"These CCM Professional men's hockey skates are really gonna' be really good on the Canal when we go skating Aaron. They're the perfect present. Thanks honey!"
"It wasn't easy finding a pair in your size Adam. I like my gift too! These `Faber Castell' technical drafting pens are going to come in handy when I have to work on Gordon's drafting assignments in the New Year. How did you manage to pick them up in Ottawa without me knowing?"
"I didn't. Wallack's has a branch store in Kingston and I got my Mom to pick them up when she was up there shopping for Christmas presents a few weeks ago."
"I keep breaking the really extra fine-point nibs for the ones I got back in September. Your timing here is perfect for the next semester! Thanks Sasq'."
"The sweater is nice too cookie. It kinda' makes me laugh when I remember it's an `Aaron' fisherman cable-knit sweater! It's sorta' like I'm wearing you on my back!"
"Merry Christmas Adam!"
"Aww, Merry Christmas to you too Aaron!"
Later on that evening, the subject of New Year's Eve and spending it up in Ottawa with Robert and Scott and Calla comes up again. I remember the idea being tossed around during my birthday dinner at The Town Haus."
"So, whadya' say Aaron? Calla and Robert and Scott are all wanting to go and dance at Sac's and maybe those two clubs Ronnie Brownlee was telling me about when he came in to say hi to me at the store last week when he was down visiting his parents for Christmas... Valentino's on 160, rue Montcalm and Le Trou du Diable on 200, rue Victoria in those big new government office complex buildings they're building over in Hull there. We could even stop in at the Le chez Henri on boulevard Sâcre Coeur if ya' like. That place is somethin' you should really see babe. It's been around like, forever."
"Le Trou du Diable? Isn't that `the Devil's hole' in French?"
Adam chuckles and replies, "Yep honey. It sure is! But I kinda' prefer yours though baby. It's more than hot and toasty enough for me in there... "
Ten minutes of an `Adam Blanchard' grope-fest and then I change the subject and say, "I'm really excited about skating on the Canal with you. Are you a good skater?"
"Yeah I am Aaron. How about you?"
"Well... kinda' sorta'." Then I start to think about my time growing up in Brockville.
The first time I ever went skating, my Dad took me. I think I was around seven at the time. He was pretty good with holding me up until I got the hang of it. The ever-present handkerchief in his pocket dried my tears, the first few times I fell on the ice.
Just then, I start to think quietly to myself, remembering the times I used to go skating with John and Wendy Weldon every Saturday when we were little kids back at St. Francis Xavier.
I'm not the greatest skater in the world and am never going to be an NFL hockey player. But I have to admit, I really did look forward to and enjoy those Saturdays at the Memorial Centre on King Street West... going with the Weldons and then stopping back into the toy store inside Smart's Pro Hardware on our way home.
It was the Etcha'Sketch' and `Spirograph' phase of my childhood.
I can still remember the music they played on the loudspeakers at the Memorial Centre as everyone went round and round the inside oval hockey rink for one or two hours until they headed back in to unlace their skates and grab a hot chocolate and a hot dog at the concession counter. Sixties music like Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass' with Limbo Rock' and Henry Mancini' tunes such as Moon River' played on an endless, continuous repeat cycle. I can still remember the piano orchestral version of Alley Cat' from the early sixties by some obscure Danish Jazz group named Bent Fabric' of all things... it's one of those tunes that got burned into my brain back then and will likely stay in there forever, along with all the other useless information I manage to retain in there on any given day of the week.
Then puberty and high school came and smacked us all on the side of the head. Suddenly, that was that for my Saturday afternoons with John and Wendy. John and I stayed acquaintances for maybe another year until he turned thirteen and his hormones started to kick in. He and I went swimming every week at the Rotary Pool beside the Memorial Centre during that time. He was one year older than me and Wendy was one year younger. But when kids started calling me fairy' and queer' he started to avoid me like the plague. And it was only years later that Wendy and I became sort of friendly again.
Their bullying cousin Jimmy made my early and mid-teenage years miserable. He would snicker and lunge at me and make like he was going to punch me in the face whenever he and I passed each other on King Street before I moved away. If I saw him first, I'd have to cross the street just to get away from him. I now wonder today just what it was that was so awful in his life that he felt he had to bully and torment me so badly. Oh well... I guess we all carry our own `diables' around inside us.
