CHAPTER SIX

SECOND LOVE

First love, young and light,

massager of hearts

thou paths shine bright,

and reaches deep into the darkest heart

to awaken love where before had been none.

First love cruel and vicious,

scorcher of hearts

thou footsteps laser bright

to seal thou paths,

 now love there’s none.

Second love, old and numb

tinker of hearts

bearer of guilt, bearer of shame

thou has no path, thou has no flame

to warm an older heart.

Second love, renewed and sane

opener of hearts

thou paths reforged

thou steps seeping red

  to reward a colder heart.

Tommy Frank Jones

“Class, I have an exceptional paper here from someone in the class that I would like to read out loud. Now, this person has what it takes to be a writer. The name of the story is, “LATE SUMMER DAYS,” Mr. Fish said and then he began to read.

That’s my story, Tommy Frank had to bite his tongue to keep from saying it out loud. “He is actually reading my story. God, I hope that he really likes and isn’t just being nice to me! No! He likes it! Tommy Frank thought as he remembered the other papers that Mr. Fish sent back to him the past weeks with so many red marks that they had looked like abstract paintings.

Tommy Frank secretively glanced around at the faces of the other students as Mr. Fish read the story of a forbidden romance between a black woman and a white man as seen through the eyes of a young naive boy. But it is not really writing, Tommy Frank thought as Mr. Fish’s voiced changed as he spoke for first one character and then another one. Because it is true. I just wrote down what happened. That can’t be what writing is all about, can it? Just telling the world what happened to you when you were a kid. Tommy Frank shook his head, There has got to be more to writing than that, there has got to be.

When Mr. Fish finished reading the story, the entire class broke out in applause. Tommy Frank was stunned. Before when Mr. Fish had read stories there had been little if any reaction from the class. It was incredible to him that people would react so positive to such a simple story.

Several students stayed after class, so Tommy Frank decided to wait outside in the hall for Mr. Fish. It was ten minutes before the hairy man freed himself from his devoted flock. He looked for Tommy Frank the moment he stepped into the hall. At first he didn’t see the tall blond kid and looked disappointed. Then his face lite up when he spotted Tommy Frank farther down the hallway.

“I thought you had left,” Mr. Fish said as he walked up to where Tommy Frank was leaning against the wall. “I am glad you waited for me.”

“Thanks for reading my story out loud. It was nice to see the class’ reaction to it. But, do you really think that it is good, Mr. Fish?” Tommy Frank asked.

“You know it is good, Tommy Frank. You saw it on the faces of the other students. Boy, you are going to be the writer you want to be one of these days,” Mr. Fish said solemnly. “You have got something to say. You might not know it or believe it, but you have got something to say.”

Tommy Frank shrugged, “I’ll take your word for it, Mr. Fish. Well, I have to go and get ready for work. And thanks again Mr. Fish.”

The instructor nodded his head so vigorously that it ruffled his full head of white hair. Tommy Frank hesitated expecting that Mr. Fish would ask him to stop by his office, but the gray haired instructor just smiled and winked at Tommy Frank and walked away.

He really likes the story! God, he believes every word he said, Tommy Frank thought as he watched Mr. Fish walking away. He realized that Mr. Fish and his relationship had suddenly entered a new stage over the past weeks. Tommy Frank’s visits to his office had grown fewer and fewer. He knew that Mr. Fish would probably not ask him to stop by his office anymore. That if he wanted to have sex with him, Tommy Frank would have to be the one to suggest it and even then he didn’t know that Mr. Fish’s answer would be yes.

He doesn’t want to do anything that will come between us as teacher and student. He wants to help me become a writer more than have sex with me. At that moment, Tommy Frank like Mr. Fish more than he ever had before.

Later when he told Walt about the events in class Tommy Frank felt proud of himself. “Do you think that Mr. Fish really liked my story so much?” He asked Walt.

“Yes, I definitely think he did. I liked it. I told you it was good,” Walt said. “Ah, Tommy Frank, there is an invitation only opening at the Gingerbread Gallery that I was invited to that I had completely forgotten about. I am going to take the night off from the restaurant. I would take you but with Matt still out and it being a Friday night, I think you should go to work.” Walt said.

“Sure, no problem. You should get out more. I don’t remember you going any where but the restaurant for over a month. Get out and have some fun. The restaurant will be fine,” Tommy Frank said with more cheer than he felt. He wanted to ask if Joe was going to be at the opening but didn’t although he had to practically bite his tongue to keep from asking the question. He wanted Walt to take some time off and enjoy himself, but the thought of going to work in the restaurant without Walt made Tommy Frank almost physically sick. In the two months he had been living with Walt they had always gone to the restaurant together. Knowing that Walt was in the back office or seeing him running around the kitchen managing crises made it not seem like work. It was almost like being at home with Walt, who was always working at home too.

