Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:11:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: D H <dhthewriter@yahoo.com>
Subject: Homefront Prologues and Chapter 1

Dearest Readers!!!

Hey guys and gals!  I'm sorry that it's been a while since y'all have read
anything of mine, but I'm hoping that this makes up for it a little bit!
It's a story that I started working on a WHILE ago that, last summer,
finally came to life, and I am now proud to place it onto your virtual
shelves next to Senator's Son, All Good Things..., The Prince, Paradise,
and Fame.

For anyone who knows my other works, you will notice that my email address
has changed AGAIN.  It's dhthewriter@yahoo.com.  Also, a while back, I
deleted my yahoo! Group, but I've created another one.  The address is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhthewriter.  All my other stories will be
there soon enough, as will all the chapters of Homefront as I publish them
here, to Nifty.

I have never considered my stories erotic, but, in accordance with Nifty's
request, I will say that if you're under the legal age in your area or are
offended by homosexuals or homosexuality, please click the little "x" at
the top (or the little red button in the upper left corner if you're on a
mac.)

Happy Reading!
David :)



Homefront
Prologue

Part I - Matt

	The family of Daniel Landry Sr., along with a few other people
whose presence Dan had requested, had assembled at the Law Offices of Jim
Bentley for the opening of his will.  As he'd requested, they waited ten
days before assembling to break the seal that he'd placed on the document
himself and to divide up an estate that was valued at around 60 million
dollars.  His family was sitting around a long conference table, quietly
waiting on everything to start, while friends and a couple of others were
seated in chairs around the wall.

	To the right side of the head of the table was Dan's son, Daniel
Landry, Jr., or Junior as he was known to those close to the family.  Next
to him was his wife, Miranda, and their twin sons, Rhett and Steven.
Dressed in very casual clothing, the adults looked more like they were
ready to go on vacation than to be respectful of the man that had only days
before, been fighting for every single breath he took.  The kids sat there,
playing with the Blackberrys that their father had purchased for them at
some point between the funeral and that otherwise blissful Tuesday morning
in June, 2007.

	At the far end of the table was Dan's sister, Heloise, and husband
number five, George.  They were an odd couple of sorts, as Heloise was a
good twenty years his senior.  Her bright red hair stood out as she wore
some hideous blouse that was a cream color with red-brown flowers all over
it.  His salt-and-pepper hair was almost seemed like a complement to the
black suit that he'd worn that day.  No one could figure out what he saw in
her, but everyone knew what she saw in him.  He had money, and money, in
her opinion, was paramount to everything else.

	On the left side of the table, close to the head, was Dan's
daughter, Linda Harper.  Two seats away from her was her husband, Ron, and
between them was their only child, a son they'd named after their fathers,
Matthew Daniel.  Being that Ron had come from work and that he was planning
to go back, he was dressed in a nice, button down shirt and some Carhartt
pants.  Linda had a couple of patients to see that afternoon, and, thusly,
was dressed as a doctor should dress.  Matthew was in jeans, like his
cousins, but also wore a nice, button-down shirt and some respectable
shoes.  Unlike the two of them, though, Matthew had been fighting all
morning with his emotions.  At one point, he'd gotten angry, but then he'd
gotten sad.  In that moment, he was sort of just there, numb and pensive,
sitting looking toward the palm of his hands.

	Behind them were sitting a few other people that had always been
very important to Dan.  Linda's best friend, Becky, was sitting just behind
her, there more to support the Harpers than anything else.  She'd never
been able to stand Junior or his people, and Heloise had always treated her
as though she were beneath her.  Linda and her parents, Dan and his wife
Virginia, who'd passed away years before, made her feel like she was their
other daughter.  Her son, Seth, who was more like a brother than just
Matt's best friend, was treated like a grandson by Dan, who'd known Becky's
dad from their days as Marines fighting in the Pacific during World War II.
Seth himself was sitting beside her, right behind Matt.  His father, Jimmy,
who was also Dan's attorney and had been for years, was out of the room
getting things ready for the morning.

	There were several representatives from Parsons University that
were there as well.  Parsons, the university around which the town of
Eudora, Mississippi, itself was built, had always been important to Dan.
It's where four generations of men had gone to college before he got home
from the War and went through college and Law School.  It was where both of
his children had gone, as well as Ron.  Matt was between his junior and
senior years.  Miranda had gone to East Mississippi University, Parsons'
arch rival in all academic and athletic circles, which was the first thing
that Dan had always held against her.  Their kids had chosen to go to
Auburn, for some reason that escaped the most loyal Patriots fans.

	The current mayor of Eudora was also there, as were the Chief of
Police and one of the judges with whom Dan had served in the 1980s.  They
were there more as witnesses to the goings on than anything else.

	At 11:03, on the nose, Jimmy walked into the room carrying a huge
stack of papers.  One of his assistants came into the room and fired up a
computer as Jimmy got things started.  "Thank you all for coming.
Mr. Landry requested this meeting prior to his death and that all of the
people mentioned in his will be present at the proceedings.  I knew a few
of you have come a little ways to get here, and I appreciate your
cooperation.  Before we begin today, I would like to again express my
condolences for your loss.  Mr. Landry was always a powerful man, and I had
immense respect for him both as a jurist and as a human being.

	"Mr. Landry," Jimmy continued, "recorded a video for you all
several months ago.  He said that there were some things that he needed to
say to each of you, but he didn't want to say them until after he... until
after he passed."  Jimmy, who'd joined the law firm of Landry and Smith
after finishing law school, had inherited half the firm from in his
father-in-law's will some time before.  When Dan retired, he sold the
remaining half to Jimmy, under the instructions that he would immediately
change the name, a stipulation with which he complied.  Dan and Bill,
Becky's father, had taught him a lot of things about the law, lessons that
he'd always carried with him.

	"Ready," his assistant said after a moment.  Jimmy then walked
around the left side of the table to grab a remote for the projector as the
assistant lowered the screen onto which the recording would be broadcast.
At first it was a blue screen, and then showed the desktop of the computer
to which it was connected.  The media player was up and ready, but the
recording hadn't yet started.

	"Are there any questions?" Jimmy asked.  When there was no
response, Jimmy nodded his head and the assistant started the video.

	"Well," Dan said through the recording.  His voice was still deep
and powerful, just as Matt had always remembered it.  "I guess if y'all are
watching this that it means that I have passed.  I have recorded this video
for two reasons.  The first is so that I can say some things that you all
need to hear right now, and the second is to give instructions on how the
estate is to be divided among you.

	"To start off, I would like to say that I have lived a long life.
These eighty-four years have been filled with good times and bad, memories,
some of which I will carry to my grave.  For everything that I've done, I
have but one regret, that I didn't listen to the innocent wisdom of a
five-year-old boy who, years ago, told me that I needed to quit smoking.
He said that it was a nasty habit that would one day kill me, and the mass
that has fused into the wall of my left lung is proof that he was right,"
Dan said as Matt could remember the day that he came home from school,
telling his grandfather about what he'd learned that day about the dangers
of smoking.  "Kid," Dan said a second later, making Matthew look up at the
screen, "I should have listened to you, and I'm sorry for not doing better
with it."  "Kid" was the name that Dan had given him when he was born.
Matt was the first of Dan's three grandchildren, preceding his cousins by
two years.  Rhett and Steven didn't have nicknames, though, but Seth was
called "Boy".

	"So let's get this started," Dan mentioned again on the screen
before taking a sheet of paper from which he would be reading directly for
a moment.  "My name is Daniel Cornelius Landry, Sr., and I have created
this video, with the assistance of Jimmy Bentley, as my Last Will and
Testament.  Being of sound mind, and relatively sound body, I am recording
this on Monday, the twelfth day of March, 2007.

	"To my sister, Heloise
Landry-Bates-Morrison-Jenkins-Reynolds-Hoover and her husband, George
Hoover.  Sister," he said, putting the paper down and looking at the
camera, "in these past few years since Virginia passed, you and I haven't
spoken often.  For that, I am sorry.  I promised father, when he died, that
I would take care of you, and from that point, I have been so angry with
you that I couldn't bear to see you, to converse with you, or to have
anything to do with you, and in that, I have not fulfilled my promise to
him.  With that, though, you never have really done anything to help
yourself.  For years, every time I turned around, you were there, wanting
something, asking for something, and while I helped you out as much as I
could, I find myself torn at this moment.  I know that if I leave you
money, that you blow through it, just as you've always done.  So with that,
I will comply with Dad's request, and I will continue to help you out, even
though I honestly don't think you deserve it.  In the will, I have
instructed the trustee of my living trust, to pay off any mortgages that
you currently have outstanding.  You will provide him, within ten days, a
statement from your mortgage holder showing a payoff balance.  He will then
secure a cashier's check for the balance and send it directly to the
lender.  This way, I can absolve myself of whatever guilt I have and keep
you from having the cash in your hands directly.