"There's a change hut to lace up skates and leave our boots just down on Argyle from us on the Canal Adam. The ice should be in really good condition once I start back to school in January."
"I think that's gonna' be really romantic honey. You and me together, just the two of us and sharing a beavertail and some hot chocolate together. And then we can head on back to our little place and warm each other up after skating the whole length of the Canal from the National Arts Centre right down to Dow's Lake and back. It'll be lotsa' fun and the exercise will do us both good. It'll keep our butts in shape for sure!"
"You really are one single-minded Sasquatch at times. You do know that, don't you Adam?"
"You love it cookie boy... your Trou du Diable is all mine and dontcha' forget it either!"
"Uh, I'm OK Adam if you want to spend New Year's Eve in Ottawa with Robert and Calla. Can you get your Mom's car to take us up and then back the next day? I suppose we could all crash at our place that night after partying, if we had to."
"I'll ask her Aaron. She'll be with Bast that night so I don't think that's gonna' be a problem."
Meanwhile in the background Chaka Khan and Rufus' are singing Once You Get Started'.
"Once you get started, oh it's hard to stop You can't stop you just can't stop When you get down y'all When you get down ain't no turnin' back no
Everybody party hearty To get back in the groove I like the way you do it .. way you do it I like the way you move ..."
"In the meantime babe, I'm thinkin' Chaka Khan there is telling us she likes the way we do it and the way we move. Whadya' say we move it into the bedroom and continue this discussion in there?"
"Thought you'd never ask... "
"I can hardly wait until we get to do this every night when you're with me up in Ottawa," I sigh and smile as he finds his way into my Trou du Diable.
"Aww cookie... guess I'm gonna' hafta' perform another Exorcism' like in that movie with Linda Blair on you tonight... just promise me your head's not gonna' do a one-eighty' on me, like the last time I did ya' baby. That kinda' freaked me out."
I have to laugh and say, "OK deal! But I have to say though... you'd be one of a helluva' horny priest there Sasq' man! I don't think they'd let you in."
Adam laughs out loud, rams his big, thick cock deep into me and starts to move back and forth with a steady and determined rhythm.
"An eternity in hell is worth an hour of heaven inside your tight, little butt. Now say a prayer for me and get ready for my holy water to make you a born again believer."
It's December 31st, 1977 and the last day of the best year of my life.
"C'mon baby! Jeezus' fuck... you sure do take long enough to get yourself dressed at times! Calla and Scott and Robert are waitin' for us to go pick them up. It's fuckin' freezin' out there! We just can't keep em waiting. I promised them we'd pick them up at Robert's place on Courthouse Square for 7:00pm and its past that now. Now let's get movin'! We hafta' be at Sac's to wish Ronnie a Happy New Year and then to Valentino's and the Trou du Diable before midnight. And I mean midnight this year' too!"
"OK, OK, OK! I'm just having trouble deciding what to wear."
"Oh for fucks sakes! You're fuckin' gorgeous and sexy whatever ya' put on or take off. Now let's get going! New Year's is gonna' come and go and you'll still be staring at yourself in that mirror, debating on whether you're jeans are tight enough on ya'... which by the way, they are! Now c'mon baby. Let's move it!"
"Before we go though Adam... can I have my New Year's Eve kiss now?" At the same time, I'm reaching down to cup his big package.
"Aww fuck Aaron... you're gettin' me all hard again here. You can rub my hairy pube forest and I'll shove my tongue down your throat and grab your cute little ass cheeks and then we can head out then. Will that make ya' happy?"
"Happy New Year Sasq' man!"
"You too babe."
It's still early when we all cross the Alexandria Bridge over to Hull and start to make our way over to Sac's. It's a special night for the club and only VIPs and invited patrons have been issued invitations to celebrate the New Year's Eve festivities inside. Ronnie Brownlee pulled some strings with his boss to get us tickets for the night. The owner of the club remembered Adam's tip about Aleyn Kinzinger, Jeremy and `Mother' and the drug incident in the washroom. The tickets were his way of saying thanks to Adam for getting him out of a potential jam with the RCMP.
"I think we'll park around the corner from Sac's and just say go and say hey to Ronnie at the front door. I just gotta' see what his boss has him wearin' this time!" says Adam, as he starts to chuckle. "I sure hope his nipples are covered up in this fuckin' deep freeze!"
"Ronnie! Hey man! I see ya' got a bit more clothes on ya' this time buddy. Happy New Year to you!" says Adam, as he gives his friend a big hug.
