Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 12:21:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Henry Brooks <hankster1430@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Boob Tube - short story (fantasy)

                              Boob Tube

Not so long ago, if an actor played a gay man on the silver screen, or on
TV, it marked the end of his career.  Things have certainly changed.
Nowadays, taking on the role of a gay man, may well be an express ticket to
an Oscar or an Emmy.

Trey Curry (real name: Tomas Carriochi) was just such an actor.  He was
young, handsome, straight, and married to a beautiful one-named Italian
model, Franca (real name: Francine Gravi).  He had enjoyed a moderate
success in secondary roles in a few romantic comedy films, but he was
getting somewhat discouraged, because his career seemed to have
inexplicably come to a total impasse.

When his career faltered, so did his marriage.  Sweet, endearing Franca
suddenly turned into a shrew.  She was constantly nagging him about
anything and everything.  He hated her pretentious friends from the fashion
industry, and that caused problems in their social life.  They would have
discussed divorce, but their sex life was just too good. Trey was the only
man who had ever brought Franca to orgasm with his cock or his tongue.  She
was a bit frigid, but Trey had little tricks that aroused her passion
quickly.

When Trey's agent sent him the script for the pilot episode of a new
sitcom, `Out and Out', he almost laughed his sides off.  It was funny
enough, but he couldn't see himself playing a gay man.  The plot concerned
a gay couple trying to fit into an upscale suburban neighborhood.  One of
the men was very fey, and the other was a retired football player.  Trey
thought he was going to read for the macho role, and he agreed to audition.

He was stunned when he found out that the role of the athlete was filled,
and he was to audition for the flamboyant partner.  He asked for a few
minutes to read the script again, so that he could get into character.
When he was ready, the director introduced him to Leroy Johnson.  Leroy was
a retired football player, who came out after he announced that he was
leaving the game, and he then turned to acting.  Leroy was also black, a
fact Trey thought that he had missed when he read the script.  He found out
later that the script was altered after Leroy was cast.

Trey was belted with shock after shock, but he was, after all, a true
professional.  He read his lines with a comic flair, but did not get so
effeminate that a macho football player would shun him.  He was able to
strike a happy medium thanks to his acting ability.  To make matters even
better, he and Leroy had great chemistry between them.  Trey never knew,
but it was Leroy's influence that got him the part.  During the filming of
the pilot, Trey and Leroy had breakfast and lunch together every day.  Trey
even invited Leroy to dinner one night, and Franca fawned all over him.

During the initial rehearsals, something happened to Trey.  He got so
immersed in his role, that he felt sexual tension toward the man who was
supposed to be his partner, lover, and bedmate, on screen.  This tension
was more than sexual.  It was creating confusion in him that he could not
explain.  He could not keep his hands off Leroy, but everyone believed that
he was just acting.

In one scene Leroy had to remove his tee shirt.  The entire cast and crew
gasped at this perfect specimen of manhood.  Trey could barely finish the
scene.  He was fighting getting a hard-on, and his brain was more confused
than ever.  He kept forgetting his lines.

The producers were never sure if the public would accept a gay comedy, much
less a black and white couple, so they contracted with Trey and Leroy for
only six episodes, in addition to the pilot.  The sitcom was an instant
success, and they ended up making thirteen episodes for season one, and
contracted for thirteen more for season two.

Trey became a household name overnight.  Wherever they went, he and Franca
were pursued by paparazzi.  Trey hoped that his wife would now become the
sweet, loving Franca he had fallen in love with and married.  Alas it was
not to be.  She became even more shrewish and demanding.  He hated coming
home after a long day of filming.  He and Leroy got into the habit of
having a late supper together.  Trey did everything he could to delay going
home.  Even though Leroy became his best friend, Trey never discussed his
unhappy home life with him.

One evening toward the end of filming for season one, Leroy asked Trey if
they were on for dinner that night.

"Not tonight, pal," Trey said.  "I have an appointment."  Leroy was
disappointed.  "Maybe tomorrow," he said and left.

Trey didn't want him to know that he had an appointment with a therapist,
who agreed to meet him after hours.

                               ******

"There's something really weird happening to me, Dr. Burns.  I hope you can
help me."

"Relax.  Take a deep breath and tell me all about it."

First Trey told the doctor about his unhappy home life.  "She won't even
consider divorce.  She says that there's nothing wrong with our marriage,
and acts like the problems do not exist."

The doctor was making copious notes on a legal pad.  "Yes, yes, go on," he
encouraged Trey.

"We're filming our last episode this week.  A couple of episodes back a
strange thing happened to me."

"Aah," the doctor murmured, realizing that Trey was finally getting to the
point.  "And what was it that happened?"

