door. Lenny pulled it off and dried the glass. ***** Something had been said. Lenny knew that he had heard something of importance. Earl and the other man had just finished with him. The man who had been fucking him had given his ass a final swat, and then Earl had said something about thanking Jeff. "He outdid himself this time." That was it. More confirmation that Jeff had done this before. Jeff had taken other people to the farm and abandoned them to these two guys. Maybe even the two guys in the bunkhouse. Lenny didn't find it comforting that he was apparently better than the other guys Jeff had supplied. What was Jeff? Some sort of pimp for these two guys? Hadn't he overhead something about money last night? "Good job," said Earl. He patted Lenny on the ass. Lenny snapped back to attention. His mind had been wandering. He had been so worried about his situation that he hadn't realized he was finishing the last plate. "I need to check on something up by the creek. Come on. I'll show you around." "Can I get dressed? I'm cold." "Nah. You'll be all right. We gotta toughen you up, boy. Get you used to being naked. There's a pair of flip-flops by the back door. Put those on. They'll protect your feet. Gene," he called out, "I'm gonna check on the pump. I'm taking Lenny along." From somewhere upstairs, the other man shouted, "OK. I'm leaving for the dump in a few minutes. I'll get some beer on the way back. You need anything else? You got enough cigarettes?" "No. I'm fine. See ya." Earl put a hand on Lenny's shoulder and pushed him toward the back door. "Those," he pointed to a pair of flip-flops. "Put those on. You'll cut your feet if you don't put something on." The path to the creek crossed an overgrown field. Waist-high weeds grew on both sides. The path was too narrow for them to walk abreast. Earl strode ahead, ignoring the dew-laden grasses that brushed against the legs of his jeans. His passage set the grasses in motion, and they rebounded against Lenny's bare legs, clinging to them wetly before sliding off. They were impossible to avoid. Lenny's legs were soon wet from mid-thigh down, and he gave up trying to keep them dry. He cupped his hands in front of his groin and concentrated on keeping the taller ones from striking his cock and balls. His nipples contracted with the cold. He pressed his arms against the sides of his torso in a vain effort to warm himself. He had to get away. He should just turn around and run for it. He wondered if Gene had left already. That would mean only Earl to deal with. He should be able to handle one guy, and he thought he could outrun Earl. Earl was bigger and stronger, but he didn't look like he would be fast on his feet. I can grab my clothes and just keep running, thought Lenny. I'll stop and put them on when I reach the road. His clothes had to be somewhere in the living room. Earl and Gene had probably kicked them into a corner when they tore them off him. It would be a relief to be out of that house and stop worrying about the two strange guys in the bunkhouse and whether Jeff was going to come back to take him out of there. He held back a bit and let the distance between himself and Earl lengthen. He was so intent on making his escape that he didn't watch the path carefully. A thorny branch hit his leg, and he yelped in pain. Earl paused and turned around, "You all right there, boy? We're almost there. It's just a bit further—on the other side of this rise." Earl stepped back to Lenny and put an arm around his shoulder, pulling Lenny in close so that their bodies were pressed together. Earl rubbed his hands over Lenny's body. "You are cold," he said. He pulled off the flannel shirt he was wearing and draped it across Lenny's shoulders. The shirt was damp and reeked of cigarette smoke, and it chafed against Lenny's skin, but it was warm, and he nodded in gratitude. "Thanks," he said. Lenny threaded his arms through the sleeves and buttoned the shirt up. Earl watched him with amusement. "I thought you English boys was used to cold weather. Compared to what you get over there, this must be a sunny day. Where you from in England?" He motioned for Lenny to move ahead of him. Lenny didn't know if it was intentional, but Earl had blocked path back to the house. It was as if he knew that Lenny was planning to escape. Lenny told him the name of his hometown in Kent, and Earl asked him more about his family, remarking at one point, "So your parents are coming to visit next summer. That'll be nice." The questions about his family in England were followed by several questions about his life in Hartford. As