UNDER THE CHERRY TREE
By
Rev. Jesse Penfield Gibson, MDiv, DMin
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters and situations are purely imaginary. Any resemblence to any living persion is coincidental. This story is primarily a romance but does contain some scenes of explicit sex, primarily homosexual but not exclusively.
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NINETEEN
The second weekend in March, Xander took me to meet his father. We barreled down I-16 listening to the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, supposedly preparing ourselves for the weekend. We got onto I-95 and headed toward South Carolina, only exiting on the last exit in Georgia. We went through the small town of Rincon and on towards Clyo, a few miles distant. He was giving me instructions, primarily what to do if we were stopped.
"How likely is that?" I asked looking around a bit nervously.
"It could happen," Xander said calmly. His posture driving was relaxed but I noticed that we had slowed down from his usual pace of speeding outrageously and was actually going the speed limit. "We haven't done anything illegal and they won't have anything on us. But don't answer their questions. They like to harass us but they haven't ever been able to prove anything. As far as they know, it's just a bunch of hippies."
I knew there was more than that. It was a lot more than that but I didn't differ with him. The town of Clyo was really the most miserable wide spot in the road that you can imagine. There was the railroad on one side and a few forlorn houses on the other. Getting through town took perhaps a minute. Just beyond, there was an initial turn to the left and then we turned again but this time onto a dirt road. Then there was another turn onto another dirt road and by now we were in the deep woods. Then he stopped. A gate was ahead of us and I could see a fence line with concertina wire running on either side through the woods. I could tell it was an electric fence. Reaching out, he punched some numbers into a keypad on a post. The gate opened and Xander put the jeep in gear and started moving.
"When we pull up to the house, I'll get out and then you get out when I tell you, okay. Keep your arms out by your side until I tell you."
"Sure, okay Xander." I thought he was joking but his look was serious. We were driving on a rutted track, not even a road, and went around a curve. Ahead of us was a frame house in a large clearing, an old plantation plain house, with barn, several outbuildings and a couple of cabins. Behind the house was a large farm. Opposite it was a blackwater pond that looked like it was about 10 acres big with a dock on it. Into the distance further down the rutted path were a brace of other houses. We rolled to a stop and Xander got out, telling me to stay put. He walked around to the front of the jeep, keeping his arms extended. I saw that there was an older man, shirtless, standing on the porch of the house but Xander seemed to be ignoring him. Then he told me to get out and stay on my side of the jeep. I did it even though it seemed stupid.
"Okay, Jimmy," Xander yelled as a dark haired boy who looked like he was in the fifth or sixth grade came running toward him, calling his name. "Fun's fun."
In a knot of woods off on my side of the jeep, a man stood up suddenly from a concealed position. He was carrying an assault rifle. I turned to look at Xander, stunned, and saw the man on the porch walking toward us.
"Dylan, this is my Dad. And this is Jack, Joe's little brother."
The kid, Jack, was excited to see Xander and was fairly jumping, asking him questions. The older man shooed him away, telling Jack that he would have plenty of time to play before we left. The father was a sight and I could see a bit of Xander in him. His long gray hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he had a weather-beaten face. Shirtless, he was lean and muscular.
He smiled, "So you're the boy that's made Alexander swear off pussy forever, huh? Or is it forever?"
Xander replied, "For now at least."
"Hello, Mr. Crowe," I said, reaching out to shake his hand.
He grabbed it. He was strong. "Just call me Danny. Don't mind Jimmy. He keeps hoping somebody will come along he can shoot but they leave us alone. Betty Jean made some roasted root vegetables in case you're hungry. Don't worry about your stuff, Dylan. Jimmy'll get it."
"And Jimmy will search it" Xander said
Danny laughed. "Got to be sure that you really are the naïve, fag son of a Baptist deacon, you know. Don't mind if I call you a fag, do you?"
I looked at him quizzically. "I guess I actually do."
