CRYSTALLINE - 17. Quarter Moon

The Hayes family tried to be away from the house for as much of the day as they could. Trevor worked and Amy went to school. Denise had previously worked full time at a hairdressing salon that was destroyed in the fire. The owner of the business was unable to re-establish her business so her and Denise worked freelance, by each operating a mobile hairdressing service in clients homes. This kept Denise out of the house until school finish time, when she either visited friends for a few hours or took Amy to the park or the lake until it was time to pick up Trevor from the council depot.

***

As agreed the previous evening, Thomas and Dante dined with the Hayes family that evening. Denise was a good home cook and prepared a lasagne that even Dante, with his Italian heritage, was impressed by.

“I have to admit Denise, this lasagne would challenge even my Nonna’s”

“Nonna?” Denise asked

“That’s Italian for grandmother”

“So you’re Italian, you don’t seem to have any accent. Don’t Italians always put an A on the end of English words?”

“Only in the movies, but I was born here, as was my mother. Her parents migrated from Ireland when they were a young married couple and my father came here as a young adult looking for the land of opportunity”

“Sorry for the crack about Italian speak”

“No problem, I get it”

“So your Nonna, is it, does she live in Australia?”

“No, she has never even visited, but my brother Patrick and I visited her earlier in the year, when our grandfather died”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that”

“Thank you, we didn’t know him very well, in fact Patrick and I only got to know Nonna recently. We tried to get her to come here but can’t prise her out of her little village”

“And you Thomas?”

“Me? I’m all Aussie as far back as I know. But we’re all migrants of some kind except first nation’s people”

“Abos, you mean?” asked Trevor.

“Please Trev, that term is considered offensive these days” his wife retorted.

“Ah political correctness rears its ugly head everywhere these days”

“It’s called respect Trev. Isn’t that right Thomas?”

“Um...yes” replied Thomas, who was a bit surprised by the difference in attitudes between the couple.

“Remember I told you not to use that horrible term about the boys”

“Yes dear, but I can’t remember all that LBGT stuff. You boys don’t mind if I just call you gay?”

“That will do Trevor” replied Thomas

“Good, glad that’s settled. Now about us staying on here, has the owner said anything to you?”

“I haven’t discussed it with her yet. I thought if we could take the opportunity to get to know you this week and then I’ll talk to her about it”

“Does that mean we might not be thrown out?”

“I don’t want to make any promises, let’s see how it goes”

“You keep your cards close to your chest man. I can’t read you at all. So what sort of airy fairy work do you do?”

“I was a personal assistant for the owner of this property for many years, but now I’m a project manager for her ex husband”

“Oo la la, personal assistant. What does that mean, and for that matter what’s a project manager?”

“Trevor might I remind you, it would help your cause here if you stopped baiting me with your comments. I am not offended easily but others may not see though this ignorant small town persona you seen so intent on portraying”

“I’m not ignorant?”

“I know that, and didn’t say you were, I said the exact opposite”

“Well you have a funny way of saying so”

“Trev, I think Thomas means you don’t have to pretend you don’t understand everything he says. And by the way, you know what a project manager is. That’s your boss’s title at the council”

“Ok, it’s just that I’ve never shared a house with...gays before...is that alright to say?”

Amy finally broke her silence with “Dad, gays are men who love each other. Is that right Sir?”

Before Thomas could answer, Trevor asked “Where did you learn that?”

“At school, in Human Respect lessons”

“Well I’ll be buggered, the things they teach at school these days. Oops sorry guys”

Thomas and Dante both laughed at Trevor’s apology and he looked confused.

“It’s alright Trev. That was actually funny, wasn’t it guys?” said Denise

“Dad, what’s buggered mean?” asked Amy

“Um ...ah...Your mum can explain later”

<>

Dante offered to help wash up, but Denise said “You are our guests tonight, so I won’t hear of it. You just relax. Trev, get the boys another beer”

“No thanks all the same. We thought we would go for a walk down to the lake and see what it looks like at night”

“Good idea” said Denise “On the right night the moon looks so beautiful reflecting off the water”

<>

After the home cooked meal they went on the arranged moonlight walk by the lake.

“When they got to an isolated spot, Dante suggested “Let’s go skinny dipping”

“I suppose it’s safe here and there’s not much moonlight to be seen anyway”

Dante immediately began striping of his clothes, while Thomas was deep in thought.

“What are you waiting for?” asked Dante

“Oh...I was just thinking about how little light there is, because there is only a quarter moon”

“Yeah, that’s how it works, I’m told”

“But you said there was a full moon last night, when you went for a walk, yet tonight is a quarter moon”

“Um...last night was a full moon, tonight’s not. You can’t have a full moon every night”

“But if last night was a full moon, then tonight should be just a little less. The phases of the moon don’t change that quickly”

“Oh really? Then I must have been mistaken. Does it matter?”

“S’pose not” Thomas replied as Dante indicated that Thomas needed to remove his clothes.

“Sure, let’s do it”

They frolicked in the water, splashed each other and behaved like children at the beach for the first time. Then simultaneously they stopped looked each other in the eyes and moved in for a kiss, which lead to a joint grope and they let themselves fall into the water, wrapped in each other’s arms.

After ten minutes of water fun, Thomas said “I wish we had a towel so we could lie on the beach and I could explore your body from head to toe”

“We could lie on the grass, there’s not much beach anyway”

They spread their clothes on the grass to form a blanket, then Dante lie face down, as if he was sunbaking. “You’re not going to get much of a tan in this light” Thomas commented.

