Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 09:38:38 -0700
From: Flip McHooter <1977.flip@gmail.com>
Subject: So Cal Summer 1969-Chapter 16

The story below is a work of fiction, except the location. All characters
named are figments of my imagination. This story contains explicit sexual
situations between high school aged boys, (and some girls). If this is
illegal, etc., well you know the drill.

Also, because it's based in the past, some of it may not be politically
correct as I have tried to be true to 1969.

Thanks to everybody who has emailed me, I appreciate the tips and
feedback. Please let me know what you think of this chapter. Flip
1977.flip@gmail.com


Chapter 16

"I said: Jake, what the hell are you doing here?" This was Ace again, and
this time much louder, and causing the portly tattoo artist to look back
and forth between all three of us.

"Oh, hey Dad. Hi. I didn't see you standing there. Ryan and me
are...a...um...gonna go see a movie."

"Oh, is that so? You boys came all the way down here to this side of
Pasadena just to see a movie. Exactly what movie were you planning on
seeing? Midnight Cowboy? Or maybe Cinderelly?"

Ace looked pissed, but the tattoo dude started to smirk.

"Um, well, we were going to try and get in to that theater over there," he
said, pointing to the triple X-rated theater next door to the tattoo shop.

"You were, were you? Well, whadaya think about that, Sonny?" Ace said,
looking over at the grinning tattoo artist.

`I think it's kinda cute, Mr. M. These here boys wanna go see some big lady
parts. Looks ta me like they want ta get some ed-u-katin."

"Is that what you're doing here Jake? You came all the way down here for
that? And you, you look familiar to me. Where have I seen you before, kid?"

"I live next door to Jake. I'm Ryan." Thinking fast I added, "This was my
idea. Don't get mad a Jake. He just wanted to see the pussy...I mean, the
movie too, and he came with me to keep me company `cause I didn't want to
come down here all by myself."

"Well how about that! My little boy has grown up," he said, starting to
laugh and look over at Sonny. And then just as quickly as he started
laughing he stopped dead, turned around and gave Jake an icy stare.

"Just exactly how do you think that you were going to get in there, boy?
You're not even close to being old enough to get in, and it's not cheap,
either."

"I don't know. We just thought we'd give it a try. Like Ryan said, they
probably just want to make some money so we figured they'd let us in when
nobody was looking. We really didn't give it much thought."

"They're perky lil' kids, ain't they Mr. M? I'm a thinkin' they got `em
some big `ole donkey balls! "

`It appears so, Sonny, it appears so. Come with me boys. Let's go see what
happens. Don't be surprised if you get booted out the door and end up out
on your asses. Then you can get your butts out of here and back on home
where you two belong."

We followed Ace down the sidewalk sneaking a few sly glances at each other,
not daring to say a word and neither one of us wanting to go in the theater
now. We should have listened to Coach Brian when he told us not to come
down here. Man, were we stupid. What the hell were we thinking?

As we reached the front of the theater, Ace stopped for a second and looked
all around the sidewalk for someone or something and not seeing anything
marched right past the crusty old lady in the ticket booth and straight to
the front door, opening it for us to go through first and then he followed
us inside. That was weird, I thought to myself. We stood inside the lobby
for a second or two and then Ace spotted a creepy looking guy behind the
`candy' counter.

"Wilfred, would you please go find Mr. Jimmy and bring him here to me?"

"Yes sir, Mr. M. I'll be back in a jiffy," he sniffed, wiping off his runny
nose with the back of his gray-haired hand.

Wow, how does Jake's dad know all of these strange people?

While we were waiting for Mr. Jimmy, and because we were too scared to
talk, I took the opportunity to glance around the lobby area. The place had
definitely seen better days, but it looked like it could have been an old
vaudeville theater with some of those fancy doo-dads still decorating the
walls and rafters. It had a huge ornate ceiling that was beautifully
painted with stars, sky and dark blue clouds-and it looked like it hadn't
been touched in over fifty years. Beautiful old glass light fixtures in
bright colors hung from the ceiling casting an eerie glow.

What made this look different from Disneyland, though, was all of the
coming attraction posters of naked women, boobs and pussys front and
center, trying to look sexy and making you want to come back for more. The
carpet was a filthy red and black palm tree print and was really
crunchy. The tall walls were covered in a red velour fabric, and the
counter was made of cheap red plastic. I guess all of these red colors make
people get really turned on and horny. Some sort of old elevator/Las Vegas
music was playing softly in the background, muffling the non-stop moans and
the "Oh-Yeah's" and the "Do-Me's" coming from the movie playing in the next
room.

