COUNTRY LIVING    CHAPTER 6


Posted:   March 3, 2009


I watched Reilly and Sammy’s faces turned from joyful to frightened after I jokingly told them Reilly’s dad wasn’t happy.

“Fuck! You told him everything, didn’t you?” Reilly said with the veins in his neck bulging.

“Damn dude!” Sammy said with a sad expression on his face.

“I had to.  I couldn’t lie to him even though he told me he was interested in my services,” I said, trying to keep a straight face.

“I’m so fuckin busted.  He knows I drink,” Reilly said.

“My parents are going to die,” Sammy said.

“Look I lost probably a nice account because of it.  He said you two had been spending a lot of time together and wondered if I knew anything.  I had to tell him what I found out,” I said.

“Carey, you didn’t!” Reilly said with panic setting in his face now. “How the hell do I face him?”

“Just go in with a smile,” I smiled. “Act like you have for 18 years.  Guys, he knew what you did here Friday but that was it.”

“We’re going to kill you, Carey!” Reilly said.  Both of them tackled me out of my chair.  I was laughing so hard when they knocked me out of my chair.  We playfully wrestled with me still laughing at the two gullible guys.  They finally let up.  “That wasn’t funny one bit.”

“That’s wasn’t cool at all,” Sammy said. “I almost shit my boxers.”

“Oh, I just had to do it,” I laughed and got back to my feet. “Now you got me all sweaty.”

“You deserved it,” Sammy said.

I went inside and grabbed them an old towel for them to wipe the nasty sweat off their bodies.  “You wanna do it?” Reilly asked with a smile.

I got near Reilly and wiped his torso clean and then his back.  I did the same to Sammy.  “I know you liked that,” Sammy said.

“I did.  You both have great bodies. I can’t wait to see you after a year in college,” I said as we sat back.  I had a can of Skoal with me and allowed them to have a pinch as well since we all bummed off each other.

“Dude, I’m going to be buff as hell like Harlin.  He said they have great workout areas so we can get ripped,” Reilly said now with his dip of Skoal bulging from his lower lip.

“I take you both are going to college at the same place then,” I said.

“Yeah, I got a little scholarship where Reilly’s dumb ass didn’t get shit,” Sammy laughed and spit over the edge.

“That’s cool.  I enjoyed college and really was a great time in my life,” I said and spit too.

I heard a truck drive up and the door slam.  “We’re around back!” I yelled as loud as I could.

We waited to see who it was but it was just Jimmy.  He walked quickly to find us just sitting and spitting. 

“Wassup?” Jimmy asked and sat next to me.

“Your boyfriend is a fuckin comedian now.  My dad came over today and Carey thought it would be hilarious if he got us to believe he outed us,” Reilly said.

“You fell for that shit?” Jimmy laughed. “Pass me that can!”

I handed him my can. “Yeah dude, we were freaking out!” Sammy said and put his arm around Reilly’s waist.

“I really had them going too,” I laughed and felt Jimmy’s arm around me.

We sat out back, enjoyed spitting over the railing and talked for a solid hour.  I headed inside and threw a frozen pizza in the oven to give us all something to snack on when we all were inside. 

“Hey Carey, you and Jimmy want to go camping with Sammy, Frenchy, Harlin and me this upcoming Memorial Day weekend?” Reilly asked while we were waiting for the pizza to cook in the oven.

“I sure do.  How about you, Carey?” Jimmy said.

“I guess so.  I’ve never been what you would call camping before,” I said.

“Don’t worry.  I got an old tent at home and some shit for us,” Jimmy said. “It’ll be a blast.”

“Where we going?” I asked.

“We’re heading over to Pritches’ Lake State Park about an hour or so West of here.  It is so-so but usually not that many people there,” Sammy said. “We went there last spring break and had a blast.  They got some great hiking trails and a decent lake to fish at.”

“I’ve been there but that was years ago,” Jimmy said. “It was run down a little then.”

“They fixed it up a little now but it’s still pretty rustic,” Reilly said.

