Coming soon: The SEX Men – a sequel to Anthology (https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/anthology/). Anthology is a series of short stories about alternate universes & falling in love; public humiliation & exhibition punishments; mind control & sexual manipulation; invisibility & nudity; teleportation, empathy & unlikely romance; and, a hyperbolic scheme thwarted by a seductive spy.
Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction for entertainment only. The author does not condone anything herein; practice sex safely and legally. Any resemblances to real people, places and events (past, present or future) is unintentional.
Noah, the Embarrassed Nudist Epilogue: Seconds in Eternity
SATURDAY 25TH JUNE 2022
"Careful you don't stand too close of there'll be another wiener cooking on the barbeque," said Mark.
Bruce, Daniel and Jamie all laughed at the quip. Noah's dad's new boyfriend was a witty man who was still getting used to seeing Noah naked around the house and garden. Mark wasn't sure he understood how the boy could be so shameless and how Noah's brother and father were so comfortable seeing his penis and bare arse. He was doing his best to be accepting regardless of his personal feelings about it.
Bruce put an arm around Mark's waist and gave him a squeeze.
"Jamie and I are just going to check the beers are ok," Daniel said.
"I put them in the fridge this morning," Bruce assured the young men.
"We'll just do a taste test anyway," Jamie replied magnanimously.
They were having a family barbeque that had turned into a post-exam celebration. All the boys were quietly confident that the exams had gone well though some nursed anxiety more than others. While Bruce and Mark tended to the food cooking in the flames of the barbeque, Daniel and Jamie sought alcoholic refreshment. Noah sauntered over to join his friends who had been entertaining themselves while Noah went to unobtrusively see how long until the food would be ready.
Toby was sitting cross-legged on the grass and Amos had his head in Toby's lap. Amos's legs were straight and skinny; crossed at the ankle, they had feathery hair from ankle to knee and a bumblebee (which also had fuzzy legs) darted about the grass near his foot. Matty and Kevin occupied adjacent deckchairs but Kevin looked like he was contemplating moving farther away from his resiliently talkative boyfriend. Samir, Ronan and Morys had also commandeered lounge chairs and regarded Matty with bewilderment. It was a hot and sunny summer evening; the grass under Noah's bare feet was short, springy and tickly.
"Matty, if there's a soul, why haven't we detected it yet?" Samir asked gently.
Matty was working himself up.
"Maybe we're not looking in the right place..." Matty argued.
<<Has anyone checked the spleen?>>
Ronan chuckled and parodied the joke of the voice inside his head.
"Has anyone checked the appendix?" Ronan asked.
<<You stole my joke? You are unbelievable.>>
"I'd be willing to check your scrotum if you like?" Matty proposed.
"You'll make me jealous," Kevin murmured.
"I'll check yours too," Mateo promised.
"What are we checking for?" Noah asked.
"We were talking about soulmates," Samir explained.
"It think it's a wonderful idea," Amos said optimistically.
But then, Amos was one of the most positive and optimistic people Noah had ever met.
"Me too," Toby agreed.
"Awww," Amos squealed and lifted his head from Toby's lap to offer his boyfriend a kiss.
"Oh, you thought I was talking about you?" Toby joked.
Amos approximated a sour expression and put his hand over Toby's face to push him over. Toby fell back on the grass laughing while Amos clambered on top and kissed him revengefully.
"We started arguing because the question of soulmates is dependent on the existence of souls," Morys updated Noah.
"Hence why Sam asked, if there's a soul why haven't we detected it yet?" Noah joined in.
Like a red rag to a bull, Matty's hackled raised at the questioning of his question.
"Maybe they can't be detected?" Matty suggested.
<<That's convenient.>>
"It's hard to detect something unless you define it first. What is a soul? What's it made of? Are we looking for electricity of magnets or... Skittles..." Ronan antagonised.
"Fucking Skittles?!" Matty exploded. "You know what, can check your own damn scrotum!"
"Skittles is ridiculous but Ronan has a point..." Morys started to say.
Matty huffed and Kevin patted his arm supportively.
"If souls are real, they should interreact with baryonic matter and therefore be detectable... but we haven't detected a soul or anything that might be a soul," Morys said reasonably.
This was the problem with Matty's stupid conversation starters, it caused serious philosophical, metaphysical, psychological and occasionally psychopathic debates.
"You don't believe in the soul?" Noah asked him.
"Eh... I don't know... I don't think so," Morys confessed with blatant scepticism.
