OK, so Jeffie was weird.
But after Mr. Poore’s talk, I understood him a lot more. I didn’t really understand the thing about liking to be punished, since being punished embarrassed me and made me feel like I failed. I also didn’t understand how or why I was doing what I was. I guess it was because I had permission, it was something very dangerous, and it just felt so damn good. But aren’t all boys that age interested in ‘dirty stuff’?
Besides, I was getting attention. And love.
And I only had 2 days of it left.
I figured I could always come over and visit, though.

I got woke up Saturday morning, same as always – a slap across the butt. I was awake at once and waiting to be let loose. But instead of being freed from the bed like usual, I felt hands on me. Then whiskers. Hot breath, all around my neck and moving down until those whiskers tickled just under my belly button. The last kiss couldn’t have been far from my dick; I felt those whiskers brush it. I was hard as hell, but nothing happened. Nothing other than hugs and kisses and just being held. It was such a relief, and I was glad I’d slept all night without waking up. I know I’d have pushed the panic button.

He only said one word: “Son,” whispered in my ear.

“Dad?” I whispered back.

And there was no correction of that error.

If it was an error.

It didn’t feel like one to me.

I had all I needed right there. I was fine again. I could have sat there all day like that.

But I had to pee.

So did Jeffie. Once free, he was up and dancing and holding his little stub. Canyon looked very relieved to see that his bed was dry. He also had that dumb grin on his face again.

“Uncle! I gotta PEE!” Jeffie was whining, and I had no idea if they were playing or not.

“Perhaps we should see how long you can hold it?” Mr. Poore suggested.

Jeffie’s eyes bugged out, but he didn’t move.

“Father, please, make him stand in the bathroom?” Canyon asked.

Mr. Poore laughed and made Jeffie go stand in the bathtub. I could tell they were playing then.

“Hands behind your back, turn around,” Mr. Poore told Jeffie. Canyon jerked a finger at me to come watch.

Mr. Poore then put some padded cuffs on Jeffie’s wrists, not unlike my weight cuffs. These were snug, though, thinner, and taller. They also locked, so that Jeffie’s hands were held behind his back by cuffs at least 6” tall. They weren’t at his waist either – a small strap was on the cuffs, hooked to his collar, pulling them up the middle of his back so his elbows stuck out. “Ow, ow, ow,” he was whining, and Mr. Poore let his hands down a bit. “Good!”

“Jeffie, if you lose control of your bladder before the boys are done getting ready to come and eat, you will wear those cuffs until naptime. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Uncle, sir,” he grinned.

We’d just got done combing our hair when Jeffie said, “Oh, damn!”

He hadn’t made it.

Canyon laughed and sprayed him off with hot water, then patted him dry. At least Jeffie didn’t have to comb his hair.

When we came down to breakfast, Mr. Poore just shook his head. “He did that on purpose, you know,” he told us.

“I’m not sure, Father,” Canyon shook his head. “He was trying very hard.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Dad, how’s he gonna eat?” I had to ask.

I said it without thinking.

I could have raped a sheep on the table and got a similar reaction.

Mr. Poore put his hand on the side of my head. “He’ll manage,” he smiled at me.

“Just excellent, Benny!” Canyon kissed me.

“Wow, new playmate!” Jeffie smiled. I mean, it was about all he could do, but fidget with his cuffs. He wasn’t having much luck getting out of them. Houdini he wasn’t.

He managed to eat, all right. He had to eat off his plate like a dog, and I got a nod to wipe his face off when he was done. And even though it was Saturday and we had company, we still had to work out.

Jeffie got to do sit-ups, leg presses, and the treadmill, since he couldn’t use his arms. With my extra weights, I was kinda tired when it was time for class and got a half a muscle pill.

I figured we’d talk about sex again, but it was back to studying Spanish stuff. I wondered if we were going to try and make adobe bricks before too long? It wouldn’t surprise me. Canyon knew how to do everything else, I thought. Jeffie asked a lot of questions, and he only got the stick once in class. I think he was trying to when he started arguing about where Columbus had landed here. He thought it was Plymouth Rock, not the Indies, and had him mixed up with the Pilgrims.

“That was so wet,” Canyon sighed on the way to lunch. “Couldn’t you think of something better, Jeffery?”

Jeffie just grinned when I told him about the red streak across his butt.