	"To my son, Daniel Landry, Jr.  Son, I have tried my best in life
to teach you things that will help you succeed, but you, like your aunt,
have taken every opportunity afforded you in life and squandered it away.
I am proud of how hard you worked toward your education, but there's little
more than that.  You chose a partner that only married you, and has only
stayed with you, for this very day," Dan noted as everyone looked at
Miranda and Junior, both of whom were fuming at the comment.  "But you are
my son, and I've decided to leave the two of you a cash sum totally one
million dollars.  Do with it what you want to, but keep in mind that it's
the very last money that you will ever get from me.  Miranda... It's common
knowledge that I've never liked you, but I have tolerated you for my son's
sake.  I think it's horrible how you've treated him over the years, as it
was painfully obvious from the first time we met that you were only after
him for what you thought you could get out of him and out of our family.  I
always felt that he deserved better than you, to be completely honest, but
you did give him two sons, and hopefully he'll do good by them.

	"To my grandsons, Rhett and Steven Landry.  Guys, I hate the fact
that I didn't get to know you two better.  I'm sure that there are things
that I could have learned from you two, and I know that there are things
that you could have learned from me.  It was your parents' decision,
though, to keep y'all away when you were younger, and there's not much I
can do about that now.  I leave to y'all, though, two trust accounts that
were opened when you were born.  Each was opened with $100,000 dollars, and
they've not been touched, so the interest should be a nice little chunk of
change for the two of you to get started in life once you finish college.
Don't waste it, though, would be my final advice to you.  Sure, spend some
of it on yourself, but invest it in something worthwhile to help it grow a
bit more."  On the video, Dan took a deep breath.

	"Several years ago, I created a scholarship at Parsons to help
servicemen and women to help finance their education after getting out of
whatever branch they were in.  Against my wishes, the school called it the
Daniel Landry Award for Service to America.  I am honored by it, though,
and I leave the school a total of $5,000,000 dollars to help expand the
program that, to date, has helped nearly 1,000 young men and women finance
their educations.  I hope that it will be used to help more people,
especially those who are coming home from fighting wars abroad with which I
can honestly say I do not agree.  This isn't the time to express my
political views, though.

	"To my goddaughter, Rebecca Bentley.  Becky, I am assuming that, in
the days since my passing, you have been there a lot for Linda and Ron.  I
would like to take this moment to thank you very much.  I would also like
to leave you a gift of $100,000 dollars, which is to be used however you
see fit.  I think, though, that you and your husband need to take a long,
romantic vacation to someplace tropical, have a couple of drinks in my
memory, and then do whatever it is the two of you do when Seth's not around
to screw it up," he smiled as Becky looked at Seth, patting his leg for a
moment as both of them understood Dan's joke.

	"And speaking of my fourth grandson... Boy.  I respect you more
than you will ever know.  You have a very kind soul and a loving, generous
heart.  While most people would have considered you the kind of guy that
would be all about himself, it does me good to know that you have been
willing, on more than one occasion, to go out into the world and help
people for the sake of helping people."  Dan smiled.  "I know that people
have told you this before, but you are exactly like your grandfather in so
many ways.  With all this being said, I would like to make a couple of
gifts to you as well.  First, there is a building on the Square that your
grandfather owned for the longest time but lost to me in a poker bet.  It's
the building right next to the EudoraBank that's got the sports store in
it.  I am leaving you that building, to honor your grandfather more than
anything else.  I'm also leaving you $250,000, cash.  The stipulation,
though, is that you take Matt away from Eudora for a couple of weeks.  And
while you're gone, make sure he gets laid!" Dan joked as Seth reached up
and patted Matt's shoulder.  Matt was smiling a little bit at that point,
for it was almost like his grandfather was right there, being as pervy as
he'd always been.

	"To my daughter, Linda Harper.  To make things fair between you and
your brother, I am leaving you, Princess, a million dollars.  The thing
about it is, though, that I want you to go out, as soon as the check
clears, and buy yourself a new car.  That Volvo you've been driving since
Matt was in Pampers needs to be retired.  Maybe sell it to somebody that
can restore and get some more use out of it, but get rid of it.  Ron, make
sure she gets something that's befitting a doctor of her caliber and that's
nothing practical.  I'm thinking something like a huge SUV.

	"And speaking of Ron... Unlike my other child-in-law, I have the
most respect for you.  I remember the day we met, you were a student at
Parsons, struggling to make ends meet, and you didn't have the money to pay
rent on time.  Rather than coming in to ask for an extension, though, you
came to me, explained the situation, and then asked for a job to help pay
off your obligation to me.  Never before that and then never after that
have I experienced a tenant asking me for a job rather than an extension.
That's why I hired you, and that's why I had no problem when you and Linda
wanted to start dating.  You're a hard worker and a great man, Ron, and I
am honored that you came into my life.  Princess," he said, speaking to
Linda directly, "I was a little upset when you came to me and said that you
didn't want to be a lawyer.  I'd always assumed that, of my two children,
you would be the one to follow in my footsteps.  You became an amazing
doctor, though, honey, and none of the old men at the VFW can hold a candle
to me when it comes to the amazing things that our children had done.  You
worked to pay for your own education; you opened your own practice using a
small building that you made me rent to you for market price; you, with
Ron's help, have raised an amazing son who, to this day, makes me just as
proud as you always have."  He stopped for a second to catch his composure
before continuing.  Something about talking about Linda and Matt was making
him more emotional than he normally was.

	"That still leaves, though, the bulk of my estate.  Included in it
are my home on South Cossart, the location from which I'm recording this
video today, my residential property management company, Landry Properties
LLC, my construction company, Landry Construction LLC, and my commercial
property company, Landry Commercial LLC."  Dan smiled.  "I got real
original with the names, didn't I?" he laughed as everyone smiled.  "The
remainder of my estate, though, I leave to my grandson, Matthew Daniel
Harper.  All the money, the insurance policies that are in both my name and
the name of my late wife Virginia, all the offices, apartments, rental
homes, my home and all its contents, including the garage and all its
contents, all the strip malls, and all the raw property that has yet to be
developed or preserved.

	"Kid," he continued, "I can think of no better person than you to
leave all this to.  You amaze me at every turn, and I know that you will
know what to do with it all.  I believe that you, your father, and your
mother, will continue to make our family name bling with excellence and
quality, as it always has.  Like your mother, though, that car's got to go.
I know you bought it yourself, with money that you saved working during
high school, but it's 2007, and you've got money.  Buy yourself something
nice."

	Dan stopped again as Matt looked around to see that all the eyes in
the room were on him.  Jimmy and Ron had been the only two people at that
point who knew what the codicils of the trust contained, but neither of
them had said anything about it.  Junior was looking as though he could
come right across and take him out, for he, along with his wife and kids,
felt that the lion's share of the estate should go to them because they
shared the man's name.  They knew, though, that there was nothing they
could do, as Dan was a brilliant attorney who knew what he was doing when
he set up the living trust that the will simply dissolved.  What they
didn't know, though, was that Matt would have given it all up if there was
any way in the world that it could bring that old man back for just one
more day.

	For Matt, Dan had been more than he was to anyone else.  Not even
his parents could understand the bond that existed between Matt and the man
he called `Pa'.  It was that superhero of a man who'd taught Matt how to
fish and hunt, at the same time how to respect nature for its own sake.
He'd taught Matt that everyone was equal, regardless of any difference they
might have with Matt.  He let Matt develop his own ideas, though, on every
single topic.  Dan openly respected his religious views, and defended his
rights as a gay man in the South.  It was Dan that told him never to let
anyone bring him down, for usually those people who had a problem with his
sexuality were those who weren't yet comfortable enough in theirs.

	In the video, Dan spoke to Matt directly longer than he had anyone
else.  He thanked him for allowing him to be a part of his life; he thanked
him for a time, just after Virginia passed away when Matt was six or so,
when part of his nightly routine included showering, brushing his teeth,
and calling Pa to make sure that he'd done the same.  He fondly recalled
when Matt told him, after spending a day at work when he was a judge in
Welty County's criminal court, that the law was a "flaming pile of shit", a
sentiment with which he agreed to that day.  He was honored that Matt felt
comfortable enough to come out to him when he was a freshman in high school
and that Matt required all the people he dated to meet him and attain his
approval.

	As the video finished, the assistant stopped playback and raised
the screen as Jimmy turned the projector off.  With silence in the room,
Jimmy walked back to the head of the table and distributed paperwork to all
those that were present.  Junior and his crew left immediately, as did
Heloise and George.  The people from the University left a moment later,
after talking to those who remained for a moment.

	Almost with reluctance, they had to go about their days.  Becky had
a class to teach on the campus of Parsons; Linda had to go into her office.
Matt and Ron stayed behind for a moment, though, as there were questions
that Ron had to ask in an effort to help Matt get through everything from a
legal perspective.  Seth stood with Matt as the latter of the two tried to
concentrate on what was being said.

	When all was done, Matt went out into the lobby with Seth while
they waited on Ron and Jimmy, who were a couple of minutes behind them.
They made plans that night before Matt and Ron went to lunch to talk about
a lot of things that were on his mind.  That night, as expected, Seth and
Matt drank themselves into oblivion.  Matt had a lot that he didn't want on
his mind, and Seth was the kind of friend that went along with it so that
Matt wouldn't be in the state of numbness by himself.

