Chapter 10
"That pie was excellent, Susan." Nanny said with a satisfied pat of her stomach as she put her fork down on the table. Mom's parents had come all the way from California to visit us for Thanksgiving, forgoing their normal huge family dinner back in Modesto to spend it with us.
"Thanks, mom." My mother said with a wide smile. Her brown hair looked especially nice since she'd had it done in town a few days ago, and she was smiling broadly at the praise from her mother.
"That storm looks like a doozy." Papa said as he took the last bite of his apple pie. We were all sitting at the dining room table and the drapes for the wide patio doors were open, showing the back porch and the view outside. The Diamond Peak mountain range wasn't visible as the snow flurries turned the landscape outside into a winter wonderland in the early afternoon. "Do you think we'll be able to drive out of here on Saturday?"
"The Air Force weathermen say it'll be clearing up tomorrow." I answered before anyone else could. Papa nodded his head and I had to stifle the smile that threatened to break out. He was just entering his early sixties, and his face was less craggy and wrinkled than I remembered, and his mind was yet untouched by Alzheimer's. Nanny's hair was slightly redder than it would be in twenty years, and her eyes were clear and as full of mirth as I remembered. It was good seeing them so relatively young and healthy, and to be getting along with them. My relationship with them had been strained after mom's death in the last timeline.
"How do you stand it being so cold out there?" Nanny said with a visible shiver. The house was nice and warm thanks to the electric heaters upstairs and wood stove downstairs, but she was still cold. The little wood stove down in the basement kept that part of the house stifling hot, and with the stairwell door opened, it helped to heat the upstairs as well. Whenever I worked in my office once winter started, I had to keep the window partly open even with it being close to freezing outside.
"We stay inside most of the time, except when we have to go to town for work or school." Mom explained with a shiver of her own. Both women were slight in build and felt the cold easily.
"The electric bill has been hell, but we've managed to pay it so far." Dad said, totally leaving out the fact that it had been me paying the three hundred dollar bill.
"You've done mighty fine for yourselves out here." Papa said with stern approval. Dad practically gleamed with pride at the man's words. Papa had always been critical of Dad, especially as he'd had to bail my parents out of financial trouble several times.
"The church is going well." Dad said with a shrug, and that was true. He'd taken a softer approach in his sermons ever since we got here, and attendance was up, even during the winter. Higher attendance meant more tithes, and more income for the church.
"How is school going, Davey?" Nanny asked me with a friendly smile.
"It's going good." I answered in the typical teenage way, and then began to explain further. "My mid-quarter grades were all 'A', and I'm playing basketball. I'm still not that good, but the team is six and two, and we're going to the state championships in Carson City in two weeks. I'm on the debate team, and we're going to a meet in Winnemucca in late January."
"Not to mention his idea for his class fundraiser has already earned them over a thousand dollars." Dad stated with pride. We'd rented three videos for the day as well, paying for them like everyone else. The class had only used two thousand of the funds I offered to loan, and had already paid back eight hundred dollars. The thousand was their profit after paying back the loan, and they wanted to reinvest half of that back into buying more tapes. If things continued like this throughout winter, they'd be able to pay me back fully, invest in more new tapes, and then would have about $2,600 in the bank, according to my projections.
"It's about time one of you showed you knew how to make good money." Papa said with gruff approval for me, and slight disapproval for Mom and Dad. My parents wisely chose to ignore the comment.
"How about you, Jenny?" Nanny asked to change the topic quickly.
"I'm getting all A's and B's in my classes." Jenny said with a small smile and a glare for me. She wasn't happy that she was getting the best grades of her life and still I was beating her. "Mrs. Jerkins is talking about letting me compete in a show."
"What kind of show?" Nanny asked with a little confusion.
"Horses, mom." My mom said with a smile. "She's been riding horses during the summer and fall right up until it got cold. Mrs. Jerkins says she's a natural."
"Isn't that dangerous?" Nanny asked with a frown. She'd never liked ANY type of animals, much less one big enough to be ridden.
