The Farm At Maple Hollow - 17. Chapter 17

We sat on the porch as we watched everyone go the heat had really become oppressive and along with the humidity it was a very sticky afternoon. The difference in Marge and Earl’s demeanor was striking, years of worry had come from their faces, Marge finally had a daughter and they were lost in their own world that afternoon. Earl had brought out the hard cider and had relaxed a bit more than was customary. He wasn’t drunk, far from it but more relaxed. He could see that all he had worked for wasn’t for naught. That everyman’s dream of having his sons take part in his life’s work and goals was about to come true. His family was growing in a way he could appreciate and all his hard work was paying dividends. We discussed improvements we could start making soon, replacing worn equipment, repairing, and replacing some of the outbuildings, add to the dairy herd and so on. Axel, bless his heart had been doing some research. He had been crunching numbers and had come up with a budget for us to look over. He needed us to help him fill in some of the blanks, what things were for and their costs. He was helping us to create a road map, a guide so we could do things as they needed to be done and by doing this, not get over extended. It would be hard work but we could handle it.

Looking down the valley, the late afternoon was bringing thunderstorms; the sky had gone from a light grey overcast to a darker grey. The humidity had picked up along with a slight breeze. Off in the distance you could hear the rumblings of the approaching storms. Sam decided for us that we needed to go before something came up that prevented us from leaving. We helped clean up and put things away. Sam and Bobby brought down supplies to restock what we had eaten or used and we made our goodnights for the day as we headed down to an impatient Sam.

I’ve been told it’s an old wives’ tale that cows will lie down before an approaching storm and I didn’t know what to believe. On the way down to the pond all the cows still out in the fields were in fact laying down. We rowed out as quickly as we could and got our gear out; near as I could tell the storm was still building and was a ways off yet. Rather than leave the boat tied to the dock, we pulled it in and flipped it over, stowing the oars underneath. We had brought out extra food and some candles along with some clean clothes. While tomorrow would be Memorial Day, we liked to leave the cabin fully stocked with the essentials. We always brought our food out and returned with it along with the garbage and any dirty clothes and towels. The afternoon was getting late and I suggested we lay in a supply of firewood for both the wood and cook stoves and make the candles and lanterns ready. If we were to get a storm it would be getting dark earlier and it was sure to be followed by an approaching cold front. Our preparations complete I looked at everyone and suggested we take a bath down by the dock. By the time I had gathered the towels off the clothesline, the four of them were a vision of butt cheeks and elbows jumping off the end of the dock. We swam for a bit, played chicken and tag as normal and hung out occasionally doing dives and cannonballs from the dock.

I sat on the dock for a bit as the others continued their games and swimming. The air was thick with an oppressive dampness and there was a crackle you could feel in the air. It felt like there was static electricity everywhere. Occasionally the wind would pick up and you could feel the cool it was carrying. Just as it appeared it would drift away. There were small fish darting about under the dock and off to the side you could see the shallow depressions where mother fish had come to build their nests and lay their eggs. Further off to the side was an old stump with a couple of box turtles resting on top, trying to soak in the last bits of the day’s warmth. Mother and Father Mallard were leading their flock to the safety of their nests as a blue heron flew off towards the far end of the pond.

The peepers were starting to come out, joining their voices with the crickets, A few lazy fish would swim closer and closer towards the dock in search of an easy handout but would swim away startled when one of the guys would jump to close for comfort. Down on the other side of the dock at the end of our sandy beach were a few broken turtle shells. Sometime early this spring a mother turtle had made a nest in the warm sand and left their eggs to chance. It was too late to know with any certainty if her eggs had produced hatchlings or if they were lunch and dinner for some snake or lucky fox. Just up behind the dock and off to the side where the sand meets the shore were a few sundew plants awaiting dinner. They are a genus of the Venus Flytrap that grows in New England, the remnants of their last insect meal clearly evident. While they don’t survive on the insects digested, they provide food in addition to what the roots supply. The unsuspecting insect will land on the sticky bits looking for a cheap meal and becomes the meal instead as it is brought to the center and consumed.