The walk to the restaurant that night seemed to take hours instead of fifteen minutes. Everything about working at the restaurant that had been fun when he knew that Walt was near but became drudgery without him. Tommy Frank was a basket case. He forgot drinks, severed the wrong dishes to wrong tables. The whole night was a horror. His thoughts were on Walt and what he was doing at the party that Tommy Frank couldn’t concentrate on his work.

After work, Tommy Frank rushed home only to find it empty. Tommy Frank glanced at his watch, it was twelve-thirty. Although Walt hadn’t said what the hours were for the open house at the Gingerbread Gallery, Tommy Frank figured that it was surely over by this time.

There is one way to find out, he thought. Walk by! The Gingerbread Gallery was on Duval Street on the same block as La Te Da. It wasn’t more that a fifteen minute walk. If it was over, he could always stop at the 801 or Papillon for a drink.

Tommy Frank walked fast as he made his way over toward Duval Street. He was angry that Walt wasn’t home. Even if the opening was still in progress, Walt knew what time he would be home. He should have been home when he arrived. Even before he walked past the Gingerbread Gallery, he could tell that it was closed. Had the opening still be going on there would have been a crowd in front of the place and taxis going and coming. Instead it was deserted except for the eternal parade of tourist that was present on Duval Street no Mattter what time of the year or day.

“Where could he be?” Tommy Frank found himself thinking as he turned around and headed down Duval Street toward the 80l. His mind was in turmoil. He couldn’t think straight. He was worried and angry at the same time. The thought that Walt preferred to be visiting someone else instead of being with him caused Tommy Frank mental pain.

The 801 was crowded. Tommy Frank scanned the crowd quickly hoping against hope that he would see Walt but his friend was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that maybe he should go back home and see if Walt had already come home, Tommy Frank turned to leave when someone called out from the crowd.

“Hey, I know you!” Came a drunken voice from out of the mass of bodies.

Tommy Frank paused. Then slowly turned back.

An old man emerged from the crowd. It was Jim, the old man he had met while sitting in front of the convenience store.

“You’re the hustler with the big cock! Aren’t you?” The old man said as he staggered over to the doorway. “You are the kid I brought home and fucked a few months ago, aren’t you?” The old man demanded.

“I am not a damn hustler?” Tommy Frank hissed angrily.

“Yea, it is you. Stay here a second, please, and let me get Bill. He didn’t believe me when I told him about you. He say’s I made it all up. Don’t move, now,” the old man said and then disappeared back into the crowded bar.

Tommy Frank looked at the crowd milling around inside the 801 and thought about walking away. He knew that it would be the right thing to do. He didn’t really like the old man. He seemed to recall his name as Jim. But he stayed. Suddenly he felt so lonely. He needed someone. He remembered how the old man had fucked him so brutally that day. Suddenly he wanted to be treated that way again. He needed someone to make him feel something.

“This is the guy I was telling you about, Bill.” The old man said, pulling another man from the bar. “I forgot your name kid.” Jim said.

“Probably best!” Tommy Frank said.

“Anyway this is my lover Bill,” the old man said to introduce the man behind him.

Tommy Frank suddenly found himself staring at an older dark haired man with coarse black hair visible on his chest from his partially opened shirt. The man looked even older than Jim. The man’s dark eyes attracted Tommy Frank. He wasn’t handsome but he looked sexy in a burned out way, as though he had seen and done everything and could take you to heaven in the bedroom. At that moment, Tommy Frank wanted to be taken somewhere, anywhere.

“Glad to meet you. You are even handsomer than Jim described. If your cock is half as big, you must be one hell of a lover,” the older man said as he eyes devoured Tommy Frank.

“He is. He also has the tightest ass of any hustler I have ever fucked?” Jim said enthusiastically in his half drunken voice.

Tommy Frank didn’t even bother saying that he wasn’t a hustler.

“How much would you charge for the two of us to have sex with you?” Bill asked as he reached his hand to his own crotch and fondled himself. I might not have a cock as long as yours, if Jim was telling me the truth, but I got one as thick as they come. And I love a tight assholed hustler,” he added. “What do you say? Come home with us?”

“Sure,” Tommy Frank found himself saying. It was as thought he was standing to the side watching the conversation and someone else was talking for him.

“Hot, damn! And I thought it was going to be another boring night at the 801,” Jim exclaimed. “Come on and let’s go home, Bill!”

Tommy Frank let the two men lead the way. Then just as he took a step after them he thought he heard his named being called. He turned back and glanced at the crowd inside the bar. For a brief moment he saw a face on the other side of the bar, a familiar face. But when he blinked and looked again it was gone. Jesus! Had it really been Jesus or was he imagining things?

“Come on, let get home so I can sample that fine young asshole of yours,” Bill said as he came back to tug on Tommy Frank’s arm.