"I'm wearin' thermal long johns under these tight, fittin' leather jeans Adam! And if I didn't have this goddamn toque and padded, down-filled bomber jacket on, I'd be a fuckin' ice sculpture right about now like the ones at Dow's Lake during `Winterlude' man!"
"You remember Aaron, Ronnie, dontcha'? And these are our friends, Calla and Robert and Scott from Brockville."
"Sure do Adam. Nice meetin' ya' guys. Hey! Are ya' legal yet there Aaron? And Calla... I remember you! Your sister Cora Leanne worked on the assembly line with me when I was back at Black and Decker. How are you? And how is Cora Leanne?"
"Hiya' Ronnie! Cora Leanne is doing just fine. And I remember you too! But not with skin-tight black leather pants and 3" platform boots on though. Guess it woulda' been kinda' hard to work an assembly line in those back in Brockville. You look just like a porn star god! Hell... why is it all the really hot and sexy guys seem to be gay..." she sighs and whispers as she leans over to Adam and shares a quiet laugh with him. "Don't anyone ever tell Charlie I said that though."
"Ronnie, we just wanted to stop by early to wish you an early Happy New Year before things get crazy later on. You mentioned to me about that Trou du Diable place and then Valentino's. Figured we'd get an early start on the night and maybe check those places out and then head back here for around 11:00pm or so to ring in the New Year."
"Forget about that fuckin' Devil's Hole' place Adam. It really is a fuckin' hole... as in hole in the wall. I found out some organized crime guys outta' Montreal just rented some space out for a few months til the buildings are finished and when the government starts to move their workers into them. Those fuckin' guys outta' Montreal are tryin' to gouge and scalp all the gay guys who go in there with overpriced drinks and undercover drugs. And I hear they've been recording names and taking pictures of some of the government senior men who go in there. God knows what the fuck they're doin' with that information... and I don't wanna' know either. I went in there myself and the place is a real dump. It looks like it's still a construction site... the walls aren't even painted yet... drywall tape and plaster still with just some folding card table chairs and tables and a real shitty DJ and sound system too. I'd be stayin' away from there, if I was you."
"Holy shit! Thanks Ronnie. I can always count on you to have my back. I appreciate that."
"And as for Valentino's... well Adam... just be real careful when you're there too. Something really strange is goin' on with the bars in Hull these days. The owner here has had to hire security guys to watch this place 24/7 `cause bars have been mysteriously burning down in Hull on a pretty regular basis. Seems like those guys in Montreal are tryin' to send a message to all the bar owners here about allowing access for selling drugs. It's gettin' kinda' scary, to tell you the truth. Just last week someone drove by Valentino's and threw a bottle of gasoline with a burning rag in it at their front door when the place was packed! Just be fuckin' careful. OK Adam, please?"
"Holy fuck! I will for sure Ronnie. Thanks man! Uh, we'll be back here before midnight for sure. If you're off before 3:00am then maybe you might wanna' join us at the Chez Henri before we all go home and crash. Whadya' think?"
"I'm outta' here at 1:30am and my new boyfriend will be meeting me here just before midnight. I'll let ya' know when I talk to him. OK Adam?"
"So you're dating someone now too. That's fantastic Ronnie! Guess that means you'll be staying up here for a while then. I'm movin' up here in February myself to be with Aaron."
"We'll be hangin' around then lots together Adam! That's great news!" says Ronnie, as he smiles and gives Adam a big hug.
"Later Ronnie!"
Valentino's looked like a clone of Sac's in that it was pitch black inside to the point where you'd almost need a flashlight to make your way around the place. One long black bar and multi-level, carpeted raised platforms all along the walls where people could either lean up against or lounge upon, like in some scene from ancient Rome were the main distinguishing elements inside. It was much smaller and in a way, more intimate than Sac's. The place reeked of stale cigarette smoke, spilt beer and cheap-cologne-masked, rank-smelling body odor. The ever-present mirrored disco ball and a tiny DJ booth hidden away in an obscure corner completed the glamorous' picture... along with the smallest dance floor yet when compared with the Oral Grief' Club and Sac's."
The crowd inside was decidedly more Gatineau French than English. Above the music, all you could hear was raucous laughter and vulgar French epitaphs at the bar and on the dance floor.
