Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 12:38:24 -0400
From: Jake Preston <jemtling@gmail.com>
Subject: Psychic Detective 32

Psychic Detective 32
By: Jake Preston

This is a work of erotic gay fiction, intended for readers who enjoy a
murder mystery in which fully developed characters interact sexually and in
other ways. Their sexual encounters are sometimes romantic, sometimes
recreational, sometimes spiritual, and almost always described explicitly.
My attention is equally divided between narrative, character development,
and sex scenes. If you don't care for this combination, there are many
other excellent "nifty" stories to choose from. And remember that while
nifty stories are free, maintaining a website is not. Please think about
donating at http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html

Writing is usually a solitary avocation, but not necessarily so on
nifty.org, where a longer story appears in installments. If my characters
and my story grab your attention, you can always intervene with suggestions
for improvements. All sincere comments will get a response!

Jake, at jemtling@gmail.com


       *  *  *  *  *  *


Chapter 32
The Papantla Acrobat


	Calvin was disappointed when Jack told him he couldn't go to Mexico
with him. It was their first lovers' quarrel. "Göran doesn't want
Jésus to come, either," Jack said. "It'll be too dangerous, but we need
a trustworthy guide who speaks Spanish." Calvin extracted a promise from
Jack that they would go to Yucatán together for Christmas.

	So it was Jack, Göran, and Jésus who went to Mexico. If
you've never been to Mexico for Holy Week, be warned that this is when
every family in the country goes on vacation at the same time. It's
essential to organize transport and accommodation in advance. Jésus knew
this and reserved rooms in an Airport hotel, in Mérida, and in a remote
villa midway between Tulum and the Belize border. He couldn't get a flight
from Mexico City to Mérida, so they would have to ride a Pullman bus for
that part of the journey.

      The threesome arrived three days prior to Holy Week and toured the
Palace of Arts in the city center, and the Anthropology Museum, and art
museums nearby, which required transferring to three different trains on
the Metro. Jésus taught Göran and Jack how to navigate the color-
coded train routes. Memorizing Spanish place-names was the hardest part,
but during their Metro adventures they saw thousands of Mexicans, not an
overweight person among them, and so many beautiful men that Göran and
Jack thought they were in pornutopia. Göran stood out as an obvious
American, except later in Yucatán where people assumed he was
German. The Mexicans who interacted with them decided that Jack and
Jésus must be American, too, and offered friendly advice about
restaurants and bars.

	At the Anthropology Museum, they spent time at an Aztec exhibit
illustrating the practice of heart-sacrifice. A priest would drive a knife
into the victim's left armpit and force his fist through the opening. He'd
withdraw holding a throbbing human heart. "I sense the presence of Albino,"
Göran said. "He's not here now, but he's been here recently." Jack
preferred their time at the Museum of Contemporary Art, reputed to be the
best of its kind in the world.

	In Mérida they stayed at Juan Carlos Hotel, in a suite with a
sitting-room and a bedroom with a balcony overlooking Town Square, where
every evening (during Holy Week) was a carnival of mariachi music, comic
skits, and acrobatic performances. Juan Carlos is a fine hotel in the grand
colonial style, with impeccable service and a traditional Mexican buffet-
breakfast included in the price of the room. Göran and Jack loved the
setting. Proximity to Town Square was its greatest advantage. They watched
from the balcony while a mariachi-band performed 'Guantanamera, guajita
guantanamera' with Cuban verses by José Marti. When the mariachis
performed an extended Veracruz version of 'Para bailar la bamba' and people
started dancing, Göran, Jack, and Jésus descended to mingle with the
crowd and rub elbows with beautiful méxicanos. On the opposite side of
the Square, a dramatic dance-troupe performed an alternate history of
Mexico in which Hernán Cortés fell in love with old Moctezuma and
ended up marrying his daughter.

	"We've got to get ourselves one of those méxicanos," Jack
declared. "Our visit to Yucatán won't be complete without one." They
could have picked a hustler or a horny 'nativo', but when Jack saw the
troupe of six acrobats- four men and two ladies- performing mock courtships
and combats, on fourteen-foot-high stilts, Jack said he wanted one of those
'acrobat machos'.

	"If you're going to be so picky, you'll spend the night alone,"
Göran said.

	"Maybe not," Jésus said. "I saw one of the acrobats looking at
Göran from the height of his fourteen-foot pole. We've got at shot of
getting his attention if Göran takes the lead."