“Sounds good to me as long as Jimmy as everything we need,” I said. “I guess I could bring the food and cook for all of us.”

“That’s cool,” Reilly said when the timer went off for the pizza in the oven.  I sliced the pizza and passed out the pieces along with cans of soda.  “A beer sure would taste good right now.”

“I don’t have one beer left.  I think some people cleaned me out Friday night,” I smiled.

“I don’t know who but I think their asses were gay,” Sammy laughed.

We all laughed and soon devoured the pizza.  Now we could joke and just carry on like never before.  All three of them left at around 9.  I did get to at least kiss Jimmy good bye.  I headed to bed to do some light reading.  I was so glad the weekend was finally over but extremely happy with the end result.


Monday morning, I headed to work at my normal time, which was 7:30 to be ready when the market opened at 8 local time.  I reviewed a few client files and saw Mr. Givens march in right at 8.

“Carey, can I see you in my office before nosey Sue gets here?” Mr. Givens asked.  Sue was our part time secretary in our small financial office.  He was correct and she was in everyone’s business including mine.

I followed him to his office.  He shut the door behind us while I grabbed a seat.  “Is there a problem, sir?” I asked.

“Yeah a big one,” Mr. Givens said.  I just hoped it wasn’t my performance but I was right on track with my numbers.  “My youngest Kim came home this week and promptly introduced this girl as her girlfriend. It just hit me and Becky out of the blue you might say even though Kim always was a tom-boy and now she even looks more like a boy than ever with her short hair cut. Caleb, I know you are gay, what do we do now?”

“Sir, I assume you still love her and care a lot about her,” I said.

“Of course we do,” Mr. Givens said.

“Just because she’s gay doesn’t change things then.  Keep on loving her and caring for her just as you’ve always done.  My parents did that to me and now we’re as close as ever.”

“Yeah but it’s my baby girl.  I don’t know what to do, Caleb,” Mr. Givens said again and seemed mildly upset.

“Sir, you can be disappointed I guess.  You need to keep looking at her as your baby girl.  You want her to be happy, right?”

“Oh more than anything but she can be just as happy with a guy.”

“Sir, I know I wouldn’t be happy if I was forced to be with someone I didn’t like or attracted to.  I realize it can be terribly rough on parents but life goes on and you will love her just as much as you last Thursday before she came out to you.”

Mr. Givens sat for a minute in deep thought.  “I guess I still love her but can I be dissatisfied with her life choice?”

“I think you can but I know I wanted my parents to accept my decision on my life.  It takes others longer to accept the fact that they have a gay child.”

“Becky is so upset over this but she took way better than I did.  Thanks for your help,” Mr. Givens said.

“Sir, there are all kinds of websites dealing with just your situation.  I know everyone handles it different but maybe it can help just a little,” I said.  We continued talking and ventured into more business talk as the conversation grew on.  I knew I had said my part and it was up to him now to decide.

Knock came at his door, “Caleb, a Mr. Meacham needs you to call him when you are finished with Roger,” Sue said politely.

“I will just as soon as we finish,” I said and told Mr. Givens about my new prospect.  I left and headed to my small cramped office to call Mr. Meacham, Reilly’s dad, back quickly.  I hated when I called someone and it took most of the day to return my call.  

Mr. Meacham took my call immediately and told me he thought he had his things together.  I got directions and headed straight to his office for he sounded eager for me to size up his holdings.

I drove a few miles and entered Mr. Meacham’s office.  It was rather old and dated but served the purpose for his manufacturing business.  I sat down in an old vinyl chair in front of his desk.  He pushed a folder filled with various account papers and such.  I quickly found his last account statement and scanned through the 10 holdings he had in the account. 

“Mr. Meacham,” I said.

“Call me Rick, Carey,” he quickly stopped me.

“I think I see a small problem.  It seems almost every stock and mutual fund you have here is in the same sector,” I said.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Well, I like for my clients to be diversified.  I see you have done well right now but if the market goes in a different direction then you won’t get totally wiped out of most of your value. I can play with this a little and bring you back some ideas if you want me too.”