"Not really." Jenny said excitedly, and I began to tune out the excited babble flowing out of her mouth. When it came to horses, Jenny could babble on for hours, and she proceeded to do just that. Her birthday was coming up in the first part of next year, and I was saving up for a big gift for her. It would officially be from Mom, Dad, and I, but most of the money for buying her a new horse, and the food and lodging at the Jerkins' ranch would come from me.
After Jenny had talked for about twenty minutes, Dad and Papa moved to the living room where they watched the snow coming down. The television wasn't getting any stations in this storm, so it was off until Jenny and I finished helping Mom and Nanny clear the table, load the dishwasher, and clean the pots and pans used to cook the large turkey dinner. There were going to be plenty of leftovers, and by the time we finished both Dad and Papa were passed out in the two armchairs. Mom, Nanny, and Jenny sat down on the sofa while I put on one of the movies we'd rented, and then I made my way downstairs for a workout with the weight equipment down there.
An hour later, I went back upstairs and checked the outside thermometer in the entranceway. The gauge was on the inside, but the lead was on the outside, giving us a good reading of the actual outside temperature without having to go out there. It was pegged right at zero degrees, and I shivered despite the warmth of the inside of the house. The large window next to the front door was freezing cold; making me glad for the warmth being generated by the wood stove. I'd managed to bring in enough wood for today and tomorrow, so I wouldn't have to go outside. When I went up into the living room I found the entire family passed out in a turkey-induced nap.
Papa and Dad were snoring in the reclining armchairs, while Jenny was passed out on the couch with her head in Nanny's lap and feet in Mom's lap. Both of the older women were asleep on the couch with their heads back and mouth's open in similar poses that had me smiling. I moved through the room as quietly as possible, entered the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee before heading back downstairs.
For the first time since Nanny and Papa arrived, I opened up my office, leaving the door open so I could hear if any of them moved upstairs, and got to work on a report for the President. President Reagan was moving in a direction I didn't like on the AIDS issue, but this report didn't deal with that. Instead, it was dealing with the upcoming Falkland Islands War.
I'd already given them the specific outline of the events of that War, beginning with the Argentinean invasion of the British-owned islands (located some 300 miles from Argentina's coast) in April of 1982, and ending with the British military victory in late June of the same year. The war only cost a thousand lives, and it taught some very important lessons to the British Navy regarding the need for point-defenses on their ships, and it also resulted in the collapse of a dictatorship and the rise of a more stable democratic government. Some also believed it saw the reelection of Margaret Thatcher, whose popularity had been waning before the war. The British had lost a Type 42 Destroyer in that conflict, as well as several frigates and aircraft, with a cruiser heavily damaged, and several landing ships also damaged or sunk. The Argentinean navy had lost several submarines, a heavy cruiser, and several dozen planes.
My last correspondence had requested further details on the naval lessons learned from the conflict, as well as from the use of Special Forces by the British. Her Majesty's Special Forces had performed splendidly in that war, destroying a dozen Argentinean aircraft on the ground by sneaking into their bunkers and blowing them up, all without losing a single man. The truth was, right now they could be teaching the United States SF teams some lessons, and I included that in my report.
I wondered exactly what would be decided on this. We could act without revealing sources of information by either talking with our British allies, or by warning the Argentineans. The latter wouldn't likely work, mostly because in the weeks leading to the British response to the April 2nd invasion, the military junta had ignored his warnings. They needed a military victory to settle an increasingly restless population within their country, and the Malvinas, as they called the Falklands, was their best hope.
While I worked on the report, detailing the gruesome facts of the war, including the plastic 'safety vests' melting in the heat of shipboard fires after a cruise missile hit, to the melting of plastic-based dress shoes on the feet of men fighting those same fires and so on and so forth, it turned to night outside and the storm got even worse. The British had taught us some horrible lessons from that short conflict, lessons that would later save American lives in the war fought during my last lifetime as well as wars fought in the very first lifetime.
From the darkness outside, the sun had long since set before anyone upstairs moved around. When I heard the clatter of something in the kitchen, I finished off my paragraph and shut the office down. Upstairs I found Nanny puttering around in the kitchen, getting something ready for dinner. Dad and Papa were just getting out of their armchairs, and Mom was in her bedroom while Jenny was in the bathroom. Since it was dark outside I turned on the outside lights.
