Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 10:24:46 +1200
From: Kiwi
Subject: Westpoint Tales - Jason and Jordan's tale - 1

Hey, welcome to the Westpoint Tales - a series of stories set in a small
New Zealand town over a time-span of 150 years.(This one's in 2005.)

All the usual disclaimers apply - this is Nifty. If you shouldn't be
reading this, then don't and what are you doing here anyway?


Jason and Jordan's tale - 1
"Your boyfriend's dead."


"What?" Jordan looked up at his brother standing in the doorway.

"Your boyfriend's dead. On the way home from your going-away party, he
missed the turn at the corner of Shield and Blackett Streets, shot off the
road into the park and smashed his head open on a tree. Wasn't even wearing
a crash helmet apparently. They think he might have been drunk. Was he
pissed?"

"Sean, I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't got a boyfriend."

"No. Not now you haven't. He's dead. Guess he couldn't live without you,
eh?"

"Sean!" Jordan rose up from among the boxes on the floor and glowered at
the boy in the doorway. "I still don't know what you're on about. If you
don't start making sense, I'm going to pound you."

"Just try it!" Sean stood and glared back at him. At thirteen, he was
roughly the same height as his brother, but Jordan was eighteen months
older and still heavier and more developed.

"Who's dead?" Jordan demanded.

"Phillip White. You know, your mate with the flash new motor-bike. He's
dead. Mum just rang Aunt Karen with our new phone number and she told her.

"Phillip White's dead?" Stunned, Jordan sank down and sat on his unmade
bed. He looked up again at his annoying little brother.

"This had better not be some sort of sick joke, Sean Taylor. Pip's not my
boyfriend. He was just a friend."

"Wasn't he? He was a boy and he was your friend. Well, I suppose you'd
know. He is dead though, I wasn't joking about that. Ask Mum if you don't
believe me."

"You're sick, you know that? I will ask Mum, right now, and if you're
shitting me - you're the one they'll be burying."

"Hah! You wish."

"Yeah. Actually, sometimes I do. Get out of my way, you annoying little
sod." Jordan pushed past him and headed for the kitchen. Sean trailed along
behind.

"I'm not so little. I'm just as tall as you are."

"You're still bloody annoying though."

Jordan burst into the big old kitchen where their mother sat surrounded by
dozens of boxes, in the midst of their moving-day chaos.

"Mum, what's this little shit on about? Has something happened to Pip?"

"Don't talk to your brother like that," Mrs. Taylor sighed automatically.
"There's been an accident. Your friend was killed the night before last."

"Pip! NO!" Stunned again, Jordan sat down and stared at his feet.

"Are you all right, Jordie?" His concerned mother lifted his head to look
into his eyes.

"I'm all right. Of course I'm all right. I'm not dead, I'm alive. And,
Pip's dead!" he sobbed.

"Why Mum? Why Pip? He was just a kid, a nice kid. I was at his fifteenth
birthday a couple of weeks ago. He was just a boy. His life was just
beginning and - now it's over.  It's all o-o-over."

The cool teenage facade crumbled as Jordan bent forward crying, his hands
covering his face, and he showed that he was just a boy as well. A hurting,
grieving boy.

"Oh, Sweetheart. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." His mother put her arms around
her boy and stood holding him as her bigger-than-her teenage son sat and
cried into her bosom as he hadn't done for many years.

"See?" Sean gloated. "I knew it. I knew he was your boyfriend. Why else
would you be sitting there crying like a big girl?"

"Fuck off, Dickwad. Fuck off or I WILL pound you."

"Jordan, you know I don't like you talking to your brother like that.
However, in this case, he deserves it. Fuck off, Sean."

"Whaaat?" Sean was shocked. He couldn't believe that his mother would speak
to him like that. June Taylor hardly ever swore, especially not the "F"
word, she never said the "F" word.

"What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me. Can't you see that your brother's upset? If you're not going
to help, you can go and sit in your room. You go and think about how you'd
feel if you just lost a close friend."