"Good. You should. I would too," he said, clapping my on the shoulder. "That's the last bit of homophobia you'll get around here. I think everybody ought to enjoy their sexuality, whatever it is. I know I do. Just wanted to see if you had any spunk."
We went into the house through the screen door, young Jack following us in but trying to behave. All the windows were open and there was no evidence of air conditioning or a TV that I could see. A lean, matronly woman in her 50's was bustling around in the room to our right. She was shirtless too but had an apron on which did cover her breasts. When she heard us come in, she came out into the hall way and greeted Xander warmly. Introductions were made. She was Betty Jean but it wasn't obvious her relationship to Xander. She did appear to be the cook and we were hungry. As promised there were roasted root vegetables – carrots, potatoes, parsnips and turnip roots. Surprisingly, it was actually very good. I eyed some brownies cooling on the window sill. Betty Jean saw me and said that those were later, a special occasion.
"Did I miss somebody's birthday?" Xander asked.
"No. We're going to have a little party for Karl," Betty Jean answered. "He ejaculated for the first time. He's very proud."
She was completely nonplussed as she had said it, continuing to busy herself. I didn't know what to say.
"It's kind of a relaxed approach to sexuality around here," Xander said, looking up from his plate.
"I think he figured that out all ready, sweetie." Betty Jean said. "Of course, it is a bittersweet moment. He was such a sweet little boy, Karl that is, not Alexander, and now he'll be like all the rest, wanting to stick it in something all the time."
"I was a sweet little boy, too" Xander protested.
"I'm sure you were, honey. But that was with your poor, dear mother. You were gone then, although you were a very sweet baby. Not nearly as fussy as Phillip. Then when you came back here, you were a very angry 13 year old. But Grandpa soon put that to rights."
Danny walked into the kitchen and sat down. "So, according to Alexander, you're a farm boy. What does your daddy grow?"
"Corn and soybeans mostly we have a 5 acre garden though."
Danny nodded. "We have a 210 acre garden."
"And the cash crop is marijuana" Xander observed. "Among other things."
Clearly, Xander intended that I should learn his family's secrets this weekend. Danny seemed willing although he did look at Xander a couple of times searchingly. As we finished up our lunch, Danny gave me a brief history of the farm. Danny had grown up here, the farm belonging to his now dead father. He had gone to Georgia Tech to get a chemical engineering degree. I wasn't clear if he had actually graduated or not but it seemed immaterial. He found his true passion after taking mescaline. Now he devoted his life to living freely as he saw fit and getting other people high. Those principles had gotten him a term in federal prison in the 70's, before Xander was even born. His cellmate, a Marine veteran of Vietnam known to all as Grandpa even though he wasn't anybody's actual grandfather, also lived here with a few other like minded family or quasi-family groups. Living with Grandpa in the woods was an important rite of passage for the young people on the farm.
They took me off to see the pot farm and, to my surprise, that involved going into the woods. There was a foot worn trail that snaked through the second growth forest of pines, oaks heavily laden with Spanish moss and a few magnolias. We passed by a clearing with a log cabin. Danny told me that his oldest son, Colin, lived there with his two wives, who were believe or it not mother and daughter, and two children. Further along the trail, we came to a platform built waist high up between three pine trees with a lean to on it. Sitting on the platform was lean, wiry man completely naked and covered with gray body hair, a bald head and gray scruff on his face. He had an automatic weapon.
"Hello, Grandpa" Xander called out.
The man came down a makeshift ladder and left the weapon behind. Silently he walked toward us with a stern face. Coming up to Xander, he reached for his chin and pulled Xander close to him and kissed him with an open mouth kiss. Then he pushed him back.
He looked at me and said gruffly, "Is this the fag you've been butt fucking?"
"Dylan, this is Grandpa"
Inhaling a bit, I stuck out my hand to shake his. He didn't stick his out for mine. When I sensed that he wouldn't, I awkwardly pulled mine back. He stared at me and said, "You're going to have to earn my goodwill, fucker. You hurt somebody I care a lot about."