"C'mon Calla... let's dance!" Adam yells to Calla, and grabs her to elbow his way onto the dance floor. Meanwhile Don't Leave Me This Way' by Thelma Houston' is cranked up and there is frenzied movement on the dance floor.
"Oh baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you Now, come on down and do what you've got to do You started this fire down in my soul Now, can't you see it's burning out of control? Come on, satisfy the need in me `cause only your good loving can set me free..."
Once he's back from the dance floor with me and watching the scene, Adam keeps scratching himself and then finally grumbles, "Jeezus fuck Aaron. I sure as hell hope they clean the fuckin' shag carpet on these platforms. I feel like I'm sitting inside someone's hairy armpit or furry crotch here with you leanin' back into me and with your sexy butt rubbing against my bulge."
"Then let's switch places and you can pretend you're leaning into me. I can shove my hands in your pockets and play with your cock then. You're know you're my big, hairy hand warmer, don't you Sasq!"
"You just wanna' get me hard in public to embarrass me and make me blush baby. I figured that one out a long time ago."
"Well, actually Adam, I like getting you hard to make everyone in the bar jealous of what I get to play with and what they don't!"
"Aaron... ya' do know cookie, that's just plain teasing everybody, including me, dontcha'?"
"Adam! Just like you always like to say to me, if my ass is yours, then your cock is all mine!"
"You kinky little fucker!" Adam exclaims, while trying not to laugh.
"Aaand... that's why you love me Adam!"
"Yeah right. Uhm, just so ya' know, I'll be hoppin' into a bathtub when we get home in case I get a rash or pick up bed bugs or head lice from this damned fuckin' shag carpet. We're sure as hell heading right back to Sac's just as soon as after Robert and Scott get off the dance floor. And what's inside my pants can warm your hands up there if ya' promise to behave. Does that work for ya'?"
"Don't leave me this way I can't survive, I can't stay alive Without your love, oh baby Don't leave me this way 'cause I can't exist And I will surely miss your tender kiss Don't leave me this way..."
Once back inside Sac's, I have to laugh and say to Adam, "Aww, you look so cute wearing that `Happy New Year' tiara with the fluffy white marabou and silver stars on it!"
"You're gonna' really regret it when we get home if ya' keep on teasing me Aaron! Ronnie made me wear it when we came in the door at the coat check. In fact he gave me one to put on you too." Just then he hauls a matching one out of his back pocket and slaps it on my head.
"Now that's worth a picture! Smile guys!" Robert and Scott are both laughing. Just then Robert pulls out a little camera and snaps a shot of the both of us.
"Oh My God! C'mon Calla... we came here to dance." Then I drag her out onto the dance floor to get away from `Paparazzi Rob' and his flashing camera.
"Turn the beat around (go on go on go on girl!) Love to hear the percussion (move your feet when you feel the beat, yeah) Turn it upside down (HEY! yeah yeah) Love to hear percussion (whoa!) Love to hear it..."
A half hour later at two minutes to midnight... six drag queens holding wands and wearing purple and pink Halston' designer style jersey caftans suddenly converge onto the dance floor and start to throw pink glitter dust into the air while singing Auld Lang Syne' to a disco beat.
"Gotta' admit baby... this is one fucked up way to ring in the New Year, eh?" whispers Adam to me as he bends down and starts to nibble and play with my ear lobe with his tongue.
"It's been the best year of my life Adam. I love you. Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year Aaron. I love you too."
Adam muscles his way through the packed bar and grabs the last remaining dirty table for us inside the Chez Henri just before last call.
"Too bad Ronnie couldn't join us."
"Well honey... he was wanting to spend the rest of the night with his new boyfriend. I can understand that." Adam puts his arm protectively around me and starts to survey the people in the packed bar. "Yep, this place hasn't changed one damned bit since the last time I was here. You've got drag queens, transvestites, dykes and everything else in here... and I wanted you to see it all with me. This is no place for you to come into by yourself though. Drug dealers, addicts and motorcycle gangs, and every other fuckin' criminal and creep you can think of winds up here for last call on weekends. The place used to be a real respectable hotel decades ago. And if you look really hard you'll still see some of the leftover reminders from that time. Like, just look at that big hand-painted mural on the wall behind the old brass and wood bar there. It's fuckin' fantastic."