We had sub sandwiches for lunch, which was surprising that we were given so much bread. I decided to save time and offered to hold Jeffie’s for him. I mean, how was he supposed to eat it with no hands? Our next workout turned out to be cleaning up my yard, since mom was due home Monday morning and the utilities would come back on. I saw that Bob had rigged the AC to run off an extension cord to Mr. Poore’s house. If not, it would have been so hot in there it probably would have caught fire on its own.

I also got to teach Canyon how to use the power mower. He didn’t like the steel-toed boots, but he did like running over things to chop them up. “Bloody brilliant!” He just crowed, as he went right through a clump of that stupid ornamental grass. I didn’t bother to stop him. Now if he could only get that stupid bush mowed down…

Of course Jeffie couldn’t do much, and since the Smiths were home, we had to wear shorts. Jeffie’s job mainly was sitting on Mr. Poore’s lap, in the shade, and studying a book of some kind. It looked painful, and he kept making funny faces. Mr. Poore yelled at Mr. Smith once, and asked him to keep his cat in. He said he’d heard of a new loose dog in the area. I wondered what the heck he was talking about? Mr. Smith ran right in at once.

I didn’t like the idea of a dog getting Kitty. Original, huh? Yeah…but Kitty always stopped to see me on those nights I couldn’t sleep and would sit out on the patio. Of course, we couldn’t have a cat.

Once we were safely back in Canyon’s yard, I de-pants’d Jeffie. “Dad, his shorts are torn?” I said. There was a slit in the back seam of them.

Canyon and Jeffie both just laughed. Mr. Poore took the shorts, and ours, and just shook his head.

It was clouding up, so sunning was pretty much out. You could see the rain coming.

‘Great,’ I thought, ‘Last day is gonna be a rainout.’ We did our Spanish lessons, as usual, and just laid around until swim time. I wondered when Jeffie was supposed to get his fighting lessons?

Swimming was no problem for Jeffie, though. He did it like a fish, and he could hold his breath, too. I kept an eye on the rope, just in case we had to pull him out.

When it was time to go in and have the shakes and naps, we were all ready for it. Mr. Poore seemed very busy. He was on the phone with someone, telling them to bring all sorts of stuff. I guess that it was for the party Joe had mentioned on his way out? Catering? Must be.

“Boys, our friends will be arriving around five, so it’s going to be a short nap. Get to it.”

We did that.

I got woke up around 5 by Mr. Poore’s voice. He was on the phone again, and he was pissed.

“Oh, he DID, did HE?” Mr. Poore was saying. “Left a message at the office for you? I suppose that’s a first for you, isn’t it, Lois?”

It was Mom!

But she never called if she was gone on a work trip?

“Trust me, Lois, you don’t want to play this game with me! What? I did NOTHING to YOUR son that I wouldn’t have allowed Canyon! He told you that? Well, yes, but Benny wanted it. Now you just…I’ll have you know he LIKES the haircut!
”Oh, Lois, he’s been swimming naked and having a wank with that detestable Scott boy for months! Well, I wasn’t the one loading him up on Depo, now was I? I wonder what your boss would think of you embezzling drugs? What ELSE have you given him?”

I couldn’t believe it! He was arguing with my mom!

Scott had called her.

I didn’t move or open my eyes. I hoped Canyon and Jeffie wouldn’t, either. I had to hear this.

“Go ahead and call the police, darling,” he said in that ‘smooth it over voice’. “You’ll find that it’s a load of paperwork, and you’ll be home and back on the job, ignoring your son, before anyone even shows up! What? Oh bloody hell, woman, you don’t even FEED him! I’m conditioning him, is what I’m doing, before YOU turn him into a fat, lazy eunuch!”

What the hell?

Scott had told Mom something. God, what had he told her!?

“If it’s money you want, Lois, money I’ve got! You’re out of your league here! I can’t believe I ever agreed to let you keep one of…”

I just laid there, wondering what Scott had done.

He’s ruined it, I thought, I just knew he’d told her everything. The cops would be coming for us any minute!

And if I found out he had, so help me, I was gonna get him for it! I’d make him sorry he ever made fun of me!

“Then rent a car to get home! Fine. Your utilities will come on Monday morning, and we’re cooling the house down now. I’ll have Bob put your system back on your house’s controls, yes. Yes, the yard is lovely, Lois! God’s sake, aren’t you going to ask to talk to Benjamin? If it’s so bad here, then why don’t you want to ask HIM?”