“Why am I doing this?” Tommy Frank thought as he followed the two men. He couldn’t answer the question nor could he stop himself from having sex with the two of them. Already his cock was hard and his asshole was pulsing from the pain it would soon feel. He didn’t want to get fucked, but he also wanted to. He wanted to get completely lost to someone and these two old men were the only one that needed him.

Jim and Bill’s house was as untidy as Tommy Frank remembered, if anything it was even more so. Clothes were scattered everywhere around the living room and the hallway. The bedroom was a disaster. Tommy Frank thought of turning around and leaving when he saw the dingy bed sheets, but as he faced Bill he changed his mind. The dark haired man already had removed his shirt. The thick grown of coarse jet black hair on the old man’s chest excited Tommy Frank and the golden haired kid’s cock took over.

Then when Bill dropped his pants and his old cock popped up short but very thick, Tommy Frank’s lust for sex grew stronger. As Bill began to hand pump his thick uncircumcised cock, Jim removed his clothes. “Show us what you have got,” Bill said as he continued to play with his fat cock.

Tommy Frank stripped quickly. He was hot. He wanted sex. He wanted sex with both of the old men.

“Jim, was right! You do have a monster cock,” Bill said as he stepped up to Tommy Frank and grabbed his cock. The old man skinned the blond kid’s foreskin so far back that Tommy Frank’s face wrinkled up in a grimace.“Get down on you knees and suck me!” Bill demanded in a tone that no one had ever used on Tommy Frank before.

Feeling uneasy, but not able to resist the force of Bill’s command, Tommy Frank dropped to his knees in front of the two naked old men. Bill held his cock down to him. “Suck it!” He demanded in a loud commanding voice.

Tommy Frank open his mouth and closed his lips around the fat foreskin draped head of Bill’s cock. He sucked the foreskin first. It tasted pissy. He paused as he considered whether he wanted to continue.

Smack! Bill’s hand struck Tommy Frank’s left cheek so hard that the kid’s ears rang. “Suck it, I said!”Bill growled the command.

The force of the old man’s voice compelled Tommy Frank to comply. The old man’s cock was thicker than any he had ever sucked. Even thought Bill’s cock was short, Tommy Frank had trouble taking it all down his throat. He shuddered to think that the old man was going to fuck him with such a fat cock. He hoped that Bill would be content too just like him suck him off.

“What about me, Bill?” Jim asked. I want to get my cock sucked too!”

“So bring you little skinned cock over here and let him suck you while I fuck him,” Bill told his partner.

Tommy Frank shuddered at the thought of the pain Bill’s fat cock would cause him. He wished that he had never come home with them. If only Walt had been home.

Behind him, Tommy Frank sensed more than felt, Bill applying a condom to his fat cock. Then when the old man pressed his cockhead against Tommy Frank’s ass bud, he knew that it had also been lubricated. He could feel the KY.

“I am going to open that asshole of yours up, Boy. When I get through with you, your asshole isn’t going to be tight anymore. It was going to be a man-sized asshole ready to take on the biggest and fattest cock in Key West,” Bill said as he slowly pressed the head of his cock harder and harder against Tommy Frank’s ass bud.

“Ooh! Ooh!” Tommy Frank protested and tried to move forward, but Jim blocked his path and rammed his own cut cock into Tommy Frank’s mouth.

Bill grabbed Tommy Frank by the hips. “You can’t get away from me kid, not before I fuck you,” the dark haired old man said as he forcefully pried open Tommy Frank’s tight ass bud. “Jim, you were right he has the hottest asshole that I have ever fucked,” he called out to his partner.

“It hurts. You are hurting me!” Tommy Frank couldn’t keep silent like he had when Jim had fucked him. Bill’s cock was too fat. The pain was too much to bare in silence. “Don’t, please it is too big!” Tommy Frank pleaded as he pulled back from Jim’s cock.

“Shut up, you are going to get fuck by a real cock whether you want it or not. So take it like a man. You wanted it and now you are going to take it!” Bill said in a determined voice. “Fuck his mouth, Jim. I don’t want to hear his squealing.”

Walt! What am I doing here? Tommy Frank thought. He could only make protesting sounds in his throat with Jim pumping his cock into his mouth. He wanted to scream! The pain of Bill’s fat cock was almost unbearable. Compared to it getting fucked by Jim’s cock had been a cake walk.

Still, a dark hidden part of Tommy Frank’s mind enjoyed the pain and the control that Bill had over him. Even though he whimpered as the old man forced his fat cockhead deeper and deeper into his tight asshole, Tommy Frank would not have pulled away from Bill’s cock even if Jim hadn’t been in front of him. He wanted to be the fat dicked old man’s fuck boy. He wanted the old man’s love even if it wasn’t real and wouldn’t last.

