Once everything was back on the bike (us included) we road into the next town, found a gas station that was open and filled up both the bike and our extra gas can. We were even able to get into their bathroom and wash up a bit. It felt so good to feel that warm water on my face because it sure got cold the previous night.
In the bathroom, Meek said he wanted to ask the gas station guy what town this was, but he didn’t want the guy thinking we were runaways or something.
“We are headed in the right direction according to the compass so it don’t much matter what town we are in now does it?” I asked while using the toilet as a chair.
“I guess not.” Meek agreed, “I’ll wait for you by the bike.”
“Alright, I’ll be out in a minute.” I said while standing up and unzipping my shorts.
It was actually more like five minutes and it wasn’t me that came out, but Meek who came back in.
“Alvin the bike is gone!” he shouted in panic.
“WHAT?” I shouted back.
I had been washing my hands and turned around when he ran in shouting.
“The bike, our stuff, everything is gone!” Meek was nearly in tears.
We both ran out of the bathroom and listened but we didn’t hear any sign of the bike’s loud engine.
“Someone must have pushed it away.” I suggested.
“You boys lose something?” The gas station guy asked.
“Someone stole our dirt bike.” Meek said.
“Saw a couple men putting it in a pickup right after you went in the restroom.” The guy said right before he spat tobacco on the ground.
“You didn’t stop them?” I asked.
“Weren’t none of my business.” He said, “Besides, they said you stole it from ’em.”
“NO WE DIDN’T?” Meek shouted.
“Now just you two take it easy. I done called the sheriff and he’ll be along any minute.” He said.
Meek and I looked at each other. I am sure he could see the same fear in my eyes as I could see in his. I suppose, had we time to think, we would have run off and found another way to finish our trip, but as it was, a brown car with a single red light on top skidded to a stop only feet from us.
It didn’t take long for the lady sheriff to figure out that we were not from her town. She put us both into the back of her car, which wasn’t a police car, but just a regular car with a police radio and a light on top. We were taken into the middle of town to a building that had a sign on the top like a store sign. It read SHERIFF’S OFFICE spelled out in big black letters.
We were led into the Sheriff’s office and told to sit down on a long wooden bench. She asked if we had any identification and that is when Meek told her that someone stole our motorcycle and everything we had, including all of our money and any identification we may have had. Until right then I hadn’t realized that we’d also lost the money.
There was a call on the desktop radio that was sitting on a large metal desk behind the sheriff. She turned around so that her back was to us. That gave the two of us a chance to take in our surroundings.
Meek nudged me, “Look over there.”
I looked and saw an enlarged map of the town and above it read, ‘Mineral Springs, Pennsylvania’.
“Dude we’re in Pennsylvania! That’s like a quarter of the way there.” Meek said.
“Yeah, well now we’ll get shipped back home and probably thrown in jail.” I sulked.
Before I knew it, I was being pulled by the arm toward the open door. We were running down the street before my brain even realized what we had just done.
“THIS IS A BAD IDEA!” I shouted behind Meek.
“I TOLD YOU YESTERDAY THAT I’M GETTING US TO CALIFORNIA EVEN IF IT KILLS US.” Meek shouted back.
We quickly ran between two buildings and started down an alley hoping that once the sheriff realized we had escaped she wouldn’t know where to look for us.
“But we got no food, no money, and no dirt bike!” I said while trying to keep up with Meek whose legs were longer than mine were.
“Over there, come on!” he pointed.
I followed him toward a train, which was moving incredibly slow.
“You’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking?” I asked.
He was and we did exactly what I thought he was thinking. We caught up to and jumped into an open boxcar.
“This is so not right!” I said, “This is the sort of stuff that happens in the movies!”
“Hey, we’re on the train aren’t we?” Meek laughed and popped me in the hip jovially.
“Yeah but how do we know where we’re going now?” I asked while playfully swatting his hand away.
Meek smiled and pulled from his pants pocket…
“THE COMPASS!” I shouted, “How’d you get that?”
“I was messing with it when I was filling up the bike and instead of putting it back on the bike, I stuffed in my pants pocket.”
He moved into the light and studied the compass.
“You’re not going to believe this.” He said.
“Now what?” I groaned.
“We’re heading in the right direction.”
“West?” I exclaimed, “How did we luck out and get on the right train?”
“We better keep a close watch on the compass just in case the train doesn’t continue going west.” Meek strongly suggested.
Slowly but surely the train picked up speed until we were going so fast that we couldn’t stand next to the open boxcar door because the wind was so strong we were scared of getting blown right off the train. We had plenty of time to just sit back and regroup. We figured out that we were not entirely penniless. I still had my money, which I had kept in my back pants pocket and we had the compass. We did spend a few minutes talking about calling home once the train stopped, but then we decided that we’d made it this far, we might as well keep going.
I was the one that had decided that by saying, “We might regret for the rest of our lives that we never tried 100% to get there.”
We had time on the train to relax, think, and do some talking. Meek started out with, “You know, we always seem to talk about surfing, or stuff related to that. I don’t really know a whole lot about you apart from surfing.”
I smiled amusedly, “Take away surfing and there’s not much to me. I’m a pretty boring guy otherwise.”
“Yeah right!” Meek scoffed, “Now really, tell me something else about your life in California before you moved away. Something that has nothing to do with surfing!”
I screwed up my face as though trying to think that hard caused me pain. I then asked, “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know.” Meek said, “Tell me about your old neighborhood, or your friends, or how about your school.”
Scratching my head as though it would activate my brain, I grunted, “Like what?”
“Anything! Tell me something that happened that wasn’t…” he made quote signs in the air with his fingers, “…normal.”