they came in sight of the stream, Earl said, "Sounds like you've got a lot of friends. That's good." Except he didn't sound like he thought it was good. Lenny couldn't account for the note of disappointment in Earl's voice. But the questions made Lenny feel better. Earl was trying to relate to him as a person, trying to get to know him. That was good, he figured. It was better than being treated as nothing more than a fuckhole. He was emboldened by Earl's curiosity to try to get some answers himself. "Jeff called your place a farm. What do you grow?" Earl snorted. "I guess you could call it a farm. But Gene and me don't grow nothing. We're more in the business of breeding livestock." "You mean cows, pigs?" Lenny looked around. There were no fields or buildings of the kind he pictured in his mind when he thought of farm animals. Earl laughed. "We're more into two-legged livestock. You saw those two boys back at the house?" "Yeah." Lenny shuddered. Earl's shirt didn't do much to keep out the cold after all. "Well, we're preparing them for sale." "For sale?" "Yeap, it's what Gene and me do." "You're kidding, right?" "No. Scout's honor." Earl held up his right hand with the three middle fingers extended and the thumb and little finger joined across the palm. "I guess Jeff didn't tell you." Lenny giggled nervously. Earl couldn't be serious. He had to be joking. Earl pointed to a grove of trees. "The pump shed's in there. I just need to check on it and make sure it's working right. You can clear away the intake pipe for me." The intake pipe proved to be underwater in a concrete box dug into the bed of the stream. Earl directed as Lenny stuck his hand into the cold water and pulled out a sodden mass of leaves stuck to the wire mesh covering the head of the pipe. When he finished, his fingers were red from the cold. "Wait over there." Earl pointed to a wooden bench alongside one side of the pump shed. "I have to check on the pump. It'll just take me a minute." The bench was damp and rough against Lenny's buttocks. But it was in the sun. Lenny leaned back against the wall and tilted his face toward the warmth. He closed his eyes. It was so quiet. There was no traffic noise at all, just the sound of the creek and the wind blowing the leaves on the trees. They had to be miles away from anything. He thrust his hands under his armpits to warm them. He tried to warm his mind as well, but he couldn't keep himself from thinking about the "livestock" in the bunkhouse. Earl had to be joking, but then there was that obscene absence between the guys' legs. Lenny shuddered. It just couldn't be true. He was imagining things. Things like that didn't happen. The bench gave slightly as Earl sat down beside him. Lenny kept his eyes closed. Maybe if he ignored Earl, he'd wake up from this nightmare. Earl placed a hand on the inside of Lenny's thigh and rubbed it. He squeezed the flesh. "You've got nice legs. What do you do? Jog? Exercise?" "I run on a treadmill at the gym." Earl cupped his hand around Lenny's ball sack and hefted it, as if he were gauging its weight. "You're uncut. I guess that's more common in England than here." Lenny nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak. Earl squeezed harder and then rolled the balls against his palm. His fingers were calloused. "You naturally hairless or do you shave?" "I don't have much hair, but I shave what I do have." Earl pushed his hand under the shirt and found Lenny's left nipple. He pinched it hard, and Lenny gasped in pain. He tried to push away, but Earl grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him back. He pinched the nipple again. "Please don't. That hurts." Lenny trembled. The sun wasn't warming him up. Earl's response was to rub the nipple between his fingers. Ordinarily Lenny would have liked that, but the nipple was sore. Earl took his hand away. He unzipped his jeans and pulled his cock out. The hand on the back of Lenny's neck pushed his head down into Earl's crotch. "Here. Suck me while I smoke a cigar. Gene don't like me smoking them inside the house." Lenny closed his eyes as his lips closed around Earl's cock. Above him he heard the click of Earl's lighter and then smelled the acrid tang of cigar smoke. He tried to shut his mind off and not think about what was happening to him. Earl's cock was soft at first, but it quickly grew hard. Lenny's first thought was to get it over with, and he began bobbing rapidly up and down on Earl's cock. That merited him a slap on the head. "Hey, slow down. What's your hurry? You ain't got nowhere to go. Do it real slow. Just enough to keep