Chapter 8: You’ve Done It too

As Danny put his arms around him too, he was remembering the happy times with Ralph. I wonder if I’ll feel as close to Danny after all this as I do with Ralph he thought. He felt so content sitting there he didn’t move until Danny said, ‘Stay sitting up.’ As he stood up.

Danny moved to the end of the settee and told Gideon to lie down with his head on his lap. Once he had settled in place, Danny rested one hand on his head and started a slow massage.

His other hand he put flat by his erect cock, his thumb resting still in Gideon’s hairs. The rest of his hand was over his balls although not touching them. ‘Carry on where you left off.’ Danny instructed.

‘I couldn’t help looking at him and comparing him to me.’ Gideon told him, ‘He was about an inch taller than me and broader. He also had a very hairy chest. I was always a little jealous of his body, but as my cock was a bit bigger than his I felt happy about that.’

‘I saw him looking at me too. I knew he’d be thinking he wished his cock was as big as mine. We grinned at each other as we put our shorts on, got into bed and were asleep almost immediately.’

‘The next morning, we were up early, had a good breakfast then drove over to the channel tunnel. We drove onto the train and where soon setting off. It seemed weird sitting in a car which was sitting still inside a rail carriage, whilst the carriage was tearing along at high speed under the English Channel.’

‘We were soon driving out into France and on the road to Ypres in Belgium, or ‘Wipers’ as it was nicknamed by the British troops in World War One. Arriving in the square at Ypres we found our hotel for the next eight nights, and checked in.

We went for a walk to stretch our legs and saw the world-famous Menin Gate, a giant war memorial that straddles the main road into Ypres. It has nearly fifty-five thousand names of soldiers from World War One who have no known graves. Giant as it is, there wasn’t enough room on it and in the end another thirty-five thousand names had to be put on memorial slabs at Tyne Cot Cemetery nearby.’

‘We’ll come back tonight,’ dad told us. ‘Every night since it was built in nineteen twenty-seven, members of the local fire brigade have played the Last Post under the gate at eight o’clock.’

‘We returned to the hotel and had our evening meal. Our room for the week had a double bed. Apparently, dad had booked two singles but that was all they had. ‘It’s ok,’ we told him, neither of us seeing it as a problem.’

‘At half seven we walked down to the Menin Gate. There were over a thousand people already there. ‘Apparently it’s like this every night of the year.’ dad told us. At five minutes to eight, a policeman each side stopped the traffic and at a minute to eight three firemen in uniform marched into the middle of the road under the gate.’

‘Apparently sometimes there is only one fireman other times there are more. On the stroke of eight a silence descended, and the haunting sound of the Last Post rang out. I’d heard the Last Post played a couple of times before, but here under this gate, it sounded twice as mournful and so moving. You could imagine the ghosts of those fifty-five thousand men marching past. It’s something I will never ever forget.’

‘When we went up to bed we got in and sat up talking. Ralph told me he had found the Last Post very moving too. We both said we’d never shared a bed with anyone before. Ralph told me he had always assumed his first time would be with a girlfriend. We both laughed at that.’

‘Sorry to disappoint you.’ I said still laughing. We settled down and went to sleep. During the night I woke up and found myself lying on my back. Ralph was lying on his side with his head on the pillow very close to mine and he had his hand over my stomach. After my initial surprise I decided it felt quite nice.’

‘I started to imagine what it would be like sometime in the future being in a bed like this but with a girl. That of course made me go hard. I decided I couldn’t risk playing with myself with Ralph being so close, so I just lay there enjoying feeling someone so close.’

‘I must have gone back to sleep soon after because the next thing I remember was waking up the next morning. We had both moved and had our backs to each other. We got up and went downstairs. Over breakfast dad said he and mum were going to go on a minibus trip to see Tyne Cot Cemetery. He explained about the overflow of names from the Menin Gate, so Ralph and I decided we’d like to go too.’

‘We did and that too was a very moving experience. We became so fascinated by it all we ended up spending most of our holiday with mum and dad. Although we did have a couple of days on our own exploring the area.’

‘The next night in bed, I woke up again to find that this time it was me with my arm over Ralph. I was panicking in case he woke up and caught me, but it felt so nice I stayed there for ages. Although I was very tense ready to move away quickly if he stirred. He didn’t and I fell asleep again.’

‘The next morning, we had moved apart and woke up back-to-back again. The next two nights I slept right through. On the fifth day we went exploring ourselves. We walked around the town and saw a few small cemeteries. We discovered that there are hundreds of small war cemeteries all over Belgium as well as the big main ones.’

‘When we were looking around one little cemetery, just on the edge of town there was a very old man with a chest full of medals. As we arrived, we saw him stand to attention in front of a grave and salute it.’

‘As he came near us on his way out, he smiled at us. ‘It’s nice to see youngsters taking an interest.’ he told us. ‘It’s fascinating,’ I said. ‘Do you mind me asking why you saluted that grave?’ ‘Not at all,’ he said, ‘Can we go over to that seat, and I’ll tell you. I can’t stand for very long nowadays he told us.’

‘Once we were seated, he told us he was one of the few still alive who had fought in the first world war. ‘I was in the trenches not far from here,’ he told us. ‘My best mate was in the trench beside me one day when he got shot by a sniper. The bullet got him right between the eyes. I try to visit when I can. It was him I was saluting.’

‘I was struggling not to cry, and I noticed Ralph wipe an eye too. We sat and chatted for a while. He told us a few stories. According to him, as the war was ending a British soldier was patrolling some woods nearby when a German soldier appeared out of the trees.’

‘The British soldier pointed his rifle at him and should have shot him dead on the spot. But knowing the war was going to end the next day, he told him to drop his rifle which he did, then waved him away.’

‘A few years later, the German came to England and located the British soldier to thank him for his life. They introduced each other. The British soldier was me, he told us. The German introduced himself as Adolf Hitler.’

‘It meant nothing at the time of course,’ he told us, ‘But since World War Two started, I have blamed myself. If I had pressed the trigger that day, World War Two might never have happened.’ We shook hands with him and thanked him for talking to us.’

‘A year later we saw him on tv being interviewed at Ypres with a couple of comrades who were the last few alive. Then not long after we heard he had died. I’ll never forget meeting him.’

‘That’s fascinating,’ Danny told him, ‘A bit of history straight from the horse’s mouth. So, what happened that night. When we got into bed, we sat up chatting about the man we had met. Then Ralph said, ‘Have you had any strange experiences during the night?’

‘How do you mean?’ I asked. ‘Well last night I dreamt I’d woken up during the night and you had your arm around me. The night before I dreamt that I’d woken up and I had my arm around you. But I can’t be sure if it was a dream or not.’