"I did. I've lost all my friends, everyone I've ever known, and it's all
your fault, yours and Dad's. You took away from our home and you dragged us
here, to this dump in the middle of nowhere. I didn't want to come here and
now I've got no friends and it's all your fault. It's not fair!"

Angry and upset now as well, Sean fled back to the bedroom that he was
going to have to share with Jordan, and he slammed the door.

"And, I'll see to him in a minute," Mrs. Taylor sighed wearily. "Jordie,
Honey? Jordan are you going to be all right?"

"Yes, Mum. I'll be fine. I think I need a few minutes alone, I need to
think."

"Yes, well. You always were the thinker of the family. You can't go to your
room, Sean's in there. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll drag him out
here."

"No, it's okay. I'm going for a walk. You go deal with Sean. I'll be back
later."

"Okay then. As long as you're sure. Where are you going, Jordan?"

"Just for a walk. I might go and sit down by the water, where the boats
are."

"Right then. Don't be too long or I'll start to worry."

"No worries, Mum."

He headed out the front, through the shop. His dad was there, but he was
busy with a couple of customers. Jordan just nodded to him and kept going,
out the front door and onto the sidewalk and the main street of Westpoint.

He looked down the long, straight, street which faded into the distance,
and then he turned the other way, crossed the side street and walked up on
to the embankment which skirted around the edge of the lagoon where the
line of fishing boats were moored at their wharves.

Past the end of the wharves, the big, squarish, rocks made a rough
staircase down to the water in the lagoon. Jordan gingerly made his way
down there, stepping carefully on the mud and slime covered rocks at the
bottom. He squatted down by the water's edge, sitting on his heels.

It was nice there. Sort of peaceful. He'd always liked being around water
and found it had a calming effect on him, even when it was moving. Not the
beaches though - the wild West Coast beaches were too rough to calm anyone.

Here, about 1 or 2k's back from the river mouth, the water wasn't wild at
all. It was calm and flat, just occasionally heaving gently as the last
memories of ocean waves made their way across the lagoon.

Jordan's hometown was far inland and the small river there wasn't like
this. He was used to clean, clear water rushing busily past. The water here
was decidedly murky, green and sluggish, but it was a clear, windless day
and the surface of the lagoon sparkled in the sunshine.

They'd held his going-away party, back home, down by the river, with a
bonfire, barbeques and music lighting up the night, and Pip had died on the
way home. Damn!

"Oh Phillip. Poor little Pip."

For some reason, the picture that came to mind was not of the short,
stocky, teenager that he was, but rather Jordan remembered him from years
ago when he was a tiny wee boy, half the size of his friends, and
constantly calling, "Wait for me," as he struggled to keep up with the
bigger boys.

He smiled as he sat there remembering. He smiled fondly and tears rolled
down his cheeks. He just felt SO sad. Did he love him? Yes, of course he
did. He loved him as a friend. What a shame that he never told him
that. Now he never would.

"Sorry, Pip. I'm not going to do that again. From now on, if I love
someone, I'm going to tell them so."

As he sat there quietly thinking, he realised that Sean was right in a
way. They had no friends now, not around here anyway. Today was their first
day in a new home in a new town where they knew nobody and nobody knew
them. They had no friends - here. Their friends were all back there, at
home, and the way kids grew and changed, in no time at all, when they met
them again, they would just be strangers. Strangers with a few, fading,
shared memories of their younger years. All except Pip. Damn. Pip would
never get to grow up. Pip was dead.

When the sobbing stopped again, Jordan decided that, well, he'd just have
to make some new friends then. He would, it shouldn't be too
hard. Everybody wanted to know the new kid in town didn't they? Yeah, sure
they would.

Their parents were having what his Aunt Karen laughingly called their
mid-life crisis.  They'd both had high-paying jobs and high-flying careers
in the city, but they had decided that they were tired. They were tired of
the stress, of the commuting and of the whole lifestyle, and they had
thrown their jobs, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor resigned, sold up everything and
they had bought a small business, a 7 day corner store with takeaways
attached, and they had brought their boys back here to live in the small
town where they both grew up.

