Chapter 1

... come forth to define himself as a man, yet he knows not what it means to be a man.

What he knows is useless. Big boys don’t cry. Big boys don’t sit around dreaming nonsense. A man is strong and doesn’t allow others to push him around. A man will fight for what is his. A man does what he must. Add those trivial statements together and you get nothing useful for defining yourself as a man.

Is a man defined by the cock between his legs? He doesn’t know, but does not believe so. He works to mold himself into the image of his father, big, strong, callous, and loud. That is his only model on which to base his idea of a man. Yet the father defined himself in the same fashion, following in the footsteps of his father. Generations of men, none of whom knew what it meant to be a man. Unless he learns, generations of men to follow won’t know what it means to be a man.

Ed watched as a man pulled up to the house across the street in a Jeep. Hoping this guy was better than the wimp that lived there before, he watched as two trips were all that were required to unpack the Jeep. A backpack, a bag of groceries, a walking stick, a couple of lawn chairs, and a computer were all that the new neighbor had with him.

Talking to himself, Ed said, “He travels light.”

For days, he checked the house across the street. He was waiting to see the moving van arrive, but the only thing that arrived was a beat up truck carrying a used desk and chair in the back. Manuel and his son unloaded them and carried them into the house.

The stranger had gone into the house and remained inside. It bothered Ed more than he could express in words. In his mind, the stranger should have come out and established himself as a presence in the neighborhood. This kind of behavior suggested his neighbor was just another wimp. Of course, Ed enjoyed teaching wimps what a real man was like, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

Maria, the neighbor across the way, came out to watch her son play soccer in the front yard. Ed, not yet ready to go down to the bar, picked up a beer and went across the street to talk to her. Stepping across the road, he shouted, “Hello, Maria.”

Looking at him with dread, Maria answered, “Hello, Ed.”

Taking a big sip of the beer from the bottle, he asked, “So what about the new neighbor?”

Maria shrugged and answered, “I don’t know. I see him sitting out back on a lawn chair occasionally. Keeps to himself.”

Ed shook his head in derision. Finally, he said, “It just isn’t right.”

Pleased to have a quiet neighbor, Maria wasn’t about to complain. She had hoped that Ed would have moved out rather than the previous occupant of the house next door. Ed was a loud braggart that chased off every nice person in the area.

She shrugged and said, “It’s the quiet ones that will surprise you.”

Ed took another sip of his beer and looked over at the house in time to see the man exit from it. The man, using a walking stick, strolled slowly down the street, greeting the other neighbors as he went. Getting a better view of the guy reinforced his judgment that the man was a wimp.

He said, “He looks like a hippie with that long hair and beard.”

Maria watched Ed as he stared at the man walking down the street. She cringed when he took a last sip of his beer and followed the guy down the street with his typical swagger With a negligent gesture, he threw the empty beer bottle in the front yard of the house next door.

As she picked up the bottle, she muttered, “One day that man is going to meet his match.”

Ed entered the bar and saw his new neighbor just sitting down at the counter. Stepping behind him, he put a hand on the man’s shoulder. Much to his surprise, the man didn’t cringe, but turned to look at him with a steadiness that was most unexpected.

Ed said, “Howdy, neighbor.”

The stranger replied, “Hello.”

“You moved in across the street from my place,” said Ed, irritated that the man didn’t know this fact. He felt like this was supposed to be something that the other guy should already know.

“Oh. Let me introduce myself. I’m John Carter.” John extended his hand.

Ed grabbed the hand and squeezed as hard as he could. John just squeezed back. Ed said, “I’m Ed Biggers.”

“Nice to meet you, Ed.”

“Nice to finally meet you. Let me buy you a drink,” replied Ed. It was time to get a measure of the man. He offered the drink as a challenge to see what the man would order.

“That would be very nice of you. I’ll have a Coke.”

Ed stared at John, fully expecting him to order a beer at least. He asked, “Coke? What are you? Are you some kind of wimp?”

“No. I just don’t drink alcohol,” replied John.

There was a sternness in his voice that Ed found unsettling. It made him wonder if he was going to have to beat the guy and pour the drink into him.

Deciding it was time to put the man in his place, Ed shouted out to the bar, “Hey, folks. We got us a wimp. He doesn’t drink like a real man. He doesn’t even drink a woman’s drink. He actually wants a Coke without the rum!”

Ed knew he had scored a point over the man when the majority of people in the bar burst out laughing at the announcement. Turning to Shirley, he said, “Hey, Shirley, set us up with a couple of whiskeys with beer chasers.”

“Don’t forget my Coke. Plain with no rum.”

