The following is a mostly true story about me growing up in western South Dakota in the 80's. It's about my first relationship and contains some m-m stuff. If you aren't old enough or this is illegal where you live, please stop reading now.
Well enough of that. ... On with the story.
You can call me Tanner, most of my friends do (and even most everyone else as well). Tanner's my middle name. It's a family thing. The first boy born in the family has had the middle name Tanner for the past seven generations. And we always use it as our social name. I live, as I said above, in western South Dakota. West River, as we call it (the Missouri River cuts our state in half). Out here we're ranchers. The lands a little too dry and rugged to grow corn and beans like they do east river, but you're not here for an ag lesson. :)
My mom and I live about 9 miles outside of town. Let's just call it Cloud, SD. (No, there's not really a Cloud, SD -- this is why I'm calling this mostly true). The town itself has about 2000 people. It's mostly there to support the ranchers, but some use it as a bedroom community for one of the larger towns. Our homestead is about 1/4 miles off one of the county roads, so it's an easy, if curvy ride from town. But you can always take the more direct route -- through our land, which butts up against the town. The next closest homestead is 2 miles away, a little less crowded than say New York. :)
You'll notice I didn't mention my dad; he passed on when I was 12. He died in a car crash, when a truck lost control on an icy road. Besides the obvious change, my life had 2 other new realities descend upon it. First, my mom, who had been a stay at home mom up until that point, had to go back to work. Second, I, who had been home-schooled by my said stay-at-home mom, had to attend the public schools. I didn't start until the next fall, when I entered 7th grade.
** I should probably note here, that for those of you who are looking for guys romping around in the sheets 2 paragraphs into the story, you might want to look elsewhere. Reality doesn't often follow fantasy. But for those who enjoy a journey, I assure you there will be lots to see at the final destination -- and along the way as well, I might add. **
In order for this story to make sense, you need to understand a little about my mom and living in a rural area. My mom is gone quite a bit. She's a consultant. Apparently before she married my dad and settled she was something of a wiz-kid on wall street. She had made a nice fortune, but then wanted to get out of the rat race and come back to her roots. I think my dad was also the draw. Ranching was in his blood, and nothing could get him to leave it for New York. So, without boring you about their romantic story (and I tell you, although I might be biased, I think it'd be a great plot for a rom-com), let me continue. The short of it is that when my dad died, and she decided she needed to go back to work, she found work as a Consultant. Frankly, I don't know what she did as a consultant, but what it meant for me is that she was often gone for 3-4 days at a time.
At first I would stay at my uncle's (my dad's brother). He was a deputy sheriff for the county and lived in Cloud. This past year, my mom and uncle decided I was OK to be left at home while she was gone. I was starting high school, I was almost 15 (my birthday is in August and I started school a year late.) They also trusted me. I was an A student, I didn't get in trouble and I had a desire to go to one of the military academies. They knew I wanted that so bad that I policed myself really well. During the times my mom was out of town, Uncle Andy or one of the other deputies would stop by in the evening and check on me. They'd also swing in during the night and just make sure everything was OK. For those of you who live on the coasts, this might seem a little unbelievable, but for those who live in rural areas, you understand.
This meant I had a lot of time on my own, especially that first summer. You have to remember this was well before the internet. We were too far out to have cable, and my mom thought satellite an unnecessary expense. I did have an Intellivision (with it's keypad controller -- I really liked a Spider Attack game) and a Commodore 128. I even had a floppy drive! (5 1/2 in of course and yes I am talking about computer equipment and not my own). I spent my days helping on the ranch (my mom rented out the land after my father died), programming games on my C-128 (there used to be magazines you could get that gave you machine code or something like that. The games were pretty lame compared to today's games but cool at the time), playing Bard's Tale, or riding around on my four-wheeler, something which had become a vital piece of equipment on a ranch.
The second change in my life came from transitioning from home schooling to public schools. A lot of people have this impression of home-schooler that we are socially in-ept or something like that. That's not true. We interact with a lot of people. My mom constantly took me to events with other home schoolers. I worked with the ranchers on the land. But the thing is, all of the events were in the big city of Swifton (again not it's real name). I was in a choir and band, I played sports, etc, etc. But I didn't know any of the kids in the Cloud school. So it was like I was the new kid when I started. Most of the other kids already had their groups. I wasn't into the big sports, but I did have a desire to go to an Academy, so I needed a sport. I ended up in Cross-Country and Track. I developed some good friends on the team, but outside of that, I really didn't know a lot of people. And track and cross-country guys are way cool, but let's be honest, if any athletes could be considered geeks, it's long distance runners.
Well enough back ground for now. Don't worry, you get more later. This story starts one June day. I had spent the morning attending to the ranch business, which pretty much meant riding around on my 4-wheeler saying hi to the various farm hands. A herd of cattle needed to be moved from one pasture to another. Feed had been delivered that morning and needed to be stowed properly. Jobs like that. I was the land lady's son, so I did have any specific job, but just bounced around lending a helping hand where needed. Since my dad died, the ranchers took me in like I was their favorite nephew or something. I pitched in and they appreciated my willingness to work.
Most of the work was finished up around noon, so I came in, washed up and had dinner. (Dinner on the ranch is served at noon, not in the evening). My mom had always prepared dinner for the crew before my dad died. She still did on days she was home. But on days she wasn't, she had my aunt come in and prepare the meal. We normally had about a dozen extra hands working. Dinner time was always a loud and fun time. After everyone was done, my final chore of the day was clean up. By time I'm done, the house has become pretty quite. The ranchers have headed back to the fields and from there they head home.
Up until this point, the day had been sunny and warm, but not too hot. A breeze started blowing in and I decided to get a work out in. My dad had built a work out room off the back of the house. Inside was a free weight set (which I never used, cause I had no one to spot me), a nautilus set, a treadmill and a stair master. About half way through my work out, I head drops start to hit the roof. I looked out and saw a storm cell had blown in. Safely inside, I thought nothing about it. 5 minutes later, I heard the front door bell. I figured it was Uncle Nate checking in me for the evening. I was only wearing a pair of work out shorts with no shirt. I was alone after all.
By time I got to the door, the storm had increased in ferocity. By now it was raining cats and dogs -- might have even been some hail going on. The front window lit up as lightning slammed down somewhere a little way off. As I opened the door, lightning again lit up the sky. And my heart skipped a beat. It wasn't Uncle Nate in the door way. It was Conner James, linesman from the school foot ball team. And he was standing in my door way, dripping wet, wearing only a pair of white running shorts, that left nothing to the imagination.
To be continue....
Comments please write me at btanner72@hotmail.com