Westpoint was his parents' hometown, but it wasn't his. Well, not until
now. Now it was, he supposed. They'd just have to make the best of it. A
new beginning, life goes on. For some - "Oh,Pip."

So. What did he have for this new beginning? He had a new home. He had a
family, his parents and his brothers. 'That's more than some people have
got.'

Did he love his parents, his mum and dad? Yes he did. They were cool. Best
parents he'd ever had. (joke) He was going to tell them that too. Jordan
couldn't remember the last time he'd told his parents that he loved
them. It was about time he did.

What about his brothers then? Sean was an annoying little shit and he never
missed a chance to have a dig at him. But, he was his brother. Their mother
loved him and, yeah, if Sean died, Jordan would miss him. He loved him, in
a way. He did.

Michael, on the other hand - their older brother was a creep. He was a jerk
and a bully.  Jordan decided that he did not love Michael, he didn't even
like him. If Michael died, he'd piss on his grave. He would go to his
funeral, but only to make sure that they buried him deep and packed the
earth down so that he stayed there.

The funeral! "Oh, damn." He should be at Pip's funeral, to show respect, to
say goodbye and to support his parents in this horrible time. He should
go. He wanted to. He had to go to his friend's farewell.

With tears still streaming down his face, he jumped up and ran back home,
through the shop and back into the kitchen. Mrs.Taylor was still in amongst
her boxes.

"Mum, I have to go back. I've got to go to Pip's funeral. Did Aunt Karen
say when it will be?"

"Whoa Jordie, slow down. I don't know when, she didn't say. We can't all go
back, we've only just got here and I'm still unpacking. You can go back on
your own, if there's enough time. It has been two days already, you may not
have time to get there. Why don't you go and phone his parents and find
out?"

"Can I? Should I? I mean, they'll be busy, won't they?"

"Jordan, go and ring Mrs. White. It's the only way you're going to find
out."

So, he did, and it was too late. Pip's father thanked him for ringing and
everything, but the funeral was arranged for 11 o'clock the following
morning and he'd never get there in time even if he drove himself, which he
didn't.

"Oh. Okay then, it's too late. Thanks Mr. White and I'm sorry. I'm sorry
about Pip and I'm sorry that I can't be there for him. I loved him you
know, not in a gay way or anything, but I did love Pip, as a friend. I wish
that I'd told him that."

"I'm sure that you told him that in a hundred different ways. Thanks for
ringing, Jordan.  I'm pleased that Phillip had you for a friend, good
friends are hard to find."

That was enough to start him crying all over again after he'd hung up. He
went back out through the kitchen, stopping only to tell his mother that he
couldn't go - it was too late to get there, and that he was going out
again. This time he didn't hesitate, out the front door and straight over
to the water again.

Back down at the water's edge, nothing had changed except maybe the tide
had come in a little. He was going to have to get used to tides and
stuff. There were also a couple of canoes out on the water now. He sat
there, hugging his knees and feeling a bit down and sorry for himself.

What Mr. White had said had really upset him. He wasn't that good a friend
to Pip. If Jordan was the best he had, then Pip didn't have very much at
all. That was going to change too.

Jordan resolved that from now on, he was going to do better. He was going
to be open and honest and he was going to be the very best that he
could. Always.

He zoned out for a while, just watching the canoes out on the lagoon. They
made a great picture, shining and laughing in the sunshine. After a few
minutes, he realised that he wasn't even looking at the one with the two
teenage girls, he was only focused on the one with a young boy in it.

That was nothing new; Jordan's eyes always went to the boys not the
girls. He liked boys.  Girls were okay, as friends, but that's all they
were. Jordan preferred to be with boys.

He'd never done anything, never had any sort of sexual experience, but he
was gay. He had no doubt about it. That was who he was - 100% gay. "Bent as
a dog's hind leg."