“It’s not that sort of tan I’m after”

“Oh... then is this the sort of tanning you crave?” Thomas asked as he slapped both Dante’s cheeks that were glowing in the moonlight.

“Yes please, harder. I want it to hurt”

“I didn’t know you were into....” Thomas stopped as a shiver passed through his body. The shiver was not caused by coldness, as it was quite a warm night, but by an old memory that popped up in his consciousness.

“Why did you stop?”

“Um...I don’t want to do that. I have another surprise for you”

“Good, I like surprises...ahhhh” Dante said as he felt Thomas’ tongue between his butt checks.

“Oh..oh...go deeper” he asked, then Thomas spread Dante’s legs and kept spreading until they were almost in the splits position. “You’re pretty flexible”

“Ballet lessons, but not as flexible as I used to be”

“This will do me” then he leaned over, started licking Dante’s butt cheeks and continued inward until he reached the magic spot.

“Oh fuck you’re really good at that. You’ve got me hard already” Dante said as he ground his engorged penis into the ground.

Thomas continued his exploration of Dante’s hole until he heard those beautiful words “Fuck, I’m coming”

***

The following morning, after a big breakfast, Dante surveyed the garden and formulated a plan of attack while Thomas unpacked the tools and completed assembly of the mower. As he got to the end of the instructions he realised they had forgotten petrol for the mower.

He loaded all the tools into the wheelbarrow, pushed it out to Dante and said “Here, make some use of these while I go for mower fuel”

“Ok, but before you go, come here”

Thomas approached and was given a long deep kiss by Dante. When he stopped for breath, Dante said “Thanks for last night, you were wonderful and doing it on the beach added something special to the experience”

“You’re welcome, but you’ve never been this appreciative before. Is it being away from our usual home?”

“Yes that, but I get a real kick out having sex in...”

“Public places?” asked Thomas.

“Yeah, the added risk factor gives me a high I don’t experience in the bedroom”

“I’ll need to process that, while I drive to the servo”

***

Upon his return, Thomas was greeted by “Holy fuck, what an almighty pong. Smells like something’s died here”

“What are you on about?”

“Approach with caution” Dante suggested as he pushed around a small dead body.

“Shit, is that a dead cat?” asked Thomas

“I think so” then as he turned it over with the shovel “Looks like the poor bugger has been burned. There’s no fur on one side”

“Could it have been caught in the bushfire?”

“Probably, must have made it this far and then lay down to die”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“Bury it, of course. What do you suggest?”

“I suppose that’s a sensible idea. I’ve never had to deal with a dead animal before”

“What about your pets when you were young?”

“I only had a goldfish and I think Dad flushed that down the toilet when I found it floating on top of the tank”

“Bugger me, you never had a cat or a dog or even a guinea pig?”

“No, we weren’t a pet kind of family”

“Well now’s your chance, pick a spot. I’ve got to get this in the ground before we can start work”

“How about in the middle of the lawn where we are less likely to dig?”

“Good thinking, you dig with the pointed shovel and I’ll deliver the body”

<>

Burial complete, they went inside to wash and spray cologne on their clothes.

“I think a strong cuppa’s needed before we get back to gardening” suggested Thomas.

“You know, that poor cat made me think, how many other pets may have been killed, injured or lost during the fires” suggested Dante

“And don’t forget the wildlife”

“I must admit, during the fires I felt a bit remote from it all, living safely in the city. It must have been terrible for those involved, even heartbreaking. Imagine loosing not only your home but all those little things that are your life. I’m not very old and don’t have children but for older people, they could have lost all their family photos and gifts that remind them of loved ones. Then when they get really old and lose their memory they don’t have any material things to remind them of the life they’ve led and the loved ones that have passed through it”

“This cat, or what it represents, has touched something in you and released a side of you I’ve not seen before. Has this anything to do with losing your father and to some degree, your mother? ” asked Thomas.

“I don’t know, it feels weird”

“Maybe telling me about your parents has brought these feelings to the surface”

Dante didn’t answer Thomas, but sat silent for a few moments, then said “That’s enough tea bag jiggling, let’s get this into us and back to the garden”

Thomas shook his head clear of the conversation and simply replied “Alrighty”

***

After three days hacking, trimming, shearing and mowing they had the garden back in reasonable shape.

“I know it looks like a bad haircut at present, but given a month of summer growth it will green up and then some colour will bloom after that” Dante said as he stood back and looked at their work.

“Yes, I’m glad Virginia’s not here to see it in this state, but I suppose it will grow back”

“Of course it will. It needed this heavy pruning to encourage good strong new growth. Left as it was or just lightly trimmed, most of these plants would have just become leggy shrubs with only top growth”

“You know your stuff”

“Thanks, that’s why you hired me”

“Actually I didn’t hire you, Jonathan did, I only processed your appointment. But I have to admit, originally I thought he hired you for the wrong qualifications”

“What’s that mean?”

“I was watching from the office when you had your.... shall we call it an interview” he said with air quotes.

“He wanted me to demonstrate by gardening skills”

“You could have done that with your clothes on”

“Yes....but....I sussed out Jonathan at first sight and didn’t want to leave anything to chance. It worked out well though. He got a good gardener and some eye candy, all on the one day. Then I got a good job and you got me. I’d say that’s a win, win, win result”

“Mmm, did you know I was watching?”

“No”

*****