Please add this chapter to my story in the Beginnings section..."John Darling's Coma." Thank you. Donny Mumford
JOHN DARLING'S COMA
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
On Sunday, at twelve-fifteen, John had done his exercises, jogged, showered, and prettied himself as much as he could for his boyfriend, which worked out pretty well, actually. Now, he was in the hotel lobby, expecting to see Gary in forty-five minutes or so, except Gary was already standing near the hotel's main entrance, talking to an old man. The man looked at least sixty, so that's relatively old, right?
Staring at Gary, John felt a familiar sting in his eyes. He was emotional about his growing feelings for Gary. Loving feelings, or if not love, what the hell are these feelings? John doesn't have a brother, so he can't say these feelings are like brotherly love, but that would be a stupid thought anyway because you don't have gay sex with your brother. Most brothers don't, anyway.
Whatever John's feelings are, they're something good because they make him feel good. As soon as the old man walks away, John calls, "Gary..."
Turning, Gary sees John, smiles, and waves. Then they walk toward one another, John saying, "I didn't think you'd be here this soon."
Coming together, Gary says, "You didn't, huh?" He kisses John on the lips, done so smoothly and fast; John doesn't have time to react, so he murmurs, "Oh, um, nice."
Then Gary's arm is around the back of John's waist, and he says, "We'll get some lunch, pretty boy, if it's okay with you. I haven't had anything but coffee all day. The cafe is convenient if it's okay with you."
John says, "Sure, lunch in the cafe is fine. Haha, I can't tell you how much I like not needing to decide anything. Now that you're here, I don't need to do that. My handsome boyfriend will do that for me."
Gary stops, "Hey, if you don't want to have lunch, we won't."
Smiling at Gary, John says, "I wasn't complaining. I like that you decide everything for us. And that's the truth; I hate making decisions, and I hate getting in stupid situations by myself." He puts both arms around a much slenderer Gary than the Gary of three and a half weeks ago, adding, "Seriously, Gary, I think I'm in love with you. I know I am," and he hugs Gary tightly.
Gary hugs John back and murmurs, "We'll have lunch a little later. Let's go up to the room. Okay?"
Nodding, John turns his head away. Then, still hugging Gary, John wipes his eyes on the shoulder of Gary's coat--the coat Gary has on, not Gary's winter coat that John's wearing. John mutters, "That wasn't crying. It was an emotional couple of tears of joy."
"Yeah? Well, me too. I can't believe how fortunate I am that you're in my life like this. I mean, it's the best thing that has ever happened to me, so I may shed a few emotional tears myself."
When Gary starts walking toward the bank of elevators, one of John's arms around Gary comes loose, and they walk to the elevators with an arm behind each other's waists, drawing attention from strangers, none of whom says anything.
On an elevator car with three others, whom Gary ignores, he kisses John again, murmuring, "I thought about you all day, Darling. Christ, I'm like a fourteen-year-old girl with a huge crush on her first boyfriend, mooning over him all day. The instructor stopped the class at eleven o'clock to ask me what was so funny. It turned out I was smiling widely, thinking about you."
"Ding," the doors open, and John, unsure what to say about that, mutters, "Our floor, Gary."
They get off, John's face a forest fire of heat from 'feeling' the three other people on the elevator staring at Gary and him, exchanging eye rolls at two young men kissing right in front of them. Gary's oblivious to that sort of thing: his philosophy... If you don't like it, go fuck yourself.
Gary smiles, "I've never felt so out of control, Darling. You said you think you're in love with me. As insane as that is, I feel the same way about you, and that's just as insane."
John nods as they stand at the door to their room. When he sees that Gary isn't moving to unlock the door, John gets out his card/key, and Gary says, "We've both said there isn't a rational reason in the world that can account for us being in love, and we're both right about that, and we've beat that theme to death, but it doesn't change the fact that we are, in fact, in love."
"I'm so glad you agree, Gary!"
"Yeah, today in class, I decided that our thinking about there not being an explanation for us being in love is bullshit... Who cares if there is no rational reason for it? If it's not love I'm feeling for you, I can't imagine what it is. I don't have an expansive English vocabulary to explain it any other way except I love you."
Inside, John closes the door and says, "I agree with everything you've said, Gary. The other day, I went online to see if relationship experts believed in love at first sight, and..."
He had to stop talking because Gary's mouth was on John's mouth kissing, with John sloppily kissing back. Their hands were all over one another, tears of joy running down John's face. Their lips parted for a second, and John murmured, "I love how you..." and Gary's lips again kissed John's lips, then Gary's tongue slid on John's, and he swooned, feeling them floating.
Gary rubbed his face back and forth on John's face, his beard soaking up John's tears of happiness, not that Gary was aware of that. He stopped to whisper, "This impossible love is what I wanted to talk to you about during lunch, but acting it out is better than talking," and he gave John a luscious lover's kiss, slow and long, leaving John breathless, gasping for oxygen. Gary's gasping too, so they hugged one another, the sides of the faces together, gulping in air, their hearts pounding against their ribs, their penises about to break off in their hardness.
Another gasp and Gay asks, "Where's the lube, pretty boy?"
After making a gulping sound, John murmurs, "You're making me so happy, Gary... so fucking happy."
Gary kisses John again, asking, "The lube, Darling?"
Nodding, John mutters, "I'll get it..." Then his arms go around Gary's neck, and he kisses Gary's mouth, "Thank you, Daddy!" They smirk at one another, Gary muttering, "Calling me Daddy would give me a hard-on, except I already had a hard-on, and it's so hard it's scaring me."
"Me too. I'll get the KY gel," and John jogs into the bathroom. He comes right out without the lube, goes over to the end table, and pulls out the drawer. As John's picking up the lube, Gary drops his pants, muttering, "Toss it over, baby, and get your pants down. This is an emergency situation."
Tossing the tube of lube to Gary on the other side of the double bed they didn't sleep in last night, John kicks off his boots and drops his pants, "What's the emergency, Gary?"
Gary is spreading lube up and down his incredibly hard and fat four-plus-inch boner, mumbling, "We need to hurry so I can get my boner inside you before I climax; just thinking about doing it."
John's buttocks are two plump, firm pinkish mounds, totally bare ass now; John hurries over to Gary, bends over, and mumbles, "Put some of that lube in my ass, Daddy."
They both snicker at that as Gary pushes a finger full of gel past the lips of John's tight anus, then drops the tube next to its cap on the bed, the double bed they did sleep in last night, and gets his arm around John's belly, pulling him to his fat shiny-slippery boner and gently exerts pressure against John's asshole.
Like yesterday, it opens slowly, and Gary's boner head immediately fills whatever tiny opening is there. Little by little, the boner head wins each battle until, "AHH