Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 13:31:10 -0500
From: Alan A. <eastcoastasulax@gmail.com>
Subject: Jake Grimke Chapter 30

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.


Captain John Grimke, still in uniform just having finished the day
tour on Rescue 1 at Baltimore's Steadman fire station, picked up Jake
and Jose at Penn Station upon their return from New York City and
detoured north on Charles Street to drop Jose off at the Phi Gamma
Delta house where he was spending the summer.  Even though Jose just
had an overnight suitcase slightly larger than Jake's gym bag, Jake
insisted on walking Jose up to his room in the FIJI fraternity house.
With most of the brothers gone for the weekend or summer, Jose had a
single room and before his bag hit the ground, both were engaged in a
passionate kiss good bye.

"Thank you for a wonderful weekend in the big city Jose," Jake managed
to get out in between the tongue wresting matches.

"I love you Jake; to me, you are such a wonderful man," Jose replied,
"now get going before your old man comes up here and starts doing a
search for us."

"I love you too Jose," Jake said, disciplining himself to break away
and make the walk back to the front door.  As he turned to look back
at the frat house, Jose stood there with a wave and a big smile and
then a second wave as John waved to Jose too from the Honda before
starting the 20 mile trip back to Severn.

On the way back, Jake filled his dad in on the details of the trip,
especially his moving visit to Ground Zero knowing how important the
bonds are amongst all firefighters.   He also touched on the show,
dining out at Bobby Flay's restaurant, Alejandro's cool penthouse
apartment and their shopping trips while avoiding details of the love
making between him and Jose.

John talked about his last two days at work, lots of training and not
too many fires  before reminding Jake he still had to get over to the
Harme's house to cut the grass for Annie.   Even though all of his
father's words were registering and he was answering appropriately,
Jake's attention became riveted on a motorcycle rider hunched over the
handlebars of a crotch rocket, dressed in black racing leathers with
matching boots and helmet.

"Don't even think about it Jake," John said, "your mother will kill
both of us if you aren't already dead from a severe case of road
rash."

"Sorry Dad, I wasn't really thinking about the motorcycle," Jake
replied, "just, um, uh, the..."

"I gotcha, okay, but just remember what I said," John said, realizing
what his son's attention was focused on before continuing, "and fair
warning, your mom is going to hit you up with something big when you
walk in, she's desperate which means you are in the driver's seat."

"Oh," Jake asked, "how so?"

"It's kind of like the perfect storm," John continued, "the
Conservatory is seeing a drop in the enrollment of the Organ Studies
program which means fewer students, fewer students means less need for
an assistant professor of organ there."

"Mom's getting laid off?" Jake said in a startled tone.

"Not anytime soon," John continued, "but since the Chesapeake Chapter
of the American Guild of Organists is having their bi-annual meeting
here this summer, your Mom thought it would be a great idea if one of
her students would give a demonstration for some other young people so
that maybe they would consider organ studies at a place like Peabody.
Except now the student that was going to do it had go back home for a
family medical emergency"

"I'm not exactly feeling like I am in the driver's seat yet Dad," Jake
said starting to connect the dots.

"Oh, I did leave out something," John said, "she said something about
a small honorarium, perhaps for somebody's out of pocket expenses at
UVa this fall."

"Gotcha now Dad," Jake said watching the leathered sport bike rider
take an exit ramp, "does she have a figure in mind?"

To sweeten the deal, John offered, "well, these sorts of things are
discretionary; I know the Guild doesn't have tons of money to be
shelling out but I'll match whatever figure she offers."

"When?" asked Jake.

"That's the kicker, two weeks," Dad said as they pulled up the
driveway "your mom plans on having the demonstration concert at St.
Michael's after the 11:00 AM service."

Inside, Emma greeted her men with a huge hug and kiss for John and
equally huge hug and quick peck on the cheek for Jake.  "Go get
changed and grill the steak dear," she said to John before turning to
Jake, "tell me about your trip sweetheart; how's Jose?"

"Jose's just fine," Jake said, "he said to say hello to you."