I had to think for a moment or two before something came to mind.
“I’m not sure if this is what you mean, but there was this one time when I was in fifth grade and I had to go to the bathroom right in the middle of class. I’d been out of school the previous two days with a belly bug, which had been going around the whole school for a couple weeks. So when I raised my hand and asked to go, the principle, who was subbing our class because our teacher had the bug, too; didn’t hesitate to give me a bathroom pass.”
Meek rolled his eyes.
“What?” I asked threateningly.
“Is this going to be a story about you pooping your pants?” he asked with a groan.
“No and shut up!” I laughed.
“Anyway, I didn’t actually run, but I was moving fast to get to the bathroom as I did not want to have an accident there in the hallway. Thankfully I made it to the bathroom without incident, however when I began to push open the door I heard something that caused me to pause for a moment. I could hear voices inside and giggles that sounded like a girl.”
“A girl in the boys’ room?” Meek said while rubbing his hands together excitedly.
“Now, now! Don’t get ahead of me here!” I teased.
“So anyway, I actually took half a step back so I could double check that I was entering the ‘BOYS’ bathroom and not the girls by mistake.”
Meek laughed again at that idea.
“Sure enough, I had the right door so I went ahead and pushed it all the way open.” I paused to explain something to Meek, “The way the bathrooms were in my old school, you had to open the door, turn to the right, right-away, then turn left and left again, to actually enter the bathroom. I guess it was built like that so that no one could see into the bathroom when the door was open.”
“Wow, in my old elementary school when the bathroom doors opened, if you were in the hallway you could see all the way to the back of the bathroom and even see a couple of the urinals.” Meek stated.
“Yeah, that would suck.” I commented.
“I guess back then we were too young to know that we needed to be embarrassed.”
“You make it sound like it was decades ago for you.” I laughed.
Meek laughed too, “Feels that way some times.”
“Well I can tell you that even back in 5th grade I knew to be embarrassed about those sorts of things. It didn’t bother me as much as others. I knew some that simply hated going to the bathroom at school.”
Meek nodded, “Yeah some kids are weird like that.”
“So anyway, I made sure not to let the door close too loud; so as to give me away. I then crept around the first, second, and third corner but stopped before I got past the block wall. Then, peeking past the edge I saw two sixth graders who I’d seen in the school before, but didn’t really know them personally. Well I had talked to the blonde haired guy who was wearing the same orange hoody he always seemed to be wearing whenever I’d see him in the hallways. Actually, the only times I’d ever talked to him was outside of school, at the beach. He was a surfer too, but we’d never talked enough for me to learn his name. He was just another surfer dude for all I knew.”
“Was he any good?” Meek asked.
I shrugged, “To be honest, I never paid him much attention. So I don’t know.”
“Did you know the boy he was with?” Meek asked.
“No. I mean I’d seen him around school but we never met. He had on a gray hoody with a brown leather backpack slung over one shoulder. They were standing in front of the mirror that covered the whole wall above the six sinks. They were hugging each other while using the mirror to take pictures of themselves with the orange hoody boy’s yellow cell phone camera.”
“How do you remember all those details so well?” Meek asked.
Again, I shrugged, “Dunno,” I stabbed at my head with a single finger, “Guess it got recorded real well for some reason.”
“So I was about to make my presence known, I mean, I still needed to take a desperate dump. But then the gray hoody boy lifted his head off the other boy’s shoulder and kissed his cheek while the orange hoody guy snapped another picture.”
“Whoa!” Meek exclaimed softly.
“Yeah well that was sort of their initial reaction when they realized I was watching them. The boy in the gray hoody spotted my reflection in the mirror and pushed the other boy away and…”
“SHIT SCOTT!” I cursed, but my sudden outburst had startled Meek.
“That was his name, Scott, the boy in orange was Scott and the other Adam! I just now remembered that.” I said with a bit of pride in myself.
“Yeah but did you have to cuss?” Meek asked.
It took me a second to realize what he was talking about but when I did I explained, “No, I didn’t say shit, Adam said shit. Actually he yelled ‘SHIT SCOTT!’”
Meek flinched each time I said the word and I suppose I got a bit of a thrill at saying it too.
“Oh I understand now.” Meek said with a nod of understanding.
“They both turned toward me with looks of shock and fear.” I said.
“Yeah I bet!” Meek cried with compassion for the two gay boys having been caught in the act and at school no less. Then Meek asked, “You didn’t out them to the whole school did you? Because if you did I’m going to have to kick your butt!”
His tone told me he was serious but I laughed it off with, “Nah, nothing like that.”
Meek’s body language softened upon hearing that from me.
“But then Scott, that’s the boy in the orange…” I started to say.
“Yeah, I got it.” Meek said, wanting me to get on with my little story.
“Scott recognized me and said, ‘Dammit Adam, it is only Holloway! Shit Holloway you scared the fuck out of us!’”
“Despite the pain I was experiencing from having to hold my crap in, I managed to smile and chuckle, ‘You two looked too cute to interrupt just then.’”
“Adam covered his face with his hands and appeared like he was going to cry at any second. Scott noticed this too and tried to reach out to Adam but Adam stepped away from him, while still looking at me with fear in his eyes.”
“Oh poor Adam!” Meek exclaimed and I noticed he was sitting across from me with his hands over his face just the way Adam had done.
“Suddenly Adam broke into a run, pushed me so hard that I was forced backward a couple steps. He didn’t stop either. He threw open the door and ran right out of the bathroom.”
“What did Scott do?” Meek asked.