Shirley set a whiskey with a beer in front of Ed and a plain Coke in front of John. Angered, Ed looked at Shirley feeling like she was undermining his efforts to put this guy in his place.

He told her, “I said a couple. I’m buying the wimp here a man’s drink.”

Shirley shot back, “Ed, don’t do this.”

Ed repeated himself, “I said a couple. Now hop to it little lady before I lose my temper.”

She relented and set the drinks in front of John. John picked up the shot glass with the whiskey in it. He sniffed it, nodded, and then set it down.

With a smile on his face, John calmly stated, “I heard that some men drink in the hope that it will make their pecker bigger. I don’t know if that’s your reason for drinking. Since I’m already hung like a horse I don’t drink, in the hope that it will shrink down to the size a woman can handle.”

Furious at the implication that he had a small cock, Ed glared at John. This was a very real challenge and he was going to put that hippie in his place. Cocking his arm back, he was shocked when his balls suddenly felt like they were in an iron grip! As he bent over, paralyzed in pain, he saw that the man had hold of his balls. Slowly, he collapsed to the floor as the desire to vomit washed over him.

He never realized when John left, all that he knew was the pain in his balls was slowly dissipating. With great effort, he stood up and leaned on the bar. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he picked up the shot of whiskey and shot it back. He followed that with the second shot and then both beers. The look Shirley gave him only angered him.

He spat out, “Don’t say a word.”

As he opened the door to leave, a number of people laughed. Glaring, he turned and looked over the room seeking the source of the laughter. The room got very quiet as no one wanted to become his next target. A very angry Ed left the bar and made his way home, swearing the whole trip that he would get revenge.

Ed woke the next morning feeling like hell from drinking too much the night before. Leaving the bedroom in his boxers, he glanced out the window at the house across the street and said, “You’ll pay for that, you bastard.”

Scratching his stomach, he entered the kitchen to grab a beer. After opening it, he took a sip from the bottle. The pounding in his head slowly eased and he returned to the bedroom. He slowly dressed, taking a sip of the beer between each item of clothes. As he was putting on his boots, he heard terrified screams coming from outside.

Grimacing at the noise, he decided to check it out as he swore to himself, “Damn kids.”

Walking out of the house, it was impossible to miss Maria’s kid screaming. Heading in his direction, Ed stopped when he saw hundreds of rattlesnakes on the ground. Heart thumping, he stared at them in fear. He looked up in time to see John walk in amongst the snakes calmly and deliberately. The desire to shout out a warning died on his lips, as snake after snake struck the man. Amazed at what he was seeing, he looked at John, noticing for the first time the huge red scar that ran down his back and the scars on his legs. This was the bravest thing that he had ever seen in his life.

Ed came out of his trance when John set the boy down next to Maria and turned to him saying, “Ed, would you please drive me to the hospital?”

The effect of those words staggered him as hard as a solid blow to the chin. This was the guy that he had tried to fight the night before, and now he was trusting him to take him to the hospital.

As he turned and ran to get his truck, he shouted, “Sure, I’ll get my truck.”

Running back toward his house, he realized that this guy was probably going to die before they got to the hospital. He fished in his pockets for his keys as he ran. Jumping in the truck, he started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. He opened the passenger’s side door once he reached the entry to Maria’s front yard. Hobbling, John slowly made his way to the truck.

Ed looked at all of the bites on John’s legs. There was no way this guy could survive so many bites, but he sat there calmly in the truck. The ropes tied above and below the bites caused the section of the leg between the knots to swell. It was hard driving while watching the man, seated next to him, cut himself with a knife. The wounds oozed yellow and red. The yellow was the venom.

When John wrapped the rope about his legs to force the poisons out of the cuts, Ed nearly swerved off the road. John didn’t even flinch at what appeared to be a very painful procedure.

Awed by what he was seeing, Ed said, “You’re the bravest man I’ve ever seen. I know, I’ve seen quite few when I was in the Army.”

“That’s nice of you to say. I feel more stupid than brave. I could have done this without a single bite, but I left my walking stick in the house.”

Ed pressed the accelerator down a little more. The truck edged up to eighty miles an hour. Ed drove silently for a minute as he thought about how he had treated John the night before.

Then he said, “I’m sorry about last night.”

“Same here. I hope that we can become good friends.” John was silent for a minute. Ed took his silence as a sign that he didn’t really accept the apology. It was with relief that he heard John asked, “Can I ask you to do a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t tell anyone what you see or hear in the hospital.”

Wondering what he would hear, he answered, “Is that it? No problem, I won’t say a word about it. Let’s just hope the hospital is just as quiet about it.”

John laughed and then said, “I’ve dealt with hospitals before. They are usually pretty good when they know that you desire a little privacy about such things.”