me hard." Lenny had to twist his body around so that he was lying on his stomach. The rough wood scraped at his body. He tried to raise himself up, but the hand on his neck pushed his head back down until his face was pressed into Earl. Earl closed his legs together and pushed his groin up. His ball sack prickled against Lenny's face. He began slowly pumping his cock into Lenny's throat. Lenny gagged and tried to pull away. Earl slapped his ass. "Quit that. Suck it. Stop fucking around or I'll give you something to think about." Lenny bit back his tears. Wake up, wake up. I've got to wake up, he thought. Earl took a big drag on his cigar and then blew the smoke toward Lenny. "That's better. Show me what a good little cocksucker you are. There's always demand for a good cocksucker." Lenny tried to appear enthusiastic. The sooner he got Earl to come, he reasoned, the sooner Earl would release him. But Earl had ejaculated only a hour or so before. He was hard, but he wasn't coming any time soon. He finished his cigar and tossed it in the stream. He gave a few more thrusts and then moaned softly. Lenny couldn't tell if Earl had come or not, but the older man patted Lenny on the shoulder and said, "All right. You can stop. We'd better head back. Gene should be home by now." ***** Gene was outside with the two guys from the bunkhouse. They were naked, and Gene was bathing them using a pail of soapy water and a dirty rag. .Stray bits of foam clung to the men's bodies. As Earl and Lenny approached, Gene picked up a garden hose with a nozzle on the end. He twisted the nozzle until the water emerged in a spray and then directed it at the men's bodies. The men stood there passively, moving only when Gene directed them to lift an arm or spread their legs. When he finished, the men just stood there. "They can dry outside. I'll put them back in the bunkhouse later," said Gene. "How's the pump?" "It's good," said Earl. "The kid cleaned out the pipes." "Pipes?" Gene took a closer look at Lenny. "Ah, maybe it can clean out my pipes now. How about it, kid? I'll get you cleaned up and then you can suck me off." The two men laughed, and Earl went into the house. Gene picked up the pail of soapy water and dumped it over Lenny. He used the rag to scrub Lenny down. It hurt and Lenny winced several times in pain. Gene ignored his protests. He grabbed Lenny by the arms and shoved him around so that he could reach all of Lenny's body. When he finished, he rinsed Lenny off. The water was freezing. When Lenny tried to shield his body with his hands, Gene grabbed him again and slapped Lenny across the shoulders. "Boy, I am losing patience with you. Now stand still. You're just making this take longer." When Gene finished, he unzipped. He pointed to a patch of dry ground and said to Lenny, "Over there. Get on your knees." Lenny knelt. He felt defeated. He had sucked Earl off. He might as well do Gene again too. He hardly felt the small stones and stiff grass pushing into his knees. He closed his mouth around Gene's cock and began sucking. "Not so fast. Got something else for you." Gene grasped Lenny by the ears. He thrust his cock further into Lenny's mouth and let loose a stream of piss. "Swallow all of it. I don't want you spilling a drop." Lenny gagged and tore himself away, coughing and spitting. He ran his fingernails over his tongue, trying to scrape Gene's piss from his mouth. Gene walloped him hard across the jaw. The blow sent Lenny spilling onto the ground. He lay on his right side and curled up into the fetal position, his hands cupping his sore jaw. The pain echoed through his skull. Gene pulled Lenny's hands away and then grabbed a fistful of Lenny's hair. He hauled Lenny halfway off the ground and then directed the stream of piss at Lenny's head. When he finished, he shook his cock at Lenny so that the last drops hit him. "Now suck me off," he said. Lenny didn't move. Neither did Gene. Lenny started crying. His situation was hopeless. He was going to end up like the other two boys. He knew it. Gene grabbed him by the hair again and pulled Lenny up until his mouth was at cock height. There was a bead of piss trapped in the slit. Lenny stared at it for a minute and then began sucking. After Gene came, he picked up the hose and sprayed Lenny down. The cold water shocked Lenny again, but he this time he didn't protest or try to avoid it. He knelt on the ground on all fours letting the water drip off him. He hardly noticed when Gene led the other two guys back into the house. He was trembling violently from the cold and the humiliation. But he couldn't get