Under the Cherry Tree

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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NINE

College was now 6 weeks old and I was only going home for the second time. Not having a car made it difficult to go but I had turned down an offer from Robbie once. I wasn't nearly as homesick as I was the first couple of weeks. I think I had begun to settle in pretty well. The coursework was tough but it's actually ending up being more manageable than I thought at the beginning. At first, I devoted several hours every day to studying but lately that had trailed off a bit. Even at that, I probably studied more than most but, like the vast majority, a portion of the work was done in caffeine fueled late night frenzies. They had warned us that new found freedom had a tendency to go to the head. Freed of parental control, some people went totally out of control. That wasn't me, at least not yet, but I was skating closer to the edge than I ever had before. Six weeks had seen a lot of changes in me, much more than Robbie or Carter.

Actually Carter and Robbie both seemed essentially unchanged. Robbie was a good natured jock who liked girls and having a good time. He was that way when he got here and he still was. In high school, he generally always had a girlfriend and apparently he got some action sometimes, plenty if you believed his boasts, but his relationship with Erica was a new level of physical and, to be honest, emotional intimacy. It wasn't a high school relationship but a college one, more sex but also more grown up. Carter, too, was unchanged. He struck me as having been a loner at the beginning and he was still one. His major outlets were the BSU and church but the truth was that he was actually pretty friendless. He didn't strike me as happy and I don't think it was because of homesickness. Surprisingly, he and Xander had remained roommates, at least in theory. Xander wasn't there more than he was there. I got the feeling sometimes that he used the room primarily so he could run into me, although that might be inflating the position I played in his life. There had been some speculation on the floor about his absences and the general consensus was that he was staying with whatever girl he was banging at the moment. I didn't say anything but figured it was more likely that he was staying at Cass and Dex's place more often than not.

Fall is a busy time on a farm. My dad was busy with the farm during my fall break so I didn't see him that much. I think he was happy I was there but he is a fairly taciturn man so it was hard to tell. Mama, on the other hand, couldn't hide her happiness. She was thrilled I was there and petted me constantly. I brought my books to study some, partly because I was a little behind and partly because it set the right tone for my parents to see me working hard at school. In a way, it was covering up the amount of playing I was doing. I am pretty sure that my parents wouldn't approve of that and my rationalization to myself, that I what I was learning about me outside of class was more valuable than what I was learning in class, wouldn't fly with them. But the most relaxing thing I did for that four days was work in our 2 ½ acre garden, which provided the family with the bulk of our produce year round. There were crops to pick still but also peas to shell, tomatoes that needed to be put up, corn to be shucked and creamed. Mama had her hands full like always and everybody had to pitch in to help. I couldn't help but think about Xander's vegetarianism and the abundance of vegetables I was drowning in.

I didn't see much of any of my high school friends. Most of them were off at school somewhere or commuting to school. Graduation was only 4 ½ months ago and all ready it seemed like years. I had moved on and so had they. Mostly, all we would have had to talk about was old times. New friends and new experiences were intervening and since they were unshared, we no longer had a common basis for sustained friendship. Plus, high school had not been that fun overall for me. I was the shy kid, in addition to being the gay kid desperately trying to hide that fact. Mama wanted me to look up some old class mates or kids I knew still in high school but I begged off. She sensed my unsettled state, even though I told her nothing, and several times she asked me if anything was wrong. I denied that there was. By the time Sunday came and it was time to go back, I was ready. Whatever the future holds for me, it isn't in Colquitt.

After FYS on Wednesday, Xander walked out with me. "What time is your first class tomorrow?" he asked me as we headed toward Reade. He had spent Sunday night there but none since so I was surprised that he was going that way.

"10, why?"

"Why don't you get a change of clothes for tomorrow?"

"Okay," I said, stopping in my tracks. "Where am I going?"

Xander motioned me forward toward the dorm. Smiling, he said, "I'm taking you out on a date. You never know, you might get lucky."

I laughed and started walking toward the dorm. I decided to play along. "You know for a real date, you take a shower, put on some Axe for men and put on your best clothes. Plus, you ask somebody if they want to go on a date with you. You just don't assume that they will on short notice."

"I'm serious, Dylan. If what you want is romantic ambience, cool. We can both get dressed up and I'll take you to Marco Italiano. But I was thinking more along the lines of pizza and beer and watching a movie. But the main thing is that I want to spend some time with you, just you and me. Then we go to bed and fuck all night. You're going to need clothes for tomorrow. You're taller than me so you can't wear mine."

"When were you going to let me in on your plan?"

"When it was too late to back out," he said, wrapping an arm around me. I was a little bit uncomfortable with that and tensed up some. "Look, fuck the clothes, let's just go. We'll just go and have a good time and what happens, happens. Okay?"

"Okay" I agreed. There was no way to back out and my body wouldn't let me. I was excited and terrified and eager and anxious, all at the same time.