I gave a slight chuckle, “He was just standing there sort of dumbfounded until I said, ‘Don’t just stand there, go get your boyfriend before he does something stupid!’”
Meek sighed, “Aaaaaah!”
“Scott raced past me with a quick, ‘Thanks Holloway!’ and I ran for the first toilet so I could finally poop!”
Meek asked three questions so fast they almost sounded like one long sentence, “Do you know if Scott found Adam? Was Adam all right? Did you ever tell anyone that they were gay?”
I laughed off Meek’s worried expression and told him, “Actually later that afternoon, after school, I was at my friend Gary’s surf shop when I spotted Scott’s orange hoody. Well I didn’t know it was Scott, I simply saw an orange hoody and assumed it was Scott.”
“Was it?” Meek asked.
“Hang on! I’m getting to it.” I joked.
“So I spotted the orange hoody and shouted to Gary that I’d be right back. It was the middle of the week and there was hardly anyone on the beach as most people hadn’t got out of work yet and given that it was the middle of the school year, there weren’t many tourists around. So anyway, I ran to go talk to Scott. As I got nearer, I saw that it was indeed Scott and Adam too, and Adam was not good. He was bawling like a baby.”
Again, Meek sighed, “Aaaaaaah the poor thing!”
“‘Guy!’ I called as I jogged up to them wearing just a pair of shorts and nothing else.”
“Scott seemed glad to see me, Adam not so much.”
“‘Holloway.’ Scott said in greeting.”
“‘Call me Alvin, please!’ I said to Scott and Adam.”
“Scott gave me a half smile, Adam wouldn’t look at me.”
“‘I’m sorry I scared you earlier.’ I said to them both.”
“Scott shook his head, ‘Can you please tell Adam that you won’t tell everyone what you saw?’”
“Whoa, really? He just came right out and asked that?” Meek asked.
Before I could answer Meek’s first question he asked another question, “Did you reassure him?”
A coy smile began to spread across my face, which Meek noticed it.
“Alvin Holloway! What’d you do?!” Meek said alluringly.
“I kissed him.” I said softly.
“WHAT?” Meek shrieked.
I began to laugh, “I grabbed Adam’s tear stained face and kissed him full on the mouth.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” Meek howled, “NO YOU DID NOT!”
I couldn’t keep a straight face while looking at Meek and soon lost it. I began laughing as I told him, “Nah! Just kidding! I didn’t really kiss him.”
Meek looked around as if he was looking for something to throw at me! “Oh you are horrible!” he groaned and laughed at the same time.
Laughing I said, “Yeah, sorry about that, but I couldn’t resist.”
“So did any of that happen?” Meek asked.
Getting serious again, I told him, “Oh yes! Right up to the kissing part. Actually, I only talked with them both and reassured them, Adam especially, that I would never tell a living soul and until right now, I hadn’t talked about it. You are the only other person on this planet that knows.”
“So you never kissed Adam?” Meek asked again.
I shook my head.
“Too bad! It was a better story when it ended with the kiss.” He laughed.
We were perfectly content inside that boxcar as long as it continued going west, but then after a while it started going more north than west.
There wasn’t much we could do about it, because the train was going way too fast for us to jump off.
“We should have jumped back there when we were going slowly through that one town.” Meek said.
“Too late now.” I said.
It was another good half-hour before the train slowed a bit and we were thinking seriously about jumping but we decided it was still going too fast. We lucked out again because the train was slowing down because it was once again changing directions. We were now headed southwest and stayed that way for about another half hour before the train started to slow again for another town and this time it slowed enough that we could jump safely.
We debated it for all of twenty seconds before we took each other’s hand and leapt from the train. The gravel along the train tracks did nothing to soften the impact. We hit hard, began to roll down the hill, and only came to a stop when we reached the bottom of the embankment.
“You Alright?” Meek asked.
“No! I think I broke my butt!” I moaned in pain.
“Yeah, well, I jammed my elbow.” Meek said.
“You hurt?” I asked.
“I’ll live.” He grunted.
“I got another problem though.” I hummed worriedly.
Meek turned to me with a worried look on his face. I quickly scanned our surroundings, concluded that we were not being watched and pulled my pants down to my knees and we both saw that my GoodNite had ripped on one side. It didn’t matter all that much because it was soaking wet anyway and I had managed to crap myself.
“You sure pee a lot.” Meek commented.
“Yeah, well pee is the least of my problems.”
Meek started to laugh until it struck him what I had meant.
“Is it bad?” he asked.
“Well it isn’t good!” I griped.
Forgetting modesty, I pulled down my pants and removed the torn, wet, and soiled GoodNite.
“Wish we had some toilet paper or even a towel.” I complained.
“Oh hang on!” He pulled a white handkerchief from his back pant pocket.
“Oh you are a life saver!” I sang.
He then made an observation, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it gain, you have a cute package!”
“You never said that!” I blushed as I gave him an evil eye while cleaning myself.
“Oh I guess I only thought it then.” He said and winked at me.
“Yeah, well thanks.” I said as I finished cleaning my backside as best I could.
He chuckled a bit.
“What are you laughing at?” I said thinking he was laughing at the size of my penis.
“I was just thinking about those guys that stole the dirt bike and what they will think when they see all those GoodNites and that one wet diaper.” Meek said.
I must admit that idea did strike me as funny.
“Well I suppose we best find out what town this is. Then see if we can get a map and buy you some Pampers.” Meek said as he checked to make sure the compass survived the impact.
Don’t ask me why, but I winced when he said the P-word.
“No, I will be alright without them now. I didn’t need them in the day time before we moved here – I mean to Maine.”