Jake unlocked his iPhone and showed Emma a g-rated picture of Jose and
himself posed on the rooftop patio in their new clothes with the
Empire State Building in the background, "you two are incredibly
handsome together," she cooed as she looked at their picture just
forwarded to Jake's email by Jose.

While Emma finished getting the dinner salad ready, Jake gave her a
rundown on the trip to New York City, pretty much the same version he
shared with his father on the way home.  "So Dad says you are in a bit
of a pinch for an organist," Jake started.

"I guess your father laid out what's up, what I need?"  Emma said as
she crumbled the blue cheese into the spinach salad.

Jake saw the bacon already in the salad and knew now Emma was making
one of his favorite dinners and smiled, "a little bribery, greasing
the wheels here Mom?"

"Well, I did miss having you around," Emma replied as Jake snatched a
crumble of bacon and blue cheese from the serving platter.

"Red wine?" Jake asked going to the wine cabinet.

"Yes, there's plenty of Malbec," Emma said as John walked through the
kitchen and grabbed the skirt steak already crusted with salt and
pepper.

As Emma put the finishing touches on the salad, Jake stood next to
her, almost three inches taller than his mother and began to uncork
the wine while Emma continued, `Just an hour of your time.  I talk
about it, you play it."

"Sounds easy enough, what do I play?" was Jake's natural follow up
before the wheels in his head started to spin.

"Literally, if you do what you did for Will back in the fall, show
what the instrument can do and then belt out something heavy duty,
that's all I really need," Emma outlined.

By the time his mother had finished her sentence, Jake countered with
his own suggestion, "wouldn't it be better if I did the talking, so
that they heard it from somebody closer to their own age?  Not saying
you're old, just saying, you know, heard it from one of their peers."

"Sounds even better!" Emma exclaimed with John returning, the grilled
steak on a serving platter.

Attempting to falsely clear his throat as they sat down at the kitchen
table, "Dad did mention something about an, um, honorarium for the
guest organist."

"I think we can swing a couple hundred, put that towards your unfunded
UVa expenses," Emma offered, unaware that John had proposed to match
it.

Now knowing he was driving this from the driver's seat, Jake countered
with, "I can make that busting my hump cutting grass this summer.  How
about $500.00?"

John looked at his son across the table and smiled because he knew
Jake had taken the bait and was running with it.  Jake continued, "I
got to get the sheet music, drive to Baltimore to practice; there's
expenses with these sorts of things."

Emma sighed and then smiled, "Deal; I don't have any students this
summer so the Moller at St. Michael's is all yours; just let me know
when you want to go so that they are expecting you and it's not the
Phantom of the Opera when the organ starts playing at odd times."

After dinner and cleaning up the dishes, Jake called Will and then
Jackie just to see how they were doing.  With the task of giving an
organ demonstration concert, Jake went to his MacBook and after
quickly changing the desktop pic to one of the racier shirtless shots
of Jose and himself, he began to go through his iTunes play list
looking for classical music he could play on the organ.  Before long,
the adventures of the weekend were catching up with him and he went to
bed a bit early, texting some sexy messages to Jose in Baltimore who
was getting ready for his second summer session at Hopkins and letting
him know he would be in Baltimore frequently over the next two weeks
to practice at St. Michael's.

The next morning, Jake could smell the coffee and hear John and Emma
puttering downstairs in the kitchen at 7:00 AM.  Already, the sun was
warm as he made a plan for the day.  Knowing his former swimming coach
at Park Severn usually arrived an hour before practice started at 9:00
AM, he pulled on two speedos, a newer one first followed by an older
one as a "drag suit" and then pulled on his lacrosse shorts followed
by no-show sox and his favorite Nike Shox and a well-worn navy blue
Baltimore Fire Department tee shirt with the sleeves cut off of it.

"And where are you headed dressed like that mister,' Emma demanded to know.

"See if I can get a few quick laps in, then cut the grass at Evan's
for Annie," Jake answered, popping a couple of frozen waffles into the
toaster.

"Just be home early, your Dad is working the night tour tonight," Emma
reminded him.