up. Time passed. Earl came out of the house and led him back inside and pushed him into the bunkhouse, closing the door and shutting Lenny in with the other two prisoners. Lenny lay down on the bed assigned to him and pulled the blanket around him. He couldn't stop shivering. He was a dog in a kennel. The men would be back to fix him soon and then he would turn into a zombie like the other two boys. ***** Earl and Gene fucked Lenny again that night and again the next morning. Each time Lenny anticipated that he would be castrated, but each time he was returned to the bunkhouse and locked in. Other than that, they left him and the other two guys alone. Earl and Gene watched a couple of college football games on Saturday and drank a lot of beer. They let the three of them into the kitchen for meals, During dinner the phone rang. Gene answered it and listened for a while. Then he said, "Nah. Be here by noon. Earl talked to him. He's no good for us. He's got too many connections. Family, friends. Somebody would come looking for him. We need someone more isolated, somebody nobody will miss. Don't worry. You'll get your usual fee. Plus we've closed the sale on the other two. So you'll have your cut from them as well." Earl came into the bunkhouse about 11:30 on Sunday morning and gave Lenny his clothes. "Get dressed. Your ride's here." Lenny put his clothes on and went into the front hall of the house. Jeff was waiting for him. He looked angry. Without saying anything to Lenny, he opened the door and pointed at his car. Lenny hurried to the car and got in. He glanced in the side mirror, trying to see Jeff, willing him to hurry up and get them the hell out of there, but all he could see was part of the house. He turned around and looked out the back window. Jeff stood in the doorway chatting with Earl and Gene. The three men were laughing about something. Gene took a piece of paper from the pocket of his shirt and handed it to Jeff, who put it in his wallet. It looked like a check. Then Jeff shook hands with each of them and headed toward the car. On the trip back, Lenny tried several times to get Jeff to talk about the weekend and what he had done, but Jeff answered him in monosyllables. Finally Jeff told him to "shut the fuck up," he wanted to concentrate on his driving. "All the time and money I spent on this bitch," he mumbled under his breath, "and she pisses off my best customers." A few miles later, he said, "Crack open a window. You stink." Jeff drove off as soon as Lenny got out of the car in front of his apartment building. It wasn't until later that Lenny realized that his suitcase was still in Jeff's trunk. He sent Jeff a text about it. Two days later when he came home from work, he found the suitcase just inside his apartment door, and he remembered that Jeff had a set of spare keys to his apartment. He called a locksmith and had both locks changed. He had no desire to see Jeff again. Apparently Jeff felt the same about him. Lenny never heard from Jeff again. ***** Lenny went to work the day after he got back. He thought the familiar routine would help him forget what had happened. But he couldn't. First of all there was a visible reminder. The bruise on his jaw where Gene had struck him was a mixture of ugly red, yellow, and black stains. In the first hour of work alone, he had to explain to a dozen different coworkers that he had stumbled while trying to cross a stream and hit his head on an tree limb as he went down. His ass and throat were sore too. He could pass the hoarse voice off as part of the "accident" to his jaw, but he didn't have a good excuse for why he couldn't sit still for very long. He couldn't claim that he had fallen on his butt as well as his jaw, and he didn't want to admit that he had been reamed raw the past weekend and felt like he had a rasp shoved up his ass. At the weekly staff conference, Lenny looked up from doodling on a pad of paper to find everyone staring at him. He suddenly realized that he had let his mind wander while his boss droned on about the sales figures for the previous week. He was mentally replaying the events at the farm and had groaned out loud. His boss asked if he was feeling OK. He excused himself and went to the bathroom. His face was bright red with shame. He left work, asking the receptionist to tell his boss that he wasn't feeling well. He spent the rest of the day locked in his apartment, with the shades drawn. He didn't turn on the lights. He didn't eat. He didn't watch TV. He just huddled in a ball pressed into a corner of his bedroom. He cried himself to sleep that night. The