Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 19:51:57 -0800
From: clarence jones <zone1@flashmail.com>
Subject: THE MIDNIGHT ZONE: Holiday

	The line between fantasy and reality is thin, and often blurred. We
walk through a world of brick and mortar, yet our lives are driven by our
hopes and our dreams, which are little more than visions in our
imaginations. And the longing for true love is the one dream we hope most
to bring into reality. Tonight, we will visit a young gay Black man who's
longing for true love leads him to discover the real difference between
fantasy and reality, in THE MIDNIGHT ZONE

	"HOLIDAY"	By  C.H. Jones  Copyright Dec. 2001

	Terry laid face down naked on the bed, with his arms over his head.
Slice got on the bed and positioned himself in-between Terry's legs, and
spread them slowly apart with his own legs. Removing a condom from its
protective wrapping, Slice unrolled it over his big, fat, long dick. He
lubricated it with some grease, and looked down at Terry's plump, round
ass. He spread Terry's legs open some more so that he could see Terry's ass
hole. It was slightly open now because his legs were spread so far apart.
Already greased up, the glory hole waited for Slice to act. And Slice was
more than ready. Dick hard and throbbing between his muscular, dark brown
thighs, he leaned forward and down until he was laying on top of Terry,
with his dick laying lengthwise between the cheeks of Terry's ass. He
raised up enough so that the head of his dick could find the glory hole
itself, and thrust his dick right up into it.

	"Ughhhhh! SHIT!" Terry cried with a mixture of pain and pleasure.
"OUCH!  UGHHH, STOP. Take it OUT!"

	"Too late now," Slice said softly into Terry's ear. "You got to
TAKE that dick."  Slice slipped his arms around Terry's chest and squeezed
him real tight.

	"Take ALL that dick." Slice had ALL that dick up in Terry now, and
stroked it ALL the way up into Terry's ass, with a little extra UMPH this
time.

	"Uhhh," Terry sighed. "Alright Daddy, you got that." Terry hadn't
really wanted Slice to stop. He enjoyed hearing Slice tell him to take it.
He loved the way Slice made him take it. That dick was almost too big. And
Slice had open his ass hole up as far as it could go. Wide open, with a
long dick all the way up in him. It was everything Terry had ever wanted.

	"Yea, give up that tight pussy," Slice said. "Give it up real
good." Slice was getting started now. Pumping dick up into Terry. And
pulling it almost completely out before stroking back in again. It was nice
and tight. Just the way Slice liked it.

	"Daddy really needs that ROCAWEAR leather," Slice whispered. "You
gotta get it for me, You gotta get it for me soon, ya know what I mean.
Before it gets too cold."

	"Uhh, but I just got, uhh, you that, uhh, sweat, uhh, suit," Terry
struggled to say.

	"You said you'd get it for me," Slice replied, as he thrust his
dick in again, with a little more umph, again.

	"Uhhh," Terry cried with each down stroke. "I, uhh, don't uhh..."

	"You can do it for me." Slice was really starting to insist. With
both his words and with his dick. It had gotten him what he'd wanted
before. He was going to make it work for him again. With all this good dick
he was laying down, Terry would have to give in to him, again.

	Terry was locked in Slice's grip, taking Slice's dick all the way
up in him. It was real good, too good. Too good to lose, he felt. Too good
to lose for any reason. He felt Slice's hand grabbing his own dick. Pulling
on it. Squeezing on it. It was almost time. He heard Slice breathing a
little harder now. His hand pumping Terry's dick harder now, until he heard
Slice give a loud sigh. Terry was ready to cum himself too. Slice always
made it work. Made both of them cum at the same time. Terry could feel a
pulsing from Slice's dick on the inner side of his ass hole. Felt Slice
squeeze him really tight with one arm, and pull on his dick with his other
hand until he started pushing that come out onto the bed. There was a deep
intake of breath by both of them. Then they both lay still on the bed for a
few moments.

	"So when you gonna get it for me?" Slice asked quietly.

	Terry laid on the bed and thought. When you're 19, like Slice was,
it can be a little important to have the right gear. But it was getting to
be too expensive. Just how much of the right gear does one boy really need?