	Matt spent the rest of the week doing paperwork, and the rest of
the month was spent doing as little as humanly possible.  After the Fourth
of July, Matt went to work, learning the businesses that he'd inherited.
He knew his father's side well enough, having worked with him off and on
over the years.  The construction company, though, was almost completely
foreign to him.  Derek, his father's counterpart, showed him how the
business itself was run before Matt decided to go out onto a job site and
really get a feel for the business.  He'd decided to do that after asking
himself what Dan would have done in the same situation.

	For the rest of July, while Seth was in class, Matt spent his days
in the sun, working his fingers to the bone.  It felt good, though.  The
physical labor was doing wonders for both his body and his soul.

	By the time school started back, though, in August, Matt decided
that he wanted some time off.  After a meeting with major professor in the
Music Department and his minor professor, in Spanish, he withdrew from all
his classes, under the assumption that, in a year, he would return to the
grind of school.  His parents were livid when they found out.  Ron wasn't
as much as Linda, but once they calmed down and gave him a chance to
explain himself they understood that he was doing what he had to do for
himself.

	Rather than going back to work for one of his own companies,
though, he made a connection with an organization that placed volunteer
workers in underprivileged communities around the globe.  Given that he
spoke Spanish well enough, they agreed to place him in a small town in
northern Peru, and one a sweltering hot day in the middle of August, he
arrived in the town Aguilas and was greeted by one of the workers that he'd
be replacing.  Of the fifteen workers from around North America and Europe,
he was the only one who spoke Spanish at his arrival, and while most of the
people there came from money, he was the only one who didn't flaunt it by
wearing clothes that people in the village couldn't even begin to afford.

	He outlasted all of the others, though, to become a fixture as the
whitest person in the village occupied mostly by people who could trace
their lineage to the Incas rather than the Spanish.  He learned a few words
in Quechua, but it was only enough to survive and to know when someone was
talking about him.  He didn't go home from Christmas, but when his 22nd
birthday rolled around the next March, he was surprised to find, on the bus
that ran through the village once a week, his best friend.  Seth explained
that he could only stay a week, but that there was no way he was going to
let Matt spend his birthday alone.  The two had never been apart on either
of their birthdays, and Seth was determined not to let their twenty-second
ones be the first.  Being that their birthdays fell within a week of each
other's, it made things a lot easier for their mothers, who only had to
plan one party for both of their kids growing up.

	Before he left the next week, Seth had Matt promise that he would
be home in time for graduation, and, on the first of May, 2008, he took the
bus back to Lima and then took a plane back home.  Before he left, though,
he had his mother wire some money that he then gave, in total, to the
elders of the town.  It was as a `thank you' for allowing him to spend so
much time in their village, for it gave him enough time and energy to get
his head right, something that he needed in order to return home and face
all that he'd left behind.

	Seth picked him up from the airport in Memphis that evening,
driving back down I-55 to Highway 6 and then east until they came into
Eudora.  Rather than going back to his condo, though, Seth drove them to
Wellsgate, the neighborhood on the western side of town where they'd both
grown up.  Pulling into Matt's driveway, Seth assured him that there was
nothing planned, and that the parents hadn't been informed of his return.
Being that it was a Thursday night, though, both of their parents were no
doubt gathered around the table in the kitchen, playing cards as they'd
done since Seth and Matt were little.

	Quietly they climbed up the stairs that led to the back deck.  Seth
opened the door and walked inside.  "OTHERMOM!" he screamed, calling Linda,
whom he could hear in the kitchen.

	"WHAT?!?" she jokingly asked as she came into living room from the
kitchen and saw Matt standing there.  "My baby!" she exclaimed as Matt
smiled and as she wrapped her arms around him.  Becky followed, smiling as
she wrapped her arms around Seth's waist and as he put his arms across her
shoulders.  Ron followed Linda with hugs before Becky got into the mix and
hugged the man who called her `Othermom'.

	The card game ended right then and there as they sat around for
hours just talking.  Becky and Jimmy just before one in the morning; Seth
left at two.  Linda and Matt stayed up until he could no longer hold his
eyes open; Ron had gone to bed at around three, but they were up until
five.

	The following Saturday, Seth had made him promise to go out with
him.  It had been over a year since they'd done anything like that, since
before Dan had informed Matt of his illness.  Matt had put his social life
on hold to help care for him, against Dan's wishes.  It was worth it,
though, as Matt grew to realize, for even though he was quickly
deteriorating, Matt got to spend some time with the greatest man in the
world.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

Part II – Nick

	Like so many people, like so many New Yorkers, Nick Russo's life
was forever changed on 11 September 2001.  A senior in high school, he woke
that morning to find that his mother had already left for work as the
executive secretary to the Regional Manager for HiTelCo's Northeastern
region, based in the City that Never Sleeps.  As usual, he fixed himself a
bowl of cereal and then took a shower.  Dressing in the blue pants and
white dress shirt that he wore every day to St. Xavier Catholic High School
in Brooklyn, he spoke to his mother on the phone for a moment before
walking out the door.  Everything seemed OK, as she was, as always, making
sure that he was actually going to school rather than just skipping, as
he'd done the previous year, almost to the point where he wasn't invited
back for his final year of study.

	Walking outside, into one of the most beautiful days he could
remember in a while, his best friend, Henry Johnson was waiting for him.

	"You talk to your mom?" Henry asked as they started walking toward
the school.

	"A few minutes ago," Nick answered.

	"Why don't we go back up to your place?"

	"I can't Henry.  My mom said that if I get caught skipping again,
she's gonna ship me off to Mississippi to live with my grandmother."

	"She can't do that!" Henry insisted.

	"You know my mom," Nick insisted as they continued walking.

	"True."

	"And you've never met my grandmother," he went on.

	"True, true," he told him.

	They arrived a few minutes later and walked into the high school.
It was just after 8:30 in the morning and the two of them, along with
thirty other students, sat in their homeroom class as the teacher struggled
to call their names over the volume they were creating.

	At 8:47, one of the nuns that worked at the school came into the
room and silenced them with just a look.  "Nicholas Russo.  Come with
me..." she explained as Nick stood and walked toward her.  They walked out
of the room and to the office, which, in his case, was right across the
hall.  She handed him the telephone.

	"Hello?" he asked.

	"Nick... Nicky..." his mom called, crying.

	"Mom?  What's wrong?"

	"Nicky.  I love you.  I just wanted to call you and tell you
that..." she said through her tears.  "You are my world, and I never want
you to forget that."

	"What's going on, Mom?"

	"Nick.  I'm not going to make it home, and I just wanted to tell
you that I love you."

	"I love you, too, Mom," Nick said as he looked at the TV in the
office, tuned to local news, as he saw flames billowing from the North
Tower of the World Trade Center.

	"Please.  Please be a good boy, and don't give anyone any problems.
OK?"

	"OK, Mom," he told her as the line cut.  "Mom?  Mom!" he called
into the phone.  One of the nuns standing in the office took the phone from
his hand as his eyes were transfixed on the TV screen, watching the smoke
that appeared to be coming from just a few floors below where his mother
worked.

	"Is there someone we can call for you?" another of the nuns asked
him.

	"Ma...My aunt, Janelle..." Nick said, almost in a whisper.

	"What's the number?" the lady who took the phone from him asked.

	"601-555-2918," he said, somehow remembering the number that he had
to look up every single time when he was at home.

	As they only kid at the school with a parent that worked in the
WTC, he was allowed to stand there in the office and watch the news as it
came in.  The nuns and the secretary, trying the number several times,
couldn't reach her.  As the North Tower fell, though, so did their hearts,
for this young man that stood before them.  They all knew his situation,
that he was the only child of a single mother and that, other than this
aunt they couldn't reach, they knew of no other family members to contact
on his behalf.

	"Are you alright?" they asked him after a moment of silence.

	"I don't know," he responded.  "I almost skipped today," he told
them, knowing that if he had, he would have missed hearing his mothers for
the last time.

	"St. Xavier," the secretary answered after the phone rang.  "Yes.
He's right here," she said, inviting Nick to sit at her desk to talk to
whomever was calling.

	"Hello?" he asked.

	"Sweetie," Janelle said to him, obviously crying.  "Are you OK?"

	"I... um... I don't know..." he said.

	"OK.  I'm coming up there, but they've cancelled flights, so I've
got to drive.  Promise me that you will go straight home after school.
OK?"

	"OK," Nick responded.

	"I love you, Nick."

	"Love you, too, J," Nick said as the both hung up their phones.
"My aunt is on the way up..."

	"Sister," the secretary asked.  "Grab Henry Johnson from class and
have him come up.  I'm going to call Mrs. Johnson and have her come pick
the boys up and take Nick home."

	"Alright," the nun said as she looked up to see where Henry was.

	"Mr. Malia... Spanish II," Nick told the nun.  Looking at the
secretary, "We have the same schedule."  Nick stood only to realize that
his legs were about to give out from under him.  "Shit..." he said, defying
the rule against swearing and not thinking twice about it.  Sitting back
down at the desk, he put his face in his hands and started to cry.  "This
isn't happening.  This can't be happening.  Why her?  She was the nicest
lady in the world, and I gave her hell as often as I could.  God!" he
started to cry.  "Why?" he said as Henry came into the office.  He took one
look at the TV screen and knew what was going on.