dream started a few days later. He was back at the farm. The two boys from the bunkhouse watched as Earl and Gene took turns fucking his ass and his mouth. The livestock did not respond. They stood passively by. After both Earl and Gene had come, Earl grabbed his balls, stretching them out, and Gene picked up a knife and began honing it against a leather strop. Lenny woke up screaming. Lenny's jaw gradually healed, and the other physical marks of his weekend at the farm faded. He could sit without squirming, at least physically. Mentally was another matter. He couldn't forget what had happened. For the first month or so, he kept to himself. He went to work and then returned home. When his coworkers invited him to join them for lunch or a drink after work, he used his sore jaw as an excuse. He sat alone in his darkened apartment, imagining that Earl and Gene were coming to get him. He jumped at every noise. He couldn't stop thinking about the weekend and the way he had behaved. What bothered him most was the feeling that he was partly to blame for what had happened. He should have resisted. Instead he had let the men use him the first night because he wanted to get back at Jeff. That didn't excuse what Jeff and the two men had done to him, but it made him complicit. It was no wonder Gene and Earl got the wrong idea. He'd come on to them as this horny play toy just to spite Jeff. He'd paid for that choice, but it had been his choice. He had been so mad at Jeff that he had made a bad decision. And he should have tried to escape. It was the sight of the two castrated "boys" that had paralyzed him. At least he tried to tell himself that. He admitted to himself that maybe that was just an excuse. The thought that maybe deep down he really wanted to be treated the way Gene and Earl had treated him appalled him the first time it popped into his mind, and he drove it away. But it kept coming back. He tried to wall it off in that corner of his mind that he reserved for thoughts he didn't want to think, but it was like a scab that you keep pulling off. You want to see if the sore has healed underneath the scab, but removing it opens the sore back up again. He found himself searching online for pictures of men who looked like Gene and Earl. Physical men, hairy men, big men who weren't models or bodybuilders, men roughened by weather and hard work, scruffy men who wore jeans and flannel shirts and white T-shirts and boxer shorts, who drank cheap beer out of cans and smoked cigars. "Real men." As soon as he thought that, he knew that something had changed. One night a month later, he read the Wikipedia article on castration. It brought back the terror of what he had come to call "that weekend." That night in his dreams, he saw the boys putting their dishes in the sink and turning around. They walked toward him, displaying their mutilated bodies proudly, taunting him. Gene and Earl leered at him as they stroked the boys' groins and ran their hands over the absence between their legs. "We raise livestock," said Earl. "We sell them," said Gene. He woke up then and discovered that he had an erection. Lenny found it increasingly difficult to interact with others. He felt tainted. Sometimes he felt that everyone knew what he had done, and they pretended to sympathize but in reality they despised him for his weakness. His co-worker and friend Eric was the most concerned about Lenny's growing distance. He guessed that something had happened. He didn't pry, but he let Lenny know that he was there if Lenny wanted to talk. Eric grew insistent that Lenny do something. "You've got to get out, man. It doesn't matter what's bothering you. You'll feel better if you have some fun. It's not good to sit all alone and do nothing." Finally, more because he was getting tired of making excuses than because he wanted to, Lenny agreed to go to a bar. The only request he made was that they go to a noisy dance club. Lenny didn't want to talk. The noise levels at Club Est made conversation impossible. It was as crowded as usual on Friday night, and the louder the DJ played the music, the louder everyone talked. The DJ turned the music up even higher to drown them out, and they shouted even louder. That didn't keep Eric from trying to hold a conversation. He started to pull Lenny toward a quieter section of the bar, but Lenny screamed at him, "I want to dance." Lenny abandoned Eric and forced his way through the crowd until he reached the edge of the dance area. He began dancing by himself. The insistent beat of the music and the movements of his arms and legs drowned out the memories