"So, what are you going to do when you grow up?" Papa asked me as I sat down on the couch after turning on the lights. Dad was busy checking to see if we could get reception for any of the Elko television stations and not having much luck.
"I'll go to college and probably go into business for myself after that." I said with a shrug, not really sure how things would play out.
"What kind of business?" Papa pushed on inquisitively.
"It all depends on what will make me the most money." I answered. "I'll have to look at the markets at the time, see what's needed the most, and then go from there."
"At least you're planning it out." Papa grunted his approval, and I saw Dad stiffen slightly. Papa really didn't approve of him, since there wasn't much money in preaching unless you got a big church or was successful on television.
"How's the fishing in California?" I asked Papa in order to change the topic to something less likely to cause conflict or hurt feelings. Papa loved fishing, and could ramble for hours on end about fishing the way Jenny could about horses. My change worked, but I was forced to listen to his ramblings while Nanny fixed dinner. Mom wisely joined her when she came out of her bedroom dressed in some warmer clothes. Despite the heaters it was getting cooler in the main part of the house.
Things were a little calmer after our dinner, which consisted of ham sandwiches and left over mashed potatoes. To my surprise, it was Papa who suggested we play a game together. He wanted Poker, and I enthusiastically agreed while Dad frowned along with Nanny and Mom. Jenny looked a little bored because she didn't know how to play. When Papa pulled out the deck of cards and chips, though, she brightened a little.
Two hours later, Jenny was helping Mom and Nanny make some hot chocolate and serving up leftover pie. Dad's stacks of chips were almost gone while Papa and I had almost-equal stacks. On the next hand, Dad tried to bluff his way into winning the pot, and failed miserably. I felt slightly sorry for him as Papa gloated with a wide smile. The very next hand that I was dealt gave me a very rare full house on the first try. I smiled wickedly at Papa at that point.
"All in…" I stated, moving my chips to the middle of the dining room table.
"You sure about that hand?" Papa asked me with a frown. "Or are you just trying to bluff me out in revenge for knocking your dad out?"
"I said I'm going all in on this hand, Papa." I said with a slight smile. Our eyes locked as he tried to read what was really going on in my head.
"Damn, son, I'm mighty curious if you're bluffing here." Papa said with a smile, counting out his chips to match my bet. Nanny and the other female family members had set the hot chocolate on the table and were watching as avidly as Dad. Jenny tried to peak at my cards, but I put them face down on the table before she could see. Papa frowned when he realized my pile was slightly larger than his, and pushed them in with a short growl while flipping his cards up on the table so we could see them all. "Okay, show me what you got."
"Full house to your pair." I said with a flourish of my cards and he actually gave me a wide smile.
"Damn good." He told me, clapping the table. I was surprised when he reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and handed me ten dollars. He'd never given any grandkid that much money. "You use that wisely, son."
"Thanks Papa." I said with a smile and put it away. "So, what now?'
"How about Monopoly?" Jenny suggested quickly, and predictably since it was her favorite game. Papa smirked at Dad and nodded his agreement, so Mom got the game out and started setting everything up while Nanny passed out the hot chocolate and pie.
"Davey'll be the bank." Papa said sternly from the head of the table.
"Fine by me." Dad agreed with him with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "I for one always trust my own son."
Since Papa had recently accused his older son of trying to steal from him that was a direct jibe that scored a point from Papa's scowl.
The game of Monopoly was cutthroat from the very start. Even at ten, Jenny was already a shark when it came to the board game, and both Nanny and Papa were particularly vicious in their dealings on the board. At one point, it took Jenny fifteen minutes to work out a three-way deal between Nanny, Papa, and herself that gave her control of all four railroads. Around nine o'clock, I landed on one of those railroads and found myself out of the game.