Tommy Frank had to be needed at the moment. If being needed meant getting fucked by a cock too big for his tight asshole, then so be it. He would pay the price. He had to pay the price. Being needed and wanted was the most important thing to him at the moment. Bill needed and wanted him and so did Jim. The two men were making him theirs. That was worth all the pain.

“Wow, what a hot ass pussy,” Bill shouted as he leaned forward over Tommy Frank, “Come and give me a kiss, Jim,” he called out to his partner. “Let’s kiss while he gives us both pleasure.”

The knowledge that the two men were kissing over him caused Tommy Frank’s cock to throb, it excited him so much. He could almost feel the love flowing between the two men. He wished that he could feel the love flow from Walt to him when they kissed. Yet, it seemed that whenever he kissed him that Walt always wanted to break the embrace quickly. The two seemed equally eager to kiss each other. My relationship with Walt is not equal. I love him more than he loves me! The realization came to Tommy Frank out of the blue and he it felt true. Tears rolled down Tommy Frank’s eyes, they were not from the burning pain his asshole felt but pain his heart felt.

Tommy Frank hunched Bill’s fat cock forcing it deep into his asshole. The pain made him gasp for breath and for the moment took his attention off of Walt. He kept pushing his ass against Bill’s cock until the man’s fat cock was completely embedded in his asshole.

“Bill, I am getting close to coming!” Jim moaned.

“Fill his mouth full of cum while I pump out my load,” Bill answered as he stroked Tommy Frank’s tight asshole with his cock. Then as Jim began to moan louder and louder, Bill increased the speed of his strokes.

Tommy Frank tasted Jim’s cum. He swallowed the old man’s cut cock up to his balls and let him shoot his load down past his tonsils. The feel of cum gushing down his throat and the sudden jerking motion of Bill’s fat cock buried deep inside his asshole, as the old man spilled his seed into the rubber caused Tommy Frank’s own cock to explode.

Jim and Bill pulled their cocks out of him simultaneously leaving Tommy Frank suddenly in the middle of the bedroom on his all fours alone with cum dripping from his mouth. Tommy Frank glanced up and saw the two men sitting on the bed kissing. As he watched they climbed fully on the bed and began sucking each other in a sixty-nine position. They seemed to have completely forgotten about his presence.

Tommy Frank watched the two men suck each other for several minutes. “You mind if I join in?” He finally asked as his own cock stirred to life again. Neither of them answered. Tommy Frank walked up to the bed and took hold of his own long fat cock and ran it up and down Jim’s hairy back. The second time that he did it, Jim reached out with his hand and pushed Tommy Frank away.

A look of great disappointment blurred the handsome features of the blond kid’s face as he back away from the bed. He paused beside his clothes long enough to grab them and then hurried out of the bedroom. He felt used and discarded like a cheap hustler. That what they think I am, Tommy Frank thought as he dressed as quickly as possible. I wonder what Walt thinks I am. Does anyone see me? He thought as he walked out of the house.

__________________________________________________________

“Where have you been?” Walt asked as Tommy Frank entered the house. He was sitting in the living room as thought he had been waiting for him.

“So you are home. I stop by after work and you weren’t in yet, so I walked over to the 801 for a couple of drinks,” Tommy Frank answered. “The opening must have gone on rather late.” He added.

“I went over to Louis’ Backward for some drinks,” Walt said.

“Oh, you should have stopped by the restaurant and told me and I would have met you there,” Tommy Frank said as he sat on the sofa across from Walt.

“I was with Joe and I didn’t think the two of you would get along too well,” Walt explained.

“Oh, and how was your old lover getting along? Did he talk you into bed with him again?” Tommy Frank said before he could stop himself.

“As a Mattter of fact, I did go by the Curry House. He wanted to show me the changes that he and George had made in the place the past couple of months,” Walt said in a voice edged with nervousness.

“Oh, so George was there too,” Tommy Frank probed.

“No, he is in Miami. It was just Joe and I,” Walt answered.

“Did you have sex with him?” Tommy Frank asked and held his breath for the answer.

“Yes.” Walt said, “And how about you. Did you have sex with the two old men that you left the 801 with?”

“How did you know that I left the 801 with two old men?” Tommy Frank asked.

“Someone called me and told me. I didn’t recognize the voice because it was muffled but he had a Latin accent,” Walt explained.

Jesus! It had been Jesus he had seen at the 801!

I walked over to One Saloon with Bill and Jim. I met Jim shortly after I arrived in Key West. Bill is his lover. They asked if I wanted to go with them over the One Saloon and I did.” Why am I lying? He told me the truth.

“I know the two, they are not well thought of by a lot of people,” Walt responded.

“Walt, do you still love Joe?” Tommy Frank asked the question he was burning to ask.

“I guess so. He needs me. You can’t live with a man for ten years and not love him a lot, Tommy Frank,” Walt answered bluntly as though it was something that he just had to get out and quickly.