Xander was about to defend me but I stopped him. "And I can't keep apologizing to everybody that cares about him because I fucked up," I said, standing my ground. Xander looked at me surprised since I rarely swear. "I've apologized to Xander and he knows how I feel. If he foregives me that should be enough"
The old man nodded. "Fair enough. You here to see my little garden?"
Xander explained. "Grandpa is chief pot farmer. And more than that. Jimmy was the first guy I ever had sex with but Grandpa was my teacher. After my mom died, I lived here or in the cabin with him for 7 months. Me and him. Well, Philip too for a little while. It was a pretty important part of my life. And Karl's too, I guess, huh?"
Grandpa grunted. "Yeah, I'll get the baby fat off of him. Well, come on, let's look. That's what you fucking came for."
On the platform, I could see two girls. One was a teenage girl dressed in a thin dress, with clearly no bra on, and barefoot. I thought she looked stoned. With her a younger girl, topless with small breast buds and dressed only in a pair of boys underwear. Xander told me the older one was named Tempest and she had chosen to live in the woods with Grandpa for almost 4 years. The younger was his half sister Fiona, one of 15 children by 7 different woman with a another child by yet another woman on the way. Jack, who had followed us, broke off to climb up the platform to play with Fiona I thought, but she brushed him off. I was beginning to feel sorry for him. Everybody treated him like he was underfoot and he was a very handsome boy who seemed genuinely to want to just be a part of the action.
Grandpa, still stark naked, tattooed and strong despite his age, led the way to the grow room. Surprisingly, the hydroponics was underground.
"My father was a right wing fascist," Danny said. "He was convinced that the Russians were about to bomb any minute. So, he built a huge bomb shelter. He would roll over in his grave if he knew what I was using it for. About the only thing the old fucker was right about was that you can't trust the government."
The grow room was fairly large and almost hermetically sealed. The walls and floor of the bomb shelter had been sheathed in thick plastic. The place was ablaze in lights and there were several hundred plants at various stages of growth. There was a very earthy smell to it. The system looked pretty ingenious. Working in the room was a tall guy in his late 20's.
"Dylan, this is Colin, Alexander's oldest half-brother. Colin, this is Alexander's boyfriend Dylan."
Colin eyed me suspiciously before turning to his father. "And we trust him?"
"I trust him," Xander said from behind us.
"And we trust Alexander," Danny said. There was a hard edge to his voice. Colin didn't argue with his father. I didn't sense fear but respect. Despite our arrival, I didn't think I was in danger from Danny. He didn't seem like a violent psychopath to me, just someone who knew how to protect himself. Plus, he seemed genuinely proud of his accomplishments.
"We have quite a variety here: White Widow, Purple Haze, Lemon Haze, Skunk, a few others. There are three problems with grow rooms: heat, electricity and smell. The smell isn't an issue for us in the middle of nowhere. Heat is taken care of partly by my dear father's heat dispersion system, plus LED lights give off less heat anyway. And they can't track our electricity usage since we're completely off the grid. Between solar panels and windmills, we are self-sufficient for power."
"You must make a bundle on this" I observed.
"Well, of course, I have children in college. It's not like I can write them checks because I don't have an income, at least not a legal one and no bank account. But I think they manage to get their basic needs met."
"More or less" Xander said quietly. I wasn't sure if that was a sore point or not but I knew that he was trying to pay for school by doing porno so I guess it was. Danny missed it,though.
Danny announced that we had more to see. So we headed back to the farm, leaving Grandpa behind. In the clearing, pointing out a small outbuilding where he grew psilocybin mushrooms. We headed toward a small barn. Beyond it, there were a half-dozen children playing noisily. Jack ran off to play with them, satisfied I guess that he had spent some time with Xander but, like any young kid, quickly lost focus. Off to the side, a boy I recognized as Ian was sitting in a swing under a large oak tree with a teenage girl in his lap. Then Danny had the door unlocked and I stepped in. Inside the barn was a home lab. There were beakers, burners, a variety of electronic equipment, a ventilated hood. It was a pretty extensive set up.