"You might as well take the trash out to the burn barrel." Dad said with a grin as I admitted my defeat. That was another part of living out here, there was no garbage service. The garbage had to be separated into what could be burned and what couldn't, something we now did automatically. I bundled up in my black leather trench coat, gloves, and a scarf as well as a knit-cap before grabbing the burn bag and taking it out back. It was now below zero outside, and I was nearly frozen by the time I made it back to the house. The storm was so bad I could barely see the outside light of the church parking lot, and nearly missed the headlights coming towards the house from the west.
Whoever was out driving in this mess had to be insane!
I was only slightly surprised when they turned off the road and parked in front of the house. With the snow this bad, we were likely the only lights they could see from the road. Seeing them pulling in, I jogged from near the back of the house up to the driver's side of the car just as the driver rolled down his window. It was no surprise, given the size of the population in the area that I recognized the driver and the passengers immediately.
"Howdy, Mr. Wells." I called out as I reached the car. "You guys get stuck in the storm?"
"Hello Davey." Mr. Wells said with a slight grimace, more for the cold than for me, I assumed. His family was also grimacing and I nodded at the twins from school, Sam and David, both of whom looked half-frozen. "I wasn't even sure which street this was. Do you think it might be possible for us to wait out the storm here?"
"Sure, come on in." I said with a smile. In rural Nevada when someone was stranded in a storm like this, there was never any doubt about taking them into your home. The first storm of the season had found a rancher from Austin stranded with us for two days. Any farmer or rancher would take people in, and with the church here we could conceivably shelter forty or fifty people, albeit uncomfortably. If someone wasn't taken in, there was a good chance they'd die out here, and no one wanted that on their conscience.
Besides, charity was the core of what it meant to be Christian.
"Thanks." Mr. Wells said gratefully as I stepped back and he opened the door. He was a tall man, and had the same sandy blond hair as his kids. His wife was petite, much like my mom, and rushed out of the car and towards the house without delay. I helped Mr. Wells and the twins gather up their bags from the trunk and they followed me towards the house. Mrs. Wells actually waited at the door for us, and I opened it and then motioned her inside. Dad was standing at the top of the stairs leading up to the main house with a worried look on his face.
"I thought I heard a car pull up." Dad said as I entered and put the bag I was carrying down before moving out of the way for the rest of the group.
"Dad, this is Mr. John Wells, Mrs. Ellen Wells, and you've already met their sons David and Sam." I said by way of introduction. Dad had met the twins at a basketball game, but I was pretty sure he'd never met the parents since they didn't go to our church.
"Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Wells." Dad said with his 'pastor' smile. "It's good to see you two again as well. Davey, why don't you help the boys put their things downstairs and then bring them up here? Susan and Monta will have some more coffee and hot chocolate in a minute. Mr. Wells, please, call me David."
"I'm John, and my wife is Ellen, Pastor." Mr. Wells said with a heavy sigh of relief. "I was actually hoping we'd be able to find your house. Most of them are set so far back from the road it's impossible to see them in this mess. We were on the way home from lunch with Ellen's parents in Elko and had a flat tire. By the time we got done, the storm had gotten really bad and we barely made it here. The boys said they had a friend that lived out here and were sure we wouldn't be too much trouble for you."
"You're no trouble at all." Dad said with a smile as he led them up the stairs and into the house. The door to the basement was already open and I nodded with my head to indicate to the twins we should put their stuff down there. Dad's voice faded as he went upstairs and we went down, but I could still hear part of what he was saying. "Susan's parents are visiting, but we still have an extra guest bedroom for you two, and the boys can stay with Davey. I doubt this storm is going to let up before morning, and the roads are going to be bad until noon, at least…"
"Wow, this is cool." David said, speaking up for the first time since they came in. We'd just entered the main part of the basement, where the wood stove was busily burning away, and providing a heat that felt like it was melting my cheeks.
"Oh my God!" Sam wheezed as he saw the weight equipment. "That's better than what we have at school! No wonder you've got so many muscles."
"Is that a real pool table?" David demanded as he spotted the main entertainment down here.
"Yeah, it is." I said. "Let's put your parents' bags in the second room on the left and leave yours by the stairs. You can bring them up to my room later."
