Chapter 2

Friday Dr. Wilson gave us our weekend reading assignment at the beginning of class: Darkness at Noon. I had already read it but that was in high school. I was hoping that it might be something I really enjoyed, maybe something more modern. I’d read all five books in one series and I liked the story, especially the sex and intrigue and carnage and incest and dragons. I knew that was too much for a college English class.

I wore loafers, polished for the first time in a year or so, and some khaki long pants to meet Alex’s family. Mom had bought me some pants which were almost impossible to wrinkle and I really liked them. Gianna came in my room when I was about to get dressed and was standing there in the little blue briefs she had bought me. I watched her eyes as she checked me out and then she watched as I put on the pants. I sucked in my stomach and tightened my abs and pecs so she would have something else to look at. Then she said I was nerdish or maybe geekish and, finally, sexy, sexy as hell.

Alex and I walked to the library again, with her right hand on my left arm and her white cane in her left hand. Again the sea of people parted for us and most smiled at us. At the outdoor table, I checked my backpack for the cold stuff I had brought. It was still cold. Last night I had made something that I wanted to share with Alex. I had almost finished my sandwich when I felt my stomach flip flop. I groaned.

“What’s the matter, Mikey?” Alex asked. I knew she had talked to Gianna. She was the only one who called me that.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “I guess my stomach’s not my friend today.”

“Mom says there’s a stomach bug or something going around on campus,” she said. “She says they’ve had a lot of cases at the student health center. I hope you don’t get it.”

Damn. I hoped so too. That would really mess things up. Maybe I felt a little feverish and confused too. I breathed deeply for a while and my stomach quieted down and I felt better.

I opened the cold container and asked her to hold out her hand. I put something long and round and cold in it.

“What is it, Mikey?” she asked.

“Cannoli,” I said. “I made them last night. It’s wrapped in wax paper.”

She smiled. “I love cannoli. Did you really make it?”

“Yeah. Making good cannoli is a challenge. I like challenges.”

We were quiet while we ate our cannoli. I thought I might tell Gianna I got a hard-on watching Alex eat my cannoli. I didn’t really but, as I watched Alex open her mouth wide to get a bite, I felt something trying to stretch the little blue briefs I was wearing. Bent down over my testicles my penis couldn’t raise its head but my briefs were tighter. After we finished eating, I asked her again.

“What kind of girl are you, Alex?”

“I’m a good girl, Mikey,” she said and paused.

“Well?”

“I was waiting for you to run,” she said and smiled at me.

“Come on, be serious.”

“You already know I’m a virgin, Mikey. You know I masturbate; well, I call it pushing my button or rubbin’ my nubbin. I’ve had dates with guys, some good, some not so good. Most guys don’t know what to do with me when I tell them something.”

“What?”

“I think I’m a normal woman, Mikey. I want to have sex. Maybe I should say I need sex but I need to be loved too. All I’ve got to do is to find the right man to love me. I haven’t found him yet.”

“Yet?”

“It’s too early for that, Mikey.”

“What do you tell them?”

“I tell them I’m not going to have sex with them just to satisfy my curiosity. I tell them my standards are a lot higher than that. I’ve got to believe a man really loves me before I’ll spread my legs for him.”

“I’m like that too, Alex. I think sex is too important to do hook-ups. Lots of guys and girls do it so casually and can’t even remember the other person’s name. I don’t want that. I want somebody to love first and then have sex second.”

“Are we old fashioned, Mikey?”

“Maybe but I don’t care. My parents have always been open and honest with me and Gianna. We talk about everything. They know we’re both still virgins and they encourage us to hold to our standards no matter what others do.”

“They sound like my parents. My mom and I talk about everything too. Dad talks to Azee lots. He has a little trouble talking to me. There are a couple of other things you should know about me.”

“Tell me.”

“Mikey, my family is sort of nudist at home. In warm weather, we run around in the house naked sometimes.”

“Do you run around outside the house? What do the neighbors think?”

“No, but we do go naked in our back yard sometimes, mostly at night. We have a pool and it’s enclosed for privacy. I like to swim naked. I don’t mind if my family sees me. I’ve even seen Azee.”

I had to think about that for a minute.

“Do you mean you’ve seen them with your hands?”

“Yes. Does that shock you? I wanted to see them. One afternoon when Mom and Dad weren’t home and we were swimming I asked them to let me see them. I even jacked them off, both of them.”

I laughed out loud.

“What’s so funny?”

“Alex, Gianna has seen me too. She jacked me off too. Just once. I wanted to do her but she chickened out. She’s curious about guys too.”

“Well, is your family, you know, nudists?”