	"Nick?" he said as he walked past the nuns, to his friend's side.

	"My mom... My mom was calling..." Nick cried.  "She was calling to
tell me that she loved me...  Who would do this?" he asked, wondering the
same thing as every single other New Yorker, American, and citizen of the
world.

	"It's gonna be OK, man," Henry told him.  "Is it OK if I call my
Mom and get her to come and get us?" he asked the secretary.

	"She's on her way," the secretary told her.

	"Um... his aunt..."

	"She's coming," Nick said as he stopped crying for a second, to
wipe his eyes.  "She's driving up..."

	"OK."

	"My mom..." Nick cried as he sat there.  "Why?" he asked as he
cried for the hour that it took for Henry's mother to get to the school
because of traffic.

	Ms. Johnson ran in, almost frantically.  She quickly signed papers
that the office staff had prepared for her to check the boys out.  As they
walked out of the school, Nick stepped out with them on either side.

	"We need to go to my house," Nick told them.  "My aunt's on her way
up.  She's gonna call me I guess."

	"Good..." Mrs. Johnson said.  "We'll go over there and I'll start
working on some food.

	Mrs. Johnson, herself a professional chef, always used food as a
means to satisfy a soul in need of comforting.  More than half a day later,
Janelle arrived at his apartment to find that it was full of people:
neighbors, friends, even a guy he'd been known to hang out on occasion.
Everyone cleared a path between them, though, as they grasped each other
and allowed their mutual emotion to flow freely.  It was the first time
that day for either of them.  People stayed that night at the apartment,
standing vigil and hoping that Gina would be found among survivors.  Even
if she was hurt, she was still alive.

	A week later, they found her body among the rubble.  Nick cried and
cried, throwing up until there was nothing left.  At just three weeks shy
of his 18th birthday, he was officially an orphan.  A few days later, after
his mother's cremation, he packed his things and, instead of returning to
school, left New York in the passenger seat of his aunt's car.  They drove
through central and western Pennsylvania and then West Virginia before
coming to Kentucky and Tennessee.  At Knoxville, they took I-40 to Memphis
and then I-55 to Jackson, where his aunt lived with her daughter, Jenny,
who was a few years younger than Nick.

	She'd always thought of him as a brother, especially when he would
visit over the summers or when she would go up there.  He was so cool just
by the way he was.  When he got there, there was no walking on eggshells
around him, at least for her.  She refused to believe that he was anyone
other than the man she'd always known him to be.  Even though, on the drive
down, the two had discussed his schooling options and had decided that a
GED would be the way to go, at least for him, Jenny was the one who made
him sit and study, even if he didn't want to.  She made him get out and go
to football games with her on Friday nights and insisted that he chaperone
parties that she hosted on Saturday nights when her mother was out of town.
She had such influence over her friends that they eventually became his,
too, even if they were all younger.

	In December, when he got his GED scores, he was happy that, in the
eyes of the State of Mississippi he was no longer required to attend
school.  He found a job working for a small, local construction company,
but it was just temporary, until he got well enough in the head to decide
what he wanted to do with his life.  His grades, even before he got his
GED, weren't the best, so he assumed that college, especially one like
Parsons of East Mississippi, would laugh at him behind his back.

	Then one day, out of the blue, he was driving home from work and
got rearended by a guy that, as he looked in the mirror before climbing
out.  Dude was hot.  He was tall and muscular, and wearing a uniform that
almost clung to his body.  From the way of things, he looked like a Marine.

	"Are you OK?" the man asked as Nick climbed out of the car.

	"Yea, dude.  You?"

	"Yeah.  I'm fine.  I was reaching for my cell phone and didn't
notice that you'd applied the breaks.  I'll make sure that I pay to have
your car fixed and all," he offered as he called 9-1-1 to report the
accident.  In just a moment, the police arrived.  They wrote up their
report and gave cards to each of the guys.  After they left, after having
determined that both of their cars were still OK to drive, the guy walked
up to Nick.  "If there's anything you need from me, please let me know," he
said as he handed Nick a card.  Nick looked at the card.

	"Mario Daniels?"

	"Yes sir," the man answered with a smile to Nick as they shook
hands.  Nick climbed back into his car a moment later and took off as soon
as traffic was clear.  When he got home, he looked at the card as he took
it from his pocket.  It wasn't just a casual glance, though.  This guy
wasn't just a Marine, he was a recruiter with a local office.  After his
shower, he walked back into the room that had become his since moving to
Mississippi.  As he pulled a pair of boxers onto his body, he noticed the
logo on the card.  The globe and anchor, with the eagle on top.

	The next day, he called into work and went into the office to talk
to Mario.  He left a couple of hours later, firm in the decision that he
was going to join up, that he was going to be one of the few and the proud.
He passionately told his aunt about it that night.  She forbade him; he
explained that it was the first thing that felt right in a long time.

	"Maybe," she said.  "Maybe it's just me, but I'm not ready to lose
your mother AND you to those people!"  She looked at him.  "Nick.  I have
always loved you more than life, but I can't bury both of you."

	"I will be fine..."

	"You don't know that!" she said.  "What if they invade Afghanistan?
What if you're sent?"

	"Janelle.  For months, I've been going around, wondering about my
life, and this is the closest thing to right that I've experienced in a
long time.  I need to do this for me, and I promise you that I will do
everything in my power to come home if I do go overseas."

	She looked in his eyes.  "I will support you, with whatever
decision you make, but I want you to think...and I mean really, really
think about it... for a week... before you do anything."  She started to
cry.  "And I swear to you that if you do let yourself get hurt, I will
channel all the energy I have in my body.  I will get a ouija board, and I
will summon your spirit and give you five hundred kinds of hell!"

	"I love you, Janelle," he said as he wrapped his arms around her.

	He complied with her request and waited a week, but his passion was
just as strong, strong enough to call the recruiter and see what he had to
do to sign up.  Mario was eager to get him in, so he took papers to his
house.  Janelle didn't like it, one bit, but she recognized that it was
something that he had to do for him, and he was more important, in that
moment, than what she thought of the situation.  By March of 2002, he was
leaving Jackson for Parris Island.  A few weeks later, he was graduating
from basic training.

	He was a different person, filled to the brim with confidence.  His
smile was wide and full, just like his uniform.  The physical training he'd
endured had made sure that his uniform fit him perfectly.  After a couple
of weeks at home, Nick went to Camp Pendleton for additional training and,
as assumed, was sent to Afghanistan.

	He got home in the early part of 2004, after having been in
Afghanistan for nearly a year and a half.  He was stationed in San Diego
for a while, mostly doing the work of grunts until, in 2006, he was
transferred to a different unit that was to be deployed in Iraq during the
troop surge of 2007.  It was while in that unit that he met Corey O'Neil, a
man that, for whatever reason, could force him to lose all concentration on
anything and everything else.

	Corey was average height and average build, but he had this tongue
and this confidence that oozed from every pore on his body.  He was from
Rhode Island, but he didn't sound like it.  The whole `pahk the cah' mode
of speech had, for some reason, passed write over him.  There was no
indication in Nick's mind that he was anything other than straight as a
bored.  Come to find out, though, there was a side of Corey that no one
really knew.  He could easily swing both ways, and on the night before they
left for Iraq, Nick found out just what it was like to have another Marine
in the Biblical sense.

	When they got to Iraq, there were assigned to the same convertible
housing unit, and, on many a night, they quietly, carnally enjoyed each
other at the same time as they got to know each other as friends.  On the
night of the 11th of March, 2008, a Sunday night that, like so many others,
was hot as fuck, the two got back to the base after patrols and took a
quick shower.  They returned to their unit, and Nick, feeling especially in
a way, for the first time exerted control of this guy who had become more
than just a fuck buddy but rather a friend, a man in whom he had the most
respect as a person.  It was, by far, the most passionate night between
them, and after things were over, they both slept better than peacefully.

	The next morning, they went to breakfast and then out on their
regular patrol of a neighborhood in central Baghdad.  As usual, there were
some kids playing soccer in an empty lot and an old man sitting in a
decrepit old chair in front of his house, reading from a worn Koran.  A few
women of varying ages averted their eyes as the men walked past them.  It
was just after they passed that Nick noticed something.  It was just a
sparkle, but it wasn't right.  There was something in the air that
confirmed his suspicion.

	From a third story window, there was a sniper who'd lined Nick into
his sights, but as the first sound of his shot came, Nick and Corey both
jumped toward safety.  The bullet hit Nick's thigh, and he screamed out in
pain as Corey stood and figured out where the shot had come from.  He fired
repeatedly, and the sniper fired back at the two of them.  Other Marines
joined them in a second, most of them firing as two of them dragged Nick to
safety.  As they called for more support, including a corpsman, Nick
watched as the sniper hit Corey.  The man, who'd he'd determined could have
otherwise existed in his dreams, fell to the ground.