We jumped in his jeep and took off. As he was speeding around the park, Xander handed me his cell and told me to call Ingleside Pizza and order a carryout, half whatever I wanted and half mushroom for him. I questioned him about the carryout part, since it wasn't obvious where we would be carrying it out to. He told me to trust him and so I did. It took almost 20 minutes to get there mostly because it was bumper to bumper on Forsyth St as the rush hour traffic from downtown was trying to get on the interstate there. Beyond the interstate, traffic thinned out a bit and Xander sped down Vineville before turning onto a side street. He seemed to know his way around pretty well but it looked to me like a residential neighborhood. But after a few blocks, we came to the intersection with Ingleside and there was small village-like commercial district. He pulled into Ingleside Pizza and we jumped out. I was kind of quiet, nervous mostly, which meant we were both restless, Xander as usual and me as unusual, as we waited for the pizza.

I asked him where we were going and he told to just hang on. He turned right out of the parking lot and then another quick right at the intersection. He drove about a block and a half before turning onto a unmarked dirt lane and roared down it a hundred feet or so before turning in front of small white building, a converted carriage house. It was at the back of a slopping lot, dominated by a 2 story red brick house at the top of the rise.

"We're here, Sancho," he said as he killed the engine.

"Is this where you've been staying? You got an apartment?" I asked in disbelief. "I didn't think freshman were allowed to get an apartment."

He bounded up the outside stairs to the second floor, then unlocked the door and held it open for me. "What the Dub doesn't know is really none of their fucking business. You can't get a real estate person to give you lease but this is sort of a private deal. The truth is that I would have bailed on Carter after the first night because Carter is a dick if I hadn't been attracted to you."

The place was sparsely furnished. There was a kitchen table with two chairs and in the living room, a couch that looked second hand, a TV and DVD and a stereo, one of the old kind with a turn table and everything. There was an ancient leather recliner and, incongruously, children's toys. He flipped the pizza on the table and told me to get a couple of beers from the fridge as he went and picked up the toys and threw them into a wicker basket in the corner. I decided not to mention the toys.

We were hungrily devouring the pizza and laughing about nothing in particular, just telling stories. I was rapidly getting over my nervousness, pushing to one side the implication that I would be losing my virginity that night. In truth, I was getting more comfortable with the idea. I had to admit that he was right to spring it on me without giving me a chance to back out. I could still back out of the sex but I was finding that I didn't want to. Then his cell phone buzzed. Xander got up and went to the kitchen counter where he had tossed it and looked at the incoming call. He muttered "shit" before answering it.

"Hey, what's up?" He said. After a pause, he answered by saying, "Yeah, now's not the greatest time. I have somebody over...It's not like that...No, I get it. Of course, I can. How long do you think it's going to take? ...Okay, see you in a minute."

Xander put the phone down and turned to me slowly. "Okay, this really wasn't the plan but something has come up, kind of an emergency. I wanted this to be your night but shit happens."

A few minutes later, a knock came on the door. Xander opened it and a pretty blond women in her mid twenties stepped through the door, holding a baby boy. He looked like he was about a year old. He had a thin dusting of blonde hair too and a few freckles. She had a diaper bag which she handed to Xander. "Kerry, this is my friend Dylan."

She greeted me and handed the boy over to Xander. The kid laughed and lunged toward him. Xander responded by holding the baby over his head and throwing him up a little, much to the kid's delight. "How's Joe?" Xander asked.

"I don't think it was too serious but the car is messed up pretty bad and they've taken him to the ER. I think just for precaution. I'm not sure how long it's going to take. I'm really sorry to bust up your –date?"

"Don't worry about it. We'll play with Finny"

"Can you feed him? There's food in the bag. See ya."

The kid was cute and jovial. He actually looked a lot like Xander. Xander took the child, Finny, into the living room and retrieved some toys for him to play with, which Finny promptly decided needed to be tasted first. Xander retrieved a jar of apple sauce from the bag and proceeded to feed him slowly, making a game out of it like airplane. Finny chortled and laughed and greedily ate the apple sauce.

"You know I was thinking he looks a lot like you," I said, sitting down on the couch watching him and being amazed at how good he was with a child.

"It's the freckles. Kerry and I both freckle so I guess it was inevitable."

"Um," I stuttered. "So, are you saying he's your kid?"

"Kerry is my sister, dumbass. That would be creepy."

"How was I supposed to know that?" I shot back. "It's not like you having a kid is such a crazy thought, you know."

Finny was whimpering a little, which Xander declared was him warning us to change. In a minute, a full on wail was coming. I retrieved a diaper and Xander got it on with practicised ease. "Actually, she's my half sister. I was going to say from her first husband but she didn't actually marry either him or my dad. Anybody actually. Probably would have married Emily, which is Dex and Cass's mom, but you can't marry if you have the same bits, you know. Kerry is the more or less the sane, normal one in the family"

"So your mom was a lesbian and you're bisexual?"

"I think she was probably bisexual," he shrugged as he got up to retrieve another jar from the diaper bag. "I think she thought bisexual was normal where strictly gay or straight was abnormal. She was okay with my being bi, or would have. She died when I was 13, so you know."

"I'm sorry," I said. "What she die of?"

