Chapter 3

The opening ceremony was a blur. I remember parading in the team uniform. A lot. I remember the amazing water cube thing we swam in. And press. I know I talked to the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Washington Post and, oddly enough, a pair of Japanese papers. There were others but those were the ones I remember. If I wasn't in the water, I was at the pool rooting for someone. If I wasn't there, I was either eating or sleeping. In all that, there were a couple moments that time stopped and I'll remember forever.

Winning the bronze was not one of them. I didn't realize that I'd won it. I swam in the last heat. I'd been so intent on psyching myself up that I suddenly realized that I was in the water and I hadn't heard the whistle. The other swimmers were in the water by then and I couldn't tell if I got an early start or not so I kept swimming. Then, I realized that I had been so intent on whether I got an early start, that I hadn't counted laps. I tried to figure out how many I had done and how many were left. I took my best guess. When I came out of the water, the coach was yelling "14:47! 14:47!" which made no sense at the time but I realized later was my time. I kept asking him, "Was that it?" which made him think I'd hit my head. Several people kept telling me to go 'over there' to where they were presenting the medals. They were about to start without me when the coach finally convinced me that I'd made third place. I was one of the guys going home with one more piece of metal than I left with. I stood there listening to the Norwegian national anthem and realized that I was accepting an award for winning an event I practically didn't remember swimming. I should have felt great. Instead, I felt like a complete jackass. I gave the metal to Mom - who already had a 'my son won' tee-shirt on - and my Grandfather took the whole family out to dinner. Afterwards, we had to catch several cabs to get us all back to the hotels. Granddad rode with me, Alex and Beth.

"So, ya'll see much of the city?" He asks mildly.

"Um," Alex looked at me, "Some."

"We went shopping." Beth offers.

"Fine, fine." Granddad nods. Then he cleared his throat. "So. Peter. Is there somethin' you need to discuss?"

"What?" He gestures at Alex and Beth. "What?"

"I just wanna know if you wanna stop." Alex says, softly; I almost didn't hear him.

If Granddad hadn't been sitting there, I'd have thought this was some kind of joke.

"Peter, apparently you have developed some sort of relationship with both yo'" he paused, suddenly mindful of the cab driver, "with both of these persons. I will not take this opportunity to express how strongly I disapprove of said relations, we can discuss that at another time. The question at the moment is: is it yor intention to continue these relations indefinitely or are you seeking to terminate one or both of these relations at this time?"

I have no idea. I can't even figure out what kind of relation we have. I sure as hell hadn't considered it tonight. "What?"

"Am I to presume that you had not given the matter any consideration?"

"Uh, no."

"Alright, then, le'see if we can clarify the issues. Take Alex. Do you have one or more relationships with him?"

"Uh -" I really am not ready to face this now but I could feel Alex stiffing beside me. He must really be worried if he went to Granddad about it. I try to focus. "Uh, yeah. Of course. Yes."

"Do you wish to terminate all relations with him?"

"I can't terminate all of them, he's..." Granddad stops me before I say it aloud, "No, no I don't."

"Do you wish to change the nature of your relations with him."

I open my mouth and pause. "No." I look at him. "I don't want to change a thing right now. Ok?" He actually looked scared. "Not until you say you want things to change. I know this is important for you."

"Yes, Sir." He whispers. His lip trembles a bit. "Thank you, Sir."

I look at Beth, "Look, I don't know what happened with us, but..."

"But, I'm sorry. It was my fault." She looked contrite and a bit forlorn.

"Baby, no! I'm the eldest; I'm s'posed to look out for you. I'm the one who's sorry."

"Fine," Granddad brusquely cut across us, "we have established that all prior activities were unintended and all parties involved are repentant. The question is, as to future - activities - is it you mutual intention to continue this sort of immoral behavior or will you cease and desist all future actions?"

She looked away, at her hands, and bits her lips. "I'm sorry, Granddad. I'll stop."

"Now hold on there, young lady." He tilts her face toward him. "It is not my place ta approve o' disapprove uh anythin' you do. I have my concerns, an' you want my advice, I'll give it. But I long since given up on tellin' these two they business an' ain't fixin' ta start with you." He lets her go and sighs deeply. "Least you know you kin trust him. Ya'll take proper precautions, I trust?" All three of us reply with a resounding yes. "Well, then, I can think of worse things."

She looked at me again, "I don't love you. I mean, not that way..."