"Well, I was going to try to hit St. M's and run through my music this
afternoon and instead of having to drive home in rush hour, could I
stop and have dinner with Dad at the firehouse?" Jake asked.

"If it's okay with your father, it's fine with me.  Maybe I will take
Annie out to dinner, I'm sure she is kind of lonely these days," Emma
replied.

Jake finished spreading peanut butter on the waffles and dousing them
with honey before eating each one in a handful of bites, "Sweet, Dad?"

"Sure, it's okay with me, I'll tell who ever is cooking to make enough
for one more," John said, "and after watching you eat that, I'm
thinking two more!"

By 7:30 AM, Jake was finished with breakfast, wearing his Oakleys and
popping the earbuds from his iPhone into each ear listening to
Shinedown's  "Diamond Eyes" the same song Will used for the lacrosse
video montage as he began a sub eight minute mile pace to Park Severn
Swim Club just under two miles from the Grimke residence.

Arriving at the swim club, he saw his coach's car there and banged on
the chain link fence to get his attention while yelling, "Coach, Coach
Thompson!"

Harry Thompson looked up from the umbrellaed table where he was
reviewing his notes on the current roster of swimmers and headed to
the padlocked gate, "Hey Jake, how are you???"

"It's all good, think I can get a few laps in before everybody gets
here for practice?" Jake asked, turning on his winning smile.

"For you Jake; of course," Harry answered, "Want me to time you?"

"Not yet, let me get a feel for the water," Jake replied as he began
to strip down, piling his belongings on the chair next to Harry's
table, "how's the team looking this year?"

"We're off to a good start, got some good young talent coming along
but got to keep them in the program.  Jake, you made us all proud with
that rescue at Rehoboth earlier this summer," Thompson said reminding
Jake of what happened during Senior Week.

"I never could have done that without the training from you and the
lifeguards here so it's as much yours as it is mine," Jake said, never
one to try to take all the credit for any of his successes.

Jake walked to the starting platform and dove in prone and began a few
laps of freestyle before resting along the gutter drain under it after
completing 200 yards.
Then he pulled himself up out of the pool dripping wet and asked, "Hey
Coach, let's see if I still got it" Jake said nodding to the J. Grimke
on the record board for the 100 yard butterfly for 16-18 year old
boys.

"Sure," Thompson said wearing board shorts, swim team sweatshirt and
flip flops, "swimmer, take your mark, get set, GO!"

Jake's body sprang across the water with an excellent push-off from
the starting platform before his body began rhythmically porpoising in
the butterfly stroke as he surged towards the opposite end of the pool
and slowed just enough to make his flip turn before returning 50 yards
to the starting wall.  Coach Thompson was kneeling at the starting
platform as Jake forced his body to move faster through each stroke
without getting sloppy before he touched the wall.

"Minute twelve and some change Jake, not bad considering you haven't
competed for almost two years," Thompson reported after clicking the
old school analog stopwatch, "you lost some time on your turn but I'm
confident your record is safe until the next Jake Grimke comes along."

Jake smiled, panting from the swimming sprint, "Thanks coach." he
managed to get out before hauling himself up and out of the water.

"So, Virginia and lacrosse?" Harry asked as the one-time swimmer drip
dried before putting on his shorts and shirt.

"Hell yeah," Jake said with his usual understated confidence.

"Jake," Harry started as Jake put his socks and Nikes back on, "you
have wonderful natural talent and abilities. You are a gifted student;
gifted athlete and a great human being.  I want you to do good things
with your life Jake; promise me you'll do that."

Young Grimke understood the seriousness of his former coach's voice
and had heard similar pleas from others; Coach Dase, Miss Birdsong and
Dr. Pearce among others and knew he had to live his life to the best
of his abilities.  "I promise Harry, I hope I live up to the
expectations you and others have for me," Jake said with his typical
hug.

"I'd say make us proud Jake but you have already done that once, so,
keep making us proud Jake, God bless you as you head to Virginia,"
Jake's former coach said with a bit of a tear in his eye.

"Thanks for everything Coach, keep an eye on the Cavs," Jake said as
he popped the earbuds in and Oakleys back on for a run over to Evan's
house to cut the grass.