"Cancer" he answered, as he began to feed Finny some orange food. It might have been pumpkin. "Brain cancer. She died pretty quick."

I didn't know what to say. "That sucks."

"Yeah," he said but in a dismissive way. He spent some time making baby talk at Finny and bouncing him on his knee. "Come on, I want to show the studio downstairs. You can see masterpieces in the making."

He grabbed Finny and we went to the first floor. It was a big open space equipped as an artist's studio, with a high drawing table for two dominating the space. There was an electric kiln and big sink and a couple of easels. He went to one of the easels and grabbed a canvass, flipped it around to show me.

"This is a self-portrait and a giant pain in the ass," he said.

I looked at it but all it had on it was a bunch of red and blue half inch lines. "It's good" I said.

He laughed. "You are such a fucking liar. Right now isn't even fucking anything. It's not finished. But when it is finished, it's going to be fucking brilliant. It's a play on Seurat, sort of a modern pointillism. And this," he said, picking up a still life of apples, cheese and wine with a heavy emphasis on red and gold. "Is more your speed."

I peered at it carefully. "Not really. Don't you think it's been done a million times all ready?"

"Yeah, and better too," Xander smiled. "This is Kerry's. I think she's hoping to be the next Thomas Kincaid. Except she's actually got more talent that he does. Unlike his stuff, there's no numbers to tell you what to paint."

"I didn't know you painted" I said.

"Can't be an artist if you don't paint." Finny was wiggling to get down. Clearly he wanted to get into something and make a mess. You could almost see it his eyes. Xander took the hint and we went outside and sat on a low stone wall in the yard between the outbuilding and the main house in the still cool air. "Okay, I want you to tell me one thing that you feel absolutely passionate about. Besides running."

"I like running. It clears my head. I don't know. I was a science geek since I was little kid."

"When did you know you wanted to be a doctor?"

I had to think about it. "I don't know. I'm not sure. I was always good at science and math and it seems like a way to help people. Give your life some meaning, you know?"

"Okay. But that's not passion, dude."

"I'm not sure what my passion is yet then."

He nodded. By then, Finny was beginning to get cross, whimpering and pouting. I thought he was tired now that his belly was full and Xander agreed that we should go back in. Walking back, he slipped his hand in mine and for the first time it actually seemed like a date. Back inside, he made a pallet for Finny to lie on and put him down on it. Finny, though, didn't want to sleep even though he was obviously tired. Apparently being out of his routine was distressing so he mostly sat up and cried, resisting all efforts to soothe him. Fortunately, we didn't have to endure it for too long before Kerry and a tall, athletic guy in a very well cut suit came in. The guy had fresh sutures on a cut above his left eye. Kerry rushed over to her baby and picked him up and began to rock him in her arms. That quieted him off some.

"Joe, this is Dylan. So, you okay there, bro?"

"Yeah, just a cut."

"So what happened?"

"I was second in line in the left turn lane on Riverside, you know, onto Ingleside. It was a red light. Coming the other way is this Pontiac and I mean they were flying. I just sitting there, a Forerunner ahead of me and a car in back, and the whole time I knew it was going to be bad. They ran the light, hit a van in the intersection, flipped up and slammed into the Forerunner. It got pushed back, jackknifed me and the Pontiac hit me in the back. I mean, I was pushed back like 10 feet. Airbag deployed and everything. The guy in the van gets thrown clear; a car hits him from behind. There was a Mustang and it had its windshield broken from the debris. A big fucking mess. Three black guys and a gun in the Pontiac. And the SOB's don't have insurance. The Lexus is probably totaled."

"Wow, man that sucks," Xander said. "But, you know, a good scar with a good story is a real chick magnet."

"I can't talk about chicks in front of my wife there, bro."

Xander examined his cut. "When you get to work tomorrow, tell them you got in a bar fight."

"Yeah, I got court tomorrow and I look like Frankenstein's monster. Oh, the defendant is represented by Stafford-White. Some cousin of yours, Carter Stafford?"

Xander shrugged but Kerry told him that he was the son of their mother's brother Anderson. Xander seemed uninterested. That was when it hit me. "Stafford, as in the Stafford Library?"

"Dear old Grandpa," Xander said. "He's given a shit load to Willingham."

"And a soulless, money grubbing old prick, too. And you know it's bad when another lawyer thinks you're a scum bucket," Joe said.

Neither Xander nor Kerry seemed to mind their grandfather being insulted. "So you're rich?" I asked.

Kerry laughed and Xander answered, "Not us. Definitely not me. I'm pretty sure he wrote his will so that I get absolutely nothing. He pretty much hates my guts."

"He didn't get along with our mother because she was a lesbian and she opposed just about everything he believed in," Kerry said, picking up Finny's diaper bag. "He's very right wing, you know. Of course, he dislikes Xander more than me but, then again, you lived with them for two years. It takes living with you to really hate you."

"Thanks." Xander pouted. She pecked him sweetly on the cheek and thanked him for watching Finny for them. She said it was time to get him settled down for the night.

"Okay. Well, you guys have fun. Thanks again for watching the little man," Joe said as they left.

"We will" Xander said.