Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 19:36:19 -0500
From: Pete Bruno <farmboy7456@gmail.com>
Subject: A Single Soul Christmas Special

A Single Soul
Christmas Special

By Pete Bruno
With Henry Hilliard


Room at the Inn


			Thursday December 22, 1983


The smell of baking cookies made young Jimmy's stomach growl and it
heightened his excitement, Christmas was just a few days away, his favorite
time of year.  There was only one hiccup this year, his mother, it seemed
was hell bent on ruining his plans for Christmas with his best friend Matt
and his father.

"Jimmy, I have said no every day this week.  You will spend Christmas Eve
with your family. Besides," Bonnie added tersely as she was putting dinner
on the table, "I think you have been spending entirely too much time at the
Leo home."

"But Mom, Matty is my family, so is Uncle Frank.  They will be all alone
since his crazy mother left," Jim whined.

"You may visit after dinner on Christmas Day.  I will not have my children
away from home on Christmas.  Besides, your grandparents will be here, and
he is not your uncle," his mother continued.

"For Christ's sake, Bonnie, they are coming from two miles away, not
California.  Besides, you will have five of your children home.  Let the
boy spend the holiday with his best friend.  It seems like the Christian
thing to do," George said, earning a smile of thanks from his son and an
black glare from his wife.

"The subject is closed.  You will be sleeping in your own bed Christmas
Eve," Bonnie spat.

"Aw, poor Jimmy can't spend Christmas with his boyfriend," mocked Junior,
who had been lurking in the family room and was now making his way into the
kitchen.

"Screw you, Junior, at least I have friends" he shot back at his older
brother, "and maybe if you weren't such nasty prick and a mamma's boy you'd
have one yourself," Jimmy said.  Bonnie set the salad bowl she was carrying
on the table and spun around with a raised hand ready to smack Jimmy but he
was ready for her.  "Go ahead Mom, protect your baby like you always do.
That's why he such a social retard," challenged a defiant Jimmy.  The
comment made her stop, look at her hand and pull it back as if she had
touched a hot stove.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that!  Now, not only will you not only be
going on Christmas Eve, but you are grounded for a week, so go to your room
this minute!" Bonnie screamed.

"With pleasure," Jim said and turned towards the family room.  His brother
gave him the finger as he passed so Jimmy checked him into the
refrigerator.  Even though Jimmy was more than two years younger than
Junior, he was a head taller and outweighed him by twenty pounds of teenage
muscle.  As he made his way out of the kitchen he actually heard his father
chuckle.  When he got to his room he plopped down on his bed and began to
formulate a plan to spend Christmas Eve with Matty, regardless of what his
mother had to say about it.

He waited until he heard everyone talking around the dinner table before
sneaking into his parents' room to call Matty to fill him in what was going
on. "Listen man, I can't talk long; I'm grounded."

"What the fuck man, what did you do?" Matty asked.

"Called Junior a nasty prick and a mama's boy in front of Mom," Jimmy said
laughing, and he could hear Matty laughing on the other end of the line.
"But listen, man, don't worry, I'll be there tomorrow night as planned.  I
know my father will bail me out of this.  I won't let you down, man, you
know that."

"I know he'll try, be cool and just don't get yourself in anymore trouble."

"It's cool, dude, remember sometimes, you just gotta say, 'what the fuck',"
Jimmy said, causing both boys to break up laughing.  Just then the door to
the opened and Jimmy's heart stopped.  He calmed down when he saw it was
his brother Marty.

"Jimmy, you better bet back to the bedroom, we're finished eating and Mom
and Dad are arguing about you going to Matty's tomorrow night," Marty said.

He told Matty that he'd see him at school in the morning.  Since he was
grounded he knew his mother would be driving him to school instead of
letting him ride his bike with Matty.  One thing she couldn't stop was them
seeing each other in school; they had every class together.

Jimmy shared a room with his brother Marty and the youngest, Brandon. They
all got along well.  Marty and Jim were both into sports and girls.  They
also equally disliked their older brother, but his favorite was seven
year-old Brandon.  He worshiped the ground Jimmy walked on and never got in
the way.  His dad called him Jim's shadow.  He and Matty took him with them
all the time, teaching him to play ball and taking him to a movie at least
once a week or just to sit and watch TV with them.  Marty used to tease
them calling Brandy their son.

On the way back to his room he could hear his parents arguing and just
before he closed the door he heard his father at the bottom of the steps
call out in exasperation, "Will you just let it be."

Jimmy had just made it the top bunk when his dad opened the door. Rolling
over to face the door he said, "Hey Dad, what's up?"

