After our little jerk off session, Murph made it clear that while he did enjoy it, he probably did not want to take it any further. We all agreed that it would be our little secret.
School would be starting in three weeks, and I hadn’t found any more information about Walter, I was still unsure where else to look. I went back to the newspaper office and talked to Mr. Johnson, I filled him in on the journal, again not giving any of the sexual details. We went back to the 1922 papers and looked a little further at the weeks prior and after the weeks that Kyle and I had went through. We were looking at the first week of August edition when a small article caught my eye.
“Mulberry Road Home Burns”
I read the article, it said that on Sunday evening, July 18 a rural home was completely lost to a fire of undetermined origin. Sheriff Tucker stated that they were still investigating, but as of print date they had not found a cause of the fire. They were unable to say at this point if anyone was home at the time. The fire was reported by a neighbor.
Mr. Johnson asked, “why do you think the article has anything to do with Walter?”
“There is a burnt house foundation on the same property where I found the journal. I wish the paper had given a name or address in the article.”
Mr. Johnson said, “well, the paper only prints the information that the sheriff gave them, let’s look at the next couple weeks to see if they printed a follow up story.”
We went over the next four weeks, but still no more information.
“Sorry Mike, I wish I could help more, but I have to get back to this week’s paper, you can stay and look as long as you want.”
“Thanks Mr. Johnson, but I have taken enough of your time, I need to get home too.”
I started for home, I went about a block and was walking past the café, there were five retired men sitting around a table drinking coffee. I decided to take a chance and see if any of them knew about Walter or his dad, I figured they were about the same age as Walter would be. I walked in and asked if I could join them at the table, they said sure kid, sit down. I told them who I was and that I was curious if any of them knew who lived on Mulberry Road in 1922. Two of them said that moved to town in 1934, one lived on the other side of town, the final two said that they both lived there, Frank was 16 and Charlie was 17 at the time.
Charlie said, “I lived in the same house that you live in now, in fact my old man was the one who built the house, as well as three others on that road.”
“So did you know Walter Hankins, or his dad?”
“No, I didn’t know him, I knew who he was, he was a few grades behind me in school, I kind of felt sorry for him. Almost every time I saw him, he had a black eye or a bruise somewhere.”
Frank added, “Yeah, my folks always told me that his old man beat him and his mom quite often.”
Charlie added, “the bastard was an alcoholic and the more he drank the bigger son of a bitch he turned into.”
Mary the waitress was refilling their coffee, “language Charlie, don’t corrupt the kid.”
“Sorry Mary, but he was a bastard.”
“Well, you old farts would know, that was well before my time.” She gave me a wink as she went back to the kitchen.
Frank said, “I remember when his mom died, I think the beatings got worse for the kid after that. He also told my little brother that he would not be back to school after the 8th grade, his old man was going to make him go to work at the mill.”
Charlie said, “after the house burned down, I never saw him again, the talk around town was that he and his old man both died in the fire.”
I asked, “did you ever hear what started the fire?”
Frank said, “nothing was ever official, but my folks said that they figured the old man was beating on the kid and they knocked a kerosene lamp over and got trapped in the fire.”
Charlie added, “the old man smoked like chimney, my dad said he figured he had a snoot full and passed out with a lit cigarette.”
Frank took a sip of his coffee, “either way, nobody ever saw either one of them again.”
I asked, “did either of you know Ellis Jackson?”
Frank said, “I didn’t.”
Charlie said, “I knew there was a Jackson family that old man Thornhill brought in to work at the mill. There were about ten kids in the family, I didn’t know any of their names.”
They tried to remember any other details but couldn’t add much more. They started to drift into other topics, so I thanked them and said that I needed to get home. I walked home thinking that at least I was on the right track and what few details I had were lining up. I decided I should stop in the café next time I saw them having coffee, I was really enjoying listening to their stories. When I got home, I ran to my bedroom and wrote all the new information in my notebook.
School was starting in a week, Kyle and Murph had started football practice so Bug and were hanging out on our own. We went for a swim in the pond and headed up to the shed, Bug pulled out the Playboys right away and started to flip through the pages. I was actually reading one of the articles, as I was becoming interested in different writing styles. I felt Bug looking at me and I looked at him as he asked, “so you really don’t like looking at these naked women?”
I said, “well, not really. They are very attractive, but they just don’t turn me on like they do you.”
“And you liked sucking Kyle’s and Murph’s dick? And kissing a guy?”
“Well, yes, and I liked getting mine sucked too.”
“Who doesn’t like that? So, what is it like?”
“What is what like?”
“Kissing a guy.”
I paused a minute, “have you ever kissed a girl?”
“Sure.”
“It’s just like that I guess.”
“And the sucking part?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer, “It’s kind of hard to explain.”
Bug looked at the floor, “What would you say if I told you that I wanted to try it.”
I asked, “the kissing or the sucking?”
He blushed, “if you promise not to tell, both.”
I looked at his crotch and saw the outline of his hard dick stretched down his leg. I moved next to him and put my hands on his face and pulled him close, “are you sure?”
