Visitors from abroad_(1)

I had always known that I was equally interested in girls and boys. I never gave the matter much thought, just accepted that I was getting the best of both worlds.
When I was in my teens I lived with my parents and two older sisters in a fairly large house with quite extensive gardens. Well, we had a tennis court, a swimming pool and an apple orchard, and to me that seemed big. However, there was one occasion when some relatives from abroad came to stay with us, a family of five, and suddenly the house didn’t seem quite as big. Uncle Ben (a sheep farmer) and Aunt Sarah together with cousins Jane, Michael and David packed in with us and I had to give up my bedroom to David. I was moved into the box room which was little more than a big cupboard. I had known of this arrangement for the previous two weeks and I resented it; I knew I was going to hate David because of it.

When we met them at the airport, my resentment melted; David was the youngest of the cousins and about 6 months older than me. We were almost identical in height and stature and David had curly ginger hair, blue eyes and a cheeky smile that could win anybody over. From that point on I changed my mind about him completely and leant over backwards to make him welcome. We loaded their luggage into the mini bus which my father had hired and set off for home. The trip home took about 2 hours and although there was very little conversation between us, there were a number of occasions when I caught David looking at me. Each time he looked away quickly and I pretended not to notice, but I couldn’t help wondering if his thoughts were going in the same direction as mine. On arrival I was instructed to help David get his 2 cases up to my room. I ushered David into my room, saying “Here we are, make yourself at home”, and I set his small case down on the end of the bed. He put his large case on the floor then grabbed me by the arm and turned me to face him. His face had taken on a serious expression and he said, “Joe, I feel rotten pushing you out of your room, it should be me in the box room”. “Oh, that’s no problem” I said, “Don’t give it another thought. I hope you find the bed comfortable, but you will have to put up with me paying you fairly frequent visits as all my clothes are here and there’s no room to move anything over to the box room”. David said, “Joe, it’s your room, so come and go as you please”. I said “Thanks”, and with a grin I added “I will remember to knock”. David grinned back and started to say something but changed his mind before any words came out.

I had cleared a cupboard for David to store his things, so I helped him empty his cases and pack his things away. While this was going on David chatted about being jet lagged and doubted if he was going to be able to sleep that night. I told him that he could watch my TV if he couldn’t sleep and I showed him 2 shelves containing about 100 video cassettes. He spent the next 5 minutes looking through them and then said that there were at least 20 there which he had not seen, then he said, in a lower voice, “Have you got any naughty ones”. I put on a disgusted expression for a few seconds and then I laughed and said “Of course I have”. I showed David a small metal safe, fixed to the floor in my wardrobe, told him the combination for the lock and said “there’s about a dozen there and they get naughtier the further you go down the pile”. He ruffled my hair and said that he thought I was as big a rascal as he was. I looked straight at him and said “You can count on that, but right now I think we had better go and see what all the others are up to.

We found the others gathered in the kitchen where my mother was dispensing mugs of coffee. There were about 4 different conversations going on, and I think I overheard Uncle Ben suggesting that we should pay a return visit to them next year. Keen to show David the size of our garden I pointed through the kitchen window to the orchard (about 200 M away) and said “If you look between the trees you can just see the back gate”. Uncle Ben, who was standing just behind me, gave a little laugh and walked away. “Did I say something funny” I asked and Jane said “Dad was probably thinking that it takes us about 45 minutes in a 4 x 4 to reach our back gate”. Aunt Sarah joined in at this point and said “We’re on a ranch and we actually have a small mountain in what you could call our back garden. But we’re not bragging and this isn’t a competition. Like you we also have a pool, but it’s fed from a mountain stream and is much too cold to swim, so we are all keen to try out yours”. I looked at David and said “Oops, I thought I was going to impress you with the size of our garden”. He replied “You have, it’s just the right size. We live right out in the sticks; our nearest neighbour is 4 miles away and its 10 miles to town. Not so bad for Jane and Michael, they both have cars but for me it’s pretty restrictive. I do have a quad bike which I can use across country to visit a couple of friends, but apart from that it can be a bit lonely. So, how about we go and sample the delights of your pool, it’s very warm this afternoon and the pool looks very inviting”. Michael overheard David’s comment and said that he thought it a good idea if we all went for a swim. Every one agreed and we all got changed into our swimming kit. I saw David dig out a pair of bright blue speedos so I hunted through my drawers to find mine which were almost the same shade of blue.

David and I were the first to arrive at the pool, where we hung our towels on the rail and stood looking at one another. Neither of us tried to disguise the fact that we were eyeing each other up and down, and apparently liking what we were seeing. David’s muscles were a little more developed than mine except for my shoulders and biceps as I had been practicing weight lifting, and in order to show this off, I clasped my hands behind my head. David stared for a few seconds then said “This is uncanny, you have a small mole above your right nipple and I have the same on my left side.