“How about me? How do you feel about me?” Tommy Frank asked in a breathy voice as he tried to keep calm.

“I like you, maybe even love you. But Joe and I go back more then fifteen years and have lived together for over ten years. I thought I was over him but I guess I still love him. He wants to move back in with me,” Walt said, hanging his head down.

Tommy Frank knew instantly what the drooping head meant. He stood up and paced back and forth across the living room. Finally he came to a stop directly in front of Walt.

“You are a wonderful man, Walt. I had never met a gay man that I admired before you came into my life. You took me in and gave me a job and more than that hope. I love you, I probably always will. I think there can’t be a kinder man in the world. But if you don’t love me, then there is nothing I can do,” Tommy Frank said wiping the sudden moisture from his eyes as he sat on the sofa again.

“I didn’t say that I didn’t love you Tommy Frank. I care for you a lot, it is just that, I can’t just walk away from Joe when he needs me. He depends on me. He always did. I knew that it wouldn’t work out between him and George. I shouldn’t have started something with you. But you needed someone so bad and I was so lonely that I reached out to you. I am not sorry. I would do it all over again because I think I gave you something, and I got you on your feet. You are a good waiter. I’ll see that you get a job at another restaurant,” Walt said. “But Joe was right. I need him big cock. He knows every inch of my body like it was his own. He knows what to do to me to make me lost, totally lost. I could never resist having sex with him, never,” He admitted to Tommy Frank.

Poof, there goes my job! “Yea, I guess Joe wouldn’t like it if I kept working at the restaurant,” Tommy Frank said as he took a deep breath. He fought against the urge at yell and scream at the gentle soft spoken man before him. It will not change anything anyway, he thought. “Do you mind if I stay here a few days until I can find a place to stay?” Tommy Frank asked. Suddenly he wished that he had saved more of his money. Apartments in Key West were expensive and hard to find.

“Tommy Frank, I am not kicking you out,” Walt told him in a wavering voice. “Anyway, Joe has to stay at Curry House until George comes back from Miami and that will not be before next Thursday.”

“Thanks, I’ll find some place by then,” Tommy Frank said as he stood up. He had to grab hold of the arm of the sofa for support as he found his legs unexpectedly weak. I can’t believe I am not raving and screaming at him, Tommy Frank thought as he added. “Well, I guess I’ll say good night, Walt,” He had to fight the urge to walk over and kiss him.

“I am really sorry, Tommy Frank. I didn’t mean to hurt you, really, I didn’t,” Walt said in a sincere tone. “Sometimes, things happen,” Walt added.

“Yea, things seem to always happen to me and it usually is shit,” Tommy Frank said as he walked past Walt. It was the hardest walk he could remember taking. He wanted to drop onto his knees in front of Walt and beg him to let him stay, to promise to do anything if only they could remain lovers. But he didn’t. He walked past the older man with as much dignity as his broken heart could give him. He only loved your cock! The thought came like an ice picked thrust into his head. Tommy Frank shook his head as though to clear the thought and walked out of the room.

Tommy Frank didn’t even remember getting ready for bed. The next think he remembered he was laying on the bed in the guests’ bedroom in totally darkness. He tried to sleep but sleep wouldn’t come. The words to Hank Williams’ song “Your Cheating Heart will tell on you” kept running through his mind. He pulled the pillow over his head to shield his mind from the stringing words of the song.

Walt wasn’t going back to Joe because of his cheating on him. He was going back because he loved Joe’s cock more! Walt was going back because didn’t love him and probably never had. Sure he had enjoyed his big cock and probably had gotten a lot of comfort out of helping him out, but Tommy Frank realized that Walt had never really loved him. He also knew that he had loved Walt. Yes, he had cheated on him, but that had never diminished the vast love he had felt for Walt.

Like the Hank Williams’ song said sleep never did come to Tommy Frank. He got up at the first crack of dawn and left the house. He didn’t want to see Walt, it would hurt too much. He had to fight from going into Walt’s bedroom and crawling into bed with him as he passed the door to Walt’s bedroom. Memories of cuddling up against Walt and the feeling of love he had felt for the man flooded his mind. Tommy Frank fled from the house. He walked to Higgs Beach and sat on at one of the picnic tables and looked out across the still blue/green water. The beach was deserted. There was a surreal atmosphere about the place that had a calming affect on Tommy Frank.

He saw the beach come alive. Uncle Jake, at least that what everyone called him, arrived first in his flowing robe with a cup of coffee. The word at the 801, where Uncle Jake drank most all day from a tea glass that he always carried with him, was that he had once been a famous surgeon. To Tommy Frank he looked more like one of the homeless of Key West than he did a wealthy ex-surgeon, especially with his long uncombed hair. Uncle Jake had nodded at Tommy Frank in the 801 a few times but Tommy Frank didn’t see any reason to encourage the man. He was not his type. But today he felt a special kindred spirit with the character.