"This is my pride and joy. Nature has given us so much but we can synthesize even more. I'm a disciple of the work of Alexander Shulgin. He's a genius and I am a mere engineer but what is the point of someone showing us the way if no one follows."
I wasn't certain who he was talking about but I did catch the connection between the names. Clearly, Danny thought enough of this Shulgin to name a child after him. I looked around some, admiring the gadgets.
"The difficulty is that the corporate, fascist state tries to make it hard to operate. For instance, to synthesize MDMA you need to start with safrole or isosafrole, both of which they have restricted as a Class I regulated chemicals. Let me show you," Danny said, taking out a piece of paper and drawing out the chemical structure of safrole. "How do you suppose I could get around that and synthesize it from another source?"
I knew I was being tested. Despite some annoyance, I wanted to do well so Xander wouldn't look bad. I studied the paper, "It depends. Basically it's a methylenedioxy. O-CH2-O and an R group and R prime attached to phenyl ring as an aromatic. You could probably start with something like phenol. I bet it's completely unregulated."
"Not completely but not by the DEA. They don't have enough money or time to regulate phenol. There are too many commercial uses. How about this?" He drew another chemical structure.
"Again, a phenyl ring. Really, it's pretty similar to 2,5 dimethoxybenzaldehyde, just with an amine and the bromide replacing the oxygen in the 2 and 5 position. Nitromethane would be a good start. What is this anyway?"
"2-CB." Danny answered. "The kid knows his chemistry. A lot better than me, to tell the truth."
"I didn't bring him here to become your assistant, Dad. So you can knock off the 20 questions. I told you Dylan was smart and he is. He's going to be a doctor."
I looked at Xander and he had a worried appearance. I recalled that Liam had referred to his father as the pied piper and wondered if he was whistling his tune for me, hooking me in with a blend of chemistry and flattery.
"Xander has a vial of liquid LSD. Did he get that from you?" I asked.
Danny smiled broadly. With a theatrical wave, he said "The holy grail. I tell you that Hoffman was an even greater genius than Shulgin. It's a devilishly tricky bit of organic chemistry, which is why there have been so few cooks. Oswald Stanley was the first and the greatest, so I just walk in the footsteps of giants. Now that the DEA arrested William Pickard, I think I might be the only one left." Danny went to the back and got a large box out, labeled ergocristine. "You see, LSD and its analogues are semi-synthetic, derived from the ergot fungus. Ergotamine tartrate and ergonovine are essentially banned but they foolishly left ergocristine available. Still it was hard to come by but my supply is enough for a billion or so doses."
"I had one of them. You do good work," I said.
"And I appreciate you noticing," Danny replied with a modest bow. "Especially as you see the difficulties in achieving it. Your boyfriend thinks you are smart but he doesn't really have a clue, I think"
The farm was non-descript and on the surface poverty stricken. It was merely another broken down, hard scrabble farm in an area that had been farmed intensively since before the Revolutionary War. Tucked away literally in the middle of nowhere, it was probably the last of the hippie communes. I estimated the population to be about 50, which was heavily weighted toward kids and teens. They all gathered at the large frame house to celebrate Karl's new found manhood but it seemed like any reason for a celebration was eagerly latched on to. The conversation with Karl present was sexually laced and beyond risqué. There were hash brownies and a pipe passed around liberally. For those that wanted it, there was homemade hooch but I noticed that Xander as always declined alcohol. The younger kids got high off the brownies while the adults and teenagers mostly smoked. Apparently everyone was there, including Grandpa, still proudly naked.
I had to admit that it was actually fun. Guitars were broken out and makeshift drums were made so the whole gathering could sing and dance. There was a tremendous casualness about nudity and sexuality in general. The girl that I had seen in Ian's lap earlier was sitting between his legs on the steps to the porch, holding a joint to his mouth as he ran his hands up her shirt, massaging her breasts. Oddly enough, she was talking with her mother while Ian groped her.