	Everything around him slowed to a snail's pace.  In something
similar to what one might see in the Matrix or something, all as he could
see was Corey slowly falling to the ground.  A second later, another Marine
shot the sniper from the window, and all Nick could think about was getting
to Corey.  He pulled himself onto his good leg and, for lack of better
phrasing, hobbled over to Corey.

	"Come on, man," Nick said as he fell onto the dusty street beside
him.  "Be strong.  Pull through."  Corey looked at him, the sign of death
in his eyes as he tried to smile.  "Remember.  When we get home, we're
going to Giovanni's in Brooklyn for a slice.  That way, you'll never brag
about that shit y'all got in Provi," Nick told him.

	Corey, fading faster and faster with each passing second, was
unable to speak.  His lips slowly moved, though, as Corey mouthed `I love
you'.

	"Corey!" Nick screamed as Corey's eyes slowly closed.  "NO!!!" he
shouted loudly, and Corey's pulse was gone a second later.

	Nick was numb.  He wanted to cry, but he couldn't.  There were two
people that he'd felt such emotion for, the other was his mother.  Medics
arrived a moment later, moving Nick out of the way to get his patched up
enough to transport.  Corey's body was prepared for transport as well, all
as Nick watched them zip the bag in which he'd be carried home.

	Nick didn't remember much after that for a couple of days, though.
The shock from being shot cause him to black out on the way back to the
base hospital.  Pain meds were administered on the scene, and stitches were
used to fix the holes that two bullets had left in him.  He came to once,
but he was so out of it that he quickly fell asleep.  He was transferred to
a hospital in Kuwait for a day, where he came to just long enough to call
Janelle, who was more than happy to hear his voice.  Two more days passed,
and he found himself arriving at Fort Baur Naval Station in Paradise,
Alabama.  He went through examination after examination, and at the end of
the day, Janelle, who'd been driven down that morning, was waiting on him.

	"I promised I'd come home!" he tried to smile through the pain
medication-induced haze as she walked to the side of his bed, crying as she
took his right hand and squeezed.

	Several weeks passed as he got out of the hospital, went home, and
started seeing a counselor at the VA hospital in Jackson.  By the end of
April, the stitches had come out, and he was able to move around a little
bit on his own.  Through his physical recovery, though, the emotional toll
that that Monday morning had taken on him was put on the back burner, and
despite her best efforts, it took her powers of persuasion, namely guilt,
to convince him on the first Saturday in May to put on a pair of jeans and
a nice shirt and go out with her for a night on the town.  He didn't agree
until the morning they were to go, though, and it was only because, as they
walked around the mall, as had become their thing three or four times a
week to help Nick get his strength up, she wouldn't let it go.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

Chapter 1


	Matt spent his first week at home getting reacquainted with the
town where he'd grown up.  There were a few new businesses and places
around, but, for the most part, it was the same place he'd left.  The
Courthouse still majestically sat on the Square, surrounded by businesses,
institutions that Matt could vividly remember vividly from his youth into
his adulthood.  All the ladies that worked for his dad and Derek were happy
that he had made it home safely, just as his mother had been.  All the men
were as well, but few were as vocal as the ladies.

	He spent one day on the campus of Parsons, visiting professors in
both his major department, the Department of Music, as well as his minor
department, Spanish.  Dr. Phillips was happy that he'd returned, for it
meant that he'd have another senior on the Choir in the fall.  Seniors were
always important for the group, as they helped acclimate the incoming
Freshmen to the way things were done.  Of course, to visit friends that
he'd made over the years was also a good thing, for it allowed him to
connect with those people who had insisted the choir perform at Dan's
funeral and leave Matt's spot in the section of tenors open to pay homage
to him and to the family.  His meeting in the Spanish department didn't go
as well, though, as his minor professor wasn't as convinced that spending a
year in Latin America had improved his accent all that much.  In fact,
Dr. Martinez even commented that it sounded as though it had gotten a
little worse, what with the mix of a few Quechua words that had come into
his vocabulary.  The two left in agreement, though, that the fall would
have him realizing the completion of that part of his matriculation,
leaving him the spring of '09 to explore nothing but music.  Nothing
regarding his schedule for the fall, though, was decided about his
schedule, though.  That would be saved for a summer meeting at some point
after the department of music returned from their collective summer
vacation.

	On Friday of that week, after Seth finished the very last exam of
his college career, he and Matt went to lunch at a nice little sandwich
shop just off the Square that had opened in Matt's absence.  Called Kev's,
it was filled that afternoon, with all kinds of people, from students to
faculty from the university alongside locals whose professions obviously
ranged from day laborers to judges.  A couple of people that Matt hadn't
seen that knew Dan were there and greeted him, taking a moment to talk with
him about how he was doing and how Peru had been.  For the most part,
though, it was just polite conversation among neighbors.

	As Matt and Seth sat at a table, they quickly ordered two teas from
a waitress that had brought them their menus after they'd assumed their
positions.  Seth quickly ordered a Patriot, a sandwich with slices from a
prime rib roast cooked medium rare and a blue cheese sauce on a Kaiser
roll.  Matt looked over it only to end up ordering a turkey and cheese on a
pumpernickel roll and a side of homemade potato chips.

	"So I'm sorry I haven't been around a lot this week," Seth said.

	"You've been studying for exams," Matt scoffed.  "There's no need
to apologize."


	"Still, though," Seth said.  "Since they're over, and all I've got
to do is find out if I graduate next weekend or not, you wanna go out
tonight?"

	"Your usual place?" Matt inquired.

	"I'm sure we'll end up there!" Seth said.

	It had been a year since their last excursion.  On Seth's 21st
Birthday, the two had decided to go to this place called "Blind Jim's", a
little bar right off the Square on the corner of South Cossart and
Harrison.  Because of Dan's infirmity, they'd only gone to the place,
together, once, yet they still referred to it as "The Usual" because it had
become a favorite haunt for Seth and a few of their mutual friends from
both high school and college in the year and a couple of months since then.

	After lunch, both guys had a few things to do before they could
even consider starting to get ready for the evening.  Seth had some work to
do for his dad, and after he got his bi-weekly paycheck, he had to get it
cashed and pay his mortgage payment before he could do anything else.
Matt, on the other hand, was going to see his doctor for a checkup and then
visit his mother in her office right next door.  Afterwards, he was going
to go by and mess with his dad and Derek for a little while, to joke with
them by telling him he was there to check and see if they were running his
businesses into the ground.  They agreed, though, to meet back at Seth's
place at seven to get ready for their night out on the town.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

	Meanwhile, Jenny was finishing up her very last final as well, in a
senior-level political science class that had, for lack of better phrasing,
kicked her ass all semester.  She was happy that it was over, though, and
hoped that she'd done well enough to earn a low `C' in the class.  Walking
out with a couple of people, they all discussed the exam for a moment as
they walked from the Bishop Social Sciences Building.

	"So what do y'all have going on tonight?" Jenny asked her
classmates.

	"I'm going to SLEEP!" one of them said, recalling that she was
running on virtually adrenaline and Red Bull.

	"I'm going to propose to my girlfriend, and then we're going to
make love," the guy said, "for as long as she wants it!"

	"Congratulations!" Jenny smiled.

	"She really is a lucky girl!" the girl standing with them noted.

	"Trust me," he said, a certain cocky edge in his voice, "she knows
it."  The girls laughed as he smiled widely in their directions.


	"What about you?" the girl asked Jenny.

	"My cousin is coming up from Jackson to spend a few days with me,"
she proudly announced.

	"How's he doing?" the guy asked.

	"He's alright.  He's getting better and better with each day," she
told them, referring not just to his physical health but also his mental
state.

	"That's good.  Let him know that if there's anything I can do for
him, that I'll do my best!" the guy said as the girl agreed.

	"I will," Jenny smiled.

	"So are y'all just gonna hang out and such?" they inquired.

	"Probably so.  I'm gonna leave that all up to him!" she said.

	"Cool..." the girl said just before they said their goodbyes and
parted the others' company.

	As Jenny walked in the direction of her apartment, she pulled her
cell phone from her pocket and dialed Nick's cell phone number.  Just after
his mother passed away, HiTelCo had given him a cell phone for which they
comped all the charges, to that end, he'd kept the same New York number for
years, just replacing the phone as necessary.

	"Hello?" he asked.

	"You on your way?" she smiled.  It was a smile that he could both
hear and feel, despite the miles and miles that separated them.

	"I've got my bag packed for a week of fun in Eudora," he said, "and
I just got out of the shower and pulled some boxers on."

	"Are they sexy as hell?"

	"I'm your cousin, why would you care?" Nick joked with her.  It was
good for her to hear as well, since it showed that, despite the things
going on his mind, he was, in fact, learning to cope with things a little
bitter than he'd previously been able to do.

	"I'm just saying, you might find a hot college guy or something
that wants to... you know..." she said, passing an older lady and forcing
herself to use polite speech.

	"Cause that's my whole reason for coming to Eudora," Nick smiled as
he pulled on a pair of Carhartt shorts that his cousin had bought him a
couple of weeks earlier that were, in his opinion, the single most
comfortable article of clothing that he'd ever owned.

	"Right!" Jenny noted.

