Saddened by the overgrown grounds and buildings in ruin, Kenny walked the paths he once marched.
It was mysterious as if a horror movie just before the Aliens reveal themselves, he chuckled to himself at the anaology.
Yet it had been a real memory. He had shouldered the heavy olive drab color canvas bag filled with uniforms, shoes, books and other items he would inventory later. As if indeed an Alien the tall black man appeared in front of him, angered by his presence.
Ken was stunned by the man's appearance let alone his instant high volume screaming of a tirad he couldn't quite understand. Here and there were words that did filter through and Ken discerned he should be running, not walking.
He did so towards the white building with green roof the man pointed to and still didn't seem satisfied with Kenny's rush to get to the appointed finishing line.
By the time he did arrive, there were others like him in ill fitting fatiques looking as lost as Kenny felt. There was no time to nod, smile or introduce himself as the black man had followed him and was now yelling at the entire gathering.
It was basic training and somehow the joy of being sent to California dissolved into what apppeared to be another planet rather then the famed locaiton of surfing, sun bronzing and convertibles.
Days became weeks and all counted the time left as if there was to be a nirvaniac ending to the abuse they learned to withstand.
The best part, his secret joy, was living with over 20 other men in the same room. Their lack of privacy enabled him to see half clad or nude men on a daily basis. There wasn't much time to have lingering looks though. And in the shower they all shared, nobody dared stare, evaluate let alone lust after the naked bodies crammed next to you. Yet Ken was able to sneak in longer looks then he had done in the gym locker room in school.
As time past, despite the identical haircuts and uniforms, a bit of individual identities emerged. Some were cute, others manly, some not either. Sharing cigarettes, a long time method to introduce one self to a stranger in uniform, allowed him to meet them on a different level.
He stared now at the barracks building. Ken wasn't sure if it was the one he lived in so long ago, but he thought so. There were destroyed bunk bed farmes among the trash that had been discarded there.
He looked in the latrine the one or similar to he one he had scrubbed clean, showered in, sat in the open toilet stall and stood at the urine trough they used. He could only imagine the others that were there.
Standing outside again, the view was a dismal one. There were no flags flapping, no trucks speeding through, screaming Sargants or officers to salure. No cadence yelling soldiers or punished soldiers doing push-ups. The building that he worked in was still there and identifyable.
A temporary sign declaring "Exit Administration" was nailed over the original. Ken was surprised to see it as it was the one that he passed daily after basic training. He spent most of his remaining months there at a typewriter..a good way to survive the time.
Many he knew from Basic Training and some he got friendly with didn't serve in as good a place..some never returned.
There were faces that he tried to remember and some he remembered well. Jose who's constant use of the term "no comprendo" got him out of extra duty, Reed the surfer from San Diego, Marshall who now conducted orchestras on Broadway and Vincent who he learned went overseas and never returned.
Ken got in his car and drove to his second destination, the little town that nuzzled the base nearby. It wasn't totally abandoned. But store after store was closed. They didn't even bother to post FOR RENT signs in the often cracked windows.
The theater was boarded up as was the barber shop where once hundreds of his fellow soldiers had their heads shorne close to their skulls.
A coffee shop was still opened. As Ken entered he realized he was the only customer. An older woman didn't bother to look up as he entered. He sat at a booth and waited till she brought over coffee without even asking.
"Is the old motel still opened?" he asked her. "Honey nothing's opened. We're closing at the end of summer ourselves" She said factually without emotion. "Goin to San Francisco - - " she continued voicing her plans "shame, real shame" she ended and moved away not waiting for a reply.
"Yea real shame" he said outloud not so much to reply to the Waitress but to voice his own reaction to the sights he had seen.
About half way through basic training, the entire group was allowed to go home or San Francisco or the more local towns if they could afford it.
Ken couldn't afford any long trips to famed San Francisco though he had long wanted to visit that city. There, he thought, his long ignored and hidden desires could find satisfaction.
But instead he stumbled on and off a military bus that took him to a nearby local town. Others like him wandered the streets stretching their feeling of qualified freedom into bars, stores, coffe shops, barber shop and a motel with swimming pool, the closest he had been to water outside of the shower he shared with 20 other naked boys turned men.
