Sexy Gay Stories - Volume Five - three m/m short stories

You’re an A student. Did you get in trouble or something?’ 
    ‘No!’ said Laurence. ‘I want to do this. It’s my heritage project. I like history.’ Then he gave Bobby directions. ‘Turn off at Alameda Street.’
    ‘Yes, Master.’
    Laurence was a fat kid with glasses. Sometimes Bobby wished he could do something for him, get him in shape, but he had to admit that Laurence didn’t seem to mind being who he was.
    It was cool in the long, high-ceilinged waiting room of the station. Display cases and panels had been set up here and Laurence set off on a systematic examination of everything, taking notes and photos. Bobby bought a lemonade, drank it, idled, looked outside at the courtyard, then began looking at the exhibits: bowls; packets of herbs; fragments of patterned cloth; a collection of bone hair pins. Some of these things were very old and Bobby understood they deserved respect, but they meant nothing to him. 
    One panel depicted an anti-Chinese riot back in the 1890s with drawings of white men carrying torches and clubs and pistols, burning the place to the ground, terrifying the people. Bobby’s blood boiled, his body tightened. He hated it when people were helpless. But this had happened a long time ago. 
    And here were photographs from a later period ... a few from the early 1900s, more from the 1920s and 30s. Nothing dramatic. The shops, the shacks, the mostly mud streets ... a few old cars and trucks ... and the people. The people drew him in. Immigrants and the children of immigrants, many descended from the Chinese brought here to build the first railroads long, long ago.
    There were formal portraits and snapshots of street life. Old people, small, with taut drawn skin ... broad shouldered men unloading a cart ... a professional man, perhaps a teacher or a doctor, impeccably dressed with a starched collar and the pomaded hair of the 20s ... a mother posing proudly with her children, one bold, the other shy. And all of them long gone. Well, some of the children might still be around, very old people themselves by now. It was another world. Bobby didn’t feel tied to it or them in any way. He shook the very thought away.
    Laurence, finally finished, came over and stood by Bobby. But when Bobby turned and looked at him, Laurence stepped back in shock.
    ‘What is it?’ demanded Bobby. ‘What are you staring at?’
    ‘Uncle,’ said Laurence, peering up at him, ‘Uncle, you’re crying.’ 
    When Bobby got home that night, after dinner with his sister, Mitch called and asked about coming over.
    Bobby really didn’t feel like doing anything, but Mitch said he was in the neighbourhood, so Bobby let him come. The big guy hadn’t been in the house for more than a minute before he was rubbing his hands over Bobby’s chest, working his nipples. Bobby pulled away.
    ‘What’s a matter?’ asked Mitch. ‘You OK, bud?’
    ‘Yeah, I’m OK. You want something to drink?’ He headed for the kitchen. Mitch ambled after him.
    ‘I’ll take a Coke or something.’
    ‘I don’t have Coke,’ said Bobby. ‘How long have you been coming here, Mitch? Have I ever had Coke?’
    ‘Whatever,’ said Mitch.
    ‘I got some beers here.’
    ‘Nah,’ said Mitch. ‘What’s up with you? Bummer day?’
    ‘No,’ said Bobby, ‘it was a good day.’ He tried to tell Mitch a little about the exhibit. The big guy really wasn’t interested. 
    Bobby asked him what he’d done with his day.
    ‘Washed the car, then beached it. Cruised around. Nothing. Wanna mess around?’
    ‘I can smell the ocean on you,’ said Bobby.
    ‘I showered.’
    ‘You just rinsed. No soap. I like it.’
    He wished Mitch would leave. He needed to think. Something had happened to him today and he didn’t know what it was. Despite himself, though, his cock was getting hard. He couldn’t help it. He had a lot of animal in him, he supposed. Maybe he just wasn’t a very evolved person. Still in one of his earliest human lifetimes. Maybe he’d be punished next time, maybe he’d be reborn as a pig or a goat.
    ‘You wanna fuck or what?’ said Mitch.
    ‘My body does.’
    ‘Your body is you.’
    ‘No, it’s not,’ said Bobby. ‘No, it’s not.’ He pushed Mitch away. ‘I don’t want to be just a fucking animal.’ Suddenly he was afraid, really afraid that he would become an animal. He would stop being a person. Maybe he wasn’t a person now, just an animal in a person’s body.
    Mitch had no idea what was going on.