of the farm. It was the first time in weeks that he had thought about anything else. Another man appeared in front of him and began matching Lenny's movements. Lenny surrendered to the moment and began dancing with him. The two of them stayed on the dance floor until the DJ took a break. When the music stopped, Lenny's dance partner said, "Hi, I'm Keith. You're a great dancer. Tell me you're not here with someone." Keith was an inch or two shorter than Lenny. He was, Lenny estimated, in his early twenties. His was slim, almost twinkish. He had an open face. Maybe a student, Lenny thought. Keith wasn't threatening. He was about as far from Jeff, not to mention Earl and Gene, as anyone could be. "No, I'm alone. You want to get a drink?" Keith smiled when he heard that Lenny was alone. He shook his head at the offer of a drink. "I'm hot from all this dancing. Do you want to step outside for a minute?" It turned out that Keith lived only a few blocks away. Lenny decided that Eric could fend for himself. He'd find another way to get back to his own apartment. Things went well at first. As long as he and Keith were kissing and touching, everything was fine. But when all the clothes were off and they were lying on Keith's bed, Lenny couldn't get an erection. "Guess I don't excite you," said Keith. He looked disappointed. He wiggled Lenny's cock once more. Lenny was sucking on Keith's cock. Until a second before, he and Keith had been sucking and fingering each other. But when he couldn't get a hard-on, Keith drew back and let Lenny continue to suck him. Something was missing for Lenny. He tried to figure out what was going wrong. A few weeks ago, there wouldn't have been a problem. Usually it didn't matter what the guy was like. As soon as he began sucking, Lenny got a hard-on. He hadn't had a problem with Earl and Gene. Neither one of them had so much as touched Lenny's cock, and his cock had been stiff the entire time they were using him for sex. Even when Gene was pissing on him, he had been erect. They had been rough with him, but they had excited him. "That's better," said Keith. He dived back onto Lenny's cock and began sucking it. Lenny pulled up mental pictures of being with Earl and Gene. How they smelled, how they talked, how they moved in unison, how their cocks felt in his mouth and ass, He grew more and more aroused the longer his mind-camera replayed the weekend on the farm. He had almost forgotten Keith by the time he came. When he thought about the encounter, he was shocked to find how much the memories of that weekend excited him. He didn't want the Farm and what it had to offer. That was how he thought of it now. The Farm. And he was beginning to enjoy the dream. He was disappointed when Earl and Gene deserted him while he slept. That was his last attempt at sex with another person. He found relief in frequent masturbation. When he replayed the events at the Farm, which he did often, he grew excited and his hand found his cock. He liked repeating Earl's and Gene's name. He liked begging them out loud to fuck him. He liked the memories of their cocks in his mouth, in his ass. The dreams grew worse. He began pleading with Earl and Gene to use him, to make him suck them off, to fuck him, to piss on him, to humiliate him, to use their boy cunt. And always the livestock watched. More and more his gaze in the dreams focused on the two boys' groins. Their cocks hung uselessly at the base of their hairless torsos. The missing balls were emphatically present in his mind because of their very absence. He began to understand their passivity. When the unthinkable happens, the mind shuts down. He envied them. They didn't have dreams. They didn't feel humiliated and then rejected as unworthy even of humiliation. They just were what they were. Eunuchs. Dumb castrated oxen. ***** "He's not what we want. He's got too many connections. Friends. Family. People would try to find him if he goes missing." As he was falling asleep one night, he heard Gene saying that one night. The phone had rung Saturday night while they were eating, and Gene had answered it. Gene must have been talking to Jeff, and the "he" Gene was referring to had to be himself. Earl had asked him all those questions on the way to the creek about his family and his life in Hartford. His family and friends had saved him. Lenny wasn't sure whether what he felt about that. It meant, he guessed, that Earl and Gene's objections to him weren't physical. They hadn't rejected him because they didn't like his looks or because he wasn't psychologically right. It was because it wasn't safe to