"Nothing, buddy, I'm working on your mother but I can't promise anything.
Just do me a favor and stay out of her way for a bit and for God's sake
just ignore Junior," his dad said.

"Sure Dad, and thanks for trying," Jimmy said.  He really loved his father
and they got along well. His only complaint was that his dad worked too
many hours.  That was one of the reasons he loved being at Matty's house.
His dad was a State Trooper and worked a regular forty hour week.  He did a
lot of things with the boys and even took them to the gym.  George said
goodnight and soon after Brandon came in and wanted a story read, even
though he was seven.  He loved to get up in the top bunk with Jimmy while
he read to him. And sometimes Jim would let him sleep with him, with Jim on
the outside to keep him from falling off.  Tonight however he talked him
into sleeping in his own bed; he was dying to beat off.  He and Marty were
cool with each other rubbing out a load in their bunk after lights out, but
Jimmy didn't want his baby brother in bed with him while he did the deed.

With Brandon asleep and the house quiet and his hand around his already
hard teenage cock he could hear Marty's bunk squeaking, "Let's see who
blows first," he whispered over the side.

"Better hurry up, I'm almost there," Marty panted.  Jimmy re-doubled his
efforts and in no time the two brothers were grunting as they pumped their
boy loads into their own hands.  They then proceeded to lick them clean; it
saved leaving evidence for their mother to find.


			 Friday December 23, 1983

The next day seemed to fly by, school was only a half day and the teachers,
knowing the students were distracted by the upcoming holiday let them have
free periods until the assembly.  Matt and Jim spent most of the day with
their buddies discussing what they were expecting from "Santa" and also
making plans for hanging out over their vacation.

"I'm not sure what's going on with the old lady," Jimmy was saying as they
headed for their lockers at the end of the day, "She has really been on the
rag lately but Dad said he's working on it."

"Don't worry buddy, it will work out.  Just stay out of trouble 'cause I
know dad has a surprise for us next week.  He just won't tell me," Matty
said as he closed his locker.  He wanted nothing more than for Jimmy to
spend Christmas Eve with him but Matt was always the sensible one; he
didn't want his best friend to make it worse than it was.  The two friends
headed for the exit and with a high-five split up so they wouldn't be seen
together by Bonnie.

Jimmy was allowed to eat dinner with the family but had to go to his room
as soon he was done.  Junior attempted to taunt him but Jimmy wisely didn't
take the bait, really pissing him off.  He re-doubled his efforts and
surprisingly earned a rare rebuke from his mother.

Brandon was especially excited that night and wanted Jimmy to read him a
chapter from Commodore Hornblower.  "Listen squirt, don't you think you are
getting way too old for me to be reading stories to you?  You're going to
have hair on your dick soon," Jimmy said while tickling his brother making
him blush and laugh at the same time.

He ended up reading him two chapters.  Truth was, he enjoyed the books just
as much as his brother.  Then the boy begged to stay in top bunk with him.
He relented and, as he had been in his room all night by himself and he
managed to pump out two big loads, there would be no need to do it that
night.  Jimmy knew that it was just an excuse to spend time with him and he
truly didn't mind.  He loved how Brandon would still snuggle into him as he
read just as he had done since he was little.  It was a special bond he had
always had with him, and he hoped he would always be close with him;
actually with all of his brothers except Junior, for whom he had nothing
but disdain.  After the second chapter the brothers were asleep in minutes.

The beeping of the alarm clock woke Jimmy, he kept hitting the snooze
button but the beeping continued.  As he began to come fully awake he
realized that it wasn't his alarm clock but the smoke alarm.  Then he
smelled the smoke.  Sitting up he could see flames in the back window.  He
began to panic but forced himself to focus.  Their bedroom was on the back
corner of the house over the living room.  There were two windows in the
back and one on the side over the side porch.

He called out to Marty who answered in a frightened voice, "What the fuck
are we going to do?"  Then remembering something he had seen on a TV show
he called out, "Crawl on the floor and feel the door," as he grabbed a
still sleeping Brandon and jumped off the top bunk.  His leg caught the
ladder and he tumbled down twisting so that he landed on the floor to break
Brandon's fall.  As soon as he landed he felt the pain shoot up his leg and
knew immediately he had broken it.

