the Season of Leo - 7. Audacious Aquarius

Audacious Aquarius

The time of Aquarius lasts from the last week of January to the third week of February. This time found us on the road again.

After the trial we decided that it might not be the smartest move to go back to Hattiesburg. Mom and Dad talked and decided it would be a really good time to visit some of our relatives in Texas.

The winter weather in Texas was just as fickle as it was in Mississippi. It could be eighty one day and freezing the next.

Staying with the grandparents in Denton was still lots of fun. I could have stayed in our loft/gym forever. It was the epitome of a “guy place”.

Uncle Jack’s place wasn’t far away in Weatherford and their family visited with us at the Denton place. Their kids were much younger than us except for Liam who we had gotten to know during Christmas.

We watched a movie and played basketball until we were smelly and sweaty. I saw it was getting close to dinner time so I suggested that we get a shower and clean up for dinner. All the kids got their towels and headed for the big shower.

I notice Liam who was fair completed looked like he was about to have a stroke. I asked him if he was all right but he stuttered and mumbled. I couldn’t quite figure out what was bothering him.

The shower was big and could accommodate six easily. Since there were only five of us we should be in and out pretty quick.

The twins, Jeb and I just shed out sweaty stuff and walked in but Liam was hiding behind his towel. I could see what was bugging him. He was sporting a raging boner.

I sighed and asked everybody in the shower— would those of you that have never popped an inconvenient boner, please raise your hand.

Nobody’s hand went up. I think Liam might have even blushed redder than he already was. Seeing Liam in that state was doing a little something to me too. I just dropped my towel.

Jeb giggled and dropped his too. So did the twins. All five of us were standing there with one stage of boner or another. I was actually impressed. I had never seen the twins in that state before and could no longer think of them as little guys.

Kenny, the shy twin of all people, said none of us have had a whole lot of privacy lately. We haven’t had a chance to work things out. A little wood is nothing to be ashamed of.

Liam smiled and something twitched. Maybe you had to be there but all five of us thought it was hilarious.

After the shower and requisite stress relief, we all sat in the big sofa and really talked. We didn’t know Liam’s story and he too had been through an ordeal. At his old school, gym was early in the day because of the heat and the kids had to shower afterwards or smell like a goat in class. Liam had the boner in the shower problem and it got rumors started at his school that he was gay. He got beaten up over it. When his birth father heard the rumors, he flipped out and beat Liam badly and put him in the hospital. That was why he needed a foster family.

Jeb and I told him what had happened to us and we weren’t really sure about our sexuality. The very last thing he had to worry about with us judging him for that.

That changed Liam right there on the spot. He went from awkward and nervous to much more comfortable in his own skin. I guess knowing your family is with you makes a huge different.

That night at supper Uncle Jack and Grandma even commented on the change in his demeanor. Liam said that he loved his little step sisters and brother but being around some cousins his own age was good for him.

After supper Uncle Jack gave Jeb and me a huge bear hug. He told us that Liam had been fearful and tentative after his family problems and it was the first time since the adoption proceedings started that he had been relaxed and comfortable.

Doug and some of older cousins from Fort Worth went down to the city after dinner. It looked like some deer hunting was afoot. Dad gave us a DVD and told us tomorrow we were going to take an NRA gun safety class. After dinner the five of us swarmed upstairs and watched the DVD. It was an hour long and it was about how to handle guns and fire them safely.

Afterwards we watched a little TV but we talked more than anything else and the topic of sex came up. The guys sort of let their hair down.

Benny and Kenny told us they had a friend who used to come over with porn. They started jerking off to it. One time he offered to suck them off— at the point when it was really hard to say no. He did it a few times and moved away.

Liam hadn’t had any experiences but he was feeling what he called the call of the wild. That was what was causing his inconvenient boners.

Jeb told them about how we met at ATC (Adolescent Treatment Center). Before we knew we were brothers were tempted but decided to play it cool and get to know each other. Before anything serious happened, we found out we were brothers and that added an ick factor we didn’t want to deal with.

I told them that we were all tempted but, we were family now. Things were a lot more complicated. Whatever we did, we would have to live with it for a long time.

That night we used the exercise equipment to burn off a lot of nervous energy. I don’t think the idea was to wear ourselves out but, it worked.

The next day we bundled up and Dad gave us all a cell phone. I had never had one before and it was pretty cool. They all came with a holster and Dad had put all the family numbers in them. I was more than just a little shocked at how many there were. I asked Dad him how did he keep them all strait. He showed me how to pull up the contacts list. Every contact had a tiny picture of one of the members of our extended family. That was a big help.

We had breakfast and went to a shooting range where we were introduced to our instructor. He was a very large man with huge forearms and a very prominent globe and anchor tattoo. He talked to us about firearm safety all morning. We took a break for lunch and came back for the written test. After we all passed, we finally took a look at our first rifle.

