Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:52:58 -0400
From: Alan A. <eastcoastasulax@gmail.com>
Subject: Jake Grimke Chapter 26

NOTE:  This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he
matures through high school, into college and eventually into
adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region.  It contains and embraces
accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs;
Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a
firefighter might follow in his profession.  All of the characters in
this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether
dead or alive is purely coincidental.  If you liked this installment,
please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed
but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are
offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the
obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you
should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.

Evan didn't let go of Jake; rather, held him and then kissed his best
friend on the nape of the neck.  Immediately after feeling Evan's lips
on his neck, a tiny alarm went off in Jake's head, making him
wondering what was happening until he felt the plop of the warm tear
hit his neck, just above where Evan kissed it.  Jake felt Evan's hands
roam across his muscled back and then lower until they rested on top
of Jake's glutes.  Jake shuddered, wondering what was getting ready to
happen, wondering if it was fueled by the beer they had been drinking
or something more powerful.

Jake relished the feel of his wingman's strong hands resting on top of
his butt.  In the light coming in through the window, Jake took note
of Evan's strong arms, noting the definition of the bicep as well as
the bulk of the tricep.  "Not sure where you are headed with this bro,
but don't start something you can't finish," Jake said with almost a
tone of warning in his voice.

"I'm not, I just need a minute," Evan said with the slightest sniffle
to clear his nose but not easing up on his grip.

Evan couldn't see it but Jake said with a smile, "take as long as you
need buddy."

"Jake," Evan said.

"What bro?" replied Jake.

"I'm so going to miss you," Evan started, "I can't believe the next
time we are on the same field together we are going to be playing
against each other."

Cautiously, Jake returned some of the physical affection he was
receiving from Evan, gently tracing the outline of the lats and delts
on Evan's back and replied, "I know all your tricks Navy man and I'll
use them against you."

"No doubt," Evan replied, "Jake, I need a favor."

"What's that?" replied Jake.

"Got another pair of lax shorts I can wear to bed?" Evan asked.

With the marathon hug ended, Jake tossed him a clean pair from his
overstuffed equipment bag that was Jake's suitcase for the week as he
headed into the bathroom for a long beer piss and to brush his teeth.
Jake grabbed his own shorts hanging from the hook on the back of the
door and looked at the mirror over the dresser as his best buddy
stripped down and then slid his model-like body into Jake's shorts.
Jake marveled at Evan's form, noting how perfect it was and beginning
to kick himself for not letting Evan keep going with what he started
and not sure where it was headed.

With Evan taking his turn to piss and get ready for bed, Jake surfed
through the channels trying to find something besides the inane
late-night infomercials until he heard the toilet flush and saw the
light go out.   It had been almost two years since Evan slept over
with Jake, owing to Jake coming out to his parents and the rules they
imposed within the Grimke household.  "You know we are going to be
calling you admiral or something someday," Jake remarked to his buddy.

"Well, we'll see, have to make it through Plebe Summer first," Evan
reminded him.

"You will bro, confidence is high," Jake said with his usual ease,
"just take it one day at a time, one play at a time and just imagine
I'm there to back you up."

The serious look came over Evan's face again and he asked, "one more
favor, please?"

"Sure," Jake offered, remembering how easy the last one was.

Evan shut off the rest of the lights in the room and took the remote
from Jake's hand and clicked off the TV before sitting on the edge of
the bed and then screwed on his courage one more time before asking,
"hold me bro, hold me tonight."

It was only one of the few times in Jake's life that there was any
hesitation about what to do, a brief pause before he answered, "of
course."

Evan cautiously slid into the bed, pushing his back against Jake's
pecs, the curve of his butt against the front of Jake's shorts and the
back of his quads into the front of Jake's.  They both settled and got
comfortable before Jake draped his strong right arm over Evan's upper
body and kissed the back of Evan's head before saying, "you're safe, I
got you wingman.  Thanks for guarding my secret and being there when
it was time for everybody to know."

"Welcome bro, good night Jake," Evan replied.