Did it mean anything that his boyfriend didn't believe they were soulmates? Did Noah believe they were soulmates?
"Maybe the soul is made up of dark matter or dark energy? Even neutrinos? They don't interact electromagnetically but they still exist," Kevin proffered.
Mateo beamed at his boyfriend for supporting him and hopped out of his chair to throw himself at Kevin. Kevin wrapped his arms around Matty and the pair rearranged themselves in the deckchair designed for one.
"This is why I love you," Mateo confessed.
Kevin kissed Mateo's forehead in reply.
Morys meanwhile took the opportunity to steal Matty's seat and Noah took the opportunity to sit on Morys's lap – again on a chair designed for one person. Morys tucked his chin on top of Noah's head while enjoying the feel of Noah's bare bottom in his lap. Their legs touched – tingly and warm feelings exciting them both.
"Do you believe in soulmates, Noah?" Morys asked.
The group paused to hear Noah's answer. Noah and Morys had only been dating for two months and the uncertainty of their future together was an open secret. No-one quite knew what stage the couple were at in the emotional stakes. Matty and Kevin seemed to have skipped straight to head-over-heels despite dating for less than two months. Kevin's depression that had once been a dark cloud was now cloud that might still rain sometimes but it was ok about it.
Noah wasn't sure if he believed in soulmates or not. If he did, he felt they were misunderstood. A soulmate could be a friend, family member or lover and surely you could have more than one? Noah also felt that soulmates needn't last forever; they could last weeks, months or years (or a lifetime) but the time didn't determine the quality of the connection nor its importance in your life. Noah wondered if soulmates were people you had to find when you were seventeen or maybe you could wait until you were thirty-six or forty?
Did Noah believe in soulmates?
"I don't know. Maybe," Noah responded uncertainly. "If I do have one, he's probably out there pushing a pull door, I just know it."
The gang laughed and Noah squirmed in Morys's lap to tease him. Soulmate or not, Noah felt great affection for his boyfriend.
"Since no-one appreciates my genius, someone else can come up with a conversation starter," Mateo suggested.
"Maybe we could just enjoy companionable silence for five minutes?" Samir said.
"Companionable silence? Silence? Have you ever met me?" Matty responded as if scandalised.
"Yea, Mateo even talks in his sleep," Kevin said.
"Hmmm, cool detail... how do you know?" Toby asked with a smile twitching on his face.
<<They're probably fucking.>>
Ronan ignored Herman – even though he agreed with the assertion.
"He gets tired after we have sex," Kevin said in his dry monotone.
It was impossible to tell if he was joking or not. Matty's eyes bulged and he blushed but he actually stayed quiet.
"Moving on..." Amos said – uncomfortable with the sex talk.
"Does no-one have anything they want to talk about?" Ronan asked.
<<Who do you think tops, Matty or Kevin?>>
"Oh, I know..." Kevin said.
Usually the quiet one, it was fun to hear Kevin being almost chatty – Daniel had sneaked him a cider though so maybe his tongue was loosened.
"Remember four or five months ago you asked me to remind you of this question: how many seconds in eternity?" Kevin asked.
"Oh yea!" Matty's face brightened delightedly. "That's a brilliant question."
"I mean, I don't know the answer but I want to spend them all with you," Kevin said.
His dry tone and dour face made it hard to tell if Kevin was being sincere or taking the micky – probably both. A smile half twitched at his mouth.
"You're too cute," Mateo replied.
"There's a Grimm Brothers story about that question. A shepherd's boy says that there's a diamond mountain two and a half miles high, wide and deep," Samir narrated. "If once every hundred years a bird were to sharpen its beak on the diamond mountain, by the time the whole mountain had been eroded away, the first second of eternity would have passed."
"Diamond is a ten on the Mohs scale. It would take something ridiculous like 100 billion years for a bird to wear away a mountain," Toby said seriously.
"Seems like a lot of work for one bird," Kevin regarded. "It should unionise."
"I want to unionise with you," Matty replied.
"It's just a story," Samir replied exhaustedly.
<<The estimated age of the universe is 14 billion years. If the bird started at the beginning of time, and it takes 100 billion years to ruin a perfectly good mountain, it would only have chipped away 2.2 cubic miles of diamond by now.>>
Ronan didn't bother saying any of this.
"One hundred billion years is..." Ronan tried to work it out in his head. "Over three quintillion seconds."
"What the shit is a quintillion?" Morys asked.
"It's a number with eighteen zeros after it," Noah told him.