Ken sat inside the window at a coffee shop wondering if the movie theater would find him inside that eveing. He stared at the marquee's outdated film title and other soldiers staring and shaking their heads in disgust.
He wasn't the only one disappointed by the available distraction. Sighing, Ken stood ready to give up and return to the base to sleep without screaming older men.
"Shit man there's no place to go is there" Ken turned toward the words. He recognized Vincent from the barracks. They had shared cigarettes, a social practice all did to express comradity without intrusion.
"Yea" Ken wished he could respond more intelligently or with humor but the hot afternoon had drained him from enough energy to be able to do even that.
"Come on" Vince's smile encouraged him. "We can use the pool there" he said.
"Uh I don't have the dough for a room man" Ken admitted. His eyes watched the flexing buttocks in front of him. He had seen them naked of course. He had seen everyone in the barracks naked, in the shower, wandering around the bunks or during one of the crazy drill seargant's midnight torturing sessions in the rain.
But for some reason not being on the base, not in the scrutinizing eyes of seargants or around other judgamental soldiers, he was aroused. Vincent was practically trotting.
"You kidding? We don't need one" His face had turned back and the smile he had was even wider. "I know the guy there" he punctuated his plan.
Ken trotted to be next to the fellow inductee. "Cool, uh what about swim
suits?" always the practical one, he asked.
"They got some we can use." they had arrived and Vincent went into the door behind the office. "Hey Cliff!" he was either yelling or greeting, Ken couldn't tell at first.
"Hey I was expecting you" the man, obviously the one Vincent had greeted appeared. He looked at Ken and nodded.
"Wow two? My dream come true" Clint said.
Ken didn't know what he meant and the sight of the man kissing Vincent and hugging him distracted his mind from wondering further.
"Swim? I got hours yet, so you two just have fun, but don't be naughty in the pool this time" he shook a finger like a correcting parent at Vincent.
Vincent had stripped to his underwear by that time and Clint didn't leave. It was as if he was watching.
"Come on man, here" Vincent tossed a black bit of cloth at Ken. He realized it was a very small swim suit.
As Ken looked up he saw the familiar naked sight
of Vincent. He didn't seem anxious to put on the swim suit. Clint was in front of him watching and joking around with him.
"Come on, he wants to see you too" Vincent said.
"Uh maybe I shouldn't" Ken stammered
"It's ok man" Vincent was in front of him, his face so close they too could have kissed. Ken could have moved his hand and touched the meaty cock he had mentally measured already.
Vincent pulled Ken's t-shirt out of his waist band and off his head. Ken felt his gut stir. He was being stripped by another guy. It was a fansay he had had many times. Even the few times he finally crossed the threshold of his hesitancy to touch, swallow, hug, kiss and fuck other guys during his senior year and the summer before he joined up, weren't like this.
They were hurried sex, animalistic desires finally released as the other and he stripped, grabbed, gropped, and did whatever they allowed each other to do.
Vincent was
playful, his breath warmth on Ken's face and bared chest. His hands gently unbuttoned the jeans.
"You two behave now, I have customers here. You can do all that later" Clint said.
Vincent backed away. "Shit I don't know if these will fit now"
Ken saw the soldier had a rock hard erection.
"I think it'll fit just fine" Clint said laughing as he left the room "gotta get back to work, see you two later".
Ken watched as Vincent pulled his black speedos up his thick legs and envelop his hips. His erection showed plainly after it was stuffed inside the cloth.
"The water will cool it down" He said "Come on you better put yours away too"
Ken hadn't realized his penis too had expanded. It arched out in front of him like a finger beckoning Vincent to come closer.
He pulled the jeans down his legs and yanked the black speedos up his legs.
"Shit it doesn't fit" he said having to hop around urging the
cloth higher.
"It'll stretch over those cute buttocks of yours" Vincent said "just like your uniform pants do"
For some reason Ken hadn't imagined anyone was looking at him the way he surveyed others in the barracks. He realized that his naked body had been evaluated, measured and now even lusted after.
"Come on, if we run fast and dive in nobody will notice" Ken was indeed running out the door on the other side of the room that faced the pool.
There was a blur of adults and kids around the pool. Many, Ken thought, were there to see their son, brother, husband or boyfriend who like him, had joined the Army.