“Of course I do Carey.  I just went along with what he told me.  He never explained shit, excuse my French, to me.  I think he was playing me for all I was worth.”

“I also bring you some ideas on a retirement plan as well.  I have some other ideas too that might be of interest as well.”

“Bring em on.  I like what I’m hearing and finally someone is interested in me not some damn commission.”

“I call you later.  Hopefully if all goes well, I can have something to show you this time tomorrow.”

“Great, Carey,” Rick said. “I need to ask you about Reilly if you don’t mind.”

My heart sank and so far it was just business. “Okay.”

“I found some rolling papers in his room the other day.  Does he smoke weed?”

I was at a loss for words. “I’ve never seen him do it in front of me.” A total and complete lie.

“Well, I think he does but know there’s not much I can do about it.  I just wanted to see what kind of friends y’all were.  Hey, I’m not crazy about it but I smoke a lot of weed too when I was young and stupid like Reilly.”

“We all are stupid when we are younger and hopefully grow out of it,” I said.

“I just don’t want him calling me from jail on a possession charge like I had when I was 20 years old,” Rick said and stood up. “Thanks for coming on short notice. I appreciate any help.”

“No problem, sir,” I said.

“Reilly needs more friends like you who will stand by him and cover his ass,” Rick smiled and patted me on the back.

I returned the smile and headed back to the office with his latest statement in tow.  I absolutely hated the question about Reilly and skirted the question the best I could.  I knew I was covering Reilly’s ass but I didn’t want to risk losing what looked to be a nice account.

Once back at the office, I started putting together a workable plan for Mr. Meacham with some advice from Mr. Givens.  I liked Mr. Givens to throw in his ideas in case I overlooked anything during my analysis of data and figures.  He would do the same with me and usually accepted my youthful opinion.  If not, he would carefully explain what I had missed and the effect it would have on the portfolio.

Heading home, I grabbed a twelve pack to have around along with a few other necessities which was now cans of Long cut Wintergreen Skoal.  I grabbed the mail at the mailbox and drove down the drive.  Surprisingly, no one was there.  I parked my car and headed inside.  I leafed through the mail and ended up depositing all of it in the trash except for one catalog of men’s sexy underwear.  I just sat on the back and enjoyed the smell of clean air and the bright sun hitting my face.

I heard a truck drive up and yelled out that I was around back.  Hank and Todd, an older friend, walked around the corner of the house.

“Hey Carey, how’s it going?” Hank asked.

“Not too bad.  You guys come over to drain the pond some more,” I said.

“Oh yeah!” Todd replied quickly. “We heard about the party here Friday night.”

“Where was our invite?” Hank asked.

“It was all Reilly and Sammy’s doings.  It really came off pretty well,” I said.

“I heard everyone was drunk as a skunk and wild as hell,” Todd said.

“If they were, I didn’t see it or hear about it.  You know how things get started around and just grow like weeds the longer the story is told,” I said.

“Do we ever.  I just figured it was those punk ass seniors bragging,” Hank said. “You wanna drop a line with us and shot the shit?”

“I guess I could do that,” I said.  Hank and Todd headed to grab their poles and tackle box along with a can full of crickets.  I followed them down and took a cheap pole that I had used earlier.  Hank was patient and had to show me the fine art of putting a cricket on the hook.  It didn’t look as messy as worms and was something I thought I could handle without much problem. 

I tossed my line into the water and waited for a small fish to attack the cricket.  My attention was diverted with their stories of my party.  It seemed to start out fine but was exaggerated to a big whopper by the end.  All I could do was laugh and tell them the real story of what I had seen.  I felt a nice tug on my line and actually had a decent size brim of the line.  Todd took it off the hook for me and tossed in his bucket as a keeper.  They only snagged a few but it seemed perfectly okay with Todd.  Their biggest excitement for the night was seeing a few deer off in the distance at dusk. 
 

TO BE CONTINUED....

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