"Jimmy the door is hot," Marty screamed and coughed at the same time as the
room filled with smoke.  They could hear their father screaming for them to
get on the porch roof.  Jimmy rolled onto his stomach, "Brandy get on my
back and hold on. Marty crawl over and open the window," Jimmy yelled.  It
was tough to see and the pain was excruciating.  As soon as Marty opened
the storm window they felt the cold air and the flames on the front wall
shot up to the ceiling.  He could hear the sirens of the approaching fire
trucks, and felt the heat on their left side as he crawled to the window
with a crying and coughing Brandon almost choking him.  "It's okay buddy,
we'll be out of here in a minute."  When he got to the window he told
Brandon to reach out for Marty who then pulled him out of the window onto
the porch roof.  With tremendous effort and considerable pain Jimmy managed
to drag himself over the sill and landed head first on the porch roof
calling for Marty to hold his leg as he rolled over onto his back.  He lay
there while Brandon knelt next to him, "Jimmy, what did you do to your
leg?" The boy asked as he continued to cough to clear his lungs and tried
to get his breath.

"I think I broke it when we fell, but it's okay-stand up and look for the
firemen," Jimmy said as calmly as he could.  They could hear their dad
calling from below and Marty calling back telling them that they were out
but Jimmy was hurt.  The pain was really getting worse and the cold was
starting to cause his teeth to chatter-and then in a flash the firemen were
on the roof taking Marty and Brandon down the ladder.  The next thing Jimmy
knew he was on a stretcher with his parents next to him.  His mother was
crying, but his dad was smiling at him, "You did good, son, telling Marty
to check the door first saved your lives the firemen told me.  The fire is
out and they are going to take you to the hospital to fix your leg," George
said and then he bent down and kissed his son's forehead.

		      Saturday December 24, 1983- 3PM

"I know you wanted to spend Christmas with Matty but did you have to burn
down the house?" Jimmy heard through a fog.  He had been dozing-well more
like sleeping, the result of a combination of painkillers and exhaustion.
He opened his eyes and saw Frank Leo standing next to his bed in his
Trooper's uniform, smiling.

"Hey Uncle Frank," he said groggily, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to visit my second favorite boy," he said with a warm smile.

And then what Frank had said hit Jimmy and tears began to fall from his
eyes, "I didn't start the fire Uncle Frank, I don't know what happened."

"I know that, son, I was just pulling your leg," Frank said as he took his
hand and held it.

"No, Jimmy, it wasn't your fault," George said stepping up beside the bed,
"the fire marshal already found the cause, it was one of the window
candles.  The bulb exploded and the drapes caught fire."

"Wow, is everybody okay?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes, everybody's fine.  Brandy was excited because he was given oxygen.
He and Marty will be staying with you at the Leo's for the next two weeks;
but you will have to spend the night here.  The break was worse than they
thought and had to put a pin in your leg," George said.  It took a minute
for it to register and then Jimmy broke into a big smile, "How'd you manage
that Dad?"

"Well, we can't stay in the house right now and there isn't enough room at
your grandparents.  Besides with your leg in a cast you can't do steps and
you need to limit your walking for the first week at least," George said
with a wink.  "So I'm sending the three of you together.  I had no choice;
there is no way Brandy is going to be separated from you right now-
probably for the rest of his life for that matter," George said with a
laugh.

"But what about Mom?"

"She's just so happy that everyone is alright that she agreed," George
said.

"Matty and I will be back in about an hour to have dinner with you.  He
thought you might want a cheese-steak hoagie.  How's that sound?"

Jimmy gave Frank a confused look, "Dinner?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's six pm.  They couldn't operate right away, and the pain pills
knocked you out, so you've lost a day, buddy," George said.

"Cheese-steak sounds good Uncle Frank, I'm starving!"  Then it hit him, the
house-his clothes-what about all the Christmas gifts?  George must have
read his mind.

"Jimmy, it looks like most of your room was ruined along with your clothes.
Your mom will go out on Monday and get you the basics for now-don't worry
Santa will bring your gifts to Granddad's," he said with a wink.  What he
didn't say was that they were already there; with six kids there was no
hiding gifts in the house.

"Hey Dad, was the whole room burnt up?" Jimmy asked.

"No, just the front around the windows, your clothes were ruined by smoke
and water," George said. "Why?"

"My present for Matty was in my desk, do you think you can get in and bring
it with you when you pick me up,"

"I'll try buddy, but we aren't supposed to be in there right now.  But I
know the fire-chief from the Knights of Columbus; I'll call him and ask.

_________

All things considered, the boys had a blast eating dinner even though they
were in a hospital room.  Since it was Christmas Eve the census of the
hospital was low-only the sickest and emergency patients were in so the
second bed was empty.  So Frank and Matty kept Jimmy laughing helping him
to forget about the fire and the cast on his leg.  When the food had been
consumed (or was it inhaled?) Frank left the guys alone saying he needed to
make a phone call.