I knew he was mad then, but not at me.

“Of course you do. Right. He’ll be home when we see you pull in Monday morning, then. Sunday night? Well that’s just as good, Lois. I can send him home then, but you won’t have lights. Oh, you have an oil lamp? How quaint. What? How DARE you? It’ll break Canyon’s little heart, you know!”

The only thing I could think of that would make him say that was if I was grounded from coming back over.

She didn’t want me seeing Canyon anymore?

DAMN YOU, SCOTT, WHAT DID YOU SAY?

“Fine, Sunday night. Be here before 9, Lois, it’s his bedtime. Well at least I offer STRUCTURE!” Mr. Poore yelled, and threw the phone.

He came into the room.

“I’m sorry, boys,” He said in a low voice. “Benny, you’re going home tomorrow night, but we’re not going to let that ruin the party. Everyone is off tomorrow, so all of Canyon’s friends are coming over. It was sort of planned for everyone to get now you, Benny.”

“And…and now…this is the only time they’ll s-see me?” I was almost crying.

Mr. Poore nodded, then sort of bobbed his head. “Perhaps. Your mother has no idea what she’s doing. Benny, I want you to call Scott. Tell him to meet you at The Shack.” He handed me back my shorts. “Play dumb, don’t let him know that you know that she’s called.”

“Dad, he c-called her, didn’t he, sir?” I mumbled.

“Yes.”

“Wh-what did he tell her?”

“Too much,” Mr. Poore said.

“I’ll kill him myself,” Canyon said in a flat voice, and I was sure he could do it. You know how they talk about seeing it wrote on your face? Well, Canyon’s was. It was scary.

Jeffie was just sitting there sniffling. Mr. Poore freed his hands and hugged him. “I don’ wan’ Benny to go!” He whined.

“He won’t, if I have MY way,” Mr. Poore told him. “And Martin Poore has yet to NOT get his way! Benjamin,” he changed tones, “Call Scott and tell him you’ve run away. Have him meet you at The Shack. Then tell him you have to get something from your house, but don’t go in! Just get him in the yard. Make something up, tell him you need somewhere to hide, something!”

“Then what, sir?”

“Then leave it to me,” Mr. Poore said, and I got the worst chills ever. I’d never seen THAT look on his face. “We may yet be able to salvage this mess!”

Scott had to sneak out, since he was grounded for something again. He met me at The Shack, about 10 minutes after I got there. As mad as I was, I did like I was told. Turned out, he’d called my mom and told her about the nudity thing, the earrings, the haircut, and the pornos, and the enema. He also mentioned the sex between us boys, and thought that Mr. Poore might be molesting me, too.

What he hadn’t done was tell HIS parents.

“Your mom said to keep quiet until she gets back and gets the police!” Scott said, “Seriously!”

“Good, because I know where Ronnie is,” I told Scott, as I bought us a sack of junk that I had no plans to eat.

“Where?”

“In the basement,” I whispered to him. “They’re gonna put him in a box and take him to the airport tomorrow! Some guy in Abu Dhabi bought him!”

Scott turned whiter than a ghost. I had no fuckin’ clue where that place was, but it sure sounded good! He bought it.

“I knew it! He grabs boys and sells ‘em! I bet he cut Canyon’s balls off, so he could sell him for MORE money!” Scott gasped. He was letting his imagination go, and I let him.

“Man, we gotta get Ronnie out, though! By the time Mom gets back, they’ll be gone!” I said, pouring it on thick.

“We can call the cops!” Scott said.

“You forgot about Joe, the mall cop?” I told him. “He’ll catch the calls and hide it. HIS kid is there now, at Canyon’s place.”

“HE has a kid?” Scott gasped.

“Nabbed him from the mall,” I said. Well, it wasn’t a lie, was it?

“Holy shit, Ben, you were right all along! And I didn’t believe you! You stayed there to figure all this out?”

I nodded.

“That’s heavy, dude. I swear, I’ll never make fun of you again! You’ll get a medal for this, or something!”

“Something,” I nodded. “Listen, I’m gonna hide in the garage at my house. He’ll NEVER look there! I need you come help me block the back door up, then you sneak out the window. Go home, and DON’T tell you mom until mine gets back with real State cops!”

He bought it – all of it.