“Hi,” Tommy Frank called out and nodded as Uncle Jake walked past the picnic table.

“Hi, yourself.” Came the response.

“Where you tea glass?” Tommy Frank asked.

“Oh, I never touch liquor before ten in the morning. What do you think I am an alcoholic?” The man said as he paused and sat his cup down on the table.

“I really don’t know what to make of you, if you want me to be honest,” Tommy Frank said.

“Honesty, who wants that in the morning. The morning is a time of fantasies. Honest is only allowed at closing time when you have to face going home alone or sucking a cock you don’t really want,” Uncle Jake said as he picked up his coffee and took a quick drink. “Anyway what would a handsome young Adonis like you know about honesty?”

“It has been known to rear its Medusa like head into my life,” Tommy Frank said more to humor the strange man than to be profound.

Uncle Jake squinted his eyes, glaring at Tommy Frank as thought truly seeing him for the first time. “Maybe there is a little gray Mattter between those bedroom eyes of yours after all.”

Tommy Frank shrugged.

“I have been watching you,” Uncle Jake surprised Tommy Frank by stating. “I thought at first that you were just another good-looking hunk from Ft. Lauderdale down to make some money or find a sugar daddy, but I have changed my mind lately.”

“Yea,” Tommy Frank said thinking to humor the man, “and what changed your mind about me?”

“A friend of my from the college gave me a gay poem and some of your stories to read. You’re as lonely as they come. I see it in your writing, especially in your poetry.”

“Honestly,” Tommy Frank asked.

“Yes, but don’t let your inner voices take over. It is all downhill after they get a grip on your mind. Take it from me, I know.”

“Sure, I’ll be carefully,” Tommy Frank said humoring the strange man.

“Write about you feeling and vent the voices but never let them take control,” Uncle Jake said as he picked up his cup of coffee. “Well, I got to touch the water. It is the resting place of my soul. I can’t start my day until I touch the water,” he said, skipped away like a carefree child. “Keep on writing, Kid,” he called over his shoulder as he strolled toward the beach.

“Yes, sure,” Tommy Frank said as he scratched his head. He is a real fruit loop, but harmless and even likeable.

A few people jogged along the beach and several rode bicycles along the sidewalk. Then the black maintenance man came by to unlock the bathrooms. After that an endless stream of homeless began to arrive to take showers and use the bathroom. And cars pulled up and parked. Tommy Frank soon realized that some of the people lived in their cars, others must be just stopping by to drink their coffee while enjoying the view.

“You are here, bright and early!” Called out a voice that made Tommy Frank cringe.

“Officer Eaton,” Tommy Frank said with little enthusiasm.

“Hey, don’t seem so glad to see me,” the security officer said.

“Sorry, I am not in the best of moods,” Tommy Frank said.

“Well, that I can see. What’s the problem, broke up with your lover? You’ve got that hang dog look that I have seen before especially sometimes when I look in the mirror.”

“It is that obvious?” Tommy Frank asked and forced a smile.

“Hey, don’t break that serious look for my benefit,” Officer Eaton said. “And yes, it would be obvious to a blind man. Guess that means that Mr. Artist Cafe and you have parted ways.”

Tommy Frank nodded.

“Well, Kid, I did ask about and know that he and his ex-friend had been seeing each other behind your back, but I thought that it wasn’t any of my business. I know a lot of gays and they just love to gossip. But to tell you the truth, from what I heard you have been around the island a time or two yourself,” the security officer accused.

“It is true. Guess I am just a whore at heart,” Tommy Frank said feeling really bad at the moment.

“Hey, I am not making a judgement, I am only telling you what I heard,” Officer Eaton said.

Tommy Frank glanced directly at the older security guard for the first time since they started their conversation. “Too bad you are straight, I have had a crush on you since I first met you. Why is it that most of the good ones are straight?” Tommy Frank said.

The security guard turned slightly red.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Tommy Frank added.

“Hey, it isn’t every day that someone tells a hard ass like me that they like him. In fact, I don’t remember anyone saying that in years, not even my wife, make that ex-wife.”

“Don’t say something nice to me,” Tommy Frank said, “That will only make me fall for you more. I am so desperate I almost fell in love with Uncle Jake a few minutes ago.”

“Now, Kid, that is getting desperate. Not only would you have to put a sack over his head but you would also have to wash his hair before jumping into bed with him.” Officer Eaton said and smiled as he watched Tommy Frank laugh.

“How can I be depressed if you keep making me laugh?” Tommy Frank said in a mock reprimand when he stopped laughing.