He ran after Vincent now, enjoying the view of the black cloth defined buttocks flexing and the sight of him leaping into the air, arching his body aimed at the water. The splash appeared just as Ken too hopped into the air.
Then suddenly there was wetness, legs, arms, laughter, sreaming and entangled body
under water rising into the air.
"Sorry" Vincent said to someone they had both splashed. Ken looked in the same direction to see a man and woman laughing and waving as if to say "ok".
He didn't have time to look longer as Vincent was climbing on his back and their wet wrestling match proceeded.
It felt good to have another body pressed against his. To be able to squirm, reach, grab, hold without worries of surrounding judgements.
The arm between his legs moved between his. Ken was being lifted, he liked being lifted. As he rose from the water into the air the sound of his own laughter continued to make what was happening unreal.
As if in a sudden slow motion movie scene, he had time to wonder how Vincent knew he would like what they were doing. Did the guy know he was gay? Was he gay too or just a horny male grateful for any release he could find?
Tom Mathers was like that, glad to share hand jobs but
still told queer jokes in school. There was the black guy who kept commenting on his ass but when asked if he wanted to fuck, shook his head. Mr. Clarance the Church Music Director however was happy to oblige as soon as he knew Ken had his 18th birthday.
He fell back into the water with a splash that again wet people sunning poolside. By then others joined their watery play. Vincent and Ken were both wrestling with bare chested males, some older and some younger.
Then silence prevailed. Youngsters were hustled from the pool by parents. Males their age were spreading oil on the bared backs of girl friends, older men were wading or swimming laps.
Vincent lay on the top of the water waving his arms like a slow flying angel. The mound his male glands made in his too small swimsuit surfaced like a sail along with his rounded pectorals and feet.
Ken stretched his arms on the pool side and let his body rise naturally floating
in the now calm water line.
"This isn't he ocean but it'll do" Vincent said "I wonder if there's really an ocean out there" Ken responded closing his eyes to let the sun bake available body parts. He felt Vincent moved between his outstretched legs. He knew it was Vincent. The hands on his legs gently pulled his body closer.
Their crotches touched as Vincent steadied himself holding onto Ken's spread arms.
"I knew you'd like this" he said purposly moving his body in the water. Despite the cool water effect, Ken felt his crotch respond.
"What are you doing?" He said smiling and opening his eyes.
"What you want, what I want what we've wanted since the first week" Vincent said quietly. His lips moved slowly and his green eyes shined as if a light behind them suddenly turned on.
"We got all night and tomorrow" Vincent added. His fingers pulled on one of Ken's nipples. It hurt but Ken didn't respond.
"You two want to eat or what?": the clerk appeared "come on" he added and moved to greet some others there.
"Come on" Vince said jumping form the safety of the water that had hidden what they were doing underneath.
"What about our clothes?" Ken asked "I got em at the apartment" the clerk's voice said "Hope you like hamburgers, got the barbque ready"
They walked dripping wet after him. Ken noticed the eyes evaluating both Vincent and him. Their smooth young bodies, barely covered buttocks and bulging crotches were available for all to see.
Ken hoped his cock didn't get any larger knowing that.
They toweled dry once they arrived at the apartment. "You two can go shower and uh change if you want to. I've got some cookign to do"
They went into the bedroom and Vincent turned the shower on in the adjoining bathroom.
He was naked now and Ken stripped to join him. He didn't care his cock was hard and that Vincent saw it again.
They stepped into the shower together. They had shared one at the barracks of course but they couldn't touch, soap, rinse, hold and explore each other.
Now they did all that and more as their lips parted to take their lust to the next level.
Ken was ready to kneel and take Vincent into his mouth. He figured even if the guy was straight he was horny and all guys like blow jobs.
To his surprised it was Vincent who crouched first and deep throated his cock. The warmth was beyond expectations. the tongue that tickled, savored and teased his cock took Ken almost to the point of no return.
"Now me" he said lifting Vincent and crouched to his knees to immiatate the pleasure. Vincent groaned like he never felt a mouth on his cock before. His hands touched Ken's bare shoulders and grabbed the back of his head. Vince began to fuck Ken's throat.
"Oh shit" he said out loud and Ken swallowed each stream that filled his mouth. Some of Vincent's fluid spilled out of his mouth.