"No problem." Sam said as he moved towards the bedroom I'd indicated. "That one you've got is mine, and David has his."
"We can put our coats down here too." I said quickly after setting the bag down near the stairwell. Neither of them hesitated to do what I'd suggested and took off their coats as quickly as I did mine. With the wood heater down here, it was almost uncomfortably warm. Underneath their winter parkas, both were wearing tight-fitting t-shirts and even tighter 501 jeans with tennis shoes. They were a year older than me, with sandy blond hair and hazel eyes that had given me a lot of trouble over the last few months. Even now, I was having a slight problem as Sam turned and showed a perfect bubble butt that I knew would be mirrored by David's.
"So, think we can play some pool?" David asked and both of their eyes gleamed. "You know, if you'd told us you had all this stuff we'd have come by to visit a lot sooner, even if it is all the way out here in the boondocks."
"Yeah, really, what's with keeping all this secret?" Sam asked. "Man, you'd have half the school dropping by to use these weights or play pool. You know the Oliver family has a pool table, as do the Beersons, and the MacGulveys, but only the Olivers have any kids still in school and their table is like ten years old and wobbles."
"Maybe I didn't want a horde of kids here from school." I said with a shrug.
"Fine, but who was it who taught you to dribble a basketball?" Sam demanded with a flash of ire on his face. I smirked at him.
"Oh, that was Derek and Julie and Tammy who did that." I stated and was surprised when David leaped at me, tackling me to the linoleum floor. The impact knocked my breath out of me for a moment, but I recovered before he could pin me, and started to flip him over. Unfortunately for me, his twin jumped into the fray and tried to pin my arms to my side.
We wrestled like that for several minutes, almost evenly matched even though it was two on one. The twins had a slight advantage in height since they were five-seven and I was just hitting five-six, and a fifteen pound advantage (each) as well. I had experience on my side though, and a slightly better physical condition. My abs were rock hard while theirs still had some baby fat on them, a fact I noticed when I'd managed to lift their shirts over their heads one at a time.
"David Ray Jones Junior, what do you think you're doing?" Mom's outraged voice rang out from the top of the stairs and all three of us froze in place, with me holding Sam back while David struggled to get his shirt back to a point where he could see. I started blushing almost immediately and stood up to look at Mom with a guilty smile. I almost yelled though, when I realized that the tent forming in my jeans was not something I wanted her to see. In order to hide that, I put my hands in my jeans in the classic move of any horny kid my age.
"Um, we were…um…" I was so discombobulated at the moment that I couldn't think of what to say. Mrs. Wells appeared right behind Mom and frowned at the twins.
"Sam, David, what have we told you about wrestling in the house?" Mrs. Wells demanded while they got their shirts back on right.
"Sorry, Mom." They said in unison, and I imitated them by saying sorry to my mother.
"Two on one isn't really fair either." Mrs. Wells added with a frown while my own mother stared at me with a matching expression.
"It takes both of us just to have a chance against him." David protested. I looked at him and noticed his hands were in his pocket too, and a look to my left showed Sam in a similar pose.
"You know, from here they could almost be triplets except Davey's hair is lighter." Mrs. Wells said with a soft chuckle, and Mom looked at her with a smile.
"That and Davey's nose is too big." Mom added and the tension of the moment was broken. "I came down here to tell you boys that there's some hot chocolate ready for you upstairs, and a sandwich."
"Cool." David said; pulling his hands out of his pockets and taking off up the stairs at the same time as Sam said "Awesome!" and did the same.
I followed them and was surprised that Mom ruffled my hair lovingly as I passed her. Her earlier ire was gone, and even though she had to reach up to do what she did since I was three inches taller than her, it made me feel loved in a way that I'd come to treasure a great deal. On impulse, I stopped and hugged her before heading upstairs. Dad was introducing the twins to Nanny and Papa while Jenny gave them a glare as if blaming them for not having a sister she could play with.
"We really appreciate this, Pastor." Mr. Wells said again once everyone was settled down in the living room.
"It's not a problem at all, John." Dad said with a smile on his face. "Please, call me David."