Once the door was closed Matty moved his chair closer to the bed.  All he
did was look at his good friend and the tears started to fall. Matty just
took his hand and held it, saying nothing.

"Matty, I was fucking scared out of my mind," Jimmy whispered, "but don't
tell anybody."

"You know I won't, but you did good and saved your brothers," Matty said
quietly and simply held Jimmy's hand.  Matty laid his head on the
bed. Jimmy looked him in the eye and whispered, "You know the whole time I
was crawling to the window, all I could think about was never getting to
see you again."  The two friends just stared into each other's eyes.  Matty
was blown away by the admission.  He didn't know what to say, so with his
heart thumping he said nothing and just held his buddy's hand until both
boys nodded off.  They woke and moved quickly apart when they heard Frank.
He had been off to the nurses' station.  Before his wife left she had
worked at the hospital as an RN and, strangely, was very well liked.  He
went to speak to the charge nurse whom he knew had been a friend of his
wife's to ask permission for Matty to spend the night; she knew Matty and
Jimmy were friends and since the floor was almost empty, she agreed.  The
boys looked both surprised and confused when Frank entered carrying a set
of scrubs-and they were even more confused when he handed them to Matty.

"What are these for Dad?" Matty asked.

"To sleep in, you're spending the night," Frank said.

"No way!" Both boys shouted at once.

"Yup," George smiled.  "Matty do you remember Mrs. Lowden?  Well she's the
charge nurse and she said you can stay in the other bed. You can catch a
ride home with Jimmy tomorrow morning."  Matty jumped out of the chair and
hugged his dad.

"Thanks Dad, this is so great," he said as he kissed his father.

"Yeah, thanks, Uncle Frank-this is like the best fucking Christmas ever!"
Jimmy said and then panicked when he realized what he said.  Frank and
Matty broke up laughing.  After that Frank said goodnight.

The two friends were stoked.  They had planned to spend Christmas Eve
together and had been stymied at every turn.  They decided that this was
their own Christmas miracle.

"Of course I could have done without the broken leg," Jimmy conceded.
Matty then told Jimmy about having to share his bed with Brandon the night
before.  Brandon was all keyed up from the excitement of the fire and being
treated for smoke inhalation and begged to sleep with him.  Of course he
couldn't say no, but told him he needed to settle down and go to sleep.

"Just after I turned off the light the little shit said, 'You can beat off
if you want.'  I said, 'What are you talking about?'" Matty laughed as he
began to change into his scrubs, "He said, 'Jimmy and Marty do it every
night when they think I'm asleep, I try doing it too but nothing happens to
me, but it feels good'."  Matty laughed at the look on Jimmy's face then
said, "You never told me you and Marty beat off together."

"We don't really beat off together like you and I do.  We're in our own
bunks; we just stopped trying to hide from each other.  I can't believe the
squirt has been watching."  Jimmy said.

"Well he's getting an education.  He's just not sure why you and Marty are
licking your hands," Matty said, laughing more as he continued to
undress. When he was down to his underwear Jimmy said, "Dude, how about a
blowjob now, I got a bone on?"

"Shut-up dude," Matty said, but it was too late.  He was already chubbing
up in shorts and Jimmy noticed.

"Look, you're already boning up," Jimmy said pointing and giggling.

"Yo, dick head, didn't your mother tell you it's rude to point?"

"You'd be pointing too if your shorts were down," Jimmy said giggling.

Just then they heard the door opening and Matty pulled the privacy curtain
around him just in time to see Mrs. Lowden coming in with Jimmy's pills.
She gave him a fake stern look and said, "Matty, you're here to keep him
company, not make him fall out of bed laughing."  She gave Jimmy his pills
and showed Matty were Jimmy's urinal was if he needed it during the night
and what to do.  Then, wishing the boys goodnight and Merry Christmas, she
left to complete her rounds.  The medicine worked quickly and in no time
Jimmy was asleep, and Matty wasn't far behind him.

Matty was pulled from his slumber by Jimmy's softly calling his name;
looking at his watch he saw it was four am.  "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I have to pee but I'm having a problem with the urinal," Jimmy said
quietly.  Matty got up and crossed to the same space between the beds.  In
the low glow of the nightlight he could see Jimmy's hard cock lying flat
against his stomach and he giggled.

"What's the problem, is it too big for the opening?" Matty teased.