I turned back around just in time to see a very tall, very skinny
distinguished looking black man with a giant graying afro coming fast
towards us as he walked out from behind a red velvet curtain off to the
left side of the lobby, and, of course, he was wearing a dark-red plaid
suit, red shirt and red tie. "Mr. M, what brings you back so soon? It's
always magnificent to see you again."

"Jimmy, this is my son Jake and his friend Ryan. They would like to watch
your movie this afternoon."

"Oh, I see," he said, clasping his big hands together and pausing for
dramatic effect while giving us the once-over. "Ordinarily I'm not quite
sure that I could accommodate such fine upstanding young gentlemen such as
these, and seeing them here standing in front of me I must stress the term
young. However, if you can vouch for their upstanding virtuous qualities, I
would be most honored to graciously allow them to enter into my unique
establishment, free of charge, as a courtesy to you, Mr. M."

"That would be fine Jimmy, and most generous. I don't believe that they
will cause you any trouble. If they do, kick them out and let me know about
it right away. I'll be in the neighborhood all day. Let them watch the
movie and then maybe let them take a quick peek in the back room, but under
no circumstances are they to, how should I say this, mingle about with any
of the other patrons here on the premises.

"And boys," he said turning to us, "I want you out of here in an hour, no
longer. Follow Jimmy's instructions completely. And when you leave you go
out the side exit and go straight home. I don't ever want to see you in
this neighborhood again. It is not safe here downtown for children. Do I
make myself clear?"

"Yes Dad."

"Yes sir."

"OK. I'll see you later. I'm very busy right now and I've got an important
situation that needs my immediate attention. Jimmy, thanks for this and I
owe you one. I promise you that I won't forget it."

"Nary a problem, Mr. M. I will take earnest care of these dandy fine young
gentlemen. Do not concern yourself with their well-being."

"I'll be seeing you then, fellas," giving us both a hard stare one more
time and pointing his finger at us. With that, Ace walked out the door.

"So, my fresh-faced and fledgling young gentleman friends, am I correct in
my assumption that you would appreciate viewing some exquisite adult
entertainment?"

"Yeah, we sure do!" Jake said, obviously glad his dad was gone. "What's
playing?"

"Well actually, I've got a girlfriend and she wants to go all the way so I
thought this would be a good place to see how to do it so she doesn't think
I'm a virgin," I rushed out and said too quickly while continuing with my
lie, hoping that Jake got it and wouldn't say something to get us both into
any more trouble. "And I didn't want to come alone so I brought Jake with
me. Can we just go in and watch a little of the movie and then we'll take
off? We promise that we won't cause you any trouble."

"That sounds completely satisfactory to me, gentleman. As this appears to
be your first experience in this exotic setting, I must advise you before
you cross the threshold into the auditorium that in attendance are certain
patrons who may, shall we say, be enthusiastic by what is transpiring up on
the screen and seeing such handsome young men such as yourselves enter,
they may want to sit next to you to try and engage in some rather spirited
and unsavory sexual behavior. May I suggest that you sit some distance
apart from the other patrons and be attentive of your surroundings as you
view my discerning cinema? Please refrain from participating with those
individuals, and if need be cordially suggest that they move themselves
along."

"I sorta think I understand what you're trying to say. I don't think we
want to get involved in any of that kind of stuff, mister," I said.

"What's in the back room that my dad was just talking about?" Jake asked,
not paying any attention to anything that Mr. Jimmy had just told us.

"Ah, yes, that. On your exit from the auditorium I suppose that you may
want to choose to continue to enlighten and broaden your minds with the
rather colorful multi-faceted side of human sexuality. I believe that in
the numerous audiovisual compartments that I have assembled are examples of
some quite fine and extraordinary collections of rare and enthralling films
representing sexual fantasies that young gentleman such as your-selves
could never quite imagine and may actually appreciate viewing. Please feel
free to partake in those erotic visual spectacles if you so wish. You may
find some of them quite stimulating. But please, excuse me for saying this
and as crass as this may sound, favor me by refraining from pulling out
your genitals and manhandling them.

