Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 17:35:51 -0500
From: Nails Nelson <nailsb69@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Bagboy, Chap. 11: Bob 2 & Cain

Warning:  This story contains graphic but fictitious descriptions of sex
between consenting adult males, a teenage boy's developing awareness of his
sexual orientation, and thoughts of possible interactions by all
aforementioned males.  If it is illegal to read such stories where you are,
or because of your age, or because your parents forbid it, LEAVE, NOW!  For
those who stay, ENJOY; and please send me comments later.


                               Bob 2 and Cain
                          The Bagboy, Chapter 11
                               by Bob Nelson

We are lost to the world in our kiss when we hear a man clear his throat
and ask in a deep male voice,

"Pardon me -- Mr. Hanson, or Henson?"

We spin around at the first word and see the most squared away State
Trooper either of us has ever seen, in a uniform so sharp you could slice
lunch meat with his trousers' crease!   Nice looking man about mid-40's,
tanned and reddened from life on the highways, very erect posture like he'd
been an MP.  He is staring at us with the most steely gaze imaginable.
Laser eyes.  He could face down a gang of crooks, a nest of rattlers or a
grizzly bear.   Right now I felt my legs getting weak as I tried to get
enough spit into my mouth to let it work.   I dry swallowed again, as he
said,

"Well???"     He gazed at us for what seemed like minutes, then looked down
and wrote something in his Report Book.

Oh, shit!  Are we in trouble, or just me?  I wish I'd been outside Bob's
room, to keep any fallout off him!  I try to begin to answer as his eyes
get even harder and fiercer -- mean --- like he's really pissed off!

I choke and finally reply,

"Yes, I'm Greg Hanson and this is my friend, Bob Nelson who was shot by a
crazy man up behind the Blue Ridge Parkway, yesterday."

"Very good, quick statement!  Thank you.  Did one of you call in to our
emergency number to report it last night,   about 9:48 P.M.?"

"Yes, I did.  My friend was still in the E.R. Operating Room.  Did you get
the man we'd tied to a tree, after he shot us and tied us up?"

"We arrested a man tied to a tree where you said he'd be, but how did you
get loose and tie him up if he had a rifle?"

"His son, I mean step-son, kept him from shooting us, then tied the man
up!"

"Good thing he did, and he knew his knots.  The man was there when we got
there.   We warned him of his rights but he was so busy shouting,
threatening us, and cussing at us that we had enough to put him away for a
few months.  Would either of you make a statement against him?"

"We both will!"  "Sure, You bet!"  we both answer.  Bob continues,

"Did you book him for attempted murder or malicious wounding, or what?

"Neither, and that's why I'm here.  All we've booked him for so far is
resisting arrest, attempted assault upon an officer in the performance of
his duties, threatening two officer's lives, and possible malicious
wounding.  That's plenty to hold him for a while, but it's only your phone
call against his word about who wounded whom.  He charged you both with
kidnapping his son and one of you with maliciously wounding him!  Did one
of you shoot him, twice?  And did you bring his son out of the mountains?
If so, why?  And did he call you names or threatens you, or did any of you
call him names or threaten him, before or after you shot him?"

His gaze is direct, hard and piercing.  Hell, he could drill holes in
granite by staring at it!  Bob and I both move a little farther apart as we
realize this is very serious.    Bob answers,

"He called us about everything a man can call another!  All because he saw
us kiss each other one time -- on the lips ---- standing up ----- with all
our clothes on!"

He heaves a big sigh like he's been keeping it all in and has to say it
quickly before he loses his nerve.   Bob looks down but I keep looking at
the Trooper and continue,

"I took Bob up into the mountains to show him an old, authentic cabin that
belonged to my grandfather.  My father was born there, and so was the man
who shot us, Dad's brother Cain.  Grandpa had to move off the property in
the 1930's when Roosevelt turned the whole area into a National Park and
kicked all the people off, even original settler's families who had
homesteaded back there, like my family.  Grandpa was unhappy, but his son
Cain apparently flipped, claimed that they'd never run him off, that he'd
stay and fight the Army, the revenuers or any other part of the government
that tried to take his land from him.   He claimed my Dad had deserted
their birthright and didn't deserve any of the land.  Dad told me all this
last night, after he and Mom came to get Ralph and me."