Occasionally a trout or bass will break the surface of the pond and snatch a late afternoon snack leaving a widely expanding series of rings in the water. Where the water hasn’t been disturbed there’s a yellow film of pine tree pollen floating aimlessly. When the pine trees pollinate, they shed a very fine yellow dust that gets everywhere. I can feel the static electricity on my fine arm hairs as the humidity intensifies. Goosebumps start to cover me when Ethan launches himself up and on to the dock landing beside me getting me wet in the process.

“Nice to see your still here” as he shakes his head covering me with water. He rolls me onto my back and straddles me, pinning my arms beside my head. “You’ve been traveling again, I’d love to know what you see when you go, how am I going to get you to share it with me?”

I am looking at this naked hunk of manhood sitting on me. I can feel the coolness of his testicles on my belly, my pubes meshed and nestled against his groin. My flaccid member is pressed against his anus. His nipples are tiny; they are firm and protruding with a little circle of bumps around them. The tip of his penis lightly touches my skin. Goosebumps also cover him and I can feel the heat of his body slowly start to warm mine where our flesh is in contact. His eyes are so deep and crystal clear, the liquid pools of his soul. I have yielded to him and am his prisoner, do I spill my secrets or do I wait another day I feebly attempt an escape from his hold on me and realize it is useless; I am powerless in his arms.

“Uncle, ok Uncle…I surrender” I tell him.

“As my prisoner you must tell me your secrets, you must give me the information I seek or suffer the consequences.”

“Name, rank and length of my penis is all you’ll get out of me” I chortle.

By this time, the others are now in the act and demanding I be tossed in the pond of flesh-eating acid. They have quickly concluded I won’t reveal any state secrets and must be made an example of. Very quickly the other three have claimed a leg or an arm and once Ethan rises from me, it is off to my watery doom I go. As Ethan dismounts, I am hoisted off the dock and frog marched to the very end. I am given one last chance, it’s useless I know, regardless of what I tell them I am going in. Ethan runs his hands down my sides forcing me to twist in the wind.

“One last chance, we’ll give the traitor one last chance to spill the beans, if not we toss him.” Ethan said with authority.

“I told you sorry lot I ain’t got nothing to say.”

“Boys, we gave him a chance to come clean and he refused, let’s see if we can torture it out of him.”

With that Ethan took my hands from Eddy who then proceeded to tickle my sides down to my feet as I squirmed. When he reached my foot, Bobby let go and ran his fingers up the insides of my legs stopping just short of my balls. He then ran his fingers up my belly then back down me lightly brushing my bits and pieces ending up with the foot Sam is holding. Sam repeats what Eddy and Bobby have done and says it’s time, if I won’t talk then it’s off to my doom. Sam takes an arm from Ethan and the four of them start swinging me out to the water, when they are satisfied, they bring me back one last time and launch me. I hit the water with the flat of my back making a sharp slapping noise. As I enter the water, being a good sport, I play along and fake being eaten by the pond of acid.

They all have a good laugh at my expense and as I climb out, I make a beeline for Sam. Everyone is convinced I am going for him when I pivot round, grab a hold of Ethan by the waist, bury my head against his chest and drive him in to his watery doom. The other three jump in on top of us and we wrestle in the water, hands and legs going everywhere. I swear I felt both Bobby and Eddy feel me up and I think they got Ethan as well. All I know is in our wrestling match we all groped if it gave us an advantage. There were moments when I was pressed up against one of them or they me and it felt good. It was the appearance of the first few sprinkles of rain that caught our attention. It was time to get out of the water. As we were walking out Ethan was gang tackled by the three amigos who proceeded to wrestle with him. Somewhere off in the distance there was a thunderclap and as the sound faded, we were on our way to the cabin. Our wet towels were draped over the chairs on the porch and we made our way inside.