That was Scott for you.

“Lemme go pee first,” I told him, and when I went in the bathroom, I got the biggest surprise yet.

“BENNY?” Mr. Poore’s voice whispered.

It was coming from my collar.

And I knew.

I knew how he’d known every move we’d made, where we were, and what we’d said.

And I did not care.

“Sir?” I whispered. “The c-collar, it’s a bug?”

“Very good, son, and I’m so sorry! But I had to be able to follow you! I had to know what you were saying to whom, and now it’s clear that Scott knows too much. You see now what can happen if word of … us… gets out?”

“Sir!” I said.

“Just get him in the garage, Benny, we’ll do the rest,” he told me.

“Dad?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“And I love YOU, son.”

It was too much right then.

I had to stay in there and cry for a while, until Scott came to get me. It wasn’t fake either. I had no clue about Ronnie, and right then, I couldn’t have cared less. All I cared about was that I was never going to see Canyon again, I was going back home, probably be in therapy for a year, if not sent to The Blanken Center or rehab or something, and that the closest thing I had to a dad – the only man who loved me – was going to jail. Canyon would be put in foster care somewhere. I almost couldn’t stand it.

I wanted to hit Scott so bad then, for running his damn mouth! Why couldn’t HE just go along with it? Why did he have to ruin EVERYTHING for me? Just because he COULD?

We ditched our bikes and some of the food behind The Shack and walked home, cutting through the woods and other peoples’ yards. We came across the road through the big drainpipe on the other side of Smiths’, and sneaked around the hedges into my garage. It was open.

Of course it was. Mr. Poore had the keys.

I went in first, talking.

“C’mon, Scott, we’re clear!”

“Kinda dark?” Scott whispered.

“Breakers are off, power’s out until Monday morning,” I told him.

I got in a ways, and Scott closed the door behind him. Something moved in the corner, and the next thing I knew, Mr. Poore had Scott in a choke hold. Sleeper hold. Some wrestling move I was no good at. He had a white rag over Scott’s face, and it took like 2 seconds for Scott to pass out.

“Help me strip him,” Mr. Poore told me.

We left his clothes by mom’s car. All he had on was his watch.

“I KNEW he’d do this, the lying little shit!” Mr. Poore said.

Mr. Poore put him a big black garbage bag and slung him over his shoulder. Even if the Smiths saw, what would they see? Laundry? Trash?

“You hide in here, Benny, and wait for Bob. No one must see you come back over to our house!”

“Yes, sir!” I said.

Bob showed up a few minutes later. I heard his truck pull in, and then him making a show of servicing the AC unit. Perfect cover! Then Bobbie came in. He put me in a wheelbarrow, covered me with an old blanket they used to lay on for working, and wheeled me back over to Mr. Poore’s.

“Where is he?” I asked, once I was back inside.

“Where is who?” Mr. Poore grinned at me.

Sitting at the table were Dr. Kent, his boy Mickey, Mr. Poore, Joe, Sam from the wedding store, and two other guys I didn’t know. They were all dressed, too.

“Benny, I need your shorts,” Bobbie told me.

I pulled them off without thinking about it. I didn’t care if everyone saw me naked. I was just glad to be back. I knew Mr. Poore had a plan, and I didn’t really care what it was.

Maybe we’d take off to Spain? Was that why we’d studied it?

(Mickey was about Bobbie’s age, remember, and about to head to college, too?)

“Coming along nicely, isn’t he?” Dr. Kent said. He handed a vial of blood to Bobbie, who left with it and my shorts to go back and help Bob.

What did he need with blood? Least, I thought it was blood. It looked like one of those things he filled up when he’d took some of mine.

“Benny, sit down. There are some truths that it is time for you to know,” Mr. Poore told me.

He shoved his old college yearbook at me.

“I’ll go see to the kids,” Joe offered, and left. He was still in uniform, and had scared me for just a minute.

“I have work to prepare, come along, Mickey,” Dr. Kent nodded, and he left with Joe.

That left just the two of us.

“Benny, you knew I was in college, in England, with your mother?” Mr. Poore said.

I nodded. It was hard to believe, but I knew it. I’d seen the pictures.

“And you know I wanted to marry her?”

“And she said no,” I sighed. “Dumb.”

“Yes. Very.”

I nodded again, and he took me on his lap. It was odd, sitting there with him dressed.