"You have a sexy brain," Morys told Noah and pecked his cheek.
"The weather would wear the diamond mountain down faster than a bird's beak," Mateo chipped in – uncharacteristically logical but he was as much of a science dork as the rest of them despite his flippancy.
"It's just a story," Samir defended.
"Seems like a lot of work for just one geriatric bird," Noah agreed.
"It's just a fucking story," Samir huffed.
"A long time," Amos said diplomatically. "Eternity is a long time."
<>
Herman, on occasion, was an insightful and useful disembodied voice.
"Truman Capote wrote..." Ronan recalled. "If one bird carried every grain of sand, grain by grain, across the ocean, by the time it got them all to the other side, it would still only be the beginning of eternity."
Everyone was impressed by the recall and the philosophy of the quotation.
"Why are these birds doing all the hard work?" Noah pouted.
"It's just a story," Samir said self-referentially.
"Do you think we'll all still be friends by the time eternity begins?" Matty asked.
"If you keep asking daft questions we won't be friends at the end of the day," Samir teased him.
"The eternity question wasn't even my question," Matty protested.
"So this is what you've done to me," Kevin said darkly but not really meaning it.
"I know what Matty wants to do to you," Noah sniggered.
"Relationships aren't always about time together," Morys murmured thoughtfully.
Noah was still sitting on top of Morys. Morys's arms were around his waist, sitting just above Noah's hairless groin while Noah's bare bum connected with Morys' lap.
"Relationships are decided by quality not quantity," Morys asserted.
"Here, here," agreed Toby.
Noah closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying Morys's embrace and reflecting on his words. Neither of them knew if their relationship would or could last beyond the summer, if they would make long distance work or agree to move on. However, Noah took comfort in knowing they could make the most of the time they had. In the time they had together, they could love a lifetimes worth.
"Noah!" his dad called from across the garden.
Noah sat up, sliding from Morys's lap to between his legs.
"Go get Jamie and your brother, would you? Food's nearly ready," Bruce said.
"I bet you anything I can eat ten sausages!" Matty declared.
"I'm not taking that bet," Ronan said.
<<Yea, we've seen you eat.>>
"We all know you can eat at least ten," Samir agreed.
"Well someone has to bet me or I'll just look like a greedy chub!" Matty said.
Noah got to the kitchen door and watched for a moment – Daniel and Jamie were talking and Noah caught himself checking Jamie out. He turned the handle and pushed the door inward.
"Are you guys coming?" Noah asked.
Daniel and Jamie turned to see Noah, the door closing softly behind him. They had been in the middle of a conversation and Noah felt like he had interrupted – because he had interrupted.
"Yea. We're coming," Dan responded.
"Sorry... I didn't mean to interrupt," Noah said.
"It's ok, Noah. Really, we were just coming," Jamie said. "I'll take the cooler outside."
Jamie lifted a cool box filled with ice and drinks (beer and cider for the adults and soft drinks for the others) and headed for the door leading from the kitchen into the garden. Jamie turned the handle and pushed but the door didn't seem to budge.
"Jamie, you need to pull, you idiot," Daniel sniggered.
Noah chuckled at the young man trying to push a pull door.
"Story of my life," Jamie replied with a grin over his shoulder.
Jamie pulled the door open and stepped back out into the sweltering heat.
"Dad seems really happy," Noah said.
Noah looked out into the garden at his dad and Mark playfully bumping hips as they took food off the barbeque. They were both wearing sunglasses and smiling affectionately.
"Yes," Daniel agreed. "It's good to have him home and nice to see he's met such a wonderful man."
Noah had only known about Mark for a shot time but it was clear it had been going on for a while.
"Is Mark the reason dad and Jamie stopped sleeping together?" Noah asked speculative.
"No. I think Jamie hoped to move on and settle down with a nice boyfriend and dad... isn't a boy," Daniel joked.
Noah knew what Dan meant though. There was an eighteen-year age difference between them.
"Has he?" Noah asked gently.
"Has who what?" Daniel replied.
"Has Jamie found a nice boy to settle down with?" Noah clarified.
Daniel didn't reply right away, he seemed to be very carefully measuring his response.
"I think he's found someone but not settled down," Daniel responded.
Daniel didn't want to be the one to tell Noah how Jamie felt about him – especially with Noah having a boyfriend. Dan and Jamie had been talking about Morys – how he was a nice boy who had been good for Noah's emotional growth. Neither of them wanted to hope Noah & Morys didn't work out but they were both secretly crossing their fingers.