As it was still warm out, we grabbed tee shirts and decided on sandwiches and fresh milk for supper. We had some brownies for dessert and cleared the table. We all sat out on the porch until it was dark out nattering much about nothing. We could feel and hear the storm coming, the sprinkles turning into a light shower. Going back in, we lit the lanterns and set the board games and cards out on the table.

There was a loud clap of thunder and it seemed it was near the far end of the pond. It was followed by another and a brilliant bolt of lightning. The storm had begun. It raged for the better part of an hour. No sooner would one bolt of lightning hit it was followed by rolling booms of thunder. The night sky was continuously lit in that eerie light as the storm passed all around us. The wind had picked up and was blowing cool air through the cabin. We had scurried to close the windows and then retreated to the pile of blankets and pillows by the couch and in front of the wood stove. Taking the deck of cards from the table we made a circle and played a few card games of War and Hearts.

I don’t remember how it started or exactly who was responsible but we ended up in a group wrestling match in only our tee shirts. If I was pressed, I think I saw Sam dive on Eddy; they had been teasing each other. Ethan pushed Bobby into me as I grabbed for Ethan. We were all laughing hysterically as we were caught up in a tangle of arms, legs, and blankets. We pushed and shoved each other and rolled about trying to avoid being pinned. While we were careful not to touch each other’s bits and pieces, it was unavoidable as we writhed about the floor trying to escape the onslaught of arms and legs as we tumbled over the blankets and pillows. Another clap of thunder just behind the cabin brought a quick close to our wrestling match.

After the nerves settled down from that last thunderclap Sam asked for story time, he went over to the pile of Classics Illustrated comic books I had brought over to the cabin. Every Saturday when I was younger, I would get my allowance and I could spend it on whatever I wanted within reason. Once I had saved enough to buy a hatchet and my mother made me bring it back. Hot tears of anger spilled down my face as I could not understand just why she thought I was too young for such an item. After all I was only going to use it for building forts out in the woods and campfires. Another such time I had seen a Beatles record that came with a wig in their hairstyle. It was so cool, I had to have it and mother was not amused at all. In retribution if I could not have the wig then I would grow my hair so it looked like the way I wanted.

Nearly every Saturday morning I would collect my allowance and head to the Drugstore. I was able to buy a double scoop ice cream cone and one comic book. I would spend as long as possible so I could ‘investigate’ which comic book I was going to buy. Mom frowned upon the Superman and the other ‘violent’ comics, Donald Duck was ok or anything from Disney but those were for ‘little’ kids, not me. If I couldn’t get what I wanted I settled for the next best thing and those were the Classics Illustrated comic books. While they weren’t as stupid as the Donald Duck’s they had at least as much action as the Superman comics. I felt proud of myself when I was able to get those past her in a battle of wills. If there were object lessons here, I suppose but I was too young to understand them, I was able to save my allowance and get the hairstyle I wanted and a quality comic book.

Sam had selected Treasure Island, one of my all-time favorites. It was as good as a story could get and on a night like this perfect. We gathered around in our circle as I got ready to read the story. The munchkin took his place in between us and Eddy and Bobby were across from us. I think Sam got as much a kick out of the pictures in the comic book as he did out of the story. He wanted to go exploring for buried treasure in the morning in the worst way. Eddy told him we’d start at the outhouse first. Sam was not happy with that and told Eddy he’d be cut out of his share.

Ethan got his digs in when he told Sam to look in my lap as he lifted my tee shirt. Old Spot was rather shy this evening and was barely showing a stub, as I leaned forward to cover myself Sam pointed out that he had turned turtle. While I am circumcised and not so well endowed, when Old Spot has a hankering, he can shrink back far enough that some of the skin on my shaft will partially cover his head. When he is like that, I can poke him further back so it looks as if I have a foreskin. When I was smaller, I used to do that without a care or a clue. Needless to say, the guys got a chuckle out of it and of course Sam had to look closer. I adjusted myself, giving Old Spot a tug so he didn’t look like he had run away and hid. Pulling my tee shirt back over my lap and along with the others we got a good chuckle out of it and we told Sam we would go hunt for buried treasure in the morning.