"It's going to be confusing with three Davids in the room." Mom interjected and got a chuckle from most of us.
"I really thought we'd make it back before the storm." Mrs. Wells said with a slight frown towards her kids.
"It is getting pretty bad out there." Papa grunted from his armchair and nodded out the window where the storm was indeed getting worse.
"Well, everyone's safe and sound now, and that's what matters." Dad stated firmly. "So, boys, you're doing pretty good on the team this year."
"Yeah, and Davey's not doing too bad either, now that he can actually handle the ball." Sam replied with a wide smile. I just smirked at his verbal jab at my lack of basketball skills.
"At least he's better at baseball." David added with his own smile.
For an hour we sat there in the living room chatting amiably about school, the weather, and basic stuff like that. The Wells family was Latter Day Saints, so the conversation was kept away from religious topics. As the storm started to lighten slightly, everyone started yawning and Dad suggested that it was getting time for sleep.
That meant it was time for me to head downstairs and bank the fire for the night, as well as helping to bring up the bags for David and Sam to my room. That night there was a line for the bathroom as everyone tried to brush their teeth and get ready for bed. I was tempted to run across the yard and use the church bathroom, but it was just too damn cold out there. Being a 'host', I was the last to use the bathroom and headed into my room to find Sam and David already in the bed.
My room was always crowded, but even more so tonight. My bed was a king-size waterbed that practically filled the entire room. The door couldn't even open all the way because it banged up against the bed. To the right was my dresser/desk/bookcase combo that blocked the electric heater running along the floor. Because of that, it was kept turned off lest it start a fire with the wood furniture. The sliding door closet was along the far right wall with a foot and half of walking space currently filled up with twins' luggage. Sam was on the far side of the bed, nearest the window and David was in the middle when I walked in to the room. Both were under the comforter Nanny had bought (at the same time she'd bought the bed). In both my previous lives, I'd kept that comforter because it was warm. It had a huge sunset printed on the top, filled with warm orange hues that I found comforting.
"Hey, let me out real quick." David said as I got into the room. He threw back the cover and scooted past me and headed to the bathroom. I had a brief glimpse of his smooth body clad only in a dark blue bikini brief before he'd gone past me. Taking a deep breath, and silently cursing Dad's willingness to put them up in my room, I proceeded to get undressed. For a moment, I considered putting on a pair of sweats, but accepted that it'd probably be too warm between the waterbed set at eighty degrees, the comforter, and two other people in bed. Once I was undressed, I stood there waiting for David to get back.
"You might as well get in, Davey." Sam's voice was soft and nearly made me jump. "I think he's taking a dump."
"Gross." I said with a shrug, turning off the light and climbing into the bed. I stayed on the side closest to the door, planning to let David past me when he did come back.
"You scared of being in the middle?" Sam asked with a slightly teasing tone after I'd laid in bed for a few minutes. "David gets up and goes to the bathroom a couple of times during the night usually."
"Oh." I said with a slight hitch in my voice, mentally debating the pros and cons of sleeping in the middle versus getting up to let David out. I finally decided it'd be easier to just be in the middle. My hormones were letting themselves be known and the thought of being sandwiched between the twins all night had them raging, but I wasn't going to be doing anything. With a mental shrug, I moved over in the bed until I was in the middle. Even with three of us in the bed, there would be enough room that we'd not be touching.
"Cool." David said as he finally got back from the bathroom a minute later. He shut the door, plunging the room into total darkness as the light from the hallway was shut off. The bed rippled slightly as he got in and drew the comforter over himself. "I hope you're not freaked out about sharing the bed with us."
"Not a problem, guys." I assured him softly, cursing the fact that I'd always slept on my side. I was trying to sleep on my back with both of them in bed. The bed rippled again, though as both of them turned on their side so they were facing me. With the curtains drawn closed, there was almost no light, but my eyes adjusted enough to let me see the smiles on their faces.
"Yeah, we're used to sharing a bed." David said softly. "Some of our friends freaked out the few times we invited them over to spend the night because we have a king-size bed like this."