“Benny, it’s time you knew the whole story. Did you ever hear your mother say she had a year off, between her Junior and Senior years?”

I nodded. Sometimes, when she was half-lit or just pissed, she’d say things. That was one of them.

“We had a relationship,” Mr. Poore said, holding me tight. “You see, I told you my father was strict? My adopted father? He wanted me to experience the world, but he never thought I’d fall in love and ask a girl to marry me. The shock of it did him in, I suppose?”

“Sir?”

“Benny, sometimes a man can like both men and women. It’s called being ‘bisexual’. You see, I’d never been with a woman before. Your mother was my first crush, my first date, and after 2 years, I knew I wanted her.” He sighed again. “She wanted more, though.”

“You…you grew up like Canyon, sir?” I asked.

He nodded.

“But unlike Canyon, as you can see, I was left intact. I believe he told you a little about our, shall we say, circle of friends?”

Of course he knew. My collar was a bug. He knew every word I’d said since he’d put it on me. I should have been mad, or scared, but I wasn’t. It made me feel safer – like he cared that much.

“I was raised somewhat chaste,” Mr. Poore went on, “I never even got to touch my penis, after I was adopted, until I was in college. Father always said the chastity device would come off when I was on my way to taking care of myself, and I could be trusted. Well, when I was finally let loose, the first thing I did was, erm, DO IT with your mother!”

That didn’t really surprise me. After all, he’d wanted to marry her?

“I suppose I didn’t know what I was doing, really, Benny. Just because I thought I was in love with a girl. I wanted her to marry me, of course. Then I figured, since I was ‘out and about freely’, and I LIKED sex, of course!” He laughed, “It was something new and exciting, sex with a woman! We’d have sex, and if she got pregnant, so much the better! Then she’d HAVE to marry me!”

I started thinking, trying to remember things I’d heard.

I turned around and looked at the pictures of me and Canyon on the wall. Why did he hang up my pictures from school if he only wanted to copy them? He didn’t want to copy them: He planned to keep them.

He planned to keep ME.

I thought I knew why.

“But when you got Mom pregnant, she turned down your proposal? She never wore the earrings.” I touched my ears.

“She never wore this either, I thought she’d have sold it,” Mr. Poore said, as he pulled a ring from his pocket. It had the biggest rock in it I’d ever seen! “I’m going to have Sam call up one of his friends and have this stone set in a man’s ring for you,” he told me. “But there’s more.”

“I…I thought there was, Dad…sir,” I said.

“No, don’t correct yourself, Benny. I like it when you say that.”
He got us some tea, with a lemon in it. I guess I had this look on my face that said I had something to say, because he nodded at me.

“You said there was money. I guess your dad was doing OK, and Mom was already on her own?” He nodded again. “So you were both in college, you were in love, and she got pregnant?”

“I think I said that?”

“Yes, sir, but you said you couldn’t believe you ‘let her keep one’.” I looked at the pictures of us again. Me and Canyon. Same haircuts. Same eyes. Same skin tone. “She was pregnant with twins, wasn’t she? She was pregnant with me and Canyon?”

Silence.

“You’re a brilliant boy, Benny,” Mr. Poore smiled at me, and his face was sad. It made me hurt inside. “But what ended our relationship for good and all was when she told me she wanted an abortion. I was devastated, you see, and in that moment, all of my love for HER died. She was carrying my children, the doctor had guessed, and she wanted to abort them! Abort YOU! Dangerous, of course, back then, but we had the money: I from my Father, she from her parents’ estate. I begged her, I offered her anything, not to murder the 2 of you before you could be born! I offered to take you both, pay all the bills, pay her tuition. I’d take you both and go away, so she’d never have to deal with children. In the end, I did all of that. But she wanted more, once she saw you both.”

“She wanted to keep 1 of us?” I asked.

Mr. Poore nodded.

“You’re not identical, Benny, although then it was hard to tell. You looked alike as babies, and I was so very proud. It was just random chance that the nurse handed one of you to me.”

“Canyon.” I said.

“Canyon,” He agreed. “Papers were signed. He became Canyon Poore, mother deceased – not my original name, you see, but by then, it was my identity. The surname I’d had, the boy I’d been, was long gone. You became Benjamin Pence, father unknown, with her real name, and she took you. Ironic, isn’t it? ‘Pence’ is a British penny, and I was ‘Poore’?”