"No doofus, I can't bend it down.  Come on man, help me out.  Please!"

Matty took his buddy's cock, and just as he had done so many times before,
gave it a few strokes and then bent over and took it into his mouth.  He
employed their favorite suck and stroke method while Jimmy tried to control
his panting.  It didn't take long for Matty's mouth to be filled with very
large load of Jimmy's boy cream which tasted different tonight.

"Thanks man," Jimmy said through his controlled breaths, "I really was
beginning to suffer from MSB."

"Well that sure was a massive load of sperm you had built up, and it tasted
different," Matty said, giggling.

Jimmy added, as he squeezed his cock and got a little bit on his finger and
tasted it, "Yeah it was a good load-maybe the medicine is making it taste
different," he said as he inserted his now deflated cock into the plastic
urinal he was holding.  It only took a few seconds for the strong stream to
start, half filling the bottle.

"Whatever. You just owe me one when we get home," Matty said as he went to
the bathroom to dump the contents.  When he returned he noticed a serious
look on Jimmy's face and asked what was up.

"Nothing buddy," Jimmy said reaching out for his hand. "Thanks for staying
with me tonight, you're the best friend anybody could have."

__________

The boys were awaken again around 8:00 am by Frank and, standing next to
him in a full dress Marine uniform, was the biggest guy they had ever seen.
"Jimmy, this is Captain Foles. He runs the recruiting office in Center
City," Frank said as he introduced the boys.  The Captain told the boys
that he was on the way to a 'Toys for Tots' party in the city but he had
heard about Jimmy's quick thinking during the fire and wanted to come by
and congratulate him.  He also gave each of the boys a set of official
Marine Corp sweats and then smartly said goodbye and was off to his party.

Matty helped Jimmy into the new sweats, and then put on his set as well.
They were snacking on homemade cookies the nurses had brought them when Jim
said, "Dude, did you see the size of that guy?"

"Yeah," said Matt, trailing of, then, "Maybe if my dad takes to the gym we
can get that big."

"And that uniform was so cool, if I join the service I think I want to be a
Marine," Jim said just as an excited Brandon burst in the room, running to
hug his brother.  He was talking a mile a minute, filling Jimmy in on
almost every second of his time since he had seen him last.

"Alright Brandy, take a breath and let everyone else have a chance to say
hello," George said and then he noticed Matty, "Hey Matty, you got here
early," he said.

"No, Dad, he spent the night," Jimmy said smiling.

"Matthew, I don't appreciate you pulling pranks like this; what if you had
been discovered you could have gotten Jimmy in trouble," Bonnie said with a
sour look on her face.

"Mom, he had permission.  Uncle Frank knows the head nurse and since the
bed was empty she said he could stay," Jimmy said.

"Humph," was her response.

"Well it looks like little Jimmy got to spend Christmas Eve with his
boyfriend after all," said a smug looking Junior who was standing in the
background.  The smiles left both Jimmy's and Matty's faces.  In an instant
George wheeled around and grabbed his son by the collar.

"I'm telling you for the last time, boy, if I ever hear you say something
like that again you will regret it.  Now you can wait for the family in the
lobby," George hissed, inches from Junior's face and then pushed the boy
towards the door. "And by the way, you're grounded for a week."

"George, I don't think that's necessary," Bonnie said defending her
favorite.

"Well I think it is, end of story," said a still angry George.

The rest of the visit went well and quickly. George was going to return at
one to take the boys to Frank's.  As the family was leaving George remained
behind for a moment and quietly told Jimmy he had been able to get into his
room, earning a big smile in return.

__________

Frank was cleaning up from the Christmas dinner that George's mother had
sent over.  They ate in Frank's bedroom; he was letting the boys stay in
his king-size bed since Jimmy was supposed to stay off his leg as much as
possible.  The boys had opened their presents from "Santa" when Jimmy
handed Matty a gift and Matty did the same. "You go first," Jimmy said
enthusiastically.  Matty ripped the paper off and opened the box and burst
out laughing.  It was a framed picture that they had taken on the boardwalk
the summer past and where they were dressed as cowboys from the 1890's.

"You don't like?" Jimmy asked dejectedly.

"No, numbnuts, open yours," Matty said with a smile.  When Jimmy finally
got the box open he found the same photo, just in a different frame.

"Well it looks like great minds think alike," Jimmy said.  Then he offered
his hand for a hi-five and when Matty connected he grabbed it and pulled
him into a tight hug, "Merry Christmas, buddy."

The End.

Dear Readers,

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy &
Prosperous New Year.

Pete & Henry