It was a very basic Ruger .22 with what our instructor called iron sites. One by one we put on hearing protectors and fired a ten round clip at a target.

None of us qualified as sharpshooters that day. Our instructor worked patiently will all of us. After each of us fired three clips, we were done for the day.

On the way out, I saw someone coming in with one of the black rifles like the Soldiers of the Son used to carry. It was like getting hit in the mouth. Everybody noticed my reaction. I talked to Dad about it in the car after I threw up in the parking lot.

When we got back to the ranch, Dad had me find a quiet place to call Doctor Price. He already had her phone number in my contacts list. She couldn’t talk to me immediately but said she would call me back in a few minutes.

The black rifle had triggered a particularly noxious repressed memory. We talked for thirty minutes as I described a murder I had witnessed long ago.

I had been collecting eggs in the pre-dawn hours when I had heard a gunshot and screaming. Even at seven or eight years old, I had known to hide but I was curious to see what was going on. I peeped out the slats in the chicken coop and saw that the Soldiers of the Son had shot someone. I had no idea who it was or why, but the person on the ground was begging for mercy when one of the soldiers had pointed the black rifle at his head and fired. Then I heard the Prophet order that they take him out behind the old barn and bury him.

Doctor Price told me that repressed memories were one of the big reasons she had wanted to keep me around for some time. She knew that I probably had all sorts of them and there was really no way of telling what would trigger them or when they might emerge. She would call her contact with the sheriff’s office and get the information to the detectives still working on the fallout from the collapse of the Prophet’s cult.

After I was done on the phone, I sat down and talked to Dad about it. He visibly paled and shook his head. He asked me what I wanted to do about it and I laughed. I said I’d like to forget about it but I’m sure the cops will want to talk to me about it. He hugged me for some reason I couldn’t fathom and told me go hang out with your brothers.

When I got upstairs I got tackled by Doug. It wasn’t a rough tackle, it was a buddy tackle. Then the rest of the team piled on. To add insult to injury they tickled me and got me laughing. Somehow as if by magic my mind was removed from the dark place I had been. I was rolling around laughing and rough housing with my brothers.

After supper that night we used the weight machines under Doug’s direction. By the time we were done, we were too tired for any extra-curricular activities.

I didn’t want to bring any of them down with my dark memory but Jeb and Liam cornered me. I told them what had made me freak out when I saw that black rifle. After talking to Doctor Price, Dad and finally Jeb and Liam somehow the memory lost some of its power. I might not know for years what was rattling around in my head but I’m hoping molestation and murder are the worst of it.

The next day we went to the range to complete our NRA safety course. This part of it was much more about the guns and how they worked. We were acquainted with the mechanical operation of a 9mm automatic pistol and a semi-automatic Mini-14 rifle. After the classroom part we went on the range and fired three clips from both weapons.

When we were done our instructor asked me if I wanted to get a better look at the black rifle that I had reacted so strongly to. Believe it or not, I did. He brought one to the firing line.

He called it an AR-14. It is a very popular sporting rifle and is used by shooting enthusiasts and private security forces all over the world. He broke it down to show us it’s mechanical operation and showed us that it fired the same ammunition as the rifle we had previously been firing. Then he asked me if I wanted to fire it.

I took the rifle and he showed me how to seat the magazine and chamber a round. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The rifle barked and put a round down range. I fired the magazine dry and handed it back to my instructor with the chamber open. He told me that any gun can be used for good or evil. It all depends on the man that’s holding it.

We were done for the day before lunch. Dad took us to an awesome Mexican restaurant. Everybody had the chimichanga lunch special and, no one regretted it.

After lunch we returned to the house. I had a telephone appointment. It turned out to be none other than Inspector Dillon. I told him I was glad he was on the mend, what I had seen, I had no idea who the victim had been and where he could find the body. He told me kid, you are full of surprises.

He said that he would have to take a forensics team out to the old farm to see what they could find. He thanked me for the new information and said goodbye.

When I joined the rest of the guys, upstairs everyone was stripped to their boxers. They were about to try out the sauna. Apparently Jeb had made a project of figuring it out. I was sore from our work out from the night before and quickly skinned out of my jeans and shirt. Just before we got in we traded our boxers for a towel.

The inside of the sauna was a nice, warm wooden box with two rows of wooden seats. I didn’t really figure out how it worked until Jeb took a ladle and splashed some water on a pile of hot rocks. It hissed and filled the box with hot steam that immediately opened up my sinuses.

As much potential as this situation presented, we were too tired and sore for any shenanigans. We had to be beat for our hormones to be asleep. You can be sure some of us taking notes. I sure was. After about fifteen minutes we had all had enough. We turned off the sauna, took a quick shower and hit the rack.