"One final item, if I may be so bold. Should the house lights come on at
any time, I must insist that you please make haste out the back exit and
into the alley and join the public out on the boulevard. Do not look around
and please rally away from the structure. Should you be captured by the
constables and incarcerated, your father will eliminate me. Literally. Now
go and enjoy!" he said, flipping his arms around in some crazy dramatic
fashion and clapping his hands twice. "I will return within the hour and as
I do not expect to continue my relationship with you any further, I must
say thank you for joining us today and I bid you both a fond farewell."

Once Mr. Jimmy had slinked away from us and disappeared back behind the red
drapes, I whispered to Jake, "Oh, man, this is so fucking strange. I can't
believe this is happening to us. These people are really, really weird!
Let's get in there and see some of the movie and then let's get the hell
out of here, OK?

"All right. But you wanna get a Coke and a candy bar first?"

"You idiot. Come on!"

I grabbed Jake's arm and we went through the big doors and into the middle
of the theater. Standing just behind the closed doors I noticed that it was
a lot bigger inside than I had imagined. Once my eyes got used to the dark
I looked up at the screen and saw what had to be a fifty foot boner moving
steadily across the wide screen as it was slamming into an equally large
dripping wet pussy. I had to bite my tongue from the craziness of our
situation and keep from outright laughing.

I pushed Jake down a few rows and we took our seats, making sure that we
were away from the handful of people that were scattered about in the large
theater. As we walked by one of the top rows I was pretty sure that one guy
had his dick out of his pants and he was whacking it off in time with the
movie. No wonder the floor was so shiny and sticky!

After we sat down and watched about ten or fifteen minutes of the movie I
started to realize that this was actually getting rather boring. Sure, the
guy had a nice big hairy cock with a big red head and I did like looking at
it, but I really didn't want to see him plowing it into some girl, over and
over and over again. I really don't know what I was expecting, but the
dialogue was stupid, if you could even call it dialogue, and the music was
even stupider. It sounded like Jordy practicing on his toy piano using his
feet. Sloan could make better music than that, just by burping and cutting
a few farts. I looked over at Jake who had his arm up and his face half
covered by his hand. I couldn't tell whether he was embarrassed or bored,
or both. Either way, it was time to for us to split from this freaking
place.

I nudged his elbow off the armrest that we were sharing and asked, "This
movie is stupid. Let's go check out that back room to see what it's all
about and then let's get the hell out of here, OK?"

"Yeah, I've already seen this kind of stuff for real before when I took
pictures of Lisa and the football team getting it on," he whispered. "I
like watching the guys and their big equipment but not the girls so much."

We got up and started down towards the screen where there was a door that
led to the mysterious back room. I noticed out of the corner of my eye a
grungy looking guy from a couple of rows behind us get up and start to
follow us, but when I turned around to shoot him a dirty look, he sat right
back down in another seat. We both stumbled along on our way down the rest
of the aisle and through a dark archway next to an old emptied out
orchestra pit and then on to the back room door. Once inside, we looked
around and saw that the brightly lit room was filled with what looked like
those tall photo booths they have at the county fair where you and your
friends can all squeeze into and take four goofy pictures for a
quarter. But these booths were entirely different.

The compartments here were lined up evenly along each side of the long and
tall narrow room, at least twenty or more on each side. More of those
coming attraction posters were hanging up high above the booths, big tits
starring down on us like gods from above and the red nipples seemed to eye
our every move. Smaller, glossy pictures were hanging on the sides of the
booths showing various poses and stills from the different movies that you
could watch inside. The booths had ratty black curtains that you could
close once you were inside so you could have some sort of privacy and to
keep someone else from looking in, or to let someone walking by know that a
particular booth was in use. Luckily no one was in the hallway that ran
down along the middle of the booths, but some of the booths had the
curtains closed and you could hear some of the soundtracks playing, with
more of that funky sounding music. The smell in here was like a bad
combination of a stinky, rotting bathroom that hadn't been cleaned in many
years and an old empty dumpster that had been sitting for hours in the hot
sun out behind a cheap Chinese restaurant.

Jake and I walked down the gummy and dirty linoleum lined hallway looking
at the pictures on the sides of the booths, whispering comments to each
other. We were both amazed by the huge variety of the films. Shit, I didn't
know people did some of this stuff, and for a quick second I pictured my
parents doing some of these things in their bedroom, and then just as
quickly pushed that gross thought right back out of my head. Yuck and
double yuck! My friend from third grade, Scott, who moved to a farm a few
years ago, used to tell me about his parents making a lot of noise when
they would screw each other, but I never heard my parents doing it and I'm
kinda glad that I never had.