I was sitting on the edge of the porch, watching them when Danny came and sat down next to me. He noticed my interest. "Fifteen and perpetually horny. It takes a good wank and a couple of good fucks daily or he's no use at all. It's admirable, really. I had to slow down when I turned 50 but the improvement in quality makes up for the quantity. If you don't mind my asking, how does someone with a normal sex drive manage a monogamous relationship with Alexander?"
"Who says my sex drive is normal?" I said, looking at Xander in the yard, dancing with a little girl of about 6, who was laughing and enjoying herself.
He smiled broadly, the same sort of toothy grin that Xander had. "And the monogamy part?"
"I could say it's none of your business but, truthfully, we haven't worked that part out. Sooner or later, he's going to want to have sex with a girl."
"I would think so" Danny nodded. "and now that I'm feeling mellow, you can ask some of the million questions you have."
"Okay. Most parents try to keep their kids from drugs and early sex but you encourage it."
"A question or an accusation?" Danny asked, stilling smiling. "I encourage them to experience. I encourage them to learn. I love them all and the one thing I don't want to have happen to them is they become just another cog in the machine of the corporate state."
"And you send your kids off to live in the woods with a pedophile?"
Danny smiled, "And they come out of the experience the better for it. I know Christians like hearing people's testimony so ask Alex for his. It was a very positive experience for him. "
"So you made a little cult here for yourselves, a psychedelic cult with you as the Messiah."
"Another accusation? I suppose we are a cult, after a fashion, but without the fairy tales you grew up believing. I, however, make a poor messiah."
"You know it's kind of weird having a party because your son ejaculated."
"It's a noteworthy event in a boy's life, don't you think?" Danny said. "Much like a girl's first period. It's a major transition."
"I suppose. I know I didn't go running to tell my parents."
Xander came up to us, standing in the yard and looking at us on the porch. "So whatcha talking about?"
"Things," I answered. "Not you."
"You're not filling him up with anarchist propaganda are you?"
"He thinks we are a cult," Danny replied.
Xander shrugged. "It is, in a way. Just without God and Jesus."
"I've decided to join this anarchist cell. Is that a problem?" I joked.
"No, it's why I brought you were. Not so you would join or anything. I wanted you to see what I believe in. This is what my grandfather tried to beat out of me. They took me away from here. After my mom died, I came back here, to where I was born. But there were threats and he had the power to deliver on them so I decided to go with them." Xander said, moving up close to me and resting his hands on my thighs.
"And they almost succeeded in turning him into a fascist," Danny said, "But in the end, the artist won out. Of course, now he's renting his body out to corporate pornographers."
I turned my head sharply toward Danny. I would have thought that he wouldn't have an issue with it. Xander spoke up, "I needed the money, Dad. You know that."
"It's not the pornography I object to, Alexander. It's the soulless, assembly line, corporate nature of it. You can rationalize it all you want but it's reducing something great into merely another commodity. Commoditizing sex is a victory for the forces of repression."
"Since when is sex political?" Xander shot back, annoyed.
"Sex is the most political act of all," I said. "Bush got re-elected by being against gay marriage."
Danny patted me on the back. "You see, I like this boy."
In time, in the cool early spring night, people grew more and more comfortably numb. The atmosphere was one of relaxed happiness, unstructured and leisurely enjoyment of simple pleasures. Children played noisily while adults gossiped or played music. There was dancing and joking around. Those that were frisky did what they wanted to do about it. Maybe it was the pot but I began to feel closed in and self-conscious. So, I went for a walk in the back of the house among the outbuildings. It was there that Xander found me.
"Tempest, she's the girl that lives with Grandpa, she ..."
The sentence trailed off but I knew what he wanted. Surprisingly, I didn't feel bad about it, certainly not jealous. "You don't need my permission, Xander" I told him
"Yeah, I think I do,"
"Go," I said with a smile. "Go. You're still going to love me in the morning. You having sex with her isn't going to change that. She's got what I can't give. It's cool."