That was his biggest secret, that he was gay. He'd never told Pip that
either, he'd never told anyone. That was stupid really. Being gay wasn't
anything he'd done, it was just who he was. If he was to die today, say he
was run over on the way home, (not likely, but it could happen.), no-one
would ever know that he was gay. No-one would know who he was.

"That's going to change too," he said aloud. "It's not my fault, it's just
who I am. They think they know me, but they don't. Not yet."

He took one last look at the boy out on the water. He really did look
great. Blond hair, blue shirt and golden-tanned arms. He looked beautiful,
but then, most people did at a distance. It was only when you got up close
to them that you could see their faults, and everybody had them, some more
than others.

He got up and went home - back to the shop at number one, Main Street,
Westpoint - and didn't that have to be the coolest address in town? There
were no customers in for once, and that was a good thing. That meant that
he'd get to talk to both of his parents at the same time. This was going to
be hard to do once, let alone twice.

"Hello Jordie," his mother said when he walked in. "The jug's just boiled
if you want a drink. Are you feeling better now?"

"No. Not really. This is not something you get over in five
minutes. However - "he sat down at the opposite end of the table to his
parents. "I've made a decision. I've got something to tell you. Mum, Dad, I
am gay."

The three of them sat around the table looking at each other. Why did he
feel like an axe was about to drop on him?

"Well? Aren't you going to say something?"

"Are you sure that you know what you're talking about, Jordan?" His father
asked.

"Yes. Of course I'm sure. I've always suspected it and lately I've been
doing some searching on the internet. I'm gay, and don't tell me it's my
fault because it's not. It's either enviromental or it's genetic. Either
way it's your fault, not mine."

"Jordie," his mother sighed. ""No-one's saying that it's anyone's fault
here."

"Well you don't look very happy and joyous to me," Mr. Taylor said.

"It's not a joke, Dad. And it's not that sort of gay. I'm queer -
homosexual."

"And you're sure about that?"

"Yes, 100% sure."

"Right then. What brought this on all of a sudden? Were you in love with
Phillip?"

"No I wasn't. I wasn't in love with anyone, I never have been."

"Never? So what makes you think that you're gay then?"

"I don't think, I know. It's just who I am. I was thinking, if it was me
that died, like Pip did, then no-one would ever know who I was. Well, now
you do. I'm Jordan Taylor, I'm fifteen and a half, I'm your son and I'm
gay. And, I love you guys. I want you to know that too, I love you."

"Wow," said his mother. "You have been doing some thinking haven't you?
It's okay, Jordie. If you're sure, then that's who you are. We love you too
son."

"Yes, we do," Mr. Taylor agreed. "We do love you, Son, but you're not going
to start wearing make-up and pink frilly clothes and stuff are you?"

"No Dad, I'm not. That's not me. Nothing's changed except now you know who
I am on the inside and when I come home with a partner, if I ever do, it
will be a boy, not a girl.  That's all."

"That's all? That's a pretty big difference, but, whatever makes you happy,
Jordan.  We will accept whoever you choose. Of course we will."

"Great! Thanks Dad, thanks Mum. I'm pleased that that's out of the way, and
I do love you, even more now."

He went over to his mother and hugged her. She hugged him back, kissed his
cheek and whispered, "You're still my little boy. You'll always be my
little boy, Jordie."

"Thanks Mum." He looked at his father, a question in his eyes.

Bill Taylor sighed and he stood up. "Oh all right. Just this once. Come
here, Jordan."

He flew into his arms and hugged his dad fiercely. Then he left them alone
and went out to the garden in the back yard. He couldn't believe how well
that had gone. There were so many horror stories about kids coming out to
their families. Jordan was grateful that he had such great parents. Now, if
only he could trade his brothers in, one of them anyway.


Author's Note : Any comments, questions, criticisms etc., please e-mail me
at canned-heat@hotmail.com

I love getting feedback. If you want to see more - go to It's Only Me from
Across the Sea (http://iomfats.org) Stories by Kiwi.

And be sure to look around while you're there, there are some great stories
there.