 “Hey, Kid, don’t worry about finding someone. You might have a secret admirer just waiting for the right moment to make a play for you. And if you don’t you should because you seem like an honest straightforward kind of guy and that is what almost nobody is here in Key West. Everyone here puts on airs. Don’t ever let that happen to you no mattter how successful you get. That what those county sluts do, put on airs.”

“I am not likely to get very successful soon. I am without a job and a place to stay at the moment. And from what I know about Key West those two things are essential if you don’t want to end up homeless,” Tommy Frank said.

“If you need a place to stay check out the Rand House. It is not a first class guess house, but Cindi runs a good place and it is the cheapest place to stay in town. Stop by and see her and tell her that the Jack at Higgs Beach sent you. I knew her father when he used to run the place before he died. Ask her for the room right across the hall from hers. It has a frig and an air conditioner and is the safest room in the building being it is right across from her room.” Officer Eaton said.

“Thanks, thanks a lot. I still wish you were gay?” Tommy Frank said and winked.

The security officer didn’t say anything and Tommy Frank feared that he had offended him. So he stood up and said, “Well, I guess I had better get some breakfast. See you later.”

“Kid!” Jack called out as Tommy Frank started to walk away.

Tommy Frank turned back hesitantly as though afraid of what the man was going to say.

“If you ever need me, you call me. I am in the phone book. Jack Eaton. You remember that, you hear,” Jack said in a dead serious voice.

“Yea . . . sure, I will. Thanks Jack,” Tommy Frank said with a smile from ear to ear on his face.

“Jack, the name is Jack! I don’t want to hear any more of this Officer Eaton crap. We are friends,” Officer Eaton said in an authoritative voice.

“Thanks, Jack,” Tommy Frank said. Now I wish I was staying to talk to him. I haven’t been this happy in a while, Tommy Frank thought as he waved and waked away.

 He realized as he walked in the warm morning glow of sunlight that he felt better already. I certainly do wish that you were gay, Jack, I certainly do, he thought as he headed down Reynolds Street toward old town. He felt like breakfast but didn’t want to go to El Siboney. Even thought it was early, he feared that Walt and Joe might come in while he was eating breakfast and seeing them together was the last thing he needed at the moment. Therefore, he headed for the Chit Chat Restaurant. It was on Duval Street and rather tacky as they served everything on paper plates, but their eggs were good and you could sit there and watch people cruising up and down Duval Street.

Tommy Frank even got a hello from the queeny black guy that waited tables. He had seen him often enough around town that they exchanged greeting whenever they passed each other on the street.

“Scrambled eggs, grits and coffee!” Tommy Frank ordered as he glanced around at the people seated at the other tables in the small yard of the old house and on the front porch. Most of them were tourist but Tommy Frank spotted a few locals here and there, and one bearded homeless man.

Tommy Frank played with his food and hardly tasted what he did eat. He was hungry but his mind was too occupied with thoughts about Walt to know that the eggs were really quite good and the toast crisp and not burned. He just couldn’t get over how suddenly things could change in his live. Yesterday he had been ridding the crest of the wave and now he seemed to be caught in a rip tide. Mr. Fish had liked the story he had written for the class literary magazine enough to praise it in front of the entire class and even Walt had liked it. And today he was without a lover and a place to live.

“I don’t even know if I will be able to afford to attend the next semester at school,” Tommy Frank said to himself as he stared into his plat of half-eaten eggs. The thought made him cringe. He like writing and needed the classes to force him to write. “I have a talk with Mr. Fish. He’ll help me out if I need help,” Tommy Frank told himself.

“Talking to yourself this early in the morning,” the black waiter said. “I usually don’t start doing that until about noon,” he added as he gave Tommy Frank the check.

“That’s only because you have been here longer than me,” Tommy Frank said as he left enough money on the table to take care of the bill and leave a proper tip.

As Tommy Frank walked past the 801, he thought back to the session last night with the two old lovers. It had been sleazy and never should have happened, but even as he thought about Bill fucking him with his short fat cock, Tommy Frank’s cock began to get hard. Maybe I am nothing but a whore, Tommy Frank thought and felt sad.

Finding the Rand House’s office closed didn’t put Tommy Frank in a better mood. The sign said that the office opened at Ten. Tommy Frank glanced at his watch, it was only eight thirty. He shook his head at the thought of having to walk around for an hour and a half. He didn’t want to go back to Walt’s. He just couldn’t face him. He didn’t think that he would ever be able to look at Walt without feeling love for the man and without feeling great pain. I think I am taking it so well because I am still in shock, Tommy Frank thought as he began to walk aimlessly down Angela Street.

Away from Duval Street, old town took on a whole different atmosphere. Gone were the flock of tourist and the cruise ship passengers with name tags on their lapels. Oh, you might run into a colorful gay tourist dressed in the latest P. C. Penny fashion and strutting around as though he had just stepped out of Gentlemen Quarterly. But for most parts you passed the locals on the streets as they hurried to and from the bank or Fausto’s for groceries.