One poster had a picture of two women with an enormous plastic pink phallus
sticking in both of their cooters at the same time. A lot of the posters
showed various groupings of men and women, some with more women and some
with more men, usually with the women having a prick stuffed into her mouth
and another schlong up her honey pot at the same time. Most of the men were
older dudes, but the women were almost always very young looking and almost
always had big boobies. Quite a few showed one woman eating out another
woman's quim, usually with big sloppy grins on their mugs. That must be a
favorite for these patrons, but it sorta grossed me out. Some had petite
women dressed up as young school girls with shaved hoo-hoos riding big
monstrous black poles. One even showed a woman smiling at the camera while
parting her twat lips and looked like she was pissing or squirting some
type of twat juice all over a guy's hard tallywhacker. Double and triple
yuck!

Finally, we found a couple of booths down at the end that had posters that
showed just naked men standing alone in different poses, flexing their
muscles. None of the guys looked young like us, and instead they were
either long haired hippies or buff loggers or hairy macho truck driving
dudes. Some were dressed as cops or firemen, or park rangers. They mostly
looked butch and they all had big cocks or really big ball sacks or
both. Since they all had huge tools, I figured that when I got to be
twenty-one me and Jakes dicks would be that big too. Maybe that's how you
can tell if you're queer or not-you have to have a really big member! Maybe
I'll ask Lisa if that was true when we got back home. It was funny that the
other womenie posters showed some of the sex scenes, but the posters with
just the guys had them just standing around in poses with their hard-ons
sticking out, but not fooling around with other guys. It was also strange
to me that only one guy had an uncut cock, and of course that was the one
Jake wanted to see.

"Let's go in here!" Jake said. "This one looks like it could have been
filmed up on my uncle's farm."

We both squeezed into the booth and I shut the curtain closed. It was a
tight fit and I could feel the excitement flowing through Jake's hot
body. We were both trying to figure out how this thing worked, and then I
finally realized that you had to put coins into the machine in the slot
under the little window to play the movie. I told Jake to put in a quarter
to start the machine playing. Once the film started to roll, we saw two big
hairy chested guys with huge hard-ons and hairy bushes standing in the back
of an old rusty pick-up truck parked behind a garage or an old shed as they
were pulling on each other's dicks. There was blue-grass music playing in
the background, which made me want to laugh again. I was so glad that Jake
and I hadn't smoked a doobie and gotten high before we came in here, or we
would be in even bigger trouble and probably would have got kicked out.

One guy had long curly blond hair and a big full moustache that hung down
past his lips and the other guy was shorter and had black hair cut real
short. He was actually quite a bit smaller than the other guy, but was way
more muscular. And he was hairy all over, too. He had some sort of leather
strap tied around his dick and balls, the stings left to dangle freely
between his legs and he was uncut and had long foreskin just like me. They
stroked each other's cocks for a little bit and then the black haired guy
got down on his knees in the pickup truck bed and sucked down the other
dudes dick. He sucked it all the way down his throat in one fast move, his
nose stuck right up into the guy's pubes, the blond guy's hairy ball sack
swinging around and hitting him smack on his chin. Wow, I thought. Far out!
That looked hot and I knocked my leg into Jakes. I wanted to try that! Just
then the movie shut off.

"Hey, what happened?" Jake asked.

"I don't know. I think you have to put in another quarter. Maybe it only
plays for a little while and then it shuts off. That was cool looking,
huh?" I whispered.

"Yeah! Let's see what they do next."

"Keep your voice down, man. I don't think that we're both supposed to be in
one of these booths together," I said.

He put in another coin and the machine started right up where we had just
left off. The black haired guy was still sucking the blond guy's big dick
all the way down his throat and then pulling all of it out, and then all
the way back down again, really fucking his mouth. They did this for a few
more times and then they changed positions. This time the blond with the
moustache sucked down the other guy's smaller boner, but he wasn't as good
at it as the first guy was. I guess sucking cock takes some practice! He
mostly licked around it and slurped on his dangling ball sack. He did lick
and pull and bite and chew on the black haired guy's foreskin, though,
which was something that I liked when Jake did that to me. One time he made
a special point of pulling down the guy's foreskin and slapping his
erection all over his face and rubbing it around on his moustache. If that
was my wiener I think that might have hurt a little, `cause my cock is so
sensitive on the tip, but I didn't know exactly. I wondered if moustache
hairs are real scratchy. This looked like something else to try some time
when we could grow big hairy moustaches like that.