“No, we’re not really nudists. In the house, we don’t worry if we see each other naked. I’ve seen Mom and Dad and Gianna naked all my life. I slept in the bed with Gianna until she was six and I was nine. We both liked to sleep in the nude and cuddle up. Then we bought a bigger house and I moved into my own room. Maybe I should say I was moved.”

“Were you already a horny little devil, Mikey?”

“No, we played with each other a little, out of curiosity, I suppose. What’s the other thing you wanted to tell me?”

“When I decide to have sex with a man, Mom and Dad want me to do it in my own bed. They trust me to find a man who loves me and they don’t want us sneaking around doing it. They want me to be safe. They’ve worried about me all my life, I suppose. They say it’s my home as well as theirs. When I want to have sex, they will respect my decision. You’re the first man I’d told about that.”

“I’m going to enjoy meeting your family, Alex,” I said, and I really meant it. “They’re a lot like mine. I think you’ll like my family too.”

“Are we getting serious, Mikey?”

“No, Alex, we’re just taking the first tentative steps on a path and we don’t know where it will lead. Maybe it will lead to something good. Maybe we’ll end up just friends. Maybe we’ll end up lovers. Maybe we’ll get married. Who knows? Let’s don’t rush it. Just take it one step at a time.”

“Like going down the yellow brick road, huh?”

“I suppose. Listen, I’ve got to go to class. The three o’clock jitney leaves from the front of the library; doesn’t it? I’ll meet you there.”

I stood up and my stomach kept going up. I breathed deeply a few times and it settled back down. Damn. What’s wrong? Have I got that bug?

During my class, I had difficulty following the lecture. It was a math class and I was good at that but I got lost a couple of times. At least my stomach didn’t do any more flip flops.

Alex was waiting in front of the library. She took my arm and we got on the old jitney. It was a diesel, crowded, noisy, and not even air-conditioned. When we stopped in traffic, the diesel fumes came in through the open windows and I felt sick from smelling them. I was afraid we’d have to stand. A girl I didn’t know saw Alex’s cane, nudged the guy sitting with her, and they gave us their seats. Maybe Gianna was right about people.

We were walking through the parking lot toward my mother’s car when my stomach started again, just one little feeling like I had to burp or something, and then it was quiet again. I helped Alex in the car and asked for directions. Their home wasn’t far from the student parking lot, just a mile or two North and then a little East. I felt OK, maybe a little bit apprehensive, but I wanted to meet her family.

I parked on the street, helped Alex out, and we started up the walkway to their front porch. That’s when a big wave of nausea hit me and I knew I was in real trouble. I tried breathing deeply again but that didn’t help. My stomach did a big flip flop, then another, and I knew everything was coming up.

I dropped Alex’s briefcase, pulled away from her, and started toward some bushes. I only got a few feet away when the cramping hit me again and I started puking. I bent over with my hands on my knees and puked my guts up. Then it stopped and I was about to straighten up when the earthquake hit and I dropped down on my hands and knees and vomited and retched and threw up and puked and barfed and tried to upchuck my socks, all right on some petunias. I started slobbering at the mouth and nothing but mucus came up.

I heard Alex yell and I looked up briefly. She was on the front porch and the front door was open and she was yelling for help. A nice looking woman, an older version of Alex, and two young guys ran out. All I could think was this was a hell of a way to meet her family.

Then the dry heaves hit again and my stomach tied itself in a knot and I hung my head and tried to throw up some more but nothing came out but mucus and slobber and I tried to spit it out. When it finally stopped, I looked up again. The woman and one of the guys were bent over beside me but now they had on white face masks. I looked at the front door where Alex had been standing. She was still there, her back against the wall, and one of the guys was handing her a white mask. He had on a mask too. A crazy thought hit me: why were they going to do surgery on me?

My heart was pounding away at about two hundred miles an hour and my mouth was hanging open and I was panting for breath and I felt dizzy and confused and I wanted to run away somewhere or maybe crawl in a hole and pull it in on top of me.

The two guys helped me toward the front door and then stopped. The woman told me to lift my feet and she took off my loafers and socks and I wondered why. Then she undid my belt, unzipped my fly, and pulled my pants down and I stepped out of them. The two guys kept me balanced and she pulled my knit shirt over my head and I was naked except for the little blue briefs Gianna had bought me. I really wondered why she was stripping me. I hoped she wouldn’t take off my briefs. I wished I’d worn boxers.

The two guys helped me in the house and then held me up while the woman put a blanket over a recliner. They backed me up and eased me down into the chair and I didn’t care what anybody did to me, only do something.