	"I was actually gonna call you as soon as I got on the road," Nick
told her.  "Which should be shortly."

	"That works.  That gives me a couple of hours to make sure that
your room is clean and everything," she told him, referring to the two
bedroom apartment that she'd be vacating as soon as her lease expired at
the end of June.  Her roommate, Maria, had already left, having closed on a
house in Memphis with her girlfriend in the middle of April.

	"Are you sure you don't mind me coming up?" he asked.  "I mean, I
just invited myself."

	"Nick.  I love you, and I love my Mom, but y'all both need a
weekend away from each other," she said.  "And besides, you know that my
home is ALWAYS open to my cool, older cousin/big bro/favorite Marine on the
planet."

	"Cool..." Nick injected into the conversation as he took a moment
to pull on a t-shirt that fit him nicely, loosely across the chest, and
through the shoulders and arms.

	The two, as Nick finished getting ready, discussed plans for the
evening, and while he wasn't quite sure about going out that evening, he
didn't immediately dismiss the idea.  He'd have time to think about it,
though, as he drove up I-55 from Ridgeland, one of Jackson's northern
suburbs, to Eudora.  Their conversation came to an end just after he
grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and walked from the kitchen of
the three-bedroom house that had never quite been home for him, into the
garage to his car.

	It was an '08 Ford Mustang GT, black with rims and darkly tinted
windows.  It had a sunroof and a leather interior.  What most couldn't see
but that Nick could feel, though, was 4.6-liter, 3-valve, V-8 engine that
produced a lot of power.  It had a six-speed manual transmission and dual
exhaust.  In short, it was a car to envy, and it was his, despite how he'd
come to own it.  That was his aunt's doing.  Over the years, he'd sent her
money to help out with household expenses.  In his mind, it was the thing
to do since she'd driven to New York on 9/11 to be with him.  She'd brought
him back to her home and wouldn't let him lift a finger the entire time he
was there.  What she'd done, though, was put the money into a savings
account for him.  By the time he got home, there was enough money in the
account to buy that car and still have some left over.  There wasn't much,
mind you, but there was just enough to pay to take a few classes at a local
junior college once his discharge from the Corps was finalized.

	He started the car to the sound and fury that it always produced
and pushed a button that raised the garage door behind him.  Carefully, he
backed out of the garage and then onto the street.  Pushing the button back
and making sure the door closed immediately before, he sped down the street
that Jenny had grown up on and headed away.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

	Matt got to Seth's house just after seven o'clock, pulling into a
space beside Seth's car and grabbed his bag from the backseat.  He pushed
the little button on the remote control and locked the door to his
grandfather's Cadillac CTS, a car that he'd purchased just a few months
before his death that, while he was away, his father had kept up.  It
wasn't exactly what Dan had wanted him to do, but the car was better than
the one he'd been driving for years.  To be honest, Matt was in no hurry to
spend the money on a car, as he'd not become completely comfortable with
the fact that he had it to begin with.

	Walking into Seth's place, he found it immaculate as always.  There
was a shine to the hardwood floors and not an single particle of dust on
the granite countertops in the two-bedroom condo that Dan had helped him
purchase in 2006.  Much to Matt's surprise, though, Seth wasn't there yet,
so he went into `his room' and started getting ready for the evening out.
From the small suitcase in which he'd placed enough clothes for the
weekend, he pulled out a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a blue polo shirt
that he'd gotten early in the week from Old Navy.  A pair of red boxers
with little while moose on it that he'd had forever, was placed beside the
shorts as he prepared for the evening.

	From his head he pulled the same baseball cap that he'd been
wearing for years.  It was the same one that he'd received with his
admissions packet to Parsons so many years before, The Freshman Cap.
Almost respectfully, he laid it on the bed away from everything else.  He
had other caps, newer caps, including one that he'd purchased the day
before, but this one was the one that he preferred, just because it fit him
better than any of the others, probably because it was practically worn
out.

	The clothes he wore were another story, though.  Slipping himself
from the white and grey Pumas that he'd worn to hell and back, he lifted
his legs just far enough to pull off the ankle socks that covered them.
His shirt was next, followed by the shorts he'd been wearing all day and
the boxers that separated them from direct contact with his skin.  As naked
as the day was long, he walked into the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom
and turned on the shower.

	One of the things he'd missed when he was in Peru was the shower in
Seth's spare bathroom.  It was powerful and always seemed to have enough
scalding hot water to make his skin feel clean.  As he climbed beneath it,
he audibly expressed all the relief that being there, in that place, had
brought to him.  "Ay dios," he said as he rinsed off his skin, still mostly
tanned from the hours he'd spent in Northern Peru's equatorial sun.  As he
ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, he thought for a fleeting
moment about needing a haircut, but it was just a fleeting moment as he was
enjoying the flow that much.

	It took several moments for him to get started with the shower, but
after he did, it wasn't long before his body was completely lathered.
Starting by putting shampoo in his hair, he let it stay there for a moment
as he washed from the bottom of his size 13 feet to his face.  His body
wasn't anything spectacular, but it fit him.  He was average weight and
height, with a body that was neither skinny nor fat.  He was the proverbial
final bowl of porridge, as far as men go.  Just before he turned off the
water, he rinsed the shampoo and conditioner from his hair.  Without the
water, for a few seconds, his body felt like something was missing.
Dripping wet, though, he climbed out onto the rug and grabbed a towel to
wick it all away from his body.

	As always, he left the towel in the hamper in the bathroom, out of
respect for Seth's needing everything to be neat and tidy, and walked back
into his room to dress for the evening as he waited on Seth to get back
from wherever the hell he was.  When he was finished, he looked cute in his
shorts and solid colored polo, topping it with his cap and a pair of
flip-flops that he'd brought with him.  Walking out of the room, he went
into the living room and turned on the TV as he continued to wait on his
best friend's arrival.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

	After driving for a few hours up the interstate and then for an
hour around Eudora as he struggled, seemingly in vain, to find Jenny's
apartment, Nick finally arrived at her place at around five in the
afternoon.  The two sat around for a while as they, themselves, took a
while to catch up.  They fixed dinner for the two of them and enjoyed a
couple of adult beverages before starting to get ready to go out at around
eight o'clock.  Jenny went into her bathroom on one end of the apartment
while Nick went to `his' on the other.

	The bathroom itself was decorated rather plainly, but it was
adequate for Nick's purposes, as it had a nice shower, a toilet, a single
sink, and a mirror.  In a little cubby that served as the room's linen
closet, Jenny had placed a couple of clean towels and some washcloths for
him to use, but all the soaps and shampoos were his responsibility.  Having
stopped at Wal-Mart before leaving Jackson, he'd picked up those few
things, though, and had them ready to go as soon as the water was hot
enough to enjoy.

	It was as that was happening that Nick disrobed.  Quickly, he
removed his clothes and set them neatly on the counter.  Looking at himself
in the mirror, he could inspected his nicely shaped, muscular body as he
always seemed to do before climbing in.  The one thing about that place,
though, as opposed to his bathroom, was that the mirror was bigger and,
somehow, didn't seem to fog over as the water heated.  On his left arm, he
looked for a second at the Marine Corps tattoo before brushing his hand
along his chest and torso to make sure that manscaping wasn't necessary.
He would have done that earlier in the day, but his shower before departure
was more or less to rid his body of the sweat that had accumulated after
his mid-day workout.  It was that shower that evening that he knew would
really count.

	Climbing beneath the flow of water, he quickly started the process
of cleaning.  As he'd done for years, he started with the hair that topped
his head.  Even though he was no longer in the active service of his
country, he still kept his hair cut to regulation length.  To that end, it
didn't take long to ensure that the black hairs that were just a little
longer than stubble, were clean.  His skin, which wasn't as tan as it had
been at one point, was run over with a bar of Ivory that would leave his
skin smelling clean and fresh.

	As he climbed out, he quickly toweled the water from the defined
ridges of his body and left the towel on the floor, as Jenny had
instructed.  Walking into the room, he quickly pulled on a pair of boxers
that could have stood to be a size bigger, and donned a pair of jeans that
nicely fit him from just below his waist all the way through his legs.  The
top of his body he covered with a polo that Jenny had bought for him and
hung in the closet.  It was nice, comfortable, black, and would leave
little to the imagination of those who found themselves, over the course of
the evening, gazing at his upper body.  With an almost-new pair of Nikes on
his feet a moment later, he was ready to go, walking into the living room
to wait on Jenny as she put the finishing touches on what she'd be wearing
out that evening.

-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-

	In Eudora, over the years, the concept of clubbing had become
somewhat of an art.  Even if one were planning to go to his regular joint
for a pint with friends, if he said he was `going out' that meant that
several other places would be patronized beforehand.  Given the proximity
of all the coolest places in the town, though, that wasn't a difficult task
to do.