Not too long after the sun came up, Will woke up in Evan's room with
Jackie and it took a few seconds to realize he was in the wrong room.
He got up quietly and let himself out and into his own room and was
shocked at what he saw.  The stunned Will Hurley whispered out loud ,
"Oh my God! What happened in here?  I go away for one night and look
what happens."

Jake ever the light sleeper smiled, held an index finger to his lips
asking Will to be silent, "shhhh, nothing happened, just like I'm sure
nothing happened next door."

Evan stirred and woke up startled, not sure where he was and pushed
Jake's arm off of him and pulled the sheets up before his mind
processed what happened since they got back from the beach.  He looked
at Jake and then Will before asking Jake, "nothing happened, right?"

Jake smiled wickedly, "nothing happened, nothing has changed between us."

With Evan back in his own room, Will had an idea, sensing that the
idea of a week of total irresponsibility was not on Jake's radar and
offered it as they dressed to meet Evan and Jackie for a pre-beach
breakfast, "What do you say we head up to Rehoboth for the day, let
Jackie and Evan alone to have some time together before Ev goes to the
Academy."

"What's in Rehoboth?" Jake asked.

"Our people," Will said with a bit of whimsical smile that elicited a
quizzical look from Jake.

"Our people?" Jake asked.

"There are lots of gay people in Reho. South end of the beach is
called Poodle Beach.  Gay guys come there from all over: DC,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, even New York."

"Really?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, time for you to experience little more of gay life buddy," Will said.

"I don't know," Jake said.

"C'mon, it will be fun, should be some fantastic eye candy if nothing
else," Will said to sweeten the offer.

"I guess we can do that," said Jake, caving to Will's suggestion.

"It's not even a half hour north of here," Will said, "we'll pack some
towels and stuff and head up after another round of pancakes and if
you don't like it we can come back here to this craziness."

"Deal" Jake said offering his hand to Will for a shake and then pulled
him into a hug, "thanks for being my best gay friend."

"Welcome bro, thanks for being there for me Jake Grimke, you made my
senior year," Will replied, patting Jake on the back, "I want the best
for you, and Jose too if that's in the cards."

"Thanks Will, I'd like that too but we will see what happens.  He's
going to be at Hopkins and I'll be at UVa," said Jake reminding Will
of the distance.

Will showered first and then packed their small beach cooler with
bottled waters and ice from the machine down the hall in the hotel
while Jake took his turn in the shower.  Jake came back into their
room with a towel wrapped around his waist and then found his navy
blue square cut Speedo and pulled it up while Will watched before
sliding up some board shorts and capped off his perfect upper body
with a long-sleeve tee shirt from a by-gone lacrosse camp.

"That's a hot look Jake, you are going to turn some heads today," Will
said with just a touch of jealousy that Jake was keeping himself for
Jose.

Jake just smiled as he slid his feet into some flip-flops before
meeting Evan and Jackie for the all-you-can-eat breakfast bar in the
hotel's dining room.  "We're headed up north to check out the gay
beach at Rehoboth," Jake announced to his wingman and his girlfriend,
"you're welcome to come along if you want."

Jackie looked at Evan and just shook her head no once before Evan
answered, "Nah bro, I got to start getting used to you not being my
constant shadow, you guys have fun but be back here for dinner?  We're
invited to Port Deposit's lacrosse team party after that."

"We'll be back," Will said, "sevenish?"

"Perfect," Jackie said before adding, "enjoy yourselves."

As they crept north on Coastal Highway towards the Delaware line, Will
asked, "think you could teach me to drive a stick?"

"Sure," Jake said, and downshifted and turned into an empty church parking lot.

Before switching seats, Jake explained the gearbox and clutch and how
they worked to Will.  "Also," Jake continued, "I double-clutch, it's
the way Dad taught me but if you are really good, you can speed-shift
too which I only tried a few times."

"Double-clutch?  Speed-shift?" Will asked.

"Speed shifting," Jake started to explain, "is when you just move the
shift lever from one gear to the next without engaging the clutch,
either to the next higher or lower gear based on matching the engine
speed with the road speed."