Then the blond turned the other guy around and pushed him so his hands were
leaning on the top of the rusty truck's cab, and spread his legs out in
wide stance. The camera moved to the side so you could see the blond start
licking and kissing the black haired guys ass, and tickling him with his
big furry moustache. The black haired guy's ass was really hairy too, which
I found different. They were both really getting into it, the black-haired
butt guy bending over more and sticking his ass out so the blond could get
in easier and lick all around the bulls-eye, his floppy cock and balls
bouncing all around. He really slobbered all over the dude's hairy hole,
his moustache getting all shiny and wet. You could see the tip of his
tongue starting to really get in there deep. Then he stood up and then,
damn! The machine stopped again.

Putting in another quarter, Jake whispered to me, "This is so fucking
hot. We're gonna try some of these moves when we get home, dude! I'm gonna
grow me a moustache."

"Yeah, like you can."

The film started playing again and now the blond guy was standing up behind
the black haired guy and spitting into his hand and wiping it all around
his hard cock, getting it good and hard and slick with is saliva. It looked
really big, but it was probably a lighting trick or something like that. He
spit on his finger this time and then stuck that finger right into the
black haired guy's hairy ass hole. He really fingered it around, in and out
and in and out, and not being very gentle, either. The ass guy seemed to
love it though, because he kept bending his knees lower and sticking his
butt out even further like he was gonna pinch a loaf or something. He
pulled out his finger, spit on his fingers again and this time stuck two
fingers in the guy's butt hole, twisting and turning just like before. Then
without warning, the blond pulled out his finger, leaned over and dropped a
big glob of spit onto the tip of his cock, then aimed his hard dick at his
friends exposed butt hole and jammed it right in, up all the way, in one
fast move and pushing the guy forward towards the cab's window.

"Ouch," Jake said.

They really fucked, and I could tell that the ass guy really loved it
because his hard dick was dripping loads of pre-cum out of his piss slit
and was bobbing all over the place. Just as the fucking got faster, the
damn movie machine stopped playing again.

Putting in another quarter, the fucking in the back of the rusty red truck
resumed. Slamming and slamming, and I thought that the blond guy was going
to fuck the black haired dude right through the damn window. Then the blond
pulled out and then the film changed to a scene where the blond was
standing on the ground in the tall green grass and the hairy guy was on his
back on the edge of the rusty tail-gate. His uncut cock and balls still had
the leather strap tied around it and the blond was pulling on the strings,
making his friends really hard cock and tight balls dance around all over
his chest. That looked like it hurt and it didn't really turn me on
much. His dick was so red it looked purple. After a while, he let go of the
strap and grabbed the guy's furry legs and hoisted them onto his shoulders
and then buried his cock deep in the guy's asshole one more time in one
fast furious thrust.

Apparently they liked fucking this way because the blond guy was really
ramming it in, standing in the grass and holding up the guy's legs straight
up in the air by his ankles. Sometimes the blond guy would pull his big
hard cock all of the way out and then, just as fast, shove it right back in
his butt hole all the way in. The furry black haired guy was really working
on his own cock now, stroking it fast with one hand and twisting and
pinching his hard tit with his other hand. He'd push his ball sack down and
into the blond's chest every time the blond guy would deep dick him. They
were really going at it now, moving so fast it was like a blur. Then they
guy getting plowed looked like he was about to&

"Fuck! Not again." I said.

"Oh man. I can't stand this anymore. I'm almost out of quarters and we need
those for the bus ride home. Plus, I'm about to blow my load. My shorts are
soaked with so much dick juice I'm gonna have to un-tuck my shirt to hide
it. This day has gone from cranky to sexy to fun to bad to weird and now to
horny! Ry, let's get the hell out of here and go home and get naked and
make out before I blow my load all over the inside of my shorts!"

"OK, Roger that! But remember that Mr. Jimmy said we have to go out the
back way into the alley. Let's hurry so we don't run into your dad or any
of his fascinating friends. Ya' know, I think I'm about to blow my wad,
too."