	For Matt and Seth, it started with a bar called "The Bibliotheque".
They had a single shot there and checked out the scene before heading to a
bar right on the Square called roosters.  After another round of tequila
shots and a moment of checking out the animate scenery, they found no
reason not to go on to Seth's usual haunt, Blind Jim's.  Arriving just
after ten o'clock, they found themselves in a line of people to get in.
Waiting behind them was a group of girls that Seth had no problems talking
to, as they were all beautiful, while Matt avoided talking to their gay
friend.  It wasn't that Matt felt he was better than him, for he knew that
he wasn't, but the guy was that annoying kind of gay guy that was loud and
relatively obnoxious, that was a fan of Madonna and held her as a god.  He
had a high voice and seemed to be high on something else.  The guy was all
about Matt, though, telling him several times that he was cute and had a
great voice and a nice smile.  He made a comment or two about his ass as
Matt stood there, waiting on their chance to go inside the crowded bar so
that Seth's attention would be drawn away from those girls so that he could
gracefully exit the situation in which he found himself.

	As they waited, though, Nick and Jenny were walking up to another
place from her apartment.  Rick's, a sports bar with a very high energy,
was filled with frat boys and sorority girls with huge fake tits and
designer clothes.  They had a single beer each before heading onto the
Biblioteque and then to Roosters.  As they walked to Blind Jim's, which
would probably be their final destination of the evening, Nick found
himself enamored by the grace and beauty of the Square.

	It was the kind of place in Eudora that served so many purposes.
For one, the courthouse, while built shortly after the Civil War to replace
the one that the Union soldiers marching through Eudora had burned to the
ground, was still in use by the county government.  During the day, one
might find judges and day laborers rubbing elbows as they went about their
personal business, while in the evenings, the aroma of several different
world cuisines was often mixed with the smell of bourbon as it reminded all
of the history and tradition of that small Southern town.  At night, the
place came alive as the center of the area's social universe, with its
lively bars, amazingly high class restaurants, and a few bookstores and
coffee shops just to spice things up a little differently.

	In that moment, the place to him felt right.  Maybe it was Jenny,
and maybe it was just that the air was different, cleaner, friendlier than
in Jackson.  Either way, though, Nick felt better in that moment than he
had in a long time, and it wasn't the alcohol that he'd already consumed
talking.

	From Nick's perspective, Blind Jim's was different from the other
bars that they'd been to that night.  Number one, there was a line to get
in, which meant that it was a very popular place, and just in the line
there were people of all different shades and persuasions.  There were gays
and straights, whites, blacks, Hispanics, men and women.  There were some
quiet, nerdy looking people standing in line next to jocks and frat type
guys.  It was as if, in his observation, this was one of the few places in
America where people really could get along, despite their differences.
Jackson certainly wasn't that way, where he found himself to be one of the
few people that could associate with people of other races and cultures.

	Jenny looked at him as he took stock of his surroundings.  With a
smile she knew that Eudora was in his future, she could didn't know when or
in what circumstances.  It was good to see, though, because she hadn't seen
him excited about anything, really, in a while.  When they got to the door,
Jenny paid for both of their cover charges with a $20 bill and they walked
inside.  Nick grabbed his debit card from his wallet as the two waded
through the massive crowd of people that had assembled at their final
destination for the evening.

	When they got to the bar, Nick, given his height, towered over
Jenny, who stood barely five feet tall.  Not to be confused, though, she
was a firecracker of a person who really could hold her own in most any
circumstance.  With that being said, though, he was able to get the
attention of Natalie, the bartender, to get their beers ordered.  She took
his card from him and got his tab started before handing the card back to
him along with two open Bud Light bottles.

	Meanwhile, Matt and Seth were sitting close by, having just ordered
their second margarita of the evening.  They'd decided to slow down a
little bit and add some lime juice and ice to their tequila instead of
consuming it straight.  It was Matt that first noticed Nick standing close
to the bar.  He had to force himself not to stare at this guy with the
military style hair and a pair of shoulders that were driving him insane.

	"Matt!" Seth said in a second, grinning and shaking his head.
"Instead of staring a hole through him, why don't you just go talk to him?"

	"He's way out of my league," Matt told Seth as Natalie brought
their margaritas to them.

	"Matthew," Seth looked at him as if to say `what-the-fuck'.
"Seriously?"

	"Seriously.  I'm a five, and he's got to be a twelve or so," Matt
told his best friend.  "Beside, from the looks of him, he's straight."

	Seth turned and glanced, knowing Matt's type well enough to know
which of the guys huddled at the bar Matt was checking out.  "I've been a
fag stag all my life, and I can tell the difference between straight, gay,
and metrosexual.  Dude ain't the first or last."

	"You've been wrong before," Matt reminded him.

	"Once... one time..." Seth reminded him of a guy that they'd met
years before that gave every indication that he was a homosexual only for
the two of them to find out that he was straighter and more sexual than
Seth himself, which, honestly, was never a very small feat to accomplish.
He looked again, only on his second glance, he noticed Jenny standing with
him.  "Holy shit!"

	"What?" Matt asked.

	"You remember that girl from Econ class in the fall that I was
telling you about... the one with the huge knockers and the smoking body?"

	"Yeah..."

	"The girl with him is her... Jenny Sheffield," Seth said as he
turned, motioning for Matt to go with him as he went over to talk to her.

	"JEN-NAY!" he yelled as she turned and smiled.
	"SETHY!" she exclaimed as the Seth bent down so that she could wrap
her arms around him.  "Oh my god!  I was thinking about you the other day.
How are you?"

	"Good.  Horny, but what's new?" he asked.

	"With you, Seth Bentley, not a damn thing!" she said.  "Nick," she
turned to her cousin.  "This is the guy that I was telling you about
could... keep up with me."

	"Damn," Nick smiled.  "Nick Russo," he said as he shook Seth's
hands.

	"And this is my best friend, Matt..."

	"MATT HARPER!" she said as she greeted him the same way that she
greeted Seth, with a huge hug around the neck.  "How was Peru?"

	"It was good," Matt answered.  "Glad to be home, though."

	"We are glad to have you home," she said.  "Eudora needs more sexy
gay men," she said, telling Nick indirectly, that Matt was fair game.  She
knew, from just the first look at this guy that Matt was Nick's type.  He
wasn't a gym rat, but he took care of himself as best he could.  He had a
cute smile and a deep, masculine voice.

	"Thank you," he blushed a little bit as he thanked her for the
obvious comment.

	"Nick just got home, too.  He was in Iraq..."

	"Oh yeah?" Matt asked, looking at him.  "What branch?"

	"Marines," Nick answered, plainly and simply.

	"Magic words for Matt!" Seth smiled at Nick.

	"And not in the way he implies," Matt told him.

	"Why not?  Marines need love, too," Nick joked, quite
uncharacteristically.  Jenny knew, though, that he made jokes when he was
nervous, and Matt, for whatever reason, was making him nervous enough to
crack at least one, but probably more.
	"Not that I wouldn't give you love, man," Matt smiled at him,
winning him over in that moment, instantly.  "Hey Nat," Matt called the
bartender, with whom he and Seth had gone to high school at St. Xavier's
Episcopal School there in Eudora.  "Will you set up a round of Semper Fis
for us?"

	"Sure," she smiled as she went right to work after delivering the
beers to some frat boys waiting at one end of the bar.  She brought them
back four small drink glasses each filled with tequila.

	"My grandfather," Matt explained, "was a Marine during World War II
in the Pacific, and he always said that if I ever encounter a Marine in a
bar, that I should by him a drink."

	"What's his name?" Nick asked.

	"Dan."

	"Here's to Dan, then," he said, handing Matt a shot glass as Jenny
handed one to Seth.

	"Semper Fi!" Matt declared.

	"Hoo rah!" Nick went on as they each turned up their glasses and
took the whole damn thing.  Little did Nick know, though, that by toasting
the single most influential person that had ever graced Matt's life that he
was winning him over as easily as he had unknowingly won Nick with just his
smile and his voice.

	"So Seth," Jenny started, "you wanna fuck tonight?"  It was as if,
for her, asking such a thing was nothing at all.

	"Please..." he said.  "Like you even have to ask that!" he
declared, setting up his evening booty call right there in front of the two
of them.

	"So are you still active?" Matt asked Nick.

	"Technically, I'm on the TDL," he said as Matt understood exactly
what he said.  "I'm hoping that my discharge comes through sooner rather
than later, though."

	"Cool.  Well, thank you for your service, man."

	"It's nothing," Nick said as Jenny looked at him, remembering what
an ordeal it had been when he joined.  She looked at Seth who, with his
eyes, said that he was happy that Matt was actually talking.

	"You're certainly a credit to the uniform," Matt noted.

	"Oh yeah?" Nick smiled.  "I do look good in fatigues, though."

	"I can imagine..." Matt told him before the two of them started
laughing at each other.

	"Although," Nick started, "I'm glad you're not a Marine, cause I
don't know if I could have kept my sexuality a secret if you had been."

	"You're gay?"

	"Yeah!" Nick smiled.

	"Told you!" Seth added.

	"Wow..." Matt said in a moment.

	"What?  A Marine can't be gay?" Nick asked in his Brooklyn accent,
holding out his arms as best he could without hitting Seth of Jenny, who
were standing beside him, as if to say something like `what's the big
deal', or the like.

	"I've just never met one," Matt explained as he hoped, with
everything, that his growing `problem' wasn't all that obvious.