Tommy Frank liked being a part of Key West. Well, I am almost a part. If I can get a place to stay of my own, then I’ll feel like a resident. I don’t think I will ever want to leave this place. I can be myself here no Mattter how bad I am, Tommy Frank thought as he past conch house after conch house each as distinctive as the person that lived in them. Damn, I love this place, I just wish that someone would love me.

Even though he was lost, Tommy Frank didn’t bother asking direction. After all Key West was an island, so you couldn’t really ever get lost as you could only not know exactly where you were. Finally, Tommy Frank found himself at Pepe’s. He couldn’t help remembering the time that Walt had took him there for breakfast one Sunday. He like the food there and the uniqueness of the place. He remembered looking across the table and thinking how lucky he was to have found someone like Walt. He might have been lucky to have found Walt but he was certainly unlucky to have lost him so soon, but then Walt really had never been his to lose. He had only been on loan to him from Joe and now the man with the bad skin and bigger cock had taken him back leaving Tommy Frank totally alone. Live by a big cock, die by a big cock.

From Pepe’s Tommy Frank walked all the way over to Truman’s Annex. The townhouses were nice and neat, too much so for his liking. He liked the chaotic hodge podge of the conch houses, Sing’s design for Truman’s Annex was too orderly for him. He could imagine Doctors and Lawyers living in them or using them as second homes, but not the colorful locals. Not those people that hang out in the 801 or Papillon, not those people that went to Higgs Beach or to the pool side bar of the Atlantic Shores to strut their stuff naked or watch those that did.

By the time Tommy Frank arrived back at the Rand House is was past ten. The top part of the swinging door to the office was open. Tommy Frank glanced inside the small room and found a skinny tough looking woman sitting on a couch watching TV.

“Yes, what can I do for you?” The woman said not even bothering to get up.

Tommy Frank noticed her slim strong body and realized that she must spend a lot of time in the gym. The woman’s face was tight and drawn. She looked like she had been around more than once.

“Are you Cindi?” Tommy Frank asked.

“Yes, that’s me. Now what can I do for you?” The woman asked forcing a smile on her tough face.

“Jack at Higgs Beach said I should come here for a place to stay,” Tommy Frank said.

The smile turned genuine. “You a friend of Jack’s?”

Tommy Frank shrugged, “I guess so. We talk whenever I go to the beach.”

“Then you are a friend of his, he doesn’t have the time of day for people he doesn’t like. Yea, sure I got rooms. You want it by the day, week or month?”

Tommy Frank paused and thought for a moment before answering, “Let’s start off by the week. I don’t have a place to stay and it will probably take me a while to find one.”

“I usually get three hundred a week, but for a friend of old bad ass Jack’s I’ll let you have it for two twenty-five a week. How is that?” Cindi asked.

“Sounds great . . . ah could I possible get the room across from yours?” Tommy Frank asked remembering what Officer Eaton had told him.

“Now, I know you are a special friend of his. He doesn’t tell anyone to ask for that room unless he really likes them,” Cindi added as she stood there obliviously waiting for Tommy Frank to pay her.

“Ah . . . do I have to fill out a registration card or something?” Tommy Frank asked as he reached for his billfold.

“Nope, I do things simple here. I know when people are suppose to check out and tell them. I don’t need a card to tell me that or their name. I got a very good memory for names. What is yours?” She asked as she took the money that Tommy Frank handed her and quickly began to count it.

“Tommy Frank Jones.”

“Nice name and easy to remember. Here is the key to your room. It’s right there,” she said pointing to the room across the narrow hallway. And there is a bathroom at the end of the hall and to the left and another one of the second floor.” Cindi said as she moved away from the window as though dismissing Tommy Frank.

“Thanks,” Tommy Frank said and took the key. The room was tiny. There was barely room to open the door as the big double bed took up most of the space. It had two windows and one held a window air-conditioning unit. Over head was a ceiling fan with four light sockets but only one with a bulb in it. At the end of the bed was enough room to walk between the bed and wall lined with the TV and the tiny refrigerator. There was no closet just a towel rack. The whole room was painted a dirty brown so that it wouldn’t show dirt no Mattter how dirty it got.

“It is enough for me. I like it.” Tommy Frank mumbled as he walked over and turned on the air conditioner. He thought of going back to Walt and getting his clothes or Joe’s old clothes as he really had come with nothing. He decided to wait until after Walt when to work. He had a key to the house. He figured to go and get his stuff after Walt had gone to work. No need seeing him and getting all emotional. The less he saw of the Walt over the next few days the better off he would be. With that thought in mind, Tommy Frank lay down on the bed. The roar of the air conditioner seemed to sooth his nerves in a strange way. He closed his eyes and for the first time that day didn’t think of Walt.