I opened the front door and peeked around; it looked like the coast was clear. I slipped in and quickly walked over to the stairs, but just as I got to them a loud, deep voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Philip! What are you doing home so early?"

"Oh, hi, Grandma -- I mean, Maude. Uh, they let us out..."

"What happened to you?" My grandmother was tall and when she walked, her long housecoat billowed out behind her like some superhero's cape. She stood right over me, her gray hair shaking as she looked down.

I was a mess. My jacket was torn and there was a hole in one knee of my jeans; on the other leg the jeans were almost completely torn off at the thigh, just hanging by a few threads. There were bruises and cuts and scratches all over, and when I'd snuck a look in some shop windows on the way home I thought I saw some dried blood around my nose and face.

"Nothing happened," I said. If you're going to tell a lie, I always figured, tell a big one.

It didn't work. "Nothing? You look like you went 10 rounds with Muhammad Ali!"

"Yeah, I had a fight," I admitted. "But it was nothing." I turned to go up the stairs to my room.

Maude -- my grandma always insisted I never call her Grandma, like my ma always wanted me to call her Carol -- anyway, Grandma grabbed me by the arm.

"Ow! That hurts!"

She turned me around to face her again. "I think... I think you're going to have a black eye, too," she muttered. "Go in the kitchen and have Florida put something on it. And some bandages," she called out as I walked away.

In the kitchen, our maid fussed over me. I could hear Grandma on the phone in the other room.

"Yes, this is Maude Findlay, Philip Traynor's, uh, grandmother," she said. "No, grandMOTHER. Mr. Findlay has a much higher voice. I'm calling about Philip. He just came home covered with bruises. What's wrong with you people, letting a little boy get beaten up like that and then sending him home without any care? What's... Oh, I see. I see. Yes. Well, yes. But... Oh, I see. Uh-huh. Do you know what it was... I see. He said what? I see. Yes. Well, thank you. Good-bye."

I left the kitchen while she was hanging up and tried to get to the stairs before she saw me, but it didn't work.

"Philip!" Again I froze.

Her voice softened. "Philip, honey, I talked to the school. They said you just ran off without letting anyone help you. And that you fought some older boy. Something about your mother, they said, but they didn't seem to know exactly what. Now, Philip, you know we've taught you that violence is never the solution to anything."

"Yes, but, what Billy said," I blurted out.

Grandma cocked her head. "What did he say?"

I looked away, unwilling to meet her gaze. When Grandma gets determined about something, you don't want to try to face her down. You'd have a better chance facing down a Mack truck.

"Come on, Philip."

"He said she was a whore with tits the size of beach balls," I said in a rush. I felt my face grow hot. "And he said all her brains were in her boobs and she was too stupid to make money doing anything but fucking!"

Then I stopped. The words had burst out of me without thinking and now they hung there like dark gray clouds. I figured the thunder and lightning would come next. Grandma always talked about how liberal she was, but when it came to kids she had some old-fashioned ideas about language.

But instead of the storm, I got the silver lining. Grandma came over and hugged me -- gently, so as not to touch my bruises. "Philip, sweetie, that was very gallant of you," she murmured. "A man who defends a woman never has to feel sorry." She stepped back. "But perhaps you might have found some other way...?" I looked up at her, thinking about what a bully Billy Wilson was and thinking that words didn't help much when you're facing somebody who thinks a Batman comic book is quality reading.

"I guess not," Grandma said, reading the look in my eyes. "Well, you go and wash up now, and we'll talk about this some more later."

I turned to go, but winced with pain as I lifted my leg to the first step. I guess I must have started to faint or something, because the next thing I knew Grandma had her arm around me and she was helping me up the stairs.

I really was weak, so even though I was already 12 years old, I didn't argue when she stripped my clothes off and led me into the bathroom, turning on the water in the tub.

As I lowered myself into the water -- the warmth felt really good, except where it stung some of my cuts -- Grandma rolled up her sleeves and grabbed soap and a washcloth.

She washed me all over, being real careful when she got to the bruises and scratches. I began to feel better. It was funny, having somebody else scrub you down. Grandma got the cloth all soapy so it slid easy, big bubbles of lather. I don't know if it was just the hot water or what, but I started feeling warm on the inside, too. Then something awful happened: I felt my dick starting to stiffen. I tried to think about something bad, like getting stabbed in the balls with a knife or have a car hit me, but it didn't help. My cock rose out of the water like a submarine conning tower just as Grandma started to wash my stomach.

I tried to cover myself up, but when I moved my hands I splashed her a little and she looked down and saw. Then she drew in her breath real quick.

"Philip!" she whispered. "You're... you're not a little boy anymore, are you?"

I wanted to just drop my head into the water and drown. Anything was better than having Grandma staring at my dick.

Then she actually reached out and touched it! I thought I would die. But it made my dick even harder and bigger. Grandma put her hand around in. The big, dark red tip bulged above her fist. Nobody had ever touched me there, at least not since I could remember. I'd masturbated myself, but this felt different -- you know, how you can't tickle yourself, but when somebody else does it, you go crazy? Grandma's hand was warm and all slick from the soap and it made my cock feel great.

I guess that's why I started moving it in her grip. I didn't mean to or nothing, but it just happened. And Grandma, she started stroking it, too. She didn't say a word, just stroked it. Pretty soon I felt something in my balls. "Grand -- uh, Maude, I think I'm gonna shoot," I said, and sure enough a wad of cum burst out of the tip of my cock. Grandma pulled her head back just in time or it would have hit her right in the face.