I didn’t know what to do.

I’d been right.

It was no wonder Canyon called me his brother, and why it made Mr. Poore cry when I called him ‘dad’. They’d known all along.

He was my real father.

“Sir, how did you find me?” I had to know. I just sat there, too stunned to move.

“Benny, do you remember when you saw the tan marks around Kim’s neck, at the mall? And he saw yours? That’s how you knew each other. I had the same marks as a boy, you see. I had a finely woven necklace, like yours, until I was a college Sophomore. The weave causes the tan marks to look like the Chinese characters for the words “slave, boy, control, and eunuch.”

“Wow,” I looked down at my feet. “I thought there was something to it, sir.”

“It’s just a mark, Benny,” he told me, “I’m sure there are others out there in our little ‘society’ that DO make slaves of their boys, but Canyon is no slave, as you can see. And you won’t be, either.”

“How…how many are there?” I had to know.

“No one knows, Benny. It’s all very deeply underground, this culture I was adopted into by my new father.
”I was very unhappy after college, though. I hired nannies, and I could – Father was very well off.” I thought of the Ferrari in the garage. Yep, very ‘well off’. “We both graduated, but my love for your mother was dead. I wanted very much to be a part of your life, but then one day, no one answered the phone. The flat was deserted, the bank account where I’d put money to save your lives – empty. And she was gone. Gone with you.
”I was wandering a shopping center one day with Canyon. I think he might have been just 1 year old…”

I was just staring at him. It was some story!

“Then I saw this young boy watching us. He might have been all of 7 or 8 years old. He had your haircut, you see? But he was so cute, you see, and then I noticed the tan marks on his neck.”

“Like you had, when you were little?”

Mr. Poore – Dad – nodded.

“I asked him to fetch his father, and I told him I’d had marks like that once myself. That was when I met Frederick.”

“Of Thomas & Fredericks Law Firm, sir?”

“Frederick Fredericks, yes,” Mr. Poore smiled.

OK, any parent who does that go a kid needs to be shot, OK? How many Thomas Thomas’s are there out there? Or William Williams’s? That’s just sick!

“You’re very good, Benny, did you know that? Of course, I know all about all the spying you were doing since we met up, you know?” He touched my collar. “Tell me, were you really trying to set me up? Did you really think I’d kidnapped a boy?”

I just stared at him.

“Didn’t we just do that to Scott?” I had to ask.

He laughed. “’WE’! Of course WE did! Why, Benny, my boy, you’re a criminal! You’re an accessory!”

He sounded proud of me. Then he went back to the story.

“Father had acquaintances, you see. Just like I do. As I told you, I was raised very much like I am raising Canyon.”

I kinda held up my hand. He nodded at me.

“Did you…did you have sex with other boys? Or c-castrated boys?” I had to ask.

“Yes, I did, Benny. As I said, I was bisexual. When I was your age, coming into my own sexuality, I couldn’t have sex with girls, you see. I wasn’t allowed access to my own genitals, remember? I learned to find pleasure with other boys, eunuchs, or other men. Just like MY adoptive father had. Just as his had. Some of them had wives, too, you see. So I knew all about women and what they liked – I just was never able to DO IT with them.”

“So you learned it all, but weren’t allowed to do THAT, sir?”

He nodded. “Pleasure is pleasure, Benny, and it is not the boy’s place to question his father’s methods. There was only one aspect of sex that I had yet to try, and well, we know how that turned out, don’t we?”

I had to ask the next question. I just had to know.

“Did you let MEN do it to you?”

He nodded.

“But it wasn’t what you’re thinking, Benny. I can see it on your face. No one raped me, Benny. I was trained like Canyon has been, like you’ve been these last 2 weeks. All of your little playmates are similarly trained, even though not all of you share the same…interests.”

I thought about Jeffie. That was true! Then I thought about Canyon. It was the first time I realized that he might be having sex, like the boys in the films, with men.

“You like what you and Canyon do?” Mr. Poore asked me. “You were scared at first, I know. So was I. But it feels good?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So if it feels good, and you want to do it, why can’t you do it? Because someone else ‘out there’ says it’s wrong? If a boy likes to do it with girls, he should! If he likes to do it with other boys, he should! He just needs to be guided along the way, to see what he likes. For instance, Benny, you like having Canyon use a dildo on you? An artificial penis up your little bum? You liked what the doctor did to you?”