The mural is huge. I'm guessing it must be over thirty feet long and at least ten feet high. It reminds me of an Edgar Degas' painting or maybe something from Toulouse Lautrec'. It's full of movement and depicts a ballroom scene from what I'm guessing would date back to the time when the hotel first opened in the mid-eighteen hundreds. Men in white waistcoats, black tail-coats and tight trousers are waltzing with women in swirling 19th century pastel-coloured ball gowns with bustles and feathers in their hair. The scene to me looks like something out of the Paris demimonde' of the last century."
"That's a real piece of history there Aaron." Just at that moment the waiter comes with a dirty cloth to clean our table.
By the time they start to flick the lights on and off to let people know the bar is closing, Adam looks over at Calla, Scott and Robert and then turns to me and whispers, "Uhm, Aaron... they all look like they're about to fall asleep. Let's get them back to the car and I think I'm gonna' drive us all back to Brockville tonight. They can be comfortable and get to sleep in their own beds when we get back. And you can sleep with me. Whadya' say?"
"That's a good idea Adam. Happy New Year! It's going to be a great new year."
"Uhm, uh... Aaron, like, why have ya' got three of the same shirt in the same size in your armoire and four pairs of identical Howick jeans in the same colour?" says Adam, as he tries to shove some of his clothes into my armoire. "Honey... this just isn't gonna' work if ya' can't give up some of your space for my clothes in here. You know baby, most of my stuff went into storage at my Mom's. But you just gotta' gimme' some room here for my clothes and what I moved up here with from Brockville."
"But Adam... why did you pack every single book you own and not leave some of them back at your Mom's? They're taking up all the space in the front when I come in the door. And I can hardly get past them to reach for my coat and put on my boots when I have to go outside."
It was just a week ago that Adam finished moving all of his stuff up to the apartment except for what he still needs to finish up working for Mrs. Fullerton in January. The challenge is now to find space for everything he has along with what I moved up in September.
This is going to be a real problem.
"OK. OK. I guess we're just gonna' hafta' be patient with each other and do the best we can `til we find something bigger." Adam then sighs and runs his hand through his hair while trying to shove nine shirts, six pairs of pants, five sweaters plus his old brown and tan suit and new sports coat into the armoire.
"I guess I could take a box of yours there when you're done with it and stick some of my extra shirts and stuff in it and shove it under the bed for now. Would that help Adam?"
"Yep... it sure would Aaron. But I just hafta' ask ya' baby... like why in the fuck have you got three identical shirts? Like, I just don't get that at all... "
"Because they were pretty and I liked them and I didn't want anyone else to have them... "
"Oh fuck!" mutters Adam under his breath.
"What did you say Adam?"
"Nothin' honey... uhhh... uhm... nothin' at all..."
"It's frikken' twenty degrees below zero out here on the Canal Adam! You've made me skate all the way from the National Arts Centre out to Dow's Lake! That's like more than three miles and we had to fight the wind against us all the way. We're going to stop at Patterson's Creek on the way back for a hot chocolate and a beavertail. And you're buying too!"
"OK honey." Then he gives me one of his dirty laughs and says, "A `beavertail'... gotta' admit... pretty weird name for a piece of pie crust with brown sugar and crap on it, eh? Like that's the closest we're ever gonna' get to a beaver!"
"Oh, I don't know. Its flat and sort of looks like a beaver's tail the way they spread it out with a patterned rolling pin and then deep-fry it."
"Wasn't exactly referring to that kinda' beaver there Aaron... "
"You're so dirty-minded at times, you know Adam!"
"That's why ya' love me. Now, c'mon and move those cute buns! I'll race you back to Patterson's Creek."
"It's great that they have fire logs burning at the rest stops along the Canal. The smell of wood smoke along with the coloured lights and music at the concession stands is pretty. I'm anxious for `Winterlude' to start at the end of January. The ice sculptures that volunteer groups do up for charity on Dow's Lake are supposed to be beautiful. We sure never had anything like this back in Brock Vegas that's for sure."
"Yep... sure is Aaron. We're lucky to be living so close to the Canal. And these new skates you got me for Christmas... well, I can skate rings around ya'!" yells Adam, as he laughs and skates backwards around me, dodging and weaving and spinning around.
"It's not a competition Adam!"
"Nope... I'm guessin' not. Given the way you skate there."
"Oh! You bastard! Just wait until I catch you Sasq' man!"
And the game of tag continues all the way down the Canal until we get in front of the Colonel By Campus, and our tiny little apartment on Argyle.