I reached down to get the next story, Swiss Family Robinson; Sam readjusted himself across mine and Ethan’s lap. He laid his head in mine so he could follow along with the story, I needed to adjust myself so Sam wasn’t on my privates when I caught Bobby staring at my crotch. He didn’t notice I had seen him and I wasn’t too bothered, we were guys after all. We were about halfway into the story when Sam started to nod off but everyone else wanted the story finished. As Sam dozed, Bobby leaned on Eddy placing his head on his shoulder. His movements gave me a good view of his bits and pieces and I looked when I could as I was curious.

Wearing only our tee shirts it was unavoidable I suppose but we had all been naked together many times and knew what each other looked like. It was clear we all liked each other and except for Sam, we had our boyfriends and had discussed sex amongst ourselves. For whatever reason I was fascinated with Bobby’s foreskin and I was beginning to believe he wouldn’t mind swapping dogs with me and taking Old Spot out for a walk. While I was intrigued, I also knew I was committed to Ethan. I knew that I wouldn’t do anything unless he was involved.

We put a sleeping Sam to bed and made sure he was covered over. Coming back out of the bunkroom we helped Eddy and Bobby finish picking up the main room of the cabin. Not too far into the process I noticed Ethan motioning over to me. Walking over to him he mentioned that this would be a good time to talk to Eddy and Bobby about our plans for the farm and more specifically what Eddy’s plans were. If Eddy wanted to be a part of the farm’s future, we wanted to encourage it and wanted him to have a share of the responsibility and ownership. Eddy had other interests and as he did well in school had a variety of options he could choose. We weren’t going to ask him to decide right there and then but to give it some thought as to what path he may choose.

* 

Bobby’s father owned a local gas station and had done well over the years selling used cars. He was able to buy a small call dealership and while it took him some time to get it up and running smoothly it was doing well now. Bobby as the second oldest of his siblings was working there when not spending time at the farm. He was taking courses in school geared towards business and had decided that he would do the same in college. He had a younger brother who was a year ahead of Sam in school and a sister who was two years younger than Sam. His older brother Gianni or John as we all called him was a year younger than Ethan and was working full time between the gas station and car dealership. His mother was a war bride who married Sam’s father in Italy. He had been stationed there during and after the war, his parents had emigrated from Ireland right after the First World War.

Meals in their house were phenomenal. How they all stayed so thin I will never know but the Italian food I had there on the occasions I would pick Bobby up or drop him off before he got his license remains to this day some of the best I had ever had. They were a family unafraid to show their affection for one another and their children’s friends. Walking into that house was to run a welcome gauntlet of hugs, pinches handclasps and there was always a seat at the kitchen table to discuss the latest events and plans in our lives, their children and their friends were the center of their lives.

They loved that Bobby spent time on the farm; they felt it was good for him to see how other hardworking successful families lived. His mother relaxed when he was up at the farm because he wouldn’t be in bad situations or with the ‘wrong’ people that could lead to trouble. His brother Pietro or Pete as we all called him, worshiped Bobby, and wanted to come up to the farm as he was too young to be of any use at the gas station or dealership. His mother encouraged it but Bobby felt it would intrude on his ‘private’ time with Eddy. It was his sister Annata who ruled the family though, she was the princess and everyone knew it. As the last of four children and a girl she was spoiled rotten. To her credit, she never acted spoiled and I believe she had a crush on Eddy.

Bobby would always be impatient when we came to pick him up and his mother would always chide him about his manners often calling him by his formal name Roberto and this would cause him to blush. He knew when he was beaten and we had to stay long enough to eat something no matter the time of day while we sat in that kitchen. When I had mentioned the cabin and our sleepovers she asked if Pietro could spend a weekend with his brother and I, being in a good mood from all of the food, let a sure…why not…once school was out. Pete was ecstatic and made plans to talk to Sam so he could have someone to spend time with. Bobby wasn’t happy at first but when he realized Pete could hang with Sam, he wasn’t so reluctant. Tentative plans were to have him come up for the second weekend in June or the weekend after.