I felt my face getting hot.

“Yes, sir.”

“And someday, you may find you like doing it with girls, too. If you don’t, that’s fine too!” Mr. Poore told me. “It’s just unfortunate that we live in a world where everyone else who thinks he is ‘normal’ wants YOU to be just like them.”

“So it’s OK to like…both?” I had to ask.

He nodded again.

“Many more ‘primitive’ cultures, some to this day, even believe that a boy should NOT have anything to do with girls until he is of marriageable age, did you know?” I didn’t know. “Those cultures know that the boy has sexual needs, though, and he is often provided with another boy – perhaps a slave – to fulfill those needs.”

“Or a eunuch?” I asked.

Mr. Poore sighed. “That in itself is another long story, Benny, and one we can study in class further. You’re wondering why Canyon decided to be castrated? Or why Jeffie has had the modifications that he has?”

“Yes, sir. Is it true that Canyon isn’t really a boy anymore?”

“In some cultures, he would be viewed as non-male, a 3rd sex, something unique. Some children are born that way, as well. The Hijra of India are a cult of eunuchs, Benny. They see them as another gender – not male.”

“So it’s not like I’m gay if I like it with a eunuch?”

“What IF you are gay, Benny?” He then turned more serious. “Who cares? If you find out later that you want to be a male, and you like sex with other males, what difference does it make, if it makes YOU happy?”

“But…but, dad,” I said, trying to understand him, and I didn’t. “Canyon’s my BROTHER! Isn’t that WRONG?”

“It’s not like you can make an inbred baby, Benny,” he smiled at me. “Now THAT would be wrong, if he were your sister! But then again, since your mother…” He shook his head. “This is probably all my fault, son, with what she did to you. I’m probably the reason she hates men in general.” He sat down and put his head down on the table like we did in school sometimes. “I sold my son for a half-million pieces of silver,” he mumbled, “Judas would have been proud.”

“If she didn’t wanna get knocked up, she should have been more careful…sir!” I said. Then I stopped. “You gave her ½ a million bucks back then to…keep me?”

He smiled at me again. “I paid her to NOT abort you. BUT, I did get Canyon out of the deal.”

“Wonder where the money went?” I asked. Then I thought damn, how much money does he HAVE?

“Benny, a great deal has happened today,” Mr. Poore changed the subject, “But for now, you’re here. We’re all going to have a little celebration tonight, have a good time, and we’re not going to worry about what might come. You don’t need to worry about Canyon and me, Benny. I always have a contingency plan. All you have to do is realize that when the party starts, bedtime is later, and it’s all free time for you boys.”

That made me wonder. If he was throwing out the schedule, what were we going to do? Would there be…sex? I mean, it was ‘free time,’ and me and Canyon were allowed to do that stuff.

I knew I wanted to get off, that was for sure!

I also wanted to beat the shit out of Scott.

“One more thing, sir?”

“Yes?”

“Why’d you leave England?” I had to ask.

“I wanted to travel, and I wanted Canyon to see more of the world. He was about 6 when we left. We went here and there, always meeting new people. One connection leading to another, you see. We visited America with Frederick, but Canyon was too small to remember it. Frederick had friends, they had friends, and I began developing my own network outside of the folks that I’d grown up with.” He sighed. “I haven’t seen some of them in ages.”

“You had Mr. Fred start looking for me, didn’t you, dad?” I asked.

Mr. Poore nodded. “And it took him almost 6 years to track you down. I’m not sure your mother recognized me at first, Benny. But when Fred told me that Leon had a house for sale, and right next to YOU! Why, it was just the wildest stroke of luck! I wanted so badly to see you, if even just that, should I not be able to know you.”

He got up then and hugged me.

“Run along now, and go clean up. You’ll find clothes in the bathroom. Everyone is going to be dressed, at first, until we get the caterers out of here!” He laughed.

I laughed too.

In spite of the ‘Scott-problem’, which I really didn’t care about right then, I was happy. For all I cared, they could really ship Scott to Abu Dhabi and I wouldn’t miss him. I’d send his ass ‘postage due!’

Yep, that Saturday night, I was happy.

I’d found my dad.

Or he’d found me.

It didn’t matter.

What did matter was that he was there, so was I, and he loved me – and I wasn’t going to let anyone mess that up.

Not even Mom.