"Anyway, my uncle Cain, whom I had never met to my recollection, saw Bob
and me on 'his land,' must have been scaring off or shooting trespassers
for years, and shot us without any warning.  He said we were 'preverts' and
needed to die for being 'God's abomination.'  The bullet went through my
shirt without touching me -- yes, Bob, I found the hole last night -- and
into Bob's side.  We were lucky that Cain didn't move over or closer for a
clearer shot or we might both be dead.  Ralph heard the shot, came to see
if his Daddy had killed some game, and found us tied up.  Cain had some
rope with him and made me tie Bob up while he covered me, then hit me on
the head and while I was groggy tied me up.  He sent Ralph back to their
cabin to get a shotgun to help cover us.  Guess he was going to turn us
loose so it wouldn't look like cold blooded murder, shooting two men tied
to a tree.  When Ralph got back, he pleaded with his father not to shoot
us, and when Cain said he would, Ralph distracted his father.  I won't say
how, but it was dramatic enough that Cain paused, and when he did Ralph
pointed the shotgun at him and told him to untie us. When Cain looked back
and raised the rifle to shoot us, Ralph fired a shot at his father's feet
and ordered him to drop the rifle.  Cain did, and that's when he started
cursing us all, including Ralph, got so violent that he reached down to
pick the rifle up when Ralph fired the second barrel, hitting Cain in the
feet.  Cain hopped back, hollering, then fell to the ground, saying he was
dying.  Ralph knew better, so when he went over to 'help' his father, he
took a heavy stick he'd found.  When his Dad lunged to get Ralph or the
rifle, Ralph hit him on the side of the head and dazed him, grabbed the
rifle, and stepped over to us, holding the rifle on his father while he cut
the ropes that held us.  Then Bob held the shotgun to cover Cain while I
helped Ralph tie him to the tree where we had been tied.   When Cain
recovered, he struggled, cursed, and promised to kill us all, including
Ralph.   I asked Ralph if he wanted to leave the mountains and come home
with me for a while, to be safe, not knowing at the time that Cain was my
uncle, or that he, Ralph might be my cousin.   Only when Cain was cussing
Ralph out did he tell him that he was a bastard.  Ralph's mother had
apparently come down into the hollow where he, Cain, lived, alone and
pregnant, cast out by her family. Cain took her in to do his cooking and
cleaning, and may or may not have married her, but Ralph grew up thinking
they were his natural parents until yesterday.   That's when Ralph decided
he would leave with us."

Now I sag down onto Bob's bed, sitting beside him, but still looking at the
Trooper, who looks even angrier.

"That pisses me off!" he explodes, startling us both.  "You expect me to
believe that pack of lies or fabrications?   It's just your word against
his, and you apparently figured that two against one will give your story
more weight, is that it?  Did you work all the details out so your stories
would match?"

"NO WAY!"   "HELL NO!" we both shout back, "What do you think we did, shot
Bob in his side and then found a man we could tie up and blame for it?
Then kidnap his son to keep you from finding him?" I continue, getting
louder.  "Ralph stayed with me and my folks last night and is here in this
hospital, this morning.  Go ask him!  Or better, yet, DON'T ask him and
don't ask us any more questions!  We want a lawyer and we will NOT talk to
you or anyone else!  Our lawyer will answer any more questions!"

Just as he's about to retort, Nurse Jane barrels past him and whirls to
face him, piercing him with a gaze even more steely than his own.  If his
gaze was a steel drill, hers is a pair of scalpels or surgery lasers!  She
says, in a voice that's more menacing and controlling because she is not
shouting,

"Just WHO do you think you are, coming into My wing of My hospital,
confronting a wounded man and his friend who brought him in last night
for emergency surgery, and accusing them of wounding the man who tried to
kill Mr. Nelson?   You'd better have an answer, Mister, or I will have
you hustled out the door in a heartbeat, and no admittance until and
unless you have a warrant for anyone you want to talk to!  DO I make
myself clear?" She lowers her voice all the way through to end in a low,
intense, barely constrained voice.  Mother Wolf tops Alpha Male!

The Trooper changes from being the top dog to a man in shock, confronted
by this apparition in white.  The Avenging Angel backs down his Alpha Male
persona, and he now looks like a little boy who was swaggering around until
called before the big, mean teacher.  He lowers his head, then looks up at
Nurse Jane who is practically venting steam out her ears as she increases
the intensity of her laser eyes.

"No, Ma'am!  I am not charging them with anything!   This is a technique
they teach us to shock any witness or possible suspect into telling the
truth if they've been lying, or see if they will change their story.  I
hate to do it, but they say I must in a case like this.  I did not and do
not believe they are guilty of anything, and have so indicated in my report
book.  Here, you can see for yourself!  Please!" as he hands his book to
her.