I opened the curtain and stepped outside slowly to make sure that the coast
was clear. But unfortunately, leaning against the booth next to ours was
the sleazy, creepy guy who had started to follow us down the aisle from
inside the theater. Jake followed me out, and not noticing that I had
stopped, ran right into my back, one more time.

"Hi sweet boys. Did you fellas like the movie? Looking at the great big
bulges in your shorts tells me that you did. Oooh, and you guys have wet
spots-how sexy is that? That clip on the farm is one of my all-time
favorites and I especially like the blond guy with the big moustache," he
said with a leer. "The black haired guy can sure take a hard cock, can't
he?"

"Um, no, we really didn't care for it. In fact, we're about to leave `cause
it's just too weird in here and we need to get home," I said.

"Are you sure? Don't be in such a party pooper. I can guarantee you that
the three of us could make some of that fun like those guys were having all
on our very own. Maybe you boys could come back to my place and I could
film you two naked and then you could have your own little movie playing in
here. I bet you'd like to do that with each other, huh? Do you do that
already? I live real close-just around the corner- and I've got a great big
comfortable bed. Who knows, you could become big porno stars making big
money and I'm sure that Mr. Jimmy would be delighted to add you to his
collection. He's always looking for fresh faces. If you're really good, he
might be willing for you to do a live show up on stage sometime, in front
of an audience. Then you could earn some really big tips, too."

"Ah, no thanks, we've got to go," I said again, starting to move around
him.

That didn't work and he stuck out his arm to stop us. The leer disappeared
from his face and was replaced with a look of lust as he said, "Are you
sure? I promise it will be fun and I'll definitely make it worth your
while. We don't have to film it if you don't want. I'd really like to see
your naked bodies and your hard dicks and smooth asses. Can I just feel
your dicks just once?"

"No. I'm positive," I said raising my voice.

"How about if you just pull out your cocks and let me take a quick look at
them?"

"Fuck! I said no. We have to go," I said, starting to get pissed.

"We'll OK, if you must. If I see Mr. M I just might mention what films you
boys were watching."

We stood there speechless for a second letting what he had said sink in and
then all of a sudden Jake let out a growl and then went ballistic. He
pushed past me and grabbed the little creep by the front of his shirt,
pushing him hard up against an all women fuck-fest booth and told him, "I
don't want you to say shit to my old man. We were just looking at all of
the different films and if you say anything to anybody about it I'll make
sure you never talk again. Got it?"

"OK boys, simmer down, simmer down. I understand. You're just shy, that's
all. Well, I'll be see'n you later then," he said as Jake let him go and he
backed off.

Then, as the guy started to walk back into the theater I heard him say
under his breath, "Like father, like son."

I don't think Jake heard that, but it made me wonder again what Ace was
really all about.

"Jake, that was so totally fucking awesome. What got into you? I've never
seen you like that before," I said pulling him down the hall towards the
exit and into the dirty alley behind the theater and out into the bright
sunshine. "You could have gotten hurt. What if he had a knife or something?
What would you have done then?"

"I don't know. I guess I've just had enough of this shit that's been going
on with my dad. Remember when I told you about the guy that I punched in
the nose at our apartment? Well the same thing just happened to me here. I
don't know why it happens to me, `cause I'm usually always pretty cool and
mellow. But when someone pisses me off like that, and I mean really pisses
me off, I just go wild. I go from zero to a hundred in like 2 seconds. I
guess I'm just trying to protect us. Let's get the fuck out of here."

"All right, Batman, let's go."

After we went through the back door and into the alley, we started walking
down De Lacy Street instead of Fair Oaks and crossed Colorado Boulevard at
the corner. Jake had calmed down enough to borrow a dollar bill from me to
toss into the guitar case of the Vietnam vet who we saw earlier and was
still playing his six-string on the sidewalk. Then, just to be safe and to
make sure we didn't run into anybody that we had just met, we walked down
two extra blocks to Arroyo Parkway to wait at that bus stop to take us back
home, sitting down on a bench in front of an old dive bar called the Hunt
Club. Somebody had crossed out the `H' in the sign and used spray paint to
paint it over with a `C'. All we needed now was for my dad to drive by
seeing us sitting in front of the Cunt Club.

We were quiet for a long time and when the bus finally came we hopped
aboard silently. Jake took the window seat and I slid in next to him. This
time the bus was a little bit more crowded, since it was Friday and close
to quitting time for the office and factory workers in the area who might
be working half-day or had the real early shift. We rode in silence for a
few more minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.