A puzzled look fell over Will's face who couldn't understand now why
it was even necessary to have a clutch.

"Double clutching," Jake continued, "is engaging the clutch twice
quickly, once in the lower gear, then disengaging momentarily in
neutral before re-engaging in the next gear."

Jake put his left hand on top of Will's right on the shifter knob and
instructed him, "Okay push in and hold the clutch down," Jake said
while moving the shift lever through the gears, "first is up here,
then down to second, up and over is third, straight down to fourth and
fifth is up over here to the right; got it?"

"I think so," Will replied, "so, clutch in, move the lever into first
and then ease it out?"

"Yes but don't forget to take off the parking brake," Jake said with a
point to the lever rising frontward from the rear of the center
console.

"Gotcha," Will said releasing the hand brake and finding first gear on his own.

With a little lurch, the Saab moved forward and Will gently
accelerated as Jake coached, "clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out,
clutch in and shift to second."

Will picked up the skill quickly in the parking lot, only stalling
once before they eased back on to Coastal Highway for the trip into
Rehoboth.  After stopping to fill their cooler with drinks, sandwiches
and snacks in Dewey Beach, Jake drove the Saab the rest of the way
under Will's direction until they found a parking space, paying for a
day parking pass as soon as they entered the beach town.

They carried their stuff up to the beach, arriving with the first
beach-goers just before 11:00 AM.  Jake had brought his UVa course
catalog and the guide sheet from the Journalism Department with its
suggestions for incoming freshman.  With a Warrior lacrosse baseball
cap on backwards and his Oakleys, Jake smeared sunblock on with the
help of Will to get the hard-to-reach places.

Will took the lead to get a beach umbrella and chairs from one of the
rental stands manned by some jock-looking dude that were evenly spaced
along the dunes backing up to the Rehoboth boardwalk and set them up
facing the ocean.  Once encamped, Jake's eyes surveyed the beach,
noticing the hot lifeguard up in the chair stand less than a dozen
yards away.  Not too far off the beach, Jake and Will watched a pod of
playful dolphins bob up and down just beyond the obvious rip current
as they swam southward towards Ocean City.

Jake lost himself, texting Jose while Will focused on the eye candy in
between flipping through pages of the current issue of GQ.  Guys their
age, guys in college, guys in there thirties and forties of all shapes
and sizes with everybody's eyes constantly roving and wandering.
Three sharp blasts on the lifeguard's whistle brought Jake back to
reality as he watched the lifeguard jump down from his chair, grab the
red rescue buoy and splash into the water.

In what seemed less than a minute, another buff red-trunked lifeguard
sprinted up and was heading into the water to catch up with the first
who was swimming out to a panicking bather being pulled out further
from the shore in the rip current.  On the boardwalk, a Baltimore TV
crew was filming a story about the contentious mayoral primary race
about to be held in the beach town and made their way down to the surf
to try to catch the rescue in progress.

Jake and Will got up and moved closer, like any spectator does as they
drive past a wreck on the highway.  Both lifeguards were helping an
older man out of the rip current and back into calmer water when Will
spotted another swimmer in trouble and pointed him out to Jake.

"I'm going, Will; get help," Jake said handing Will his shades and
ball cap, before sprinting into the water, remembering the water
rescue classes he had taken years before at Park Severn pool.

Jake flattened out into a prone position and began a crawl stroke,
keeping his head above the waterline and eyes focused on a man not
much older than he was fighting to get back to shore.  Even though he
devoted most of his athleticism to lacrosse, Jake was still a powerful
swimmer and reached the scared man in just over two minutes while Will
was directing the lifeguards to the second rescue in progress.

As he approached the swimmer in distress, Jake told him to calm down
and relax, keeping himself out of the swimmer's immediate reach,
knowing that a panicked victim would probably grab at anything
including another person in an effort to save themselves.