“Yeah, you told me that. But are you sure you haven’t gotten use to them? I mean look at yourself there!” Meek asked.
I shrugged and did up my pants as Meek re-pocketed the compass and actually picked up my wet and soiled GoodNite and began to roll it up into a fancy little ball. We began to walk and soon came upon one of those big green trash dumpsters, which we deposited the GoodNite into.
It didn’t take us long to find out we were in one of the towns we had planned to stop at on our journey, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania which had been made famous by a movie about Ground Hog Day.
We walked into the first convenience store we came to, picked up some sodas, a USA map, and a package of hotdogs and hotdog buns. The young lady behind the counter was happy to double bag our stuff for us.
On the way out of the store, we saw a flyer taped to the front door. I don’t know why we didn’t see that on the way in. The flyer had both Meek’s and my picture on it with a $200,000 reward for information. Granted it was a photocopy but it still looked like us.
“Come on, we better get going.” Meek said.
Those flyers were all over town and we were worried we’d be recognized so we headed back to the tracks, got out the map, and tried to figure out on it which way to go.
“I think we should try to get on another train. See here, it just goes on and on and on.” Meek suggested.
“Yeah, well what if we aren’t so lucky and end up on a train that is going to Florida?” I asked.
“How much money do we have left?” he asked.
“A little more than eighty dollars why?”
“No, that won’t work.” He said.
“What won’t work?” I asked.
“I was thinking we could buy a bicycle.”
“And I suppose I’d have to ride all the way to California on the handlebars?” I mocked, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
We started walking down the tracks talking and trying to come up with an idea when we spotted a pickup truck sitting in front of a gas station with Arizona license places.
“Wanna ask whoever owns that truck if they would give us a ride?” I suggested.
“What if he’s a crazed killer?” Meek asked.
I countered with, “What if he is a she?”
Meek made a face like he was just sucking on a lemon.
“What? Just because you like boys doesn’t mean girls are gross.” I said.
“Huh? No look.” He said and was pointing to a shiny black car parked on the other side of the pickup. It had out of state plates as well… from Maine!
“Oh crud!” I exclaimed and we both got down low behind some tall grass and a bush.
“I never saw that car before so it ain’t my grandfather.” I said.
“I have, that is my mom’s car.” Meek said with this worried rattle to his voice.
“We’re so dead!” I groaned.
Meek grabbed my arm and gave me a pull toward, of all places, the gas station.
“What are you doing?” I said as I tried to resist, but not really with my whole heart.
We crept closer, staying low and trying to keep ourselves hidden from direct view, by keeping the truck between us and his mother’s car.
Upon reaching the truck we peered around and Meek let go a gasp, “My dad and some old guy are inside.”
I looked around and recognized Grandfather instantly.
“That’s my grandfather!” I exclaimed, “They must be searching for us together. What are we going to do?”
“Come on!” Meek said and started to pull me around the pickup toward his mothers’ car, but we didn’t make it very far.
No, we weren’t spotted by my grandfather or Meek’s dad; we stopped because we ran into the owner of the pickup.
Now, Meek is from Maine, he isn’t used to seeing the…uh…oddities of humanity that I’ve seen growing up in Southern California.
Meek sat crouched, leaning against the tailgate with a slack jaw up at a black man dressed as a woman. I’m sure Meek didn’t have a clue that she was a man in drag, but I spotted his/her secret instantly. In addition, I’m not sure when he actually picked up on it. I guess I missed that revelation.
He was a black woman who looked bothered about something and I got the feeling it wasn’t Meek and me.
“Why… you…” she pointed back to the gas station, “Are you the boys trying to get to California?”
God bless him, Meek actually nodded his head.
She looked back to the gas station and sneered. “Get in! I’ll take you as far as I can.” She said and we obeyed without question.
Alright that isn’t true; I did question that option for all of a millisecond before doing a duck walk behind Meek to the passenger side door and climbing into the pickup. We both huddled down near the floor as the man in drag quietly pulled out of the gas station and started down the road.
“Alright, we got away.” She said.
We got up in the seat. Meek, who was sitting in the middle couldn’t stop staring at her.
I gave him an elbow and whispered, “Don’t stare.”
However, Meek didn’t stop staring but my elbow did manage to get him out of his stupor. His mouth opened and he began to speak, “You are beautiful!”
My eyes opened wide because that was not what I was expecting him to say. It was also how he said it…it was the gayest I had ever heard Meek sound.
Meek was taking in every inch of her dress, which was too tight and too short, her big Diana Ross hair, and her eyelashes that were as long as my… uh… fingers.
“Destiny by name and Destiny by design!” She said extending her hand like a true lady.
Meek grabbed it and shook it.
I elbowed him again, “Not like that.” I said and leaned past him to take her hand like capturing a butterfly and kissing the back.
“Oh my!” she said putting a hand to her chest and cooed, “What a little gentleman.”
I started to introduce us but all I got out was, “He’s Mee…”
She cut me off and said, “Minkus Dawson, but you go by Meek and you are surfing legend, Alvin Holloway. I know. I ran into those two old fuddy-duddies back there. Besides you boys are all over the news.”
“We are?” Meek asked with shock.
“Honey, you two are the talk of the entire North East of this fine land and I bet before long the entire country.” Destiny told us.
“Oh no!” I groaned as I looked out the window.
Destiny went on to tell us what she had seen on the news. She also told us how mean Meek’s father and my grandfather had been when they encountered her at the gas station.
I looked back over and saw that Meek was again staring at Destiny.
“Stop staring!” I whispered, but apparently not soft enough because Destiny heard me.