"You two ready?" the clerk, stood at the shower watching. How long he had been watching Ken didn't know and was surprised that he didn't care.
"God honey you didn't finish yet" he said seeing Ken's still erect cock.
"I'll take care of it later" Vince said "and that bubble butt too" He slapped Ken's bare butt and kissed his lips.
The clerk laughed "I know you will, thank god the bed's big enough for us all"
They wore only towels. Even the motel clerk had stripped to his boxers. The sun baked them along with the barbque heat as they ate hamburgers, drank beer and exchanged stories about their basic training.
The clerk told stories about various soldiers who had enjoyed his hospitality. A few he talked about, he added "you remember him Vince honey?" which told Ken what he wondered about.
The towels eventualy disappeared as they watched TV. The clerk showered and said he was going to bed "You two come when you're ready" he said then bent over and kissed Vincent on the lips. He moved to Ken who wasn't sure if he should. But the lips against his were warm, full and welcoming.
"Do we uh spend the night here?" He asked.
"Sure why not?" Vincent moved to his knees and began to repay Ken with his mouth. "Don't cum" he looked up, "I want to fuck you first"
"And I want to watch" the clerk was naked standing in the doorway to the bedroom. The cock in his hand was long, longer then Ken had seen in awhile.
"Just watch?" Ken asked revealing his instant lust for what he saw.
"Ohhh a size queen are you?" The clerk asked.
"no I uh well I guess I'm a bit drunk" Ken replied.
"Hone there are two types of queers, size queens and liars" he laughed and turned away.
"We better go in" Vincent stood his cock pointed directly at Ken.
He moved to the bed. The clerk lay on one side and Vincent got on the other. Ken knew what was going to happen. He had been involved with groups that summer after school.
The call came late one night. Tracy, one of his fellow graduates said some guys were getting together to celebrate even though it was a month ago. He showed up and began drinking and smoking until the group gor friendlier and friendlier.
The music, half naked guys dancing together and occasional butt grabbing told him a fantasy might become reality that night. The lights dimmed then shut off. In the darkness hands gropped, pinched, held balls and mouths met.
He wasn't sure who did what to whom, only that his mouth, ass and cock didn't escape the night. The morning as each naked, sleep drunk boy awoke, nobody talked about what they had done. And Ken figured nobody ever would. They laughed, some left, some went to the nearby Ihop and others stayed behind.
"What a night" Mark said hugging Ken goodbye "take care of yourself" he patted Ken's now clothed butt. That was the last he saw of Mark or most of the guys.
"Just relax" Vincent said holding his bare hips and moving into him. Ken sighed trying to relax his ass to swallow the cock he had tasted earlier.
The fucking transicitoned from pain and discomfort to regular piston like motions. "Ready for me?" The clerk asked and Ken moved to take the cock in his mouth.
Time seemed to stop measuring their lust and pleasure. Ken was kissing and fondling Vincent while the clerk expanded his aleady stretched sphinter. He kissed and sucked on the clerks nipples while Vincent slid back into him.
There were different combinations and positions. But most involved Ken being fucked by the two orally and anally.
"Shit what a night" Vincent stretched. His cock was rock hard. Ken wondered how many soldiers had been in this bed, how many had shared the clerk and another soldier and how many had been with Ken and the clerk.
"You two stay put, I have to check in at the office, we can get some breakfast later"
He left just as Vincent stradled Ken and held his erection. He smiled as he lowered himself taking Vince's cock up inside him.
"Here" he pulled Vince's hand to his cock "open our mouth when I tell you" he began rocking and fucking Vincet's hand at the same time.
The grip on his cock was as hard as a hand. It squeezed him sontantly going up into Ken's intestines and sliding out. He held Ken's cock hard and harder.
"Ok open up" Ken already had his mouth open having licked the precum from Vincent's cock..the streams of cum that came next showered his face, chin and chest. He was amazed there was so much sperm especially after the multiple orgasms had desposited cum in his mouth and ass the day before.
Then his thoughts ended as his own body erupted. Ken's stomach muscle knotted so hard it hurt, his cock felt like it was on fire and his muscles contracted with each stream emitted.