"If you don't come out soon, Matty will have eaten everything," Ronan said – suddenly appearing at the door.
"How many sausages so far?" Noah asked as he followed his friend out.
"Your dad capped him at four so Matty's declared the competition null and void," Ronan lamented.
"There was a competition?" Daniel asked.
"In no-one's head but Matty's," Noah assured his big brother.
Dan laughed and put his arm affectionately around Noah's bare shoulders as they joined the others outside. There were enough chairs for everyone; they were set around a table under gazebo that provided shade. Noah sneaked in between Morys and Jamie. Daniel sat beside his dad and Mark.
"Thanks for coming everyone..." Daniel said, raising his glass. "And eating all our food."
The group chuckled and when they stopped, Bruce took a turn at speaking.
"I thought we could all make a small toast..." Bruce started to say.
"French or melba?" Kevin asked.
"You've been spending too much time with Matty," Morys said while the family and friends laughed.
"Oo uch hing," Mateo said with half a sausage in his mouth.
"To friends and family and the special people in our lives," Bruce said, ignoring the interruption, with a smile at Mark beside him.
"To special people," Mark agreed.
This started a domino effect of small toasts among the men and boys – in between burgers, salad, chicken and of course sausages.
"To the loves of our lives," Toby said.
"L'chaim," Amos replied.
Toby and Amos kissed while the other couples touches classes, held hands or embraced.
"To good health," Samir said.
<>
"To good mental health," Ronan added.
"To all the single boys out there and the people they're meant to be with," Daniel said.
Jamie blushed sheepishly
"To the future..." Morys said. "And whatever it holds," he added as he touched Noah's hand. "Or whoever it holds."
"To..." Kevin started to say.
"Sausages! To sausages!" Matty interjected.
Kevin laughed indulgently at his mad boyfriend.
"To sausages... and also happiness," Kevin added.
"Yea!" Matty squealed and kissed Kevin whose lips tasted like tomato ketchup.
"To making dreams come true," Jamie said earnestly.
Noah was the last one to speak and he had been thinking about what to say – should he be glib and toast nudism or funny and toast nudity? Or should he acknowledge the people who mean the most to him – friends, family and lovers? Did he toast successful exam results? Prosperous careers? Sausages?
"To my dad and Mark, to Samir, to Toby and Amos, to Ronan and Herman, to Morys, to Jamie, to Mateo and Kevin and to Daniel... to being accepted and being loved..." Noah said.
To sex, nudity, embarrassment, exhibitionism, humiliation, lust, love and beauty.
"...and to eternity," Noah said.
Noah felt like this was the beginning of the rest of his life.
THE END
This concludes A Series of Embarrassing Events and Noah, the Embarrassed Nudist. Noah could return in the future but I have no immediate plans to do that. It's been an amazing project but I started writing Noah's adventures in September 2018 and it's time to write about new characters.
My next story is coming soon – probably July/ August. It is called The SEX Men and I anticipate it will appear in Science Fiction or Fantasy so if this is not a section you usually frequent, make sure to check it out. For the stories that precede that adventure: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/anthology/
I have a Halloween story in progress. If everything goes to plan, Nightmares on Fig Leaf Street will go online in October.
I have lots of stories planned with my usual mix of drama & erotica, embarrassment and exhibition, protagonists and antagonists. I'd love to hear from more readers – while I don't do commissions, I do like when readers share scenarios and influence my ideas.
Check out my blog (https://niftyencomiums.blogspot.com) for announcements and plans for upcoming projects.
Many thanks to the Nifty Archivists. You can check out the Beta (https://new.nifty.org/) version of the new Nifty Archive (and offer feedback if you like). Please consider donating to help keep the site up and running (I do not receive any financial compensation for my stories): http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html
Feedback to authors is their only compensation and motivation.
Email me: niftyencomiums@gmail.com
My blog: https://niftyencomiums.blogspot.com (updated weekly with teasers for the next chapter)
My newtumbl (updated, March 2023): https://niftyguy2.newtumbl.com/
My Twitter: @niftyencomiums1
My stories so far:
https://www.nifty.org/nifty/authors.html#jforrester
Complete series: School Exhibitionism, The Symposium, The Embarrassment of Riches, Do As You're Told and A Series of Embarrassing Events.
Ongoing short story series: Anthology.
Short stories: Aiden's Accidental Autoerotic Assignment, Jogging Joe's Jaunty Journey and Peter's Past Posing Pictures.