" ... not romantically..." Granddad supplies.

" ... yeah. Oh, God, no. Yeah, not romantically. I'd hate spending the rest of my life married ta you." Not that I'd want her to, but that's not exactly a compliment. "I mean, oh come on! You're uh nice guy, just not my type, ok? But it's fun with you. If you don't wanna, I'm ok with that."

"I just want you ta be happy, ok?" I move the lock of hair that had fallen in front of her face. "The other stuff is, y'know, ok. But if you're uncomfortable, then that's it. I don't care. I care, I mean it's just..."

" ... not the important part..."

" ... yeah."

Granddad cleared his throat. "Are you all resolved at this point?"

"I think so." I glance at Beth, who looked away grinning. I turn to Alex and realize he's asleep. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Fine, then. Now you on ya own, hear? I don't want ta know anothuh damn thin' 'bout yo' love life, hear me?"

"Yes, Sir." I have to laugh.

"I'm not laughing, boy. How comfortable would you be hearing the ins an' outs uh me an' Ms Rachael?"

"Not at all, Sir. What I know is too much already."

"Well, the feeling is more than mutual. In my day, folks yo' age didn't get up ta this kind uh trouble..." He went on but I knew it was mostly bluster. What I knew about he and his second wife made me confident that he was more offended by our age than our actions. We all kissed his cheek when we finally arrived at our hotel and he took the cab back to his own.

We have the elevator to ourselves and Beth winds her arms around my neck, "Granddad's pretty cool but I didn't think he'd wanna see this." She kisses me deeply. "I like foolin' 'round with you an' I don't wanna stop lessin you do."

"We're goin' ta Hell for this." I look past her at Alex. "You both know that, right?"

Alex shrugs, "I'm goin' anyway. Might as well enjoy the trip."

"I don't think God would send us ta Hell fo' this. I mean, nobody getting' hurt. We ain't doin' drugs or shootin' people. I don't care what Daddy say, I ain't believin' in uh God that think murder an' sex are the same thing."

Alex snickers, "Can I be there when you tell yo' Daddy that?"

Beth rolls her eyes as the doors open, "Well, obviously, I ain't tellin' him that. But just 'cause he control what church I go to don't mean he control what pastor I believe. Rev. Winslow says that God made sex fun, 'cause he wanted us ta do it."

"Inside heterosexual, adult, married relationships, yes."

"Not with yo kin, not fag, not fucked up twisted shit."

"Alex."

"Hey, bible don't say nothin' 'bout bondage."

We get to my door and Beth pecks me gently on the lips, "My point is that I don't think we're doing anything wrong if nobody get hurt. G'night Peter." She smiles at me. "You'd better get some sleep, if-n you wanna get uh necklace for Grandma." I promised her I win at least one more medal.

"Yeah, get some sleep." Alex kisses me as well; deeply like he wants more than just a kiss. "Ima break a rule tonight." He steps away then stops. "Oh yeah." He talks my hand and shoves it down his pants. I jump then realize what I'm feeling. Silk and lace. "You will not believe it, Sir, but we found a pair in green an' gold. Maybe I'll get uh chance ta show you. Later."

I go in my room and straight into the bathroom. The whole time we were out - the whole time we were with the family - Alex was wearing girl's panties. That alone gets me hard. I have to ask him how that felt. Now he and Beth were in their room. I imagine Beth kissing Alex's dick through the silk. I pull out my cell phone and call them. "Stay dressed."

"What?"

"The lingerie. Keep in on tonight. Whatever you do together."

"We did. We have, I mean."

"What's he doing?"

"He's kissing my feet. Hey, Peter, can I get him ta shave me?"

"What?" I hear Alex echo the question.

"Yeah! Gotta go, talk to ya t'morruh. Wait!" I catch her before she hangs up. "He can do you, but tomorrow see if you can buy a wax kit ta do him."

She laughs.

I jerk off thinking about Alex shaving Beth's pussy clean. It takes maybe three minutes. My roommate must think I'm a pervert.

All totaled, I compete in five events. The Open Water 10km, however, was the one I was most looking forward to. It finally starts on day one of the second week. I was in the first heat and had a pretty good time, one hour, forty-four minutes. That beat my gold metal time at the FINA's by almost two minutes. By the end of the day, I still have the Gold medal time. I am assailed by reporters. Someone asks me how important it was to me to win. I think he was expecting some bullshit answer about the spirit of competition, of winning being the only thing.