Then Alex was there, looking like an angel even with a white mask covering her face except for her beautiful blue eyes. She put one hand on my forehead and the other hand high up in my armpit. I was cold but I was sweaty and I wondered why she did that. She said something was very high, at least one hundred two.

The woman, Alex’s mother, stuck something in my ear, it beeped, and she looked at it. “One hundred and four! That’s dangerous! We’ve got to cool him down.”

The aftershock heaves hit again and I leaned forward and tried to puke again. Somebody held a yellow plastic pan in front of me but I couldn’t do anything except slobber and spit in it.

I leaned back and opened my eyes again. Alex’s mother had two pills between her thumb and finger and I knew they were for me so I took them and threw them in my mouth. Somebody held a can with a straw in front of me and I sucked on the straw. It was cold and like lemonade and wonderful and I wanted more and they wouldn’t let me have any more. I closed my eyes and tried to sink into the chair.

Somebody started wiping my face with a cold cloth and I liked that. I opened my eyes and it was Alex, wiping my face with a washcloth. I smiled at her and closed my eyes again. Somebody else started wiping my chest with a really cold cloth and I opened my eyes and it was her mother.

She had a bottle of alcohol in one hand and a cloth the other. I closed my eyes and let her wipe my chest and stomach and legs and I hoped she didn’t pull my briefs down and wipe my dick and balls but I knew I didn’t care if she did. The stuff she was wiping me off with felt so damn cold and good.

Then I watched as Alex held her cloth up for her mother to put alcohol on it. She wiped my hand clean, wiped my arm up to my shoulder, across my throat and chest, and down the other arm to my hand.

I tried to smile up at her and I knew I was stupid because she couldn’t see me. I caught her hand and brought it up to my lips so she could see me smiling at her. She smiled back, felt down my arm, took my hand in hers, and held it and I knew I was going to be OK. I took a few deep breaths and relaxed.

The woman, I knew she was Alex’s mother even with a surgical mask on her face, came back with a bottle of something and a spoon. I knew she wanted me to swallow something so I opened my mouth. She gave me one spoonful, I swallowed, and she offered another. I took it, then another and another.

I lay back in the recliner with my eyes shut and the woman wiped me off again. Alex didn’t let go of my hand and I hung onto hers. I smiled at her and, brought her hand to my lips so she could see me smiling.

Alex’s mother wiped my legs, almost up to my briefs, and then wiped my chest and stomach again. It was so damn cold but felt so damn good. Then she stuck something in my ear again, it beeped, and she looked at it. “One hundred and two. It’s coming down.”

I heard Azee whisper, “Man, he’s hard!” and then the other Azee said “Yeah, man, really hard!” and then the woman said “Azee!’ sort of like she wanted them to shut up and I wondered what they were talking about. I opened my eyes and looked down. It wasn’t hard. It was just tucked down over my testicles as usual and it was behaving for a change. I realized maybe they were talking about my stomach muscles, what Gianna calls my six-pack.

Everything quieted down after that. My heart slowed down. My breathing slowed. Even my stomach felt better but it was sore, bad sore. Somebody kept wiping me off with alcohol every few minutes.

The next thing I knew I heard voices from the front door and my mother and Gianna came in the room and stood there smiling down at me. Alex was still holding my hand. I smiled back and shut my eyes again. Everybody went away even Alex.

After a while, Mom said my name and I opened my eyes. She was standing there with Alex’s mother, no mask now. Alex had her hand on Gianna’s arm. The two guys were standing to one side. Their masks were gone too. Damn, they were identical, two peas in a pod, even dressed alike.

“Michael, Alex’s mother wants you and Gianna to stay with them this weekend,” Mom said. “Alex told her I was chairing a session at the conference in Atlanta and she insists I go. Is that OK with you?”

I nodded. I didn’t want her to go but I knew she and Dad wanted to go.

Alex came over to my side, walking with no help, and sat down in the chair beside the recliner. She put one hand on my forehead and the other deep in my armpit. I knew what she was doing and her hands felt wonderful.

“It’s better now,” she said. “Still a little high but much better. I think he’s out of danger.”

Alex’s mother stuck the thermometer in my ear again, it beeped, and she looked at it. “One hundred and one. You’re right, Alex.”

I took a deep breath or two, let them out, and relaxed. I didn’t care if I was in somebody’s recliner, almost naked. I knew everything was going to be alright.

Everybody left me and I heard them talking in the other room. Then somebody touched my shoulder and I opened my eyes. It was Azee, both of them. I knew my hair had been pushed off my forehead and the whole stain was showing but I didn’t care. They were smiling at me. One of them had something black in his hands. It looked like the kind of exercise shorts I wear sometimes.