He nodded as he brought his lips to mine. We pressed together and I pushed my tongue past his lips as he followed my lead. He reached down to rub my hard cock through my jeans, and I did the same to him. We stood and stripped each other as we continued our kiss, I pulled back and asked, “are you ok?”
“Yeah, you are a better kisser then Jenny Miller”
I said, “thanks.”
“Can I suck you now?”
“Sure, just remember to watch the teeth.”
He went to his knees and licked the head of my dick, then wrapped his lips around me and sucked me into his mouth until he gagged.
I said, “just take it slow you don’t have go all the way at once just keep your lips tight and go up and down a little bit.”
He soon got the hang of it and was sucking like a pro, I felt my nuts tighten and was getting close, “Bug I am getting close, if you don’t want a mouth full of cum you better stop.”
I felt his lips tighten around my cock and he pulled me deeper into his mouth. I thought ok I guess you want it all and I started to shoot down his throat. He held on tight and took the whole load, with only a small drop leaking from the corner of his mouth. He swallowed hard as he stood up and I leaned in for another kiss, tasting my own cum.
I asked, “so, how was it?”
He said, “not too bad, not sure I want to do that all the time, but it wasn’t horrible.”
I reached down to his still hard dick, “you are still turned on, I should return the favor.” I went to my knees and tried to get him in my mouth, only succeeding in getting just past the massive head. I fondled his balls with one hand and stroked the base of cock with other while sucking on the head. I had wanted to be in this position since the first time I saw him naked and now I was thinking maybe it was too big, I hoped I was giving him pleasure. My question was soon answered when he let out a grunt and filled my mouth with a hot load of cum. I kept a little bit in my mouth and stood to kiss Bug, I pushed the cum into his mouth. We broke our kiss as he looked at me, “was that my cum?”
“Yes, what do you think?”
“It tastes a little bit different than yours.”
We sat back down, I asked, “who was better, me or Kyle?”
“Kyle went deeper, but I liked it better when you swirled your tongue around the head.”
“Yeah, that thing is too big for me to go any deeper. Did you like it?”
He thought a minute, “it felt good while you were sucking me, but I don’t think I have the urge to go suck anyone else off.”
I laughed, “don’t worry I won’t tell anyone how good you are at it.”
We promised each other once again not to share our secret, not even with Kyle and Murph.
We were now officially in high school, a few weeks in we were all finding where we fit in. Murph and Kyle were the jocks of course, Bug was in band and chorus and was really a very good sax player, I was the nerd that liked English and reading and got good grades. Kyle was one of the guys that could fit in most groups, the jocks, he got good enough grades to hang with us nerds and had a nice singing voice as well. Since I was friends with Murph and Kyle I was lucky enough to not be picked on by the jocks, so I actually enjoyed high school.
I soon found myself on the school newspaper and yearbook staff, my first assignment was to cover the football games. My teacher taught a few of us how to operate a camera so there three of us covering each game, each of us taking pictures from different areas of the field. I was responsible for writing up the article that would accompany the photos. The team was doing really well this year and I was happy to watch Kyle and Murph play. I had even started to get along better with my dad, although he was disappointed the I didn’t play, he was proud of the way that I covered the games. I was still stopping down at the newspaper office to talk to Mr. Johnson and I started to show him my stories for the school paper.
He said, “these are really good photos, and your write ups are nicely done too, Mike.”
“Thanks Mr. Johnson.”
“How would you like to my school news reporter?”
I asked, “you mean you will put my articles in your paper?”
“Yes, that is what I mean, look there is always something going on at the school and I don’t always have time to cover it like I should. I will talk to your teacher to make sure we are on the up and up, so that you can use the same stories for both papers. I can even pay you for your work, it won’t be a lot, but it will give you a little spending money.”
“That would be great Mr. Johnson, I can’t wait to get started.”
I wrote a couple stories a week for Mr. Johnson and decided that I was going to college to get my degree in journalism.
Kyle and I continued to see each other and were able keep our relationship a secret until our junior year when his dad got a new job in Ohio. We were sad to split up, but we wrote each other every week, and we knew that we were going to different colleges in a year anyway. Bug was a big hit in the band with his sax playing and he was also learning the guitar, which he turned out to be damn good at. He and Jenny Miller had been dating for a little over a year. Murph, of course was dating the head cheerleader, so we were spending less time together. I was happy for them both, and I was glad for the memories that I had from when we were younger. I kept myself occupied writing my stories for the papers and still searching for any information on Walter and Ellis.
We made it to our senior year, and all were beginning to make plans for college. Bug was headed to Tennessee State University in Nashville, he wanted to be in a music city. Murph got a scholarship to play football at Oklahoma State and wanted to go into coaching after college. I was headed to the University of Memphis, I liked their journalism department, both my high school teacher and Mr. Johnson told me it was one of the best in the state.
The week before graduation we met for the last time at the shed, we talked about all the fun we had over the years. Bug had snuck a six-pack from his dad’s fridge so we sat and toasted each other and promised that we would keep in touch. We all knew that after one or two letters and maybe a phone call, we probably wouldn’t see each other until our five- or ten-year class reunion.