"Let me help you," Jake said in a commanding tone, cautiously
extending his right arm and trying to slide it under the victim's
right arm pit and across his chest, "I got you, let me do the work,"

Jake clutched him hard so he couldn't flail, just as he was trained at
the age of 16.  With powerful kicks and strong strokes of his left
arm, Jake swam them out together, just outside of the rip current and
off to the side into calmer water just as a member of the beach patrol
arrived.

The lifeguard escorted Jake and the swimmer back to shore, the whole
rescue caught from beginning to end by the Baltimore TV crew.  On the
beach, the gathered crowd applauded as EMS personnel began to assess
the swimmer.  Will was pretty sure he didn't blink at all the whole
time Jake was in the water and now, the reporter was jamming a
microphone in Jake's face as Will walked up to his buddy.

"What happened out there?" the reporter asked.

"We were watching the lifeguards rescue a swimmer from the rip current
and my friend Will pointed out another swimmer in trouble," Jake said
nervously.

"Then what?" the reporter asked

"I sent Will to get help and swam out to him," Jake replied.

"Were you scared?" asked the reporter.

"A little I guess, but I think my adrenaline just kicked in and over
rode my fear factor," Jake said remembering how his father never
bragged about the work he did.

"What's your name? Spell it," the reporter said.

"Jake, Jake Grimke, J-a-k-e G-r-i-m-k-e,"  Jake said.

As the reporter finished her interview, the lifeguard who assisted
came up to Will and Jake and introduced himself, "Great job, you're a
natural!  I'm Duncan Doughtery."

"This is Will Hurley, he spotted the guy; I'm Jake, Jake Grimke," Jake said.

"Well, like I said, you're a natural and after what I saw today, I can
say we wouldn't mind having a guy like you on the Rehoboth Beach
Patrol.  It's too late for this summer but if you're interested next
summer, look me up.  I'm a local down here and I'll be glad to help
you get on," and then turning to Will, Duncan continued, "Will; thanks
for your help too, you two make a great team."

Another lifeguard came up to Jake, identifying himself as Lt. Walsh of
the beach patrol and began to ask him particulars about the rescue and
was about to tear Jake a new asshole for undertaking such a rescue
before Will explained that Jake had been a local swimming champion and
had completed water rescue and CPR training.  Lt. Walsh backed off and
then finished getting Jake and Will's personal information for his
incident report.

Back in their hotel room, Jackie was watching the end of "The View"
while Evan talked and texted on his phone to other guys from Severn.
The highlights for the noon  news came on with the lead story being
breaking news from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and caught Jackie's
attention as she finished packing their beach bag with towels.

"Evan!  Come here, quick!" Jackie cried out.

"Two beach-goers had to be rescued late this morning by lifeguards
from the Rehoboth Beach Patrol after they were caught in the rip tide
near the resort town's border with Dewey Beach," the news anchor
blathered on as the video of Jake helping the second victim out of the
water onto shore played over her shoulder.

"Isn't that Jake?" Jackie asked.

"I missed it," Evan said with his eyes now glued to the TV, "maybe
they will show it again."

The TV anchor droned on, announcing they were going live to Rehoboth
for the full report.  A pretty blonde gal parroted the opening lines
by the anchor while the video feed clearly showed Jake swimming out,
rescuing the tired swimmer and swimming back to shore with him in tow
just as a lifeguard met them halfway to the shoreline.

"What happened out there?" the reporter asked.

"We were watching the lifeguards rescue a swimmer from the rip current
and my friend Will pointed out another swimmer in trouble," Jake said
nervously.

"Were you scared?" asked the reporter.

"A little I guess, but I think my adrenaline just kicked in and over
rode my fear factor," Jake said remembering how his father never
bragged about the work he did.

Immediately, Evan texted Jake, "You made us proud wingman, A&4VR."

Minutes later Jose texted Jake, "WTF Bro, I told you to stay out of
trouble not make the noon news!  Way to go!!!!!"

Accolades poured in from almost immediately from many of the contacts
in Jake's address book before the phone rang, "Hi Dad....I'm
fine....we're good...I know....did Mom see it....Dad, I'm shaking like
a leaf....okay...I love you guys too."