"I began to believe that the script, and the set, and Leroy, were all my
real life, and that in fact, my life with Franca was merely a sordid TV
drama about an unhappy marriage.  At home, at night, when Franca was
haranguing me for something or other, I kept waiting for the director to
yell, "Cut."  I literally had to pinch myself back to reality.  The
problem, doctor, is that it's getting worse.  I've lost any sense of which
of my lives is real and which is fantasy."

"Yes, yes, go on.  This is very interesting."

"Every day the urge grows stronger in me."

"What urge?"

"I want to break my contract with Franca, walk away from her, and spend the
rest of my life in suburbia with Leroy, and with my funny neighbors who
live on my street.  Worse, every day my TV life becomes more real to me,
and my other life becomes more surreal.  Doctor, I am losing touch with
reality.  The other day, when I was informed that I was nominated for an
Emmy as best actor in a comedy, I became confused and disoriented.  I
couldn't figure out whether the honor was for `Out and Out', or `Life with
Franca and Trey'.  I must have gone into some sort of trance, because when
I came out of it, Leroy had placed me on a cot in his dressing room, and he
had put a cold compress on my forehead."

"What happened next?"

"When I got home, Franca wanted to go out to celebrate my Emmy nomination.
It was late, and I was tired, and still confused.  I told her that I didn't
want to go out, and she began one of her tirades.  Suddenly she grabbed my
chin and turned my face toward hers.  She accused me of not looking at her
when she was talking to me.  Then I realized I was looking at the cameras
and not her.  Of course, there were no cameras in the house, outside of my
imagination.  I wanted this to be the end of the filming.  I wanted
desperately to go `home' to Leroy."

Trey stopped talking.  He was concerned that he had not explained himself
well enough, and that Dr. Burns would not `get it'.  He remained silent.
He hoped that the doctor would ask the right questions so that he could
explain himself better.

Trey didn't expect the question that the doctor finally did ask.  "Will you
have any time off before you start filming next season's episodes?"

"Yes, three weeks, and I'm not looking forward to it."

"Why not?"

"Franca wants to go to France and Italy, and all I want to do is stay in
bed and rest.  I keep dreaming of lounging in my back yard in Clarkstown.
That's the town in the show.  The thought of resting in my apartment in the
city disturbs me so much that I think I might as well go with Franca to
Europe."

"I'll tell you what I'd like you to do.  I think you should go to Europe
with your wife.  Put your real life back in perspective.  See me when you
get back home, and if the squares and circles have not been pegged back in
the right slots, we'll decide on a course of action."

Being away from the set, and spending full time with Franca, including lots
of fantastic sex, did snap Trey back to reality.  He never did make a
follow up appointment with Dr. Burns.  He was still miserable, but he was
handling it.

                              ******

During the first season, Trey and Leroy's characters never touched.  The
most intimate they ever got was to smile at each other. The show was such a
success that the producers and writers decided to get bolder.  At the end
of the first episode of the new season, the couple would be seen climbing
into bed together to go to sleep.  They would both be wearing pajamas so
that they were fully covered.  They would give each other a quick chaste
kiss, and...... blackout.  They would do nothing bolder, until they could
gauge viewer reaction.

During the filming of the scene, when Trey kissed Leroy, a terrible thing
happened.  Trey reverted back into his near schizophrenic state.  Once
again Clarkstown became real.  When the director yelled, "Cut!" Trey went
right on kissing Leroy.  He was no longer a straight man married to one of
the most beautiful women in the world.  He was the gay partner of a retired
football player.  In his head, he could already picture himself sucking
Leroy's cock.  It was huge and uncut.  He could actually taste it, and all
the precum that Leroy was producing.

Leroy was shocked, but he responded to Trey's amorous behavior, and he
continued to kiss Trey.  Instinctively, the two men parted their lips and
allowed their tongues to caress.  The director yelled cut several times and
finally, he screamed, "Get a room, you two, and for God's sake, cut.  It's
late and I wanna go home."

Leroy pulled away.  He was still in a state of shock.  "Come with me," he
whispered to Trey.  Trey had not yet come back to reality.

"I'll follow you anywhere, honey," he said foolishly.

Leroy pulled him into Trey's dressing room, and Trey objected.  "Let's get
out of here.  I want to go to bed and make love."

"There's nothing I'd like more, but something is wrong with you.  I'm going
to call a doctor."

"In my wallet," Trey said, "you'll find a card, Dr. Jeffrey Burns.  He's my
doctor."

"Where's your wallet?"

"On my dressing table."  Leroy retrieved the wallet and found the card.

"Dr. Burns is a psychiatrist," he noted.  Somehow that snapped Trey back to
reality.

"I'm OK, really I am.  I'll call the doctor myself if I need him.  Please
don't call him."

"Promise me you'll call him in the morning, but right now, I'm taking you
home."

Franca was surprised to see the two men at her door.  "He's not feeling
well," Leroy said.  "I think you should get him right to bed."