keep him. Keeping him might lead to a visit from the police. He wasn't a street kid who could disappear without being missed. The thought was oddly comforting. Earl and Gene would have taken him on as livestock if he were less connected. He jerked off thinking about them. In the spring, he left Hartfield early one Saturday morning and drove north. He exited the interstate just south of Greenfield and drove west on Route 2. The signs identified it as the Mohawk Trail. When he reached Shelburg Falls, he knew that he had gone too far. They hadn't gone through a town that large. He turned around and drove back. He almost missed the turn. From the direction of Greenfield the road curved away to the north. At night, he wouldn't have realized that they had left Route 2. It would have felt like they were going around a long curve. A few miles later he came to the village of Melston. The road divided. He stopped at the intersection and looked. The road to the left led through what appeared to be the main part of the settlement. The one to the right continued north. There were only a few houses along it. It matched what he remembered of the last place he had seen before they reached the Farm. He drove slowly northward. There wasn't any traffic, and he could take his time. There were no houses along the road. Occasionally a mailbox would appear beside a road leading away into the trees. He had almost given up finding the Farm when the stand of birch appeared on the right side of the road. He stopped the car and got out. The driveway matched what he remembered of that night. There was no name on the mailbox but there was a street number. He copied it down. When he got back to Hartford, he called the address up on Google Maps. The satellite view was detailed enough that he was certain that he found the Farm. That night in his dreams the two boys came to him. He touched their groins. They were so smooth. He sensed they were at peace. They were serene. They didn't have to struggle. They were mindless, docile. The Farm demanded a sacrifice from you before it rewarded you without oblivion. Lenny lay down in bed with the two boys, and their contentment flowed into him. Earl and Gene stood over them, smiling. ***** Lenny planned his disappearance carefully. He didn't know if Earl and Gene would accept that he couldn't be traced, but he would do everything he could to fall off the grid. He arranged to take two weeks of vacation time at work. He told everyone he wanted to see the South. Since coming to Hartford, the only times he had left New England had been to take the train to New York City or to fly to the West Coast. It was time he saw more of the United States. Flying cross country to LA or San Francisco wasn't enough. He had to drive the back roads. That was the way to see the real America. He pestered his friends for advice about the best places to visit. He spent his lunches and breaks at work engaged in discussions with his colleagues of where he should go. In the end he told everyone that he had decided not to commit to a fixed agenda. He would spend the first day driving to Virginia. It would mean a lot of driving, but then he could just go wherever seemed interesting. He would make up his mind each night on the next day's travels. He let his family know that he would be gone. He stopped the mail and paid all his bills. He packed his car and filled it with gas on Friday night. He didn't want any record of a credit card purchase once he left Hartford. He "forgot" to take his phone. When his disappearance was investigated, it would be found in its charger in his apartment. As far as anyone would know, he left very early on Saturday morning for a two-week trip to the South. When he saw the clump of birch trees, the white bark ringed with darker bands, he felt a surge of happiness. The struggle was over. There were no cars in sight. No one knew where he was. He turned into the driveway and drove up to the house. When he turned the car off, the Farm was as silent as he remembered. Lenny stepped out of the car. He removed his clothes and dropped them on the ground. He walked naked up to the front door. Before he reached the steps leading up to the porch, the door opened and Earl stood there. A few seconds later, Gene appeared behind him. Lenny stopped about ten feet away from the house and knelt on the ground. He lowered his head and put his hands behind his back. He saw the shadows of the men approaching him. "Please," he said. A hand appeared in front of his face. He licked it. When the hand motioned him to stand up, he followed the men into the house.