Morning came much faster than we expected— at three thirty in the morning. Doug looked entirely too smug when he woke us for our first time deer hunting. There was much mumbling as we got dressed and piled into the Yukon. The sausage and biscuits and orange juice served nicely to quell the impending mutiny. Plus an hour long nap as we drove deep into the Texas country-side helped too.

We arrived before dawn at an old country house where the hunters were gathered. Most of the faces were familiar from the Christmas gathering. Since it was our first time out, our weapons were binoculars. We were to serve as spotters for some of the more experienced hunters. We didn’t grumble because all of the rookies and younger kids were given the task.

I was surprised when I was paired up with our gun safety instructor, Mr. Slater. He carried his rifle in a big gray case and beckoned me to follow. The pairs all fanned out and we had to hike a while but Mr. Slater knew exactly where he was going. I was proud that I could keep up with him and I didn’t even throw up.

We set up in the deer stand before dawn and he told me my job. I was supposed be very quiet and use my binoculars to scan for any deer. When, or if I spotted one, I was supposed to let him know, very quietly with hand signals.

He set up his rifle and it was an impressive thing. He said it was an M-14. It had a rich wood grained stock and it had obviously been lovingly cared for.

I asked Mr. Slater why he chose me to be his spotter. He told me that he knew about my past troubles. He said he was impressed with all of the Crenshaw kids, especially the latest group he had instructed. We paid attention, didn’t play with our phones, make the same mistake twice and asked all the right questions. He was especially impressed with me because of my courage to testify and my ability to face the AR-14. I was clearly disturbed by it but I was able to work past that and shoot 80/100 the first time I had ever fired the rifle.

We sat in the deer stand in companionable silence for a long time while I scanned the field with my binoculars. Mr. Slater didn’t snore… much.

Dawn was beautiful, if not a little on the cold side. I didn’t see much… until I did. A doe and a pair of fawns came out of a copse of hardwoods well across the meadow from our line of deer stands.

I tapped Mr. Slater on the elbow and pointed. He acquired the targets in his scope but did not fire. There is a season for does and nobody hunts fawns. It was possible that a buck might wander along.

I continued to scan the rest of the field and soon a buck appeared from the same woods as the doe. I counted six points but Mr. Slater didn’t take the shot. He picked up a camera with a long lense and snapped off a number of pictures.

There was the crack of a rifle far off down the line from us. The deer retreated at the sound. I quietly asked Mr. Slater why he didn’t take the shot. He said that six point was just a little fellow. It was better for the hunt to let him sire a few more fawns.

We didn’t see any more deer and by about eight-thirty, we gathered our gear, made sure the stand was junk-free and headed back to the house at a more leisurely pace this time.

As we walked Mr. Slater told me that he was Master Sergeant in the Marine Corps. He had spent many years as a drill and firearms instructor. He told me that he could see leadership potential in me. He said “You are the alpha dog in your pack”. All the other kids instinctively trusted me and followed my lead. That’s not something anyone can teach. It’s a part of you— you’ve got it or you don’t. He told me he thought I might make a good Marine and to give it some thought when it came time to think about my future.

When we got back to the camp house, we found out that one of our twenty-something cousins named Carter had nailed a ten point. When they rolled up with it on a four wheeler we could see that he was a big, beautiful animal.

One of the older men told us that we had to hunt them. Deer populations that weren’t hunted sky rocketed very quickly and they would starve over grazing their ranges.

There was something very primal about the hunt. The young warriors gathered with the older ones. We learned their skills and secrets. It’s traditions like these that bind generations together.

It gave me a lot to think about on our long road trip home but that was after the barbecue and listening to stories, jokes and lies from our cousins and uncles. It was a good day to be a Crenshaw.

On the way home I asked Dad if Mr. Slater was related to us. He just laughed and said he might as well be. He was my drill instructor at Parris Island. I didn’t know that about Dad. Maybe the Marines would be another tradition for us to share.

When we got back to our Grandparents house, a pile of packages had arrived for Jeb and me. ATC had sent us our courseware so we could get back to work on our scholastic stuff and some essentials that we had left there over Christmas break. My desktop was boxed up and Jeb’s laptop and a bunch of other items had been included. I’m pretty sure they didn’t inspect Jeb’s stuff thoroughly because the horn-dog’s porn stash was completely intact.

Our carefree over-long Christmas break wasn’t completely over. We just had some work to do.

Just when I had almost forgotten about it, my cell phone rang and it was Inspector Dillon. They had found the body exactly where I told them it would be. He had been identified as an undercover Federal Agent who had gone missing in New Orleans seven years ago gathering evidence against the same “outfit” Brent Boussard had been a part of. He was assumed long dead but his body was never found.

The Feds now had the confirmed murder of a Federal agent to hang on the Prophet’s crew. They were going to take the “outfit” apart piece by piece.