	"Well now you have!" Nick winked at him.

	"And I'm all the better for it," Matt pointed out as Jenny and Seth
looked at each other and quietly shook their heads.

	"So what did you end up getting in Dr. Brady's class?" Jenny asked
him.

	"B!  And I was so fucking happy!" Seth told him.

	"How the fuck?  I got a D!"

	"WHAT?!" Seth asked, genuinely surprised by her response as she
nodded.

	"I was so fucking pissed!" she said.  "I went to him in January and
told him to justify it.  Apparently, his scantron machine said that I got
an F on the final!"

	"It was 25 questions that were obvious!"

	"RIGHT!" she said.  "I almost called you just to give me head."

	"Why didn't you?  I would have gladly buried my face..."

	"So can we smoke inside?" Nick asked, looking at Matt, who was also
not enjoying the level of hetero-energy around them.

	"Nah man.  We have to go to the patio."

	"You wanna go to the patio?" Nick asked.

	"Please!" Matt said as Jenny and Seth smiled.

	"We're gonna stay in here and catch up," Jenny said, looking at
Nick.  With her eyes, as she had been doing with Seth, she asked if Nick
was going to be OK.  He responded affirmatively with his smile, knowing
that this Marine's grandson wouldn't let anything happen to him.

	A moment later, Nick excused himself from Seth as he and Matt
walked through the crowd of people to a door on the side of the bar that
led outside.  As they walked through, it seemed as though there were as
many people out there as were inside, but the pair found a quiet corner
where the other conversations wouldn't spill over into theirs.

	"So are you a student?" Nick asked after he lit the Marlboro light
and stood a bit away from Matt so the smoke wouldn't bother him.

	"Technically.  I've been off for the last year, doing some
volunteer work in South America."

	"Oh cool," Nick said.  "What's your major?"

	"Please don't laugh, cause it's kinda gay."

	"OK," Nick confidently said.  "Do you enjoy it?  Do you have a
passion for it?"

	"Yes," Matt answered.

	"Then how could I laugh?" Nick asked.

	"Vocal Performance," Matt answered.

	"See.  That's kinda hot.  A guy that can sing is sexy as hell,"
Nick admitted.

	"Shit.  If you're trying to get laid, you don't have to work so
hard," Matt told him.

	"I'm not, though.  Just being honest," Nick told him.  "Besides, if
I wanted to just get laid, I wouldn't have to do very much."

	"How do you know?" Matt asked.

	"I can just tell that you're into me," Nick told him.

	"You give yourself too much credit," Matt smiled at him.

	"Maybe so," Nick smiled.  "Besides, you're out my league for real."

	"Fuck!  What?" Matt asked.

	"You're fucking hot, dude.  If I could find a guy as hot as you..."

	"I'm not believing this!" Matt smiled.  "When I first saw you, I
told Seth that same thing.  That you were way out of my league."  Nick just
smiled as he took a drag from his cigarette and a drink from his beer.  On
his face was a huge smile, similar to the one that Matt had on his.  "So
what do you think of Eudora?"

	"This is a great town!" Nick answered.  "It's small, but it's got
so much life, if that makes sense."

	"It does.  I've been a lot of places, and Eudora is my favorite,"
Matt said.

	"So are you from Mississippi?" Nick asked.

	"Eudora, actually.  Born and raised," Matt smiled.

	"Sweet!"

	"And what about you?"

	"Brooklyn," Nick answered.  "My mom was from here, though," Nick
answered, realizing that, for one of the first times in his life, he'd been
able to refer to her in the past tense.  "Well... Jackson."

	"Ahhh..." Matt said.

	"I used to spend my summers in Mississippi when I was little," Nick
said.  "I love it here."

	"Cool."

	"I'm sorry," Nick smiled.  "I'm just going off at the mouth."

	"No.  Please.  Continue," Matt smiled.  "It's giving me a chance to
take in the whole picture."

	"Well.  If you're taking that in, then I should turn a little bit
so you can look at my ass," Nick joked as he half turned around and as Matt
laughed.

	"Nice," he said.

	"Oh yeah.  It's kinda tight, too," Nick winked.

	"Shit..." Matt said as he blushed.  Nick smiled as he returned to
his previous position and took the final drag from his cigarette.

	"Man.  I'm sorry.  I'm a little buzzed, and I don't know what I'm
saying," Nick told him.

	"It's fine," Matt mentioned.  "Like you..."

	"Like you," Nick smiled.

	The next moments between them were comfortably quiet.  Nick
continued taking stock of all the things going on around him as Matt
relished the fact that he was standing with a guy that seemed to be really,
really awesome.

	"So now that you're on your way out," Matt started, "what are your
plans?"

	"Ya know.  I haven't really thought about it," Nick answered.
"Since I joined, the Marines have been my life.  Would your grandfather
have any advice for me?"

	"I'm sure, that if he were with us still, he would tell you to do
what's in your heart," Matt told him.

	"And if my head and penis were the same organ?" Nick joked.

	"Then he'd be like," Matt started as he put himself into `Pa
voice'.  "Matthew, bend over and let this man have his way with you.  He's
a Marine goddamnit."  Nick laughed his ass off.  "And you think I'm
joking," Matt returned to his normal voice as Nick heartily laughed, "but
the one and only pride celebration I've been to was with him and Seth, and
he was trying to pimp my ass out the whole time!"

	"Shit!  That is priceless!" Nick continued laughing his infectious
laugh.

	"He told this one... super hot guy... `Matt's ass is grade A'."

	"It's not bad," Nick grinned.

	"It's exit only," Matt told him.

	"Shame..." Nick made a tsk sound and shook his head.

	"Top too?"

	"Versitile," he told him.  "Sometimes, it's good to be `taken care
of', other times, it's good to take care..."

	"Makes sense," Matt told him.  "I just haven't met a guy that I
trusted enough to let him..."

	"That makes sense, too.  I've only ever trusted one guy enough to
top him," Nick explained.

	"Still in your life?" Matt asked.

	"No," Nick answered, honestly but shortly.  "Not anymore," Nick
said, a sad expression on his face that told Matt more than he needed to
know.

	"I'm sorry to hear that, man," Matt told him.

	Nick smiled.  "It's in the past," he tried to play things off, but
Matt knew that the issue should be dropped.  "So I wonder if my cousin and
your friend are having a good time."

	"If they're still here, probably so.  If they're not, probably so!"
Matt joked.

	"Can I be honest with you?"

	"It's expected," Matt answered, getting to another level of respect
from Nick in the process.

	"Jenny's acting oddly."

	"How so?" Matt inquired.

	"She's... It's almost like she likes him," Nick said.  "Like beyond
the sexual."

	"OK.  So I'm not just picking that up from Seth, then," Matt
mentioned.

	"They do make a cute couple," Nick mentioned.

	"Yeah..." Matt smiled.

	"Not as cute as you, though."

	"Or as hot as you," Matt went on as they looked at each other.  It
was the first time that the two of them looked into each other's eyes.
Matt saw a painful past in Nick's, while Nick found a sense of uncertainty
in Matt's.  "So how long are you in town for?"

	"Just for the weekend, more than likely," Nick said.  "Why?  You
wanna ask me out or something?"

	"You want to?" Matt inquired.

	"I would be nice to go out with a cool guy," Nick said.  He pulled
his cell phone from his pocket a moment later and smiled.  "It says: `Tell
Matt that we're going to Seth's for a little while and that he better keep
you company'."

	"Not a problem with me," Matt said.

	"I'm not complaining either," Nick smiled at him as he responded
quickly and put the phone back in his pocket.

	For over an hour, the two talked about nothing important.  As they
continued to stand around talking, Jenny and Seth returned from their
momentary rendezvous with wide smiles.  "Y'all have fun?" Matt asked as
Nick snickered a little bit.

	"Twice," she winked at him as Nick shook his head.  "So
Nicky... you about ready?"

	He took a deep breath, part of him wanted to say no, but another
part wanted to climb into bed and drift off to sleep.  "So can I call you
tomorrow?" he asked Matt.

	"You need my number, don't you?" Matt smiled.

	"Yeah," Nick shook his head, almost punishing himself for not
realizing it before.  "What is it?"

	"662-555-1991," Matt answered.

	"Got it," Nick said as he sent Matt a number so that he could save
his number into his phone.  "So I'll call tomorrow."

	"Alright," he said as the two men shook hands, wanting to do more
but not giving themselves the chance.

	Seth and Jenny said goodbye with a kick each on the cheek just
before she hugged Matt goodbye.  With that, the two of them were off.
Walking back into the bar, Nick turned and smiled one last time.  Before
long, they were walking back toward Jenny's apartment.  A moment after they
left, Seth and Matt did as well, going back to Seth's to pass the evening.

	"So did you have a good time?" Jenny asked Nick.

	"Yeah.  I did," Nick told her.  She asked for no details, though,
knowing that they would come out in time.

	Seth, though, as they entered, wanted all the information he could
get.  Matt wasn't very forthcoming, thought, offering only that he'd had an
amazing night and that he was glad that he'd had the chance to meet a guy
that was as cool as Nick had been.