"Mom and Dad have been pushing us to get separate beds, but we don't want one." Sam added. "They think it's important that we be 'independent' more, but that's bull."
"Uh huh." I said carefully, not sure what to say beyond that.
"Do you think it's weird that we share the same bed?" David asked and I was surprised. Both were fairly 'macho' boys and I never expected them to talk about things this openly.
"You're twins." I said carefully after my mind raced for a moment. "I'd imagine that'd make you really close and sharing a bed isn't too weird."
"Ibn nad tore." Sam whispered softly with his eyes locked on his twin and I realized it was probably their 'twin language."
"Ida." David whispered back, and from watching Sam's face as well as listening to their tones I was fairly sure I knew what they said.
"So you two were thinking I wouldn't make fun of you for sharing a bed?" I asked aloud and snorted at the shocked looks on their faces. It was funny really. "Sam thought I'd be cool about it and you weren't too sure, David?"
"How the fuck did you know that?" David asked with surprise.
"Didn't Sam just say 'I told you so'?" I asked.
"More like 'I told you'." Sam explained.
"Say some more." I said with a glimmer of excitement. I was fluent in two languages, and had a basic understanding of two more with a smattering of another three. After learning that many languages, it was fun picking up a new one, and twin speak was something I'd never really studied before.
"Cuatha nad obna lada tore?" Sam said carefully.
"Now the translation." I stated.
"Do you think he could understand?" David translated for me.
"Okay, so word order isn't the same as English, which means the order is determined by the tone?" I ventured and was pleased at the surprised look growing on Sam's face. "Let me hear some more, if you don't mind."
We were at it for about an hour before all three of us started yawning like mad. It had been a long day, and we were all tired. Still, I had gotten a basic grasp of their private language, and was surprised that they'd let me learn as much as I had. They surprised me even more when both of them scooted over in the bed until they were next to me, and both David and Sam wrapped their arms around me in a hug.
"This is so cool." David whispered into my ear.
"You're fucking awesome." Sam whispered. "No one's ever tried to learn us before."
"Uh, thanks guys." I whispered back, hoping they wouldn't notice the effect they were having on my body. My underwear was about to pop from the strain my erection was putting on it as their skin touched mine along the length of my body. There was no such luck though, as both of them put their heads on each of my shoulders, shifted slightly until they were comfortable, and let out contented little sighs. Several choices were available to me, but most of them would only result in hurt feelings, so I silently cursed my teenage body while taking several deep breaths to calm myself. Eventually I relaxed enough that I fell asleep in a warm cocoon created by the twins and the blankets.
Considering that I'd fallen asleep with another guy(s) in my bed, it was not surprising to me that I dreamed of Brian that night. After a confusing jumble of dreams that covered our life together, it settled into a dream remembrance of the last time we'd had sex together, just after the Battle for Taiwan, and before the Do Over mission. He'd come aboard my flagship, the Long Beach-class command cruiser U.S.S. Diego Garcia, after we pulled into Taipei.
The Bush Administration had tried to kill this class of ship in the early 1990's, mostly because I heavily influenced the design, or at least that is the reason I believed. They had failed, and during the attempted invasion of Taiwan by China, the Diego Garcia had proved just how powerful the design could be in a war zone. Two daring raids by helicopter-borne troops, covered by the surface-to-air missiles of the ship itself had destroyed important Chinese naval facilities. Sixty-eight Tomahawks had struck various Chinese facilities up to fifteen hundred miles inland, and nearly one hundred and eight aircraft had been shot down. In addition, thanks to a re-armament at sea, when the Chinese started lobbing conventionally-armed ballistic missiles, that ship alone had shot down forty-six of the inbound missiles.