	Jésus huddled with Göran and point out the acrobat who seemed
to be interested. When the acrobat looked their way again, Göran
waved. After the acrobatic performance, Göran sat between Jack and
Jésus on the ledge of a fountain in the center of Town Square. They
waited for almost an hour, and were about to give up, when the acrobat
approached them cautiously, wearing civilian clothes. Göran and Jack
beamed and smiled. The acrobat dropped his cautious guard. "Americano?" he
asked.

	"Göran Svenson, from Minnesota, USA," Göran said, and shook
his hand. "This is Jack Jackson, from South Dakota," he said, and Jack
shook his hand.

	"Sou Dakoto?" the acrobat repeated, haltingly.

	"Dakota du sud," Jésus interpolated, and introduced himself to
the acrobat.

	"Pablo Labrador Rivera," the acrobat said, and shook hands a second
time with all three American visitors. He beamed when he learned that Jack
was Lakota. "My father is Aztec," he said, "and my mother is half-Maya,
which makes me three-quarters Indian."

	To indicate that Göran might be available, Jésus held Jack's
hand and invited Pablo to join them for tequila in the hotel bar. They sat
at a booth with Pablo and Göran facing Jack and Jésus. Thanks to
Jésus's translations, the four men were able to conduct a
conversation. Göran began, by relating highlights of his life on the
farm, and as a detective in Minnesota. Jésus followed with the story of
his life as a farm-worker on the West Coast, and how he became a bartender
in Superior. Jack told about his life on the Res in South Dakota. Pablo
said that he had been a farm-boy like Göran. He grew up as on a farm
near Veracruz, until he became an acrobat in Papantla, a small town a few
miles from Veracruz.

	"You have, ah... what is 'nieve,... nevada'?" Pablo asked Jésus.

	"Snow... snowfall."

	"You have snow in Minnesota?" Pablo asked Göran.

	"Mucho nevada," Göran replied.

	"I like to see snow," Pablo said.

	"That can be arranged," Göran said. "The Ojibwe Nation could
sponsor a tour of his acrobatic troupe in the North Country next winter.

	Growing up different was something the four men had in common. They
took turns telling stories about that. Jack started the story-swap. He
parents were proudly Lakota, and taught him the language by using it all
the time at home, he said. He spoke Lakota at school whenever he could, and
got scolded or spanked by teachers who overheard him. That made him
defiantly Lakota- a source of trouble with teachers and quarrels with
students whose folks had told them to stop talking Lakota. Jack sensed that
he was different from other boys in his class, but his endless defiance
about language presented itself as the obvious cause- to him and to
others. By the time that he realized that same-sex attraction was the real
cause of his 'difference', he had already been toughened by class bullies,
and tore into them whenever he caught them beating up some kid who was
smaller or weaker. Jack had always been presentable (he didn't want to say
handsome), but he never wanted to be 'popular'- especially not in high
school, where being popular meant that he'd have to go on dates with girls-
so he sided with underdogs and nerds whenever he could. It masked the fact
that he was gay.

	"One night after a beating I got from my father, I spent a night in
some woods by the Snake River. My younger brother brought me my clothes and
some money so I could run away from home," Jésus said. "I traveled east,
hiding in boxcars on trains. One night heading east on the tracks toward
Minot, North Dakota, I lost my cherry to another hobo who said it wouldn't
hurt but it did. Then he got controlling, especially at night, even though
I didn't want to get fucked anymore. When the train stopped in Ashawa, I
ran away from the hobo and hid in a mountain of sawdust on the other side
of the Little Fork River. I hitchhiked to Superior and got a ride on a
logging truck. The trucker was a gruff red-haired Irishman, but he was
kind. I rode all the way to the harbor with him. Later he took me to a
homeless shelter where I lived until a found a job."

	"Redman," Göran said.

	"How could you know that?" Jésus asked, and for Pablo's benefit:
-żCómo podría saberlo?

	"Maybe sometimes you talk in your sleep," Göran kidded. - A
veces tal vez usted habla en su sueńo, Jésus said. Pablo laughed.