Nurse Jane snorts derisively as she takes it, reads it with a softening
look, then hands it back to him and says,

"That is the most preposterous way to gather evidence I have ever heard of,
and I do not like the way it works!  You have possibly caused Mr. Nelson to
open his surgical incision with all the stress you put him through, and Mr.
Hanson is as stressed.  Wait!  I'm going to check Mr. Nelson's incision.
Sit down and wait right there!" she tells him, pointing to the visitor's
chair in the room.  He meekly sits as she nods her head at me to indicate I
should move aside.  She steps up to Bob's bed, flips the privacy curtain
around us three with a well practiced snap of her wrist, then pulls down
the sheet to check Bob's wound and surgery.   She carefully checks it out,
lifting the bandages in one or two places to see if there is any blood.
Finally satisfied that Bob's injury had not been aggravated, she gives us
each a small smile of reassurance to let us know she is still in charge.
As though there was ever any question!  Then she slowly pulls the privacy
curtain back and again pierces the Trooper with her eyes.

"Well, lucky for you he is not bleeding.   I can't say he's no worse until
we have his vitals at the next check up. Now tell these gentlemen what you
really think, what you wrote in your report book!"

He stands, almost at Parade Rest, and briefly tell us that our stories
confirm what their initial investigation pointed at, discounting all of
Cain's counter charges.  That we are under no suspicion and free to go
anywhere. He asks to see Ralph just to verify that he is down here, out of
the mountains, at his own request -- and safe.  Then he continues,

"I was so angry, no, I said pissed off and I meant it.  Sorry Ma'am"

He nods at Nurse Jane who regally forgives his lapse and bids him to go
on.

"It has always made me so angry to hear of homophobes who berate, harass or
attack any suspected homosexuals, and I become irate if they injure or kill
them!  My little brother came out to me when he was fourteen, the Spring
before he entered High School.  I was about to be a Senior there, and he
was scared.  He'd just realized he was gay a few months before, and was
afraid to admit it to our folks -- even to me, and we were best buddies.
Closer than most brothers, as he'd always idolized me, and that made me
feel good, but also responsible for him.  I'd taught him how to play
baseball, basketball, and how to fish.  Dad worked out of town and didn't
get home until very late Friday, or mid Saturday, on the weekends he did
get home.  Dale began following me around when he was about three, and I
liked it.  He was never a pest, and we got really close.  We still are,
enhanced by his choosing me to come out to.  He was scared of what might
happen to him.  That was right after a gay man had been beaten to death by
three rednecks, who were caught after they bragged about doing it.  One got
an extremely light sentence and one went scot free after turning state's
witness!  It was a warning to all gays to hide, that the police and courts
would not protect them.  I was planning to come into the Hiway Patrol even
then, and had taken Karate, Tai Kwan Do, and learned to box while working
out
to gain strength and flexibility.   Dale had been going with me for a year,
and was starting to develop muscles.   I suggested he focus on boxing, as
when we sparred, he always beat me, even though I had the weight and height
advantage and longer reach.  He was quick!  Still is!   So he began at the
YMCA, right here in Lynchburg.  The boxing coach here is really good and saw
right away that Dale had talent, so took him on as a private student, too.
To make a long story short, Dale improved so much that he won the Virginia
Golden Gloves trophy three years in a row!  The last time, they told him to
keep the trophy, that there was a rule that if any boy ever won it three
times in a row, it was his to keep.  They had a big presentation in
Richmond,
the Governor presenting it to him, and all.

That was the day Dale shocked us all.  I've never been so proud of him as
when he came out publicly on TV, to make a point.  He said he was lucky to
have a big brother and family who accepted him, believed in him, and taught
him how to be tough, to keep from getting beaten up or killed.  Killled for
being gay.  He noted that many gay youth are harassed and endangered for
something they have no choice in,  They are born that way, as he was.   A
great acceptance speech!  Short and to the point.  Dale told me later he'd
decided a month before, when he heard they were going to televise the
award, and had practiced his speech to keep it short and effective.  It
surely was!   So even before the Governor made it mandatory that all state
personnel, especially Law Enforcement and Social Services pass a course in
Sensitivity, I had proudly learned it from my brother. THAT'S why I was so
angry, Ma'am, and gentlemen.  It was certainly not against you men, it was
against a homophobe who almost killed two men whom he saw expressing
affection in what they thought was a safe place in the woods, thinking
they were miles from anyone else.   And I am so glad that you offered Ralph
a safe place, away from that crazy man.  He acted and sounds crazy to us,
too, but realize it is a diagnosis that can only be made by a Psychiatrist,
right Nurse?"