He leaned over and kissed me. "I am going to love you even more tomorrow morning than I did this morning."
I smiled. I thought that was right. He went off and I went around to the porch to sit with the elders and contemplate the universe, deeply and resolutely stoned. I was beginning to almost nod off and was working up the will power to go inside when Jimmy, the man with the high powered rifle earlier, came up to me.
"Alex off getting some wild child pussy?"
"Yeah, I guess." I said back sharply. I wasn't sure I liked him much.
He shrugged. "Boy's only in the barn. We're sending Karl off to the woods. So, come on. You're invited too."
Danny was sitting near me and lifted up his head. "Go on, you'll probably enjoy it. It's the kind of thing grown up's should stay out of"
I was wondering what it could be and was half expecting the worst, given how things seem to run around here. A thin light shown around the barn door and I could hear laughter and horseplay inside. Jimmy told me I wouldn't need my clothes as he stripped off his. He was a fit and muscular guy in his mid twenties, unshaven and fairly ungroomed. I had to strip off my clothes too, which I did reluctantly. But in we went, naked. There was gaggle of boys, mostly in their mid teens. One boy, AJ, was older, my age, and wistfully thin and feminine. He was Jimmy's lover, or one of them. The other was a 13 year black boy with a dick bigger than it ought to be. Ian was there, the ringleader for two other boys of the same age. Then there was Karl.
"Well, good." Ian said. "Now we can get the fucking party started. So, tomorrow you belong to Grandpa and he'll make you into a fucking man but right now, you belong to us. So everybody gather around and let's get some dicks sucked."
Jimmy nudged me forward and we got in a circle around young Karl. He had little boy's body, all baby fat and undefined, but with an incongruously mansized set of genitals. He was rock hard too. I was intoxicated enough that I was watching all of this almost clinically but without the revulsion that I should have thought. I was, to be honest, aroused though. Everybody in there was lean, fit and hard. I was too. Ian, red hair on his head, his pubes and his legs, was beside me.
"This is why getting pissed at that guy for giving me a blowjob was so fucking stupid. Two years ago it was me on my knees and Xander was there too. He graduated from Grandpa's school of manhood just like me. "
"You sound bitter" I remarked.
"I sound fucking jealous. I fucking loved it. But he sent me back after a year. I'd have stayed a lot longer."
Karl made his way to me after sucking Jimmy for a while. He wasn't trying to get him off but, when he got to me, I noticed some skill in fellatio. He might have only been 2 months shy of 13 but he wasn't a complete novice. It felt good. But before I could come, he moved on to his own brother, swallowing his pride whole. I jerked myself a little, weirdly and morbidly fascinated by it.
Only after he made his way around did he stop. Ian looked at us. "You can do whatever, but me and Mattie and Leo and Cason are going to fuck him. Just us `cause we've been where he is and there's no virgins allowed out there. You can watch or you guys can fuck, whatever."
I was horny and my hormones were in charge. The younger guys were doing what they wanted. Jimmy and his blond ethereal lover seemed right. My lover after all was out fucking himself. At that point I didn't even care what he might have thought. My feelings were primal. I wanted what I wanted. I was all over AJ, licking him and going for his dick. He was thin, he was blond, he was effeminate and for some reason it turned me on. The long hair and the fine porcellian features did me in. He was hard and completely shaven down there. Jimmy joined in, of course, and was trying to get after me mostly. We rolled around the on the floor, going for position. I let him suck me off but I wanted that boy. I licked his sweaty balls and went for his stiff prick. Finally, I got where I wanted him. Doggy style, I mounted him and fucked him hard even as the younger boys sodomized Karl. I was banging him when I felt Jimmy's hands on my hips. I slowed down and then stopped, my erection fully in his lovers ass. I felt him penetrate me. That felt good, being in the middle. I didn't even lose my erection when he mounted me. It took some coordination to work out the rhythm but essentially as the man in the middle, I was in charge of the movement. It felt amazing, tremendous. When I finally came, I was spent.