None of that had been uppermost in my mind, though, when Brian had been escorted to the luxurious flag quarters of the Diego Garcia. I'd been in there, alone, preparing my formal after-action report for President Gore when he knocked before entering. He'd surprised me, and I'd leaped like a giddy schoolboy into his embrace. Wisely, the Marine guard who'd let him in closed the door while I planted a big kiss on Brian's lips, which turned passionate as his tongue flicked against my lips and I opened them for him. Brian was as excited to see me, and his hand reached down my uniform pants, clutching my erection tightly, eliciting a groan from me that threatened to…
"What?" I gasped aloud as my eyes shot open and I fully awoke. The hands on my nether regions disappeared quickly, and in the dim light I could see the looks of fear on the faces of the twins. For a moment, I felt guilt well up in me, both for scaring them like this and towards a Brian who no longer existed. My body was telling me it wanted more, that while they were relatively inexperienced they'd been doing well enough, but my mind and heart were screaming about staying faithful to the idea of Brain and a possible future re-building of our relationship. Part of me responded that it was nonsense that I'd be expected to be celibate while waiting for the chance to get Brian back, in some way or form, and the other countered that he was worth it all. Still, the look of growing fear on the faces of two thirteen-year old boys told me I had to deal with things here and now, and do it nicely. "Guys, thanks, but that's not necessary."
"Uh…we…uh…" Sam stuttered while David made what seemed like choking noses. I put my arms up and around both of them and brought them in closer to me in a hug. They stiffened at first, but relaxed after a moment.
"Dudes, I ain't pissed at you." I whispered softly. Sam relaxed a little at those words, but David was still stiff as a board, and shaking slightly.
"We were just…" Sam started to say something, but his voice dropped off before he got anywhere.
"Guys, first off, I'm not going to say anything to anyone." I said softly and felt David start to relax a little.
"We thought you were like…us." David said at last with a soft sigh and I felt my own eyebrows go up in surprise.
"We're not queer." Sam said quickly and defensively while not meeting my eyes. "It's just that…well, you know…"
"You were curious." I said softly and saw Sam nod while I felt David nodding against my right shoulder. "Did your Dad try to give you the birds and bees talk?"
"Yeah." David whispered from my right side while Sam nodded. His cheeks looked red.
"He told us we shouldn't mess around with each other or anyone else a year ago." Sam said softly. "We'd already been doing it for a few months and we didn't stop. You're so much like us, you get along with us like you were our brother, so we thought you'd…"
"Believe me, I'm not stopping you because it didn't feel good." I said with a heavy sigh and saw Sam trying to meet my eyes. I gazed into his eyes for a few minutes in silence until he spoke again.
"If you liked it why'd you stop us?" Sam asked softly.
"Well, first, I was asleep." I explained carefully. "It kind of surprised me when I woke up. Second, I want to save myself for someone I will love for the rest of my life. Even fooling around would lessen that when I meet him and fall in love."
"Him?" David said with a sharp intake of breath. It was my turn now to worry about their reaction.
"That's cool." Sam said sternly, looking over my shoulder at his twin brother with a firm expression. David nodded and actually snuggled up against me a little closer, his hand reaching across me to grasp his brother's. They came to rest on my chest as Sam started to say something else. "We won't say anything about that either."
"Why are you saving yourself if you're queer?" David asked softly, earning himself a rebuking glance from Sam. I turned slightly to look squarely at him. For a moment I studied his face, and his eyes, and they told that his earlier statement about not being gay wasn't exactly true.
"Why not?" I asked him in return and saw the look of confusion grow on his face.
"It's not like we…you can get married or anything." David said softly.
"Not right now, but who knows about twenty years from now." I answered back carefully. "You don't know what the future holds, David. Things can change by the time we're grown up. Besides, that's just legal marriage. There's more to marriage than just the legal thing. It's a permanent commitment between two people to live their lives together as a family, to love each other, and to care for each other so long as they live. I don't need the law, or Dad's church to recognize that in order to make that commitment to someone."
"Dude, when did you get so smart?" Sam asked from behind me with a hint of laughter in his voice. David smiled at me and I just shrugged.
"I'm tired." I said softly, turning so I was flat on my back again. Both of them snuggled up against me, their hands still joined on my chest. The sexual tension of earlier was gone, to my surprise, replaced by a stronger, more satisfying emotional contentment. I may not have Brian yet, but I was pretty sure I'd gotten two good friends for now.
All that, and I'd still remained faithful.
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