When they reached the hospital, Ed stopped the truck right in front of the emergency entrance. After John stepped out and was in the care of a nurse, Ed parked the truck in the visitors section of the parking lot. He made his way to the emergency room, trying to figure out what kind of guy he had just driven here.

Ed arrived just in time to follow John into the examination area. The doctor closed the curtain leaving John, Ed, herself, and the nurse crowded together in close quarters. Ed watched as the woman doctor examined the cuts on John’s legs.

She smiled and nodded, “Good job. It looks like you cut in the direction of the fangs and deep enough to get to where the toxin was deposited. Single cuts rather than X cuts. You did a very good job. Of course, I expected that of you after reading your record.”

“Thanks.”

She examined the tourniquet trying to place where she had seen that treatment method before. It took her a minute to remember a story about the Chinese who worked on the railroad. She looked up, surprised, “Chinese rope?”

“Yes.”

“I doubt you really need the anti-toxin, but with that number of bites it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Ed watched the exchange fascinated by the calm manner in which they discussed the treatment John had given himself. While he had worried about John dying before getting to the hospital, the doctor was doubting the need for the anti-toxin. He stared at John, disbelieving what he was hearing.

She reached behind her and removed a syringe from a tray carried by the nurse in the examination area. She injected John without major comment or warning.

John asked, “Aren’t you supposed to warn me that this is going to sting a little?”

“You’ve had more than enough of these to know what is going on!”

“True. I was just wondering if you had failed ‘Bedside Manner’ in medical school.”

Ed laughed at the joke, perhaps a little harder than appropriate, but he was still overwhelmed by all that he had seen. Nonplussed, the doctor stood there for a moment and consulted the folder containing John’s medical records.

She asked, “Would you mind standing up for a minute and allowing me to examine you?”

“No problem.”

“Could you please drop your towel, so I can see all of you.”

“No problem.”

Dropping the towel, John stood there completely naked. The only thing left was a medallion hanging around his neck. Sitting slightly off to the side, Ed realized there were scars he hadn’t seen before. He caught himself looking at the guys cock and felt a little embarrassed at examining another man’s body.

The doctor proceeded to point out scars and recite the situations in which they were created. As she recited each situation, she paused for an acknowledging nod from John. Ed stared wide-eyed as he heard the causes of each scar. That horrible scar and burn had been the result of running twice into a burning building to rescue two kids. He had died as a result of the gunshot taken while protecting a total stranger!

Ed’s attention returned to the conversation when he heard John say, “Darn, I was hoping for that. The least you could do for me is dress up in a sexy doctor outfit.”

The nurse started laughing so hard that tears were coming from her eyes. Ed didn’t understand what was so funny.

The doctor explained, “Some people here think I’m an ice bitch.”

John looked at her very seriously and shook his head. He said, “No, I don’t think so. You aren’t an ice bitch. You are a consummate professional at work. At home, I bet you are a very focused and considerate lover. I would bet that you are a natural submissive.”

Ed looked at her speculatively for a moment, and then discounted the possibility that a doctor would be interested in an old cowboy like himself. She was an attractive woman and any man would be happy to have a woman that looked like her.

She snapped, “Enough of that topic. I’m going to ask that you stay here today and tonight, just in case.”

Ed perked up when John asked, “Will I be confined to bed?”

“Only if you start to feel sick. Why?”

“Well, I was wondering if there were any kids in here that might appreciate having a story read to them,” explained John. He looked over at the doctor in hope that he would be able to do that.

Ed couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This guy was hurt, yet he was still thinking of others. How could he ever have believed this guy was a wimp? Ed knew that if he were in that position, he’d be bragging about how brave he had been and how much pain he’d had to endure. To quietly ask if he could read stories to kids was incredible.

John, in response to the permission granted by the doctor, laughed. “Great. I’ll need a hospital gown and robe. I would hate to have to walk around like this or in my towel.”

The nurse reached around and handed him the requested items. As John put them on, the doctor asked, “So how did you get so many bites?”

“A child found himself in a little difficulty. I did what little I could.”

A child found himself in a little difficulty? That was a lame description of what had actually happened. Ed felt like he had to clarify things a bit.

He said, “Bullshit. This kid had walked into an area where rattlesnakes were sunning themselves. There must have been a hundred of them. He was terrified and screaming. John came out of his house, just dressed in that towel. Then he just walked into that mass of snakes as calmly as can be, picked the kid up, and walked on out. You’d have thought he was just taking a stroll through a park. Bravest damn thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone else, myself included, was just standing there too afraid to move.”

The doctor wrote that down into the medical record. She nodded at Ed and replied, “Sounds like John, according to what I’ve read in here about him.”