	Göran grew up on a farm as an only child, so he didn't have a
brother or sister to serve as a confidante. "When I was a child I was small
for my age, believe it or not," he said. "From sixth grade through ninth
grade every day in the fall, the boys in our class were required to play
touch football during recess. I remember that two boys were hotshots at
dodging and throwing the football, and I was on the opposite end of the
spectrum, completely useless to whatever team I was on, so of course I
hated recess. It was always team sports. In winter it was basketball, which
was worse, because my ineptness was obvious to everyone. What I hated even
more was the time in the shower and the locker room later. I wasn't
bullied, just ignored. In seventh grade my algebra teacher was also my gym
teacher- Mr. Fortune. I wanted to get out of playing basketball, so one day
I put a bandage on my hand and told Mr. Fortune that I had a cut. He sent
me to the library for gym period. The next day I didn't have a bandage, and
Mr. Fortune asked to see my hand, which or course had no sign of injury. I
was mortified. Mr. Fortune knew my Dad, but he must not have told him
anything about it, since that was the last time I ever heard about it.
After school, I was a good ice skater, and swimmer, and a daring bicyclist,
but the only school sports were team sports, which, we were told, build
character. Even as a kid I knew that wasn't true. I was a late
bloomer. When I was fifteen I grew like a weed, and maybe I would have
started to fit in, but I didn't, because that's when I realized that I was
gay and that's the reason why I always felt different. When I was in
twelfth grade, Ashawa High School started a hockey team for the first time,
and I made the team. Some kids from the Iron Range started a GLBT support
group, and included kids from Ashawa and Orr. Most often we met at the
Wayward Island Resort. Twelfth grade was the only year in school when I
wasn't miserable."

	"What about you, Pablo? What's your story?" Jack asked. Jésus:
-żY tú, Pablo? żCuál es tu historia?

	Pablo said his story was like Göran's- he was no good in team
sports at school, which in Mexico meant fútbol, but out of school he
excelled in gymnastics. At age fifteen he was given a chance to learn
acrobatics, and started performing on stilts three years later. But Pablo
was reluctant to tell his new friends about childhood memories. -Demasiado
embarazoso, he said, "It's too embarrassing."

	"A little tequila courage," Jésus said, and gestured for Pablo
to take a swig directly from the bottle. -Un poco de valor de tequila.

      -No puedo recorder un momento en que no me atraen los hombres, Pablo
continued - "I can't remember a time when I didn't know I was attracted to
men." -Yo tenía una pequeńa collection de libros de historietas sobre
de el Zorro, el Robin Hood de California, y so enamoró de sus
nalgas. Esa fue mi primera obsession infancia - "I had a collection of
comic books about Zorro, the Robin Hood of California, and I fell in love
with his butt. That was my earliest childhood obsession." -Q'es una
tontéria....

	"It's not silly, no tontéria," Göran said.

      "No tonto," Jésus said.

      Göran ignored his correction and continued: "Zorro was an
excellent selection, 'Zorro el zorro'"-he meant 'Zorro the Fox'.

	-Cuandro era adolescente aprendi cómo ser iniel a mí mismo,
Pablo continued. "As a teenager I learned to be untrue to myself."
-Fanfarronear grandilocuente, gestos audaces, bromas reproducer en un
professor homosexual. Jésus nodded sympathetically at Pablo's confession
and translated, "Grand braggings, bold gestures, practical jokes played on
a gay teacher." -He aprendido a fingir ser otra persona. "I learned how to
fake being someone else."  -Dos de mis tías se quejaron a mi madre que
mis pantalones estaban demasiado apretadas.  Pantalones flojos podrían
curar mi homosexualidad. Una de las tías querían que me case con mi
primo segundo. 'Un hombre es para la respetabilidad y la regeneración, o
que no debería existir en absoluto', dijo. 'Raquel tiene el rostro de
una mula ciervo', dijo mi madre, en mi defensa.  "Two of my aunts
complained to my mother that my trousers were too tight. Loose trousers
would cure my homosexuality. One of the aunts wanted me to marry my second
cousin. 'A man is for respectability and regeneration, or he shouldn't
exist at all', she said. 'Raquel has the face of a mule-deer', my mother
said, in my defense." -He aprendido a fingir no fingir. "I learned how to
fake that I wasn't faking."  -Detrás de la fachada de fingir y fingir
que no estaba fingiendos, Detrás del espejo de la falsedad no había
nada. "Behind the façade of faking and faking that I wasn't faking,
behind the mirror of fakery there was nothing." -Me convertí en Pablo
Fachada, paro esta noche, mis amigos, voy a ser yo mismo. "I turned into
Pablo Fachada, Pablo the Façade, but tonight, my friends, I will be
myself."

      In an extravagant gesture, he kissed Göran on the lips.

      That night, Pablo fucked Göran from behind the way he liked it,
having never outgrown his childhood obsession with Zorro. No longer Pablo
Fachada, he was Pablo Rivera. Göran called him 'Paul Revere', his
midnight rider. 'Jinete de noche', Jésus translated, giving Pablo
profound satisfaction in mounting his white stallion. The second time they
fucked face to face, the way Göran wanted it. Sometimes the stallion
gets to decide. Taking their cue from the neighboring bed, Jésus and
Jack imitated their man-to-man action in parallel play.