"Right.  We have one on staff here, but you probably have at least one on
retainer to all the Law Agencies."

By now we are all relaxed, fascinated by his story.  Glad that he's the one
they sent out to pick up Cain!  I suddenly realize I've been in here with
Bob for well over an hour and wonder where Ralph is, if he's OK.

I nod toward the Trooper, "Thanks, Nurse Jane for coming in to rescue us,"
but I soften my words with a smile as I turn to the Trooper, "and I am SO
glad they chose you to go out to investigate the shooting and to collect
Cain.   But -- Oh, Ralph!  I've been so torn up with this I forgot him!  Do
you know where he is, Nurse Jane?"

Nurse Jane raises one eyebrow and gives me a half frown, indicating I
should be ashamed of myself for not keeping track of that nice young man,
and says,

"He is sitting in the Nurse's Station, surrounded by all our junior Nurses,
the Nurse's Aides and the CNA's who think he's the cutest, shyest, most
fascinating young man they have seen in years!  He is so polite, but so
naive around women.  Has he had any contact with a girl or woman in the
past few years, that you know of?"

I choke back a guffaw, knowing that it will do them no good to flirt with
Ralph, then catch myself.  From the few things he's told me, he has had NO
contact with girls except possibly one or two much younger girl cousins.
He may not be gay -- just totally inexperienced, responding in a gay way to
a couple of homoerotic episodes that he's witnessed.  I tell Nurse Jane,

"Yes, he is polite, and also very shy.  We only talked a while last night
and this morning, but I think he has had no contact with girls or women for
years.  Maybe none his age.  Should I go rescue him?"

"Don't you dare make a move, Greg Hanson!  Let my girls enjoy a refreshing
and delightful young man -- a real gentleman in all senses of the word.
There ain't many of 'em left, ya know!"

On the last sentence, she hooks a thumb in, where a belt would be, as she
imitates John Wayne or one of his lusty female leads.  We all crack up,
even the State Trooper, who rises and says,

"Well, if it's all right with you, Nurse, I'll go speak privately with Mr.
Ralph Hanson, if that's the name he goes by -- or would you like to be
present?"

"No, Mr. Trooper, I have other duties, but if you don't mind, Mr. Greg
Hanson, who is Ralph's closest relative, should be there."

He nods, I pat Bob's hand, tell Nurse Jane to please check him over for
discharge, and follow the Trooper to the Nurse's Station, where every
eligible young woman in the hospital (and some who aren't eligible) seem to
be flirting with Ralph.  When he sees us coming, he jumps up with a smile
of relief,

"Pardon me, ladies, but I gotta go!  My cousin's friend may be ready to go
home with us."

We get him away from them, find a quiet room, and the Trooper gently asks
Ralph to tell what happened yesterday.  Ralph verifies Bob's and my story,
which satisfies the Trooper who leaves.   I tell Ralph how sorry I am that
I got so involved with the Trooper that I left him buried under that mob.
He smiles at me and says,

"That's all right, Brother Greg.  I kind of liked all those girls and women
buzzing around me like a swarm of bees around the only flower in the
meadow!  It's the first time any girls or women acted intereste in me."

I smile and wonder -- which way does this boy man lean?  Is he one of us,
or bisexual?   Who cares?  It's his life and his to try out all the joys of
life.   Arms linked at the elbows, we laugh and relax as we head back to
pick up Bob.   Now all I have to worry about is how and whether to come out
to my folks, and when, if ever, to tell them that Bob and I want to be
lovers.   Just a few little clouds on the horizon ~ ~ ~

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter.  Thanks for your patience.
This chapter raises possibilities, purposely.  Tell me what you like, don't
like, or think about it, so far.  Some of my readers have said their
browsers can't handle html or hypertext.  Some can't even log on here and
join.  Write me at NailsB69@hotmail.com -- and come join us in Gay Vikings,
my website at http://communities.msn.com/GayVikings It's private to keep
out those under 18, so you have to apply to join.  I am going to refuse
entry to anyone who does not put a reason to join, followed by at least a
brief profile of where they live, their age, and some indication of their
sexuality.  ALL are welcome, but we want INVOLVED, ACTIVE members there!!