I didn't know what to say then, but Grandma started telling me how I shouldn't worry, it was natural for boys to do that, and stuff.

"I know," I said, "they told us about it in school. About how seeing pretty ladies can make us, you know, have an orgasm."

Then Grandma blushed and seemed sort of confused. She started to say something when we heard a shout from downstairs.

It was Vivian Harmon, our next-door neighbor. Grandma called out that she'd be right down, and she left right away. "Just... just get cleaned up and get in bed," she said over her shoulder.

I sat in the tub awhile longer. I felt kinda lazy, like I usually did right after I came. Plus I was still thinking about what happened. My grandma was pretty -- oh, she was no model or nothing, but when she smiled her whole face lit up, and sometimes when she got all dressed up to go out I could see her body looked younger than she was.

Well, the water started to cool off so I got out and was drying myself off when I heard someone in the bedroom. I figured it was Grandma again, but was I surprised when the door opened!

Vivian came walking in, saying something about how Grandma had gone next door to argue with some painters for her and asked Vivian to take care of me while she was gone. I was so surprised to see her I dropped my towel, but I grabbed it back off the floor right away and held it in front of me as I backed up against the sink.

"Auntie Viv! What... uh, I'm... could you please leave?"

She arched one eyebrow and looked me up and down. I hung my head down, but she said, "Why, Philip, you don't have anything to be embarrassed about. You are a very good- looking young man... Very good-looking." She chuckled. "I'll let you finish in here. I'll just wait in the bedroom, OK? You sure you'll be all right? Maude said you were hurt pretty badly. You do look the worse for wear."

I insisted I'd be OK and she left. I dried off and looked around, but Grandma hadn't left me any clothes. I grabbed the biggest towel I could find and wrapped it around my waist.

Vivian was sitting next to my bed. The light coming in from the window made a halo around the soft brown hair that looked like a cloud around her face. Lots of clouds today, I laughed to myself.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing," I said. I started to go to my dresser but thought better of it. Didn't want to change in front of her, and she didn't look like she was about to go anywhere. I crawled under the covers, taking the towel with me.

"Maude told me what happened," she said abruptly. I looked over. "Like a knight in shining armor," she went on, "defending his lady's honor. Or in this case, his mother's."

I was getting embarrassed again. Billy had pretty much beaten me to a pulp and everyone was making me out to be some kind of hero.

"You acted very grown-up today," Vivian said as she shifted in her chair. Auntie Vivian was shorter than Grandma, and younger too. Her faced looked a little funny, like it was all pulled tight around the sides. But she was still pretty, and as she crossed her legs I admired her slim, shapely legs.

She was still talking, going on about how brave I was and how nice it was to defend my mom and stuff. Then she got this odd look on her face, kind of like a glow. She stopped talking and just looked at me. I squirmed.

"You did something very nice for your mother today," she said in a hushed voice. "Would you like to do something nice for me, too?"

I didn't know what to say. I just looked at her and finally figured, well, Auntie Vivian was usually nice to me. So I nodded.

Then she stood up and reached down and I couldn't believe it. She picked up the bottom of her blue dress, reached underneath and pulled down a pair of black silk panties. I just stared as she pulled them off and stepped out of them.

I think she said something about my learning to be a man or something, but I wasn't really listening. My heart started to beat really fast and my palms got a little sweaty. Auntie Vivian climbed onto the bed, facing away from me, and lifted her dress so her butt was starting me right in the face! At first I was confused; I had started to think she might, you know, fuck me, but this wasn't how that looked in the magazines I had stashed at the bottom of my sock drawer. Then I remembered another picture.

"Do you want me to lick you?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, Philip, what a smart boy you are!" Auntie Vivian laughed and lowered herself onto my face. She didn't smell as bad as I had feared, but I wasn't completely sure what was going on and I didn't know just what I was supposed to lick -- not her asshole, I hoped.

But she talked me through it, teaching me to lick around the outside of her pussy and nuzzle right up to it. Then she had me stick my tongue inside her -- it tasted different, but not bad. In fact, pretty soon I got to like it and I pushed my tongue way inside her. It was hot in there, and she was getting really wet and stuff was oozing out around my tongue and all onto my face.

Auntie Vivian was moaning and twisting around. I couldn't see anything, 'cause my face was right up to her and her dress had fallen back around me. But I could hear her and she sounded like she was getting really excited.

"Oh, you're a good pussy licker," she said. "Stick your tongue in deeper. As deep as you can!"

I felt something inside her, hard and small, and when I licked it she bucked back really hard so I was afraid I'd done something wrong. But then she explained that that was her clit and it felt really good to be touched, so I played with it, licking it and sucking it and even nipping at it with my teeth. Auntie Vivian kept encouraging me so I kept on sucking at her.

My dick was tenting up the bedsheet by now, I guess, because she made some comment about it and even touched it through the sheet. But right then she started to buck even faster and her cunt started moving around so fast I couldn't keep up and she let out a long moan and collapsed on top of me.

She might have done more to me, I think, but then we heard Grandma calling from downstairs. Auntie Vivian jumped up really quick and called out that she was coming down. She grabbed her panties and walked out, smoothing down her dress, and she told me I'd better get cleaned up.