“So I already know that you sweet baby boys are trying to get to California to surf, but tell me something else about you.”
“Well,” Meek began, “Did they say on the news about Alvin’s dad?”
“Meek, no!” I whisper-whined and elbowed him yet again.
“Oh no baby boy. Let me tell you something about Destiny. I don’t care who you are, where you came from, or what your story is, I respect who you are or who you want to be. Shoot, just look at me!”
Though it pained me to hear him tell it, I let Meek tell Destiny about how John died and I must admit, the way he told it, made it sound more heroic then I’d yet heard.
We continued to talk as Destiny drove nonstop for four and a half hours where we stopped for gas in the capital city of Ohio. When we stopped and got out of the truck, I realized that sometime along the way I had wet my pants without knowing I’d done so. Thankfully, Destiny’s truck had one of those aftermarket vinyl seat covers instead of cloth. That would have been very, very bad.
“Meek, look!” I whimpered.
He shook his head, “We should have got you those Pampers.”
“What am I going to do?” I pleaded.
Destiny came around the backside of the truck and thankfully Meek was between me and her. She reached into her purse and pulled out the biggest roll of cash I’d ever seen in my life.
“Why don’t you sweet babes go inside and get whatever you want while I fill up the truck. I’ll be in momentarily.”
She handed Meek two twenties and then said, “Afterward we’ll stop and get you boys some different clothes.”
She looked right at my wet pants, but never once said a word about the noticeable wet mark. She did say to me, “Baby doll, if you want to wait in the truck that is fine with Destiny.”
I smiled weakly up at her and then asked Meek, “Get me some chips please?”
“I have an idea,” Destiny started to say as she was twisting off the gas cap, “how about after we get you two precious boys some new threads the three of us go get a great big meal?”
There were tons of places to get clothes, but we were afraid to go to somewhere in town for fear of being spotted. Instead, we drove to one of the southern Columbus suburbs where we stopped at a Wal-Mart. Let me tell you, Destiny stuck out like a sore thumb at Wal-Mart, but when we were done shopping Meek and I looked like a couple of hot dudes.
We had our clothes picked out, tried on, and were heading for the check out when Meek stopped us. “Hang on a sec, I need to get something. I’ll be right back.”
Meek jogged away only to return a few minute later with something large tucked under his arm. I watched as he dropped one of the biggest packages I had ever seen in my life of GoodNites into the shopping cart. I looked up at Destiny as Meek deposited them into the cart and waited for her response.
She simply petted the back of my head and asked, “You alright with that?”
I looked at Meek who was nodding his head exaggeratedly to tell me that I needed to say yes.
I nodded and said, “Yeah, I’m good.”
“That’s my boy!” Destiny said as we wheeled the cart into the checkout line.
“Wow thanks Destiny!” I said as we were climbing back into the truck.
“Honey baby that was the most fun I’ve had shopping in a long time.” She said.
“Did you see that cashier?” Meek asked, “I thought he was going to pass out.”
We drove to the nearest gas station where Meek and I went into the bathroom to change into our new clothes. Destiny came in with us because she had to go potty, but left as soon as she was done. Now that I think about it, this might have been when Meek connected the dots concerning Destiny’s true gender. I’ll give props to Meek because whenever it was he finally figured it out, he didn’t make a big thing of it.
“I think she is the nicest person I’ve ever met.” Meek said with this crazy dreamy look in his eyes.
“And what’s the name of your boyfriend back in Maine?” I asked.
“Excuse me?” He said the words sort of getting stuck in his throat. “Why would you ask me about Pepper just now?”
I smiled and shrugged at the same time, “Just seemed like you needed reminding.”
He made an angry sniffling sound but didn’t say anything else.
Destiny treated us to entirely too much food. We went to someplace called Fity-Dalla, which turned out to not only be a restaurant but also an afterhours gay bar.
“Alright my sweet angel boys, Momma Destiny needs you two to stay right here, because I have to work now.”
“Work?” Meek asked, but Destiny blew us a kiss and disappeared.
“What do you think she, I mean he… I mean… where do you think Destiny went?” Meek asked.
“Just call her ‘a her’ and stop staring at her so much.” I whispered.
“I can’t help it!” Meek whispered back.
“Yeah, well I’m starting to think you’re straight.”
The way he gasped and put his hand to his chest, you would have thought I just called him a bastard child or something worst.
“That’s better!” I laughed at the way he responded to being called straight.
To our immense surprise, Destiny appeared on stage with a soft blue spotlight on her and she began to sing probably the only Diana Ross song I know, I’m Coming Out.
Meek and I began to clap along with the crowded restaurant as Destiny really belted out the song. Before the song was over Meek and I were on our feet and singing right along. We got the entire place standing and singing. It was great!
She did two more songs before disappearing back stage and then coming out to rejoin us at our table.
“Holy cow Destiny! You were magnificent!” I exclaimed.
“That was the most astonishing thing I have ever seen!” Meek said with a star struck stare.
“Thank you boys! Now come on, Momma Destiny had an idea while she was up there.”
Back in the truck, we drove to a drug store and while Destiny ran inside, Meek and I waited in the truck. To give you an idea how trusting she was, she left the keys in the truck, the engine running, and the radio on while she was away.
Back with us she asked, “Alight, now do we want to keep driving or would you two like to get a few good hours of sleep in a motel?”
Meek suggested that we drive a bit longer and then stop; which is just what we did. Actually, Meek and I sacked out and didn’t wake up again until Destiny was pulling into the Crescent Moon Motel somewhere west of St. Louis Missouri. It was late, about nine but not yet really dark.
“We’re in Missouri?” Meek asked with surprise, “That is awesome!”