"Shit we were so fucking horny" Vincent said bending forward and kissing Ken. Ken's cock slid out as he did so.
They hugged feeling their satisfied but still youthful horny bodies feeling the other head to toe.
"Breakfast boys" the announcement got them both to dress, again as the man watched. His eyes watched each cock stuffed in jeans and each torso covered in t shirt.
"What a shame we can't eat naked" he said.
They sat in the coffee shop, the same one that Ken and Vincent had left the day before. Other soldiers some in uniform and others wearing civies came and went.
Ken was surprised how many knew the motel clerk, who he finally learned was named Mort or Morton. Some of the soldiers nodded at him and Vincent too.
"They knew" Ken thought "Were they interested in me or Vincent or?" his thoughts were interupted by Mort's constant chatter, Vincent's laughter and till more strangers stopping at the table to chat with Morton.
He sat at the same table now. The ghosts of that weekend and others that followed faded in the cobwebs, unused tables around him.
Morton had moved to Hawaii even when he worked in the remaining years of his Army service there. There had been weekends spent at the Motel with Mort and other soldiers after basic training. There had been private parties in town and even a few nights he spent in available rooms at the motel.
Then something happened. Nobody talked about it. But Morton said he had to leave. Ken met him at a guest house across town. "We can't use the apartment anymore" Mort had said.
They talked about the few months of aquaintances. "Do you hear from Vincent?" Mort had asked.
Ken had exchanged mail now and then. They talked about meeting up when Vincent returned. He aways asked to say hello to Morton.
"I think we helped him" Mort said intent on sharing the story of his first meeting.
"Uh hi" Vincent stood at the motel desk. He had spent two weeks on the base and was allowed a weekend pass for excelling at target shooting.
"Want a room?" Morton, the on duty clerk asked.
"No I uh can't afford that. I thought maybe I could use the pool? I just want to get in some laps, relax from all that" he stammered.
"I guess, need a suit?" the question had surprised Vincent. He had his own suit in his back pack.
"You can change in here" Mort said.
Vince stripped naked and pulled on his old high school swim team speedos. "Nice" Mort said surprising him.
"Don't worry, I've seen you boys naked all the time" he said "go swim, relax"
"I sat on the side of the pool and he came over to me" Mort declared to Ken "I didn't approach him at all" he assured.
"Want to get something to eat? I can barbque for us both ..I have an apartment" Mort recounted his conversation.
"Can I uh get a shower ?" Mort recalled the boys question and the sight of him lifting himself from the pool.
"It was like some commercial. He easily lifted his body. His arms bulged with his own weight. The water seemed to cling to him and the sight of his speedos. It was so obvous his cock was erect in those white speedos. I mean you could see his skin thru them. I could seen the outline of his cock head." Moret started to breathing heavy.
Ken felt Morts hands on him that last night as the man remembered Vincent. When hey kissed, he knew Mort was kissing Vincent. When he fucked, Ken knew it was Vincent's butt not his. And as he lay on the man's chest with arms surrounding him, he knew it was Vincent being held that way.
The letter was returned. Ken went to the computer and typed in as he had learned to do, hesitant but needing to read what he eventualy found. Vincent had been killed by a road bomb. His body was in transit to Ohio already.
Ken cried. He wanted to call Morton to tell him but the man had long moved away, to Hawaii. He got a postcard but no return address was on it.
So he waited until a letter came. It never did. Mort wouldn't know. Perhaps he hoped Vincent would appear. Perhaps he would share time and bed with other soldies there and think about Vincent or even Ken.
He sighed and stood. "What do I owe you?" he asked the waitress intent on reading her magazne. He put the five dollar bill on the counter. "Wait for your change" she said and he smiled and waved "that's ok".
The car took him away. Ken regretted returning. The destroyed buildings were like a reminder that everything changes, nothing stays the same.
Sean would be waiting for him when he returned. At first flashes of memory of Vincent appeared when they made love. But eventually Sean was there by himself, hiding the memories with his own passion..making memories that they both relished.
Vincent was gone like the many other soldiers that had been part of his maturing, like Morton the kind horny older man who contributed much and like these buildings he passed as he returned home driving through the closed Army base that had once been his home, his launching pad for life.
He was glad he returned but happier another return was ahead.....love, passion and life included.