"Jake, are you doing OK?" I asked him quietly, hoping nobody would hear us.

`Yeah, I'm just thinking about my dad. What was he doing there and why does
he know all of those weird people?  Now that I think about it, he never
talked much about his work other than to say that he was a business man. My
mom never asked about his work and Lisa usually avoided him altogether,
well, so did I, but still, you'd think we'd know what he did to make a
living. Now I'm not so sure that I want to know."

"Yeah, I was sorta wondering how he knew all of those people too. He even
knew all of their names, even the old grizzly guy behind the counter at the
theater. And did you notice how they treated and respected him? I think if
he told them to hop around on one foot they'd do it. Maybe he's just a
landlord and owns the buildings and he goes there to collect the rent."

"I don't think so. Today is the twenty-seventh and usually rent's not due
`til Tuesday which is July first. I remember from living in our apartment
how the landlady would be at our front door first thing in the morning on
the first day of every month with her grubby hand sticking out to collect
the rent. That was the only time that we saw that old bitch. She would
never fix things, but she sure was there to take our money."

"Well, when we get home let's ask Lisa. Maybe she'll know."

We rode the rest of the way in silence watching the crummy area turn into
nicer, taller buildings and fancy department stores. When we got off the
bus I glanced over at our bikes and was happy that they were both still
locked up. "Let's go in Thrifty's and get us an Ice Crème Cone. I think we
should call Lisa to see if she wants to maybe come down and get and
us. It's too hot to ride up the hill and it will take us forever to get
home. Do you think she'll mind?"

"Nah, I think that's a groovy idea. Here's a dime for the phone. I'll go
get our cones. What kind you want?"

"Just a chocolate dip," I said heading over to the pay phone on the wall.

Lisa was a good sport to come and get us, not really wanting to miss her
Dark Shadows show, but once I told her that we had run into her dad she
hung up the phone, grabbed Jordy and was in the Thrifty's parking lot in
just over five minutes. Of course Jordy wanted an Ice Crème cone too, so I
gave him some money to grab one and meet us back at the microbus. Then the
three of us had a quick pow-wow about seeing her dad, and of course then
she wanted to hear the entire story, from the beginning. But Jordy was back
by then and so we decided to go home and the three of us would meet up in
the pool house later on and we'd tell her everything. We unlocked our bikes
and tossed them into the back of the bus and we all climbed in. Everybody
was lost in their own thoughts going up the hill, except for Jordy who
slurped noisily on his tutti-frutti ice creme cone.

The ride up the hill was quiet and uneventful, and surprisingly even the
radio wasn't playing. Since the folks weren't due home for a few more hours
yet I had to figure out how to ditch Jordy, in a nice way of course, so the
three of us could talk. We really needed to figure out what Ace was really
all about.

"Hey Jordy. Why don't you give your friend Chris a call and see if he wants
to play. Maybe you can go over to his house and play with his Hot Wheels
and show him some of your new cars. The three of us need to talk about
something boring that you wouldn't understand."

"I don't want to. I want to hang out with you guys."

"Jordy, if you go over to your friend's house I'll give you a super-secret
surprise after dinner when you come back, OK?" Lisa asked him.

"All right. But it better be good."

"Oh, it will, I promise," Lisa said, giving him a wink.

"Hey sis, does Uncle Gus have an old rusty-red pickup up on his farm?"

"Um, maybe, I really don't remember. Oh wait! Yeah, way out in the hay
field by that old tractor shed I think. Why?"

"Oh nothing, just something that popped into my head."

Could this day get any stranger, I thought to myself?


*****


NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to my hilarious neighbor from many years
ago, Mr. Brian, who taught me what gay life was all about for him in the
1950's, 1960's and the early 1970's. Cheers, Brian, whether you're up
there, down there or someplace else, hopefully you're fucking your brains
out!

ALSO: Please don't flame me too much for taking some liberty with the
theater and the date. From research I know that there was an X-Rated
theater named the Tom Cat in Pasadena, but I don't think it opened until
1970 or 1971. I've tried to make everything else as accurate as possible.

FINALLY: A special thanks to the many readers who helped me out with some
slang terms, and especially to Thom and Hans for their help with the great
music tips coming up in the next few chapters.