Destiny went in and paid for a room while we waited for her. She came back and took us into 23B on the second floor.
“Before you sweet boys go to sleep I had an idea back in Ohio.” Destiny said.
“Oh yeah.” I said remembering that we had stopped.
She pulled out two small boxes from a plastic bag and asked, “I was thinking if we bleached your hair, no one would recognize the two of you once we made it to California.
“Y-you’re going to take us all the way?” I asked with no small amount of shock.
“Well, only if you want me to sugar baby.” She said.
“YES PLEASE!” I exclaimed and added “Please! Please! Yes please twice!”
Little did I know, but she and Meek had talked and worked something out between them, which gave Destiny a reason to go all the way to California.
Meek was all for bleaching his naturally brownish hair, but I have… well had, jet-black hair. I didn’t think it was possible to bleach black hair without it coming out some god-awful orange color.
Meek’s hair only took a half hour to get it bleached out, but mine took over an hour to get all the color to come out. When it was finally time for me to rinse out the foul smelling chemical solution, Meek was sound asleep; wearing nothing but a pair of white boxer briefs.
Standing, wearing nothing more than a towel wrapped around my waist, and a damp but not soaked GoodNite beneath that I looked into the large bathroom mirror admiring my blonde head. I couldn’t help, but wonder what my grandparents or my mother would say if they saw me right now. Actually, my mother and grandparents were the least of my worries. The one who I feared was Daddy_Phil because it wasn’t too long ago that he’d taken me to deal with my purple colored hair. So I am 100% sure he’s going to not be happy with this bleach job. Of course, he’s going to kill me anyway for running away to California, but he’ll probably kill me twice.
Destiny had even bleached my eyebrows and eyelashes, which I didn’t even know was possible. I looked like an honest to goodness sun bleached surfer-dude.
We had to do a hair-treatment before I could call it a night. She said that if we didn’t, by morning my hair would be so brittle it would all break off and I’d be completely bald. Needless to say, I was all for the hair moisturizing treatment; the last thing I wanted was to have my head as bald as my balls.
“Now you go ahead and get yourself changed, Momma Destiny needs a nice hot shower. Tomorrow we’re going to do two more makeovers.”
With my towel still wrapped about my waist, I slipping into a fresh GoodNite while wondering what she could have meant by two more makeovers.
“Momma Destiny?” Meek who apparently had reawakened, called as she was about to disappear into the bathroom.
“What’s that sweet boy?” she sang and I swear she sounded just like Mary Poppins right then.
“Alvin and I are going to go stretch our legs and get some fresh air. We’ll be back in a bit.”
I wanted to ask, “We are?” But figured Meek must have a reason for wanting to get the two of us out of the hotel room.
“Okay, take the key so you can let yourselves back in. You might want to stay nearby; I think it’s going to rain soon and it’s pretty late. Don’t want anything happening to my sweet boys.”
Forgetting my modesty for a millisecond, I allowed my towel to fall off as I quickly yanked my shorts up over the GoodNite, threw on my shirt, and jumped into my shoes as fast as I could.
“What’s up?” I asked as the two of us walked away from the hotel room.
“Nothing’s up. I saw something on the way here that I wanted to check out is all.”
It was a bit windy, but not too chilly. Actually, the air felt kind of good and was helping to clear my head of the chemicals that had been used to bleach our hair. The two of us walked about ten minutes, not talking but taking in this town we found ourselves in. When we reached an old chain-link fence, I saw why Meek had wanted to check this place out.
“Looks like an old amusement park.” I said.
It looked like it hadn’t been open in years. Trash was strewn everywhere; weeds grew up between the cracks in the asphalt walkways. The Ferris wheel, now a monument to rust, was more than half covered in some sort of brown leafy vines.
“Wanna go in?” Meek asked.
“Not especially.” I said but followed him anyway as he searched the fence for a spot where we could easily slip under it.
“Hey Skeeball.” I said, “I’m good at that.”
“Still smells like a carnival.” Meek commented.
The smell of funnel cakes and cotton candy hung in the air like ghosts.
A gust of wind from behind us blew some of the trash past us. An empty soda can clinked and bounced down the avenue ahead of us. The sound seemed to echo on for ages.
“There’s the bumper cars!” I pointed out and we both jogged over to them with some excitement.
I suppose the little kid in each of us had got excited and forgot that we were in the middle of an amusement park ghost town. Each of the bumper cars were overturned, apparently vandalized.
My attention was drawn away from the bumper cars by an eerie sound. Across from the bumper cars, the wind was causing a rusty door to creak as it swung back and forth. As it would swing, it would hit a metal restroom sign, which now hung from only one chain from above the door.
“Kind of beautiful and creepy at the same time.” Meek commented.
“I kind of like it. It’s peaceful.” I said back.
We walked past each game and ride for a while, kicking at the occasional stone or empty can and talking.
“Think we made a mistake?” Meek asked.
“Mistake?” I asked, not sure what he was referring too.
I had a notion that he was talking about hooking up with Destiny but that isn’t what he meant at all.
“Ouch!” Meek moaned.
Meek had hit his head on a low hanging awning, which was nearly falling off the front of the Orange Julius stand.
“You alright?” I asked with a bit of a chuckle.
“Didn’t see that darn thing.” He said while vigorously rubbing the sore spot.
“How’s your head?”
“Well it’s still attached. So I guess I’m alright.” He said with a forced laugh.
Then returning to our conversation Meek said, “From what Destiny has said, half the country is looking for us now. We’re all over the news.”
Agreeing I said, “Yeah, I didn’t expect that.”