	"I just finished getting you that sweat suit. The shirt and the
pants cost $80 each.  I'm not made of money."

	"Can't you put it on your credit card?" Slice asked hopefully.

	"That damn coat costs five or six hundred dollars, Slice," Terry
said, trying to get a point across.

	Slice was silent for a moment. "But that jaunt's like that Terry,
it looks good on me. Don't you want me to look good?" he asked.

	Now Terry was silent for a moment. There were a lot of things he
wanted to say.  Maybe needed to say. But...

	"I want..." Terry started. "I'd like to see you get yourself
together," he struggled to say. Why was he struggling so much, just trying
to talk to Slice, (he thought)? "I'd like to see do something other then
just hang around the house all the time. You just lay around. You don't
wash any dishes, or clean up after yourself, or anything." Terry was
feeling a little angry. But only a little.

	"Why you got to be complain' all the time?" Slice responded,
sounding like he was about ready to cry, or something. "That's all you
do. Just complain and complain.  It's like you don't even love me anymore."

	"No, it's not like that," Terry said.

	"You only like me when we're fucking, that's all, you don't love me
anymore."  Slice said.

	"No it isn't that I don't love you anymore," Terry started. "It's
just that...you...  all you do is look good and be cool. It's all you do. I
have to do everything else," Terry stopped. Maybe he was complaining too
much. Slice was only 19. Maybe he was expecting too much. But maybe...

	"What about that job I helped you get?" Terry asked shyly. "You got
it one day, and then quit the next. Why..."

	"Man, that jaunt wasn't kickin' out." Slice said.

	"Well how would you know, you only stayed one day?" Terry asked.

	"Do we have to talk about that now?" Slice asked, sounding a little
annoyed.

	Terry let out a loud sigh and sat up on the edge of the bed. He was
feeling more then just a little annoyed. How much more could he take of
this? How much more of it could he really afford. How could he ever live
without Slice? Terry got up and went to the bathroom. Then came back and
started getting dressed.

	"Where you goin' this late?" Slice asked. He sounded a little
afraid, like he was about to be abandoned.

	"I gotta go out for a while, just take a walk or something," Terry
said quietly.

	"Where you goin' to?" Slice asked. "When you gonna be back?" He
sounded very concerned.

	"I don't know," Terry said. "I'll be back..." He didn't finish. He
didn't have to. It was his apartment, so he'd have to come back. The
question was not when, but what would he be coming back too. It couldn't go
on like this. Not for much longer.

	It was a chilly December night, and Terry tightened the collar of
his Navy style Pea coat against the wind. He'd gotten an apartment downtown
to be close to his job. The center city streets were all decorated for
Christmas. But the lights didn't seem to be very merry. Where was there to
go this late? He should be at home, Terry thought. But home was not what he
had hoped for. What had started out to be so exciting had become so very
disappointing. Except for the sex part. That was great. But that's just not
all there is to a relationship. Maybe Slice was just too young. But can't a
man have some maturity at 19? Terry had. Much more then Slice has, he
thought. Much more.

	After walking several blocks he came to the Video game Arcade. It
stayed open all night. He and Slice had spent a lot of time here. And in
the sandwich shop next door too. They made a real good cheese steak sub.
Terry could remember many nights that he and Slice enjoyed a cheese steak,
with fries, naked on the bed watching a movie on the VCR. After having
really good sex. Better days that seemed long ago. A cheese steak would go
good right now he thought. But the shop was closed. The pizza shop on the
other side of the Arcade was still open, but Terry went into the Arcade.

	His favorite video game was `temporarily out of service', so he
chose another one in the very back of the Arcade. He was feeling like being
far away from everyone else, even though there were only two or three other
guys in there.

	The screen on the machine was dark when Terry dropped his quarters
in. It started making a low humming sound. But when he touched the buttons
on the game's control panel, he felt an urging, a feeling of being pulled
toward the machine. A feeling that he did not want to resist. The room
became very dark, and, out of the corner of his eye, Terry thought he saw
the whole room being stretched. Expanding in all directions. Like a picture
painted on a balloon would if the balloon were inflated. Terry suddenly
felt like he was falling. Free falling through a dark and empty space.
Falling freely, until he hit a hard surface. It was the floor, and he hit
it hard. But it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. He heard a low humming
sound behind him, and, looking back, he saw a large purple spiral.  It
glowed softly as it spun. Humming so low it was felt more then it was
heard. The glowing got softer and softer, and the humming lower and lower,
until they were no longer there. A bare, gray wall appeared in its place.

	Terry picked himself up off the floor and looked around. He was in
an empty room. The walls were gray and drab looking. He stepped closer to
the wall where the spinning spiral had been and touched it. It was solid.
There was no trace that anything had ever been there.

	The air was quite warm. Too warm to have a heavy coat on, so he
removed his coat and stuck it under his arm. Then, seeing a door on the
opposite side of the room from where the spinning spiral had been, he
walked toward it and went outside.

	Terry found himself standing on the sidewalk of a long deserted
street. It seemed to be familiar, but he could not recall just where he'd
seen this street before. There were buildings on both sides of the street.
Some were low and some were taller. But all of them looked drab. Everything
looked drab, almost colorless. Then he noticed something else. There was a
McDonald's across the street from him. It had two large windows and a glass
door so that Terry could easily see inside. But there was nothing inside of
the restaurant. Nothing at all. Now he noticed something else again. He
didn't feel down anymore. He vaguely remembered feeling sad some time
before now, but he couldn't remember why. All he could be sure of was that
he was feeling much better now. Feeling very good. And he didn't know why.

	"Hey, you there," cried an excited voice. It sounded some distance
away. "Hey...  Hi!"

	There was a figure running toward. As it got closer, Terry could
see that it was a young man, about mid-twenties, like himself. But this guy
was light skinned, tall and slim. Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, with
nicely shaped legs, and close cut hair.  When he arrived he had a wide
smile on his face. He was really kind of cute, Terry thought.

	"Boy am I glad to see you!" he said. "Umm, you look good!" The guy
was very excited and a look of great pleasure was showing on his face. He
looked Terry up and down. Terry was wearing a black Polo sweater with red
stripes on the right side. It was fitting him very well. Terry had enough
chest and shoulders to fill it out and have it taper to his waist in a nice
V shape. After looking Terry up and down again they guy started feeling
Terry's chest and arms. Then he grabbed Terry's dick and squeezed it a
little.

	"Hey wait a minute," Terry said as he brushed the guy's hand away
from his crotch.

	"Oh, you must be a bottom," the guy says, and immediately reached
around Terry and grabbed his behind, pulling Terry real close.

	"Hold on just a damn minute!" Terry said. " Who the hell are
you. And what the hell is going on here."

	"Oh. I'm sorry," the guy said. "I'm Reg. Welcome," Reg said with a
big smile.

	"Welcome? ... Welcome to what?" Terry asked.

	"Well, welcome to, here," Reg replied.

	"Here? I don't understand. What's going on, where am I?" Terry
asked anxiously.

	"Well, you're here," Reg said again. "And you're going to love it
too. Just don't be afraid, that's all. I know you're feeling better, just
like I did when I got here. All you have to do is not be afraid, and
everything will be alright."

	Don't be afraid, Terry thought to himself. He was scared to death.
The whole world had changed. And had changed suddenly. He didn't know what
was going on. And so far, Reg had told him nothing. Why shouldn't he be
afraid? But at the same time, he was feeling much better. Better than he'd
ever felt before. It was completely confusing.

	"Look," Terry started, "I don't know what's going on, but I'm
getting out of here." Terry turned toward the door of the building he'd
just come out of, and took one step in its direction when Reg grabbed his
arm.

	"Wait! Please!" Reg said. "Don't be afraid. Please stay. We need,
uh,... I mean...Just give it a chance. You'll get used to it. Everything's
going to be all right. Everything's better here. You'll see."

	Reg was pleading with him, and Terry felt the urge to give in to
him. And give in to the way he was feeling now. Then Reg looked Terry
straight in the eyes.

	"Please stay. Only those who are afraid go back." Reg spoke softly
that time, with a more serious tone in his voice. Then he said, with a big
smile, "Come with me, let me show you what I mean." He pulled Terry by the
arm and soon they were both running down the deserted street.

	They soon arrived at a drab looking building where they slowed down
and stopped. It looked like all the other buildings except that when they
went inside there was something in it, like furniture. And all the other
the other trimmings you would expect to find in a house that was lived in.

	Standing in the middle of the downstairs room Reg asked, "Can you
feel it?"

	"Yea," Terry said gleefully, "I can feel it. I felt it as soon as
we came in."

	"I feel it too," Reg said. "Come on, let's go upstairs."

	Terry followed Reg up a narrow flight of stairs and then straight
forward into a bedroom. There were four naked guys on a large bed getting
into it with each other. They looked like the beginnings of a football
team. All of them were big muscled, young looking black men of various skin
tones. Some light and some dark. They were all actively engaged in an orgy
of all kinds of sexual behavior. Sucking and fucking every which way.

	Terry felt an enormous desire to join in with them. He'd started
feeling it while they were downstairs, but now it was the only thing on his
mind. Get into the action.  Quickly, without even thinking, he'd taken off
all his clothes. His dick was rock hard.  He'd never known it to get this
hard before. It even looked bigger then it ever had. Reg had taken all his
clothes too. He grabbed Terry around the waist and walked him over to the
bed. He then wrapped both arms around Terry and they fell onto the bed
beside the others. Terry wrapped both his arms around Reg, and then it hit
him.

	"Wait!" Terry cried. "There's something wrong." Terry thought for a
moment.  "This, it isn't safe. How come no one has a rubber on?" He
wondered why he didn't think of it right away.

	"Oh," said Reg. "There's no AIDS here."

	What? Terry thought. "What?" Terry asked

	Reg smiled and laughed at the same time. "No," he said. "There's no
AIDS here.  There're no diseases of any kind here. None. No one ever gets
sick here. No one's ever died here either. It's just different here."

	"I'm not sure if I can believe that," Terry said.

	"I know," Reg said. "It took me a while to get used to that too.
But it's true." Reg took Terry by the hand and walked him to another corner
of the bedroom where they could both sit on a sofa.

	"Look Terry, I'll tell you everything I know. I can't remember how
long I've been here, but it's been a while. Now, I don't know where we are,
or how we got here, or what the hell is going on. All I know is that it's
different here. Everything's different. We even feel different. I mean,
have you ever in your life felt like you do now?"

	Terry had to admit it. "No, I've never felt like this before. I've
never wanted to have anyone this much. And I don't even know who you are,
but, it feels like it doesn't matter."

	"I know," said Reg. "And it really doesn't matter. That's how it is
here. There's no illness, no diseases, no death. There's no pain of any
kind. And there're no worries either. You don't have to work. You don't
even have to eat. It's just fun all the time. You can have all the sex you
want, feel it and enjoy more then you've ever done before. And everyday is
a holiday! You can do whatever you want! Any time you want." Reg looked
like he was on top of the world. "Do you see now why you should stay?"

	Terry wasn't sure what to say or do. It was like all this was too
much to take in all at one time. Then Reg wrapped his arms around Terry in
a gentile embrace. The touch of Reg's body against his own really made the
intensity of Terry's feelings rise. Reg started turning Terry over, face
down on the sofa. As he turned, Terry noticed Reg's dick for the first
time. Extra big and throbbing, it looked like it was too much to take in
all at one time. But Terry felt like he really, really wanted to try. He
let Reg spread his legs open with his own legs. Felt the head of Reg's dick
slip between the cheeks of his ass. And felt all of that big dick slip
right up in him, without any trouble at all. It felt really strange that it
didn't hurt. In fact, it was feeling better then anything he'd ever felt
before. And then, it hit him again.

	"I can't do this!" Terry cried, and wiggled his way out from under
Reg.

	"What's wrong Terry?" Reg asked.

	"I can't do this, Reg." Terry said. "I belong to someone else. I
don't know why I didn't think of it before. Plus, I just don't do stuff
like this. I don't mess around. I only have sex with Slice. Yea, Slice."

	"Who's Slice?" Reg asked.

	"He's my..." Terry started.

	"You're boyyyyyy friend." Reg said slyly.

	"Yes." Said Terry "He's my friend. I don't know why I forgot about
him."

	"Well, you'll forget about him in time," Reg said.

	That statement went through Terry like an electric shock.

	"I don't want to forget Slice," Terry said quickly. "We've been
together too long.  I don't want to forget him. I--I love him."

	"Oh," Reg said, looking down at the floor. "Well, you don't have to
worry about any of that here either."

	"What?" Terry didn't understand that.

	"I mean, you just don't have to be bothered with a whole lot of
that relationship stuff. It just gets in the way anyhow." Reg sees the
confused look on Terry's face. "You see, it's like this. Everyone here was
in a relationship with some guy. Even me.  Especially me. And it just
didn't work out."  Reg's voice had gotten low and sorrowful.  "Guys are
just no good that way."

	"I don't believe that at all." Terry said.

	"Oh yeah, well let me show you something. Take this guy `Slice',"
Reg laughed at the name. "A guy with a name like that. I'll just bet he's a
bum."

	"Don't you say that about him," Terry was angry now, "you don't
even know Slice."

	"Oh no." Reg starts. "I'll bet you he's got no job. He lays around
the house all day doing nothing. He eats all your food and spends all your
money, and what do you get for it? Nothing."

	"That's not true," Terry said, even though he know it was true. All
too true.  "He's...he's there when I need him."

	"So he's got dick," Reg said flatly. "And what else has he got? How
do you know if he even likes you. You say you love him, but what are you to
him, besides a free ride?"

	Terry was silent. Everything that he had feared, and had tried not
to think about, he had just heard out loud. He couldn't avoid it any
longer.

	"He knows the way I like it, Reg. And he gives it to me just that
way." Terry finally said.

	"It comes back to that dick again, doesn't it?" Reg said. "Don't
feel bad," he continued. "We're all suckers for it. Except for the ones
who're suckers for some good booty. A guy comes along with a big dick and
those sexy thuggish ways, and you fall for it. I've been through it.
Everyone here's been through it. You get involved with these guys, and you
give it all you've got. And you get nothing in return. I think that's why
we're all here. We all tried to make it work, and it didn't. All we got was
hurt. Face it Terry, it's not going to work out. This `Slice', he's just
not worth it."

	Reg saw the pain in Terry's face. He thought that Terry might start
crying any minute. He reached out and put his hand on Terry's chest. Then
put his other arm around his shoulders.

	"Come on Terry," Reg said. "You'll forget about him in time. If you
stay here with us, you'll never have to be hurt like that again. Just let
that other feeling in again.  The feeling you felt when we came in. All you
have to do is not be afraid."

	Terry sank into the sofa. He didn't want to forget Slice. He was
trying hard to remember him. And it was getting harder to remember him.
Terry forced the image of Slice into his mind. He tried as hard as he could
to focus all his attention on the picture of Slice in his imagination. He
recalled the first time they got together. Slice was perfect. He was dark
skinned. They were about the same height, but Slice was leaner, and
stronger.  His chest was cut nicely. He'd been a gymnast in high school,
which was only a few years ago. Every muscle in his body had been worked,
and it all still looked good. He'd get right in-between Terry's legs and
spread them open with his own. And then he'd get right up into Terry.
Slipping that big hard dick up in his ass hole with one good thrust.  Slice
would make it hurt, but Terry liked it to hurt. Slice had even asked him,
that first time with him.

	"You like it to hurt, don't you?" Slice asked.

	"Just a little," Terry replied.

	"Well then you like it to hurt," Slice said. Terry did like it to
hurt. And Slice made it hurt just right. He even had his baseball style
Sixers cap on, turned to the side, while they were having sex. That turned
Terry on a lot. And he talked to Terry the whole time.  He told Terry how
he was going to make Terry his girl forever. Slice took complete control of
Terry in the bed. Made Terry take all that dick, and didn't let him go
until it was all over. It would often take a while. And then, sometimes, he
would start all over again. Slice would let Terry touch him and feel him
all over. Terry loved that too. Slice wasn't shy. He was free with himself
with Terry. Except for his buns. Slice wasn't giving them up. But Terry
didn't mind that. It was Slice. It was just who he was. It had been great
for months. Terry had started buying Slice clothes and stuff from the
beginning.  Just small things at the start. Slice had bought Terry a few
things too. Not very expensive stuff. Slice didn't have much money. Terry
had the job. And he'd started getting Slice more expensive things as time
went on. Terry had given in to Slice when he really didn't want to. But he
did. Maybe Terry had gone too far, given in too much. Maybe he'd made Slice
dependent on him for too much. Maybe if he...

	"Terry!..." it was Reg. "Terry,... Come on man, you got to stop
thinking about him. It's only going to get you down. Remember how you felt
when we first came up here. Let him go. You can feel that way again." Reg
seemed to be pleading with him again.

	"Yeah, I remember," Terry started. "But now I can remember
something else too."  Terry paused for a moment. "I remember that I liked
it to hurt. I like it like that." Terry surprised himself with the
admission of something so personal.

	"But you don't have to be hurt anymore Terry. Listen to me..."

	"No, you listen to me," Terry said boldly. "I'm getting out of
here. I'm not going to forget Slice. I want to be with him. And I'm going
to." Terry collected his clothes together and ran downstairs to put them
back on.

	"Wait, Terry!" Reg cried, "Wait..." Reg grabbed up his clothes and
followed Terry down the steps. By now, the other four guys on the bed had
stopped what they were doing, grabbed their clothes and followed Reg and
Terry downstairs too.

	"Terry...Terry wait," Reg cried. "Think about what you're doing."

	"I have been thinking Reg," Terry said as he put his closes back
on. "And I think Slice is worth it. He is worth giving it another try. I
believe he does like me. Maybe not in the same way that I love him, but
there is something there. And maybe I've made a few mistakes too. But he is
worth it, and I'm going back to him."

	"You want to go back," Reg started. "Well, there's AIDS back there.
There's illness, and there's pain, and there's death too. Is that what you
really want?"

	"Well that's just life Reg. I can't do anything to change it. So
part of it is fucked- up. You just be careful. You be safe in what you do,
you do the best you can, and you keep on living. It's just what we've
always done. And with Slice, it just seems worth it, for however long it
lasts."

	Reg walked up close to Terry and put his hand on Terry's arm. The
touch brought back the feeling Terry had felt when he first came into the
house. It was a wonderful feeling. A feeling of strong sexual desire. It
wasn't because he liked Reg as a sex partner.  It was just the feeling
itself that made him want to do it so much. It was overwhelming, but Terry
tried to fight it off.

	"If you leave here Terry, you'll never feel this good again," Reg
said in a very serious tone.

	Terry looked Reg straight in the eyes. "Then that's just how it
will be," he said.  Terry used all the strength he could find in himself to
move his arm away from Reg's touch. He then turned away from him, bolted
out of the front door and went running down the street. Reg and the other
four guys had put on some clothes and were running after him. Terry still
felt the overwhelming desire. But he kept running. He wanted to go back, he
wanted to be with Slice, more then anything else. Now he could hear that
low humming sound, the same one he'd heard before, and he stopped in front
of that very building. Through the window he could see the purple spiral on
that same wall. Spinning and glowing. Reg and the others caught up with
him.

	"Terry...Terry, please don't go," Reg pleaded. "We need you here.
There's not that many of us. We need fresh faces, new bodies. We need new
people. It gets boring having the same guys all the time."

	"Really?" Terry laughed. "I've been having the same guy for months,
and I'm not bored. Don't you see? It's because you don't care about each
other. There's no love here.  That's why it's boring."

	"Terry please," said Reg. "All you have to do is not be afraid."

	"You've said that over and over Reg," Terry said. "But you're
wrong. It's those who stay here, there're the ones who are afraid. You're
the one who's afraid. Afraid of real life. Afraid to take a chance just
because you lost once before. It's you who's really afraid."

	"Terry, PLEASE!" Reg cried.

	"Remember this door, Reg," Terry said. "One day you won't be afraid
anymore, and you'll want to go back too." After that Terry ran through the
door of the building, ran as fast as he could toward the spinning spiral
and dove headfirst right into it.

	Terry landed on the floor and bumped his head on the game machine
behind him.  It hurt.

	"OUCH...! SHYT!" he said. "Damn, that..., I'm back, I'm really
back." Terry got up off the floor, and was standing in front of the video
game he'd started to play. He almost touched it but...There was no way in
hell that he was going to touch that machine ever again.

	There was a glass-enclosed office in the middle of the arcade, on
the right side of the room. It looked like the ticket booth at a movie
theater. An old, fat, ugly, unshaven man was sitting in it. He had the stub
of a fat cigar stuck in his mouth. He looked like he'd been born with that
cigar stub stuck in his mouth. Terry walked up to it and knocked on the
glass.

	"There's something wrong with that machine in the back," Terry told
him.

	The old man pointed to a sign on the wall behind him in the office.
"No refunds pal," he said, which was what the sign read.

	"You don't understand. There's something wrong with it," Terry said
again.

	"You play at your own risk," the old man said, pointing to another
sign.

	"That's not what I mean. It..." Terry tried to say.

	"Look pal,"," the old man said, pointing to another sign:
MANAGEMENT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE...

	"I'm trying to tell you..." Terry tried to say.

	"Hey, get out of here, I don't want to hear all that shyt," said
the old man.

	"But..." Terry was frustrated now. "Well, fuck you." Terry said.

	"Fuck you too, get out of here," the old man said. He kept
muttering something, but Terry really didn't care. He stepped out of the
arcade into the cold night air and ran into Slice.

	"Where you been at man," Slice said. "I been lookin' all over for
you."

	Terry was so glad to see Slice he was about to grab him and hug him
right there on the street.

	"You look cold man, where your coat at?" Slice asked.

	"I uh...guess I left it somewhere," Terry said.

	"You left your coat somewhere cold as it is, you must be bugging',"
Slice said.  He took off the coat he was wearing and started to put it
around Terry. Terry stopped him.

	"Before we go any further we got to get something straight." Terry
began.  "You're gonna have to get yourself together."

	"Come on Terry, stop buggin'," Slice.

	"I'm serious, Slice." Said Terry. "It's time you started acting
like a man. You're almost twenty years old, and you've got no job, and
you're not even thinking about your future. If you keep just laying around
the house all the time waiting for me to buy you this and buy you that,
then you'll just end up just being a bum."

	"Oh man, do we have to go through this again?" Slice interrupted.

	"Yes," Terry said. "Yes we do. Because it's just cool to be able to
stand on your own two feet. To make some money of your own, and to make a
future for you're self.  Instead of depending on me all the time for
everything. I want a man in my life Slice. Not a bum, or a child that I'll
have to take care of. And if you don't think you can do that, then you'll
just have to move back home with you're mother until you grow up." Well
Terry thought, he'd said it now, and it was too late to take it back.

	"Well um...," Slice started. "Um, I mean like, um... Well damn
Terry, what's got into you now?"

	"I'm serious, Slice. You've got to decide what you're going to do,
and decide right now." Terry said.

	"Well um...I um... Damn, Terry," Slice said. Terry didn't say
anything. He just waited.

	"Put this coat on Terry," Slice said, "it's cold out here."

	"So what about it?" Terry asked.

	"Well um... can't we talk about this later?" Slice asked.

	"No," Terry said. "There is no later. There's only now. You have to
start now.  And you've got to work at it everyday. There's no breaks, no
holidays. You have to work at being a man everyday, just like I do."

	"Well um...damn... alright," Slice said. "Um... I guess I could
try."

	That was a first step Terry thought. And the first one is always
the hardest. Slice put his coat around Terry. He then put his arm around
Terry. And they walked back home together.

	It's said some people live in a fantasy world. Maybe so. But in a
sense, don't we all? As humans, we tend to accomplish only those things
that we dream about. And in the end, it is our own struggle and effort, and
the willingness to take a chance, that brings those dreams into reality.

	Thank you for joining me this evening, and I hope you'll join me
again, next time, for THE MIDNIGHT ZONE.