"Yes I will.  Thank you so much for bringing him home."

Trey wanted to yell, "I'm not home.  He took me to work by mistake," but he
managed to remain silent.

Franca took Trey to the guest bedroom. "I think you should sleep here
tonight," she said, "until we find out what's wrong with you."  She helped
him undress and brought him a pair of pajamas.  She left for a moment and
came back with a set of DVDs.  "I have a surprise for you," she smiled.
"It was just released today; season one of `Out and Out'."

She got Trey in bed, propped him up on several pillows, and put the first
disc in the DVD player.  She left quietly and closed the door behind her.
Trey smiled.  He was watching the pilot episode.

He and Leroy (Max and Sander) are unpacking boxes in their new home.  The
door bell rings and their next door neighbors are standing there and
smiling.  They are a young, all American, white couple, grinning from ear
to ear.  Marion hands them a tray of cookies, and welcomes them to the
neighborhood.  Jack tells them that it's great to have a gay couple and a
Negro (Negro?) in the neighborhood.  This is intended to make Max and
Sander feel more comfortable, but of course it has the opposite effect.
They can't wait for Marion and Jack to get out.

"I guess they meant well," Max comments.

As Trey stared at the TV screen, it suddenly seemed to be getting larger
and larger.  He cowered under the covers in fear.  The TV set began to
consume the entire room.  Soon there was no TV set.  Instead, he was with
Sander in their new living room, unpacking.

"Let's take a break," Max says (Trey says).

They sit down on their sofa.  They sit close to one another, but never
touch.  Sander (Leroy) pushes a button on the remote and the TV set comes
to life.  A beautiful dark haired beauty is screaming and yelling at her
contrite husband.  The husband looks like Max, but his name is Trey.

"I hate this show," Max says.  "Let's take a real break."  He stands up and
pulls Sander with him.  They go to their bedroom and strip rapidly.  "Make
love to me," Max commands.

They fall on the bed in a sixty-nine position.  They suck each other to
glory and fall asleep in each other's arms.

                             ******

Franca did not bother to knock.  She walked right into the guest room
expecting to see Trey watching the DVD.  He was not in the bed.  Where did
he go?  There was no en suite bathroom in this room.  Wherever Trey had
gotten to, he had left the TV on.  She glanced at the TV.  Max and Sander
are fast asleep in bed together, and they are naked.  Franca could not
remember ever seeing a scene that graphic on any of the episodes.  The
censors would surely have cut it right out.  Maybe it was an uncensored DVD
version.  Still she couldn't believe that Trey would have consented to film
it.

She shut the TV and ejected the DVD.  Then she went about searching for
Trey.  She never found him, the police never found him, and the private
detectives that she hired never found him.  She was able to declare him
legally dead, and his estate was released to her.

Trey was replaced on `Out and Out' with another actor, but Leroy's heart
could not embrace his new co-star.  There was no chemistry between them,
and the show was cancelled in mid season.

Leroy missed Trey terribly.  He finally admitted to himself that he had
fallen in love with Trey.  Or was it Max he fell in love with?  He was
confused.  One night he was lying in bed watching a re-run of an episode of
`Out and Out'.  His tears would not stop flowing.  Even though he had never
had a love scene with Trey, that's all he thought about when he was alone.
As he watched the screen, his cock began to harden and he began to stroke
himself.  He fantasized that he was in bed with Trey.  They were naked and
their cocks were crushed together.  Trey (or was it Max?) turned him on his
back and began to suck his cock.  Ah, that felt so good.  His stroking got
swifter, and he came all over his hand, his abdomen and his chest.  Leroy
was still crying, wondering where in the world Trey could have disappeared
to.

Suddenly the TV started to grow.  It grew larger and larger until it
engulfed his entire room.  He was no longer watching the show.  He was in
it.

"Don't you kiss me any more when you come home?" he heard Max's voice ask.

"Of course, I do Baby.  But I'm not leaving again.  I'm home to stay."

"We're both home to stay, Honey.  Nothing is going to separate us again."

Max and Sander embraced and held each other so hard, they could have broken
some ribs.

"I love you," Max said.

"I love you more.  Let's make love."

"Not now, Sweetie.  Marion and Jack have invited us to dinner."

"I guess that means we'll have to invite them back here next week."

"Yes, Love.  We really should ask the writers to give us a few more
friends."

"We don't need the writers anymore.  We're in charge now.  This is our
town, our home, and our life.  We'll live it as we write it."

"That sounds good to me.  Can we write about lots and lots of love making?"

"This could be the beginning of a great literary collaboration," Sander
said, laughing.  He kissed Max, taking his breath away.  They rushed to the
bedroom to change for dinner, and squeezed in a quickie in the shower.


           I dedicate this story to Rod Serling. Hankste