We walked a bit more. Me on one side of the avenue of carnival games, Meek on the other; we were about thirty feet apart but still talking as though we were side by side.
“Doesn’t matter what we do now.” Meek said.
“What do you mean?”
“If we keep going or go back, either way we are both going to be in a lot of trouble.”
I picked up two game tokens I found on the ground.
“Yeah, I’ll be lucky if my grandfather doesn’t ship me off to Military school in Siberia.” I said.
That made Meek laugh; but it wasn’t a funny sort of laugh, more like a nervous and sad laughter.
“Pepper’s probably worried sick.” Meek stated.
It was pretty dark and the wind was really strong.
“Think we better start heading back?” Meek asked and I wasn’t sure if he was asking if I wanted to go back to the hotel or back to Maine.
Holding one of the tokens, I gave it a fling so that it sailed through the air flat and far. It hit the merry-go-round, shattering one of the remaining florescent light tubes. The sound was a lot louder than I thought it would be. First, there was the shattering glass, then the tink-tink-clang of the token as it bounced and ricocheted.
Meek laughed, picked up a small stone, and gave it a throw. I couldn’t believe how girl-like he throws but the stone still made it to the merry-go-round. There was no glass breaking but the stone made more noise than my metal token had.
I gave my other token a fling. It made a ringing sound as it left my hand, arched up and was caught by the wind and carried over the merry-go-round.
“Good throw!” Meek said.
“I don’t want to go back to Maine, EVER!” I called over to Meek.
He threw another stone and turned around before it reached the ride. He was about to say something when…
C R A S H !
A large white globe atop the merry-go-round shattered. It had been about the size of a beach ball and I didn’t even think it was glass until Meek shattered it.
Meek had spun back around in time to see the shower of white glass pelting the top of the merry-go-round. He punched both fists into the air and danced around like he’d just won the grand prize.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
We were walking back, still him on one side, me on the other when he called over the now really strong wind, “I need to take a wickedly mean dump!”
“Think I saw a bathroom up there.” I commented while pointing to his side of the avenue, where I’d seen and heard a rusty door swinging in the wind, “Across from the bumper cars.”
“Be right back.” He called and jogged on ahead for about two-hundred feet.
I continued strolling along at a slow pace, not really paying much attention to anything. Basically, I was taking my time, waiting for Meek to return. I was watching the cracked pavement and kicking at the blowing trash; so I hadn’t seen the security guard until he was right in front of me.
He had grabbed me by both arms and shook me so violently that I nearly blacked out. When he threw me face first against one of the walls of a boarded up shooting game, I had but a millisecond to brace myself so as not to bust my face on the hard wood siding. Before I even knew what was happening my hands were cuffed behind my back and he was frisking me.
“I’ve had it with you dang teenagers vandalizing my park! I’m gonna see that you get thrown in jail for a long time!” he said as his hand made it around the front of my pants and squeezed my crotch.
Frightened and still dazed I found my voice and shouted, “HEY!” when I felt him groping me.
Laughing, he spun me around and slapped me so hard my head actually rang like a bell at a boxing match. This time I did black out.
When I came too, I was sitting in what apparently was the security office of the amusement park. Unlike the rest of the park, this place had power and several black and white security screens, all of which were on. They seemed to be randomly switching from different cameras throughout the park. It was then that I realized Meek and I had been watched the whole time; or at the very least, while we had been throwing stuff at the merry-go-round. It wasn’t until the next day that I realized neither one of us had noticed the lights high up on the wooden poles. I guess they were so high up, that neither one of us seemed to pay any attention to them, nor the fact that they were illuminating a park that otherwise shouldn’t have been illuminated.
I looked around and couldn’t help wondering why an amusement park that appeared to have been closed for more than a couple years would still have security on the premises. That is when I noticed I was no longer handcuffed but had my wrists tied to the armrests of an old style wooden office chair and was gagged as well. However, what bothered me more than all that was the fact that I was shirtless. Thankfully, it was overly warm and I was covered in sweat; because of that, I hadn’t noticed (or maybe I blocked it out of my mind at the time) that my front was covered in something slimy. Of course, I know what it was, but I would rather not actually write that word; it’s too disturbing!
Panicking I tugged and struggled against my restraints but to no avail. I wasn’t going anywhere however all that struggling made me realize the chair was on wheels. I became aware of a fowl stench that seemed to fill the small security office but it took me a moment to realize the stench was coming from me. Looking down I saw that the GoodNite had failed and I was soaked. Moreover, the smell, well that was easy to place, I’d soiled myself at some point. However, I didn’t care, that was the least of my troubles.
I spun around in the chair, checking out my surroundings. There was a single window about one foot square in the middle of what looked to be a solid wood door. However one look at the door and I knew that it wasn’t old, but new and there was a deadbolt with a key lock on the inside as well. I wasn’t going to be able to get through that door without a key.
I spun the chair around again, back toward the monitors to check if I could find Meek, or the security guard; not that I could do anything if I spotted either of them. I continued to watch each screen flash from camera to camera then saw the building Meek had gone into. A second later, I saw the security guard walk into the open door.
“SHIT SHIT SHIT!” I mumbled through my gag.
I struggled more, trying to get one of my hands free but in my exuberant efforts, I managed to tip me, and the chair, over sideways. When I fell, there was a terrible cracking sound the instant my head hit the hard wooden floor. My vision blurred and a searing pain filled every part of my body as a darkness started to close in around me like being swallowed up by a black hole. Fearing what might happen to me if I blacked out for a second time, I willed myself not to allow the darkness to engulf me.
I looked back up to the monitors on the wall, blinked several times and shook my head to get my vision to clear. That’s when I saw it, a small COLOR monitor sitting on a short, two-drawer filing cabinet. It wasn’t switching from camera to camera like all the other black and white monitoring screens. This one was on a single camera, which seemed to be looking down from the ceiling as it panned back and forth inside a bathroom. Each time it reached what appeared to be the center I could see down into all of the three toilet stalls and in the center one sat a bleach blond guy who I could only assume was Meek. However, the worst of it was that I saw the security guard standing in the open doorway of the toilet stall, looking down on Meek who appeared to be cringing.
The camera panned away and when it came back to center, I watched as I saw the guard backhand Meek. That is when I lost it! I flailed and threw the chair and myself about wildly. It worked because apparently the cracking sound I had heard before wasn’t my head but the wooden arm of the chair breaking. My Right hand was free. I still kept my eyes on the monitor as I struggled to untie my left hand while trying not to stab myself with the jagged wooden armrest that was still tied to my right wrist.
I was horrified to watch, as the security guard appeared to pull down his pants and step toward Meek. I knew what was happening and screamed through my gag.
“MEEEEEEK!”
A few seconds later, I had my left hand free and began working to untie my ankles. I looked back to the monitor and had to wait a couple seconds for the camera to pan down. When it did, I could only just see Meek’s bleach blond hair from under the security guards towering form.
A moment later, I was free and struggling to get to my feet. With another quick glance around the room, I found my shirt wadded up and tossed in a trashcan. I’m not sure what that was about but I quickly retrieved it and pulled it on. I then turned my attention to that door. I began to bang on the wooden door with what was left of the wooden office chair. I looked back to the screen and saw that the guard was gone and Meek was lying, curled up, on the floor beside the toilet.
I swung back with the chair, ready to have another go at that door when I spotted, hanging directly above the door a set of keys on a single nail.
“Damn-it!” I cussed and threw the busted chair across the room.
I suppose my newfound strength was due to my fear for me and for Meek. At any rate, I didn’t watch the chair as it flew from my hands and smashed against the wall of monitor screens sending sparks and glass flying everywhere. I had to climb up on a desk to reach the key and as I turned back to jump down I saw that the far wall was in flames.
“OH HELL!”
I quickly scrambled off the desk as the small room quickly filled with smoke. There were three keys. Of course, the first wasn’t the right key and I coughed as I fumbled to get the second key into the lock right when the lights went out. Thankfully, the key turned and the door swung open.
Not hesitating I bolted out of the now fully engulfed security building. I had no idea which direction Meek was, but I had a feeling the security guard was going to be heading back toward the burning office and I didn’t want to be there when he returned. In addition to everything else, it was raining now, not hard mind you, but since it was so windy, it didn’t take long at all for me to be completely soaked to the bone.
I ran for several minutes without any real direction. Sure that I was on the far side of the park, I turned back in the direction I thought the fence was, where Meek and I had entered. I’d made a good guess because I went right to the building I’d seen Meek enter earlier. However, when I went in, Meek was nowhere to be seen.
Not wanting to risk another run in with that security guard, I mean he may have saw the office on fire and thought about coming back for Meek. Oddly, until now, it hadn’t occurred to me that maybe he thought I was still inside the burning office.
With no other ideas where to look for Meek, I headed for the fence. God I was so glad to see Meek there.
“Alvin! Over here!” he said waving to me.
The rain was really coming down as I reached Meek.
“You alright?” I asked.
“Me? I’ve been looking for you all this time!” he lied and in some weird way, we both knew he was lying but I made the conscious decision to not call him on his lie.
“You were?” I asked and then told my own lie, “Well I was running around looking for you?”
“Too Funny!” Meek said nervously, “Come on! Let’s get back to the hotel. All right? I want out of this rain!”
The two of us scurried under the fence just as we heard the sound of a fire truck cutting through the rain and wind from the far side of the park.
We both turned and saw the flames.
“Wow! Something is on fire!” Meek said loudly.
“Well glad we are out of there then!” I said while looking into Meek’s rain drenched face.
Again, we both knew what the other was thinking, but neither of us said another word as side-by-side we jogged at a fast pace all the way back to the hotel.
Back at the room, we found Destiny out cold on the bed nearest the window. Cold and wet, Meek and I quietly closed the door and went to the bathroom where we stripped out of our wet things. I got in the shower to wash off my filth while Meek left me alone to do so. I dropped the spent GoodNite into the trash. Meek was kind enough to tie the plastic bag shut to keep the smell from wafting through the whole place.
Upon closing the bathroom door, I started to take off my rain-drenched shirt when I noticed something weird smeared all over the front. I suppose had I not been so wet and cold, I would have guessed then what was all over my shirt and how it got there. It would also explain why my shirt had been wadded up and tossed in the trashcan back in the security office.
When I came out of the bathroom Meek was already in bed. I didn’t know if he was awake or not, so I quietly found one of the dry GoodNites and slipped it on. I got into the other side of the bed with Meek and lay on the very edge, unable to sleep for several hours.
I’m not sure when sleep finally overcame me. I do however remember lying, looking up at the ceiling and thinking about how long this day had been and just how much had happened since Meek and I woke up and watched the sun rise together.
Sometime in the night, I was awakened by the soft, gentle sobs of Meek beside me. I wanted to roll over and comfort him; but to be honest I was too scared to do so. What could I possibly say to him that would make what happened to him any better? What do you say to someone you watched being raped? I wanted to cry, but knew if I did, that I wouldn’t be able to stop, so instead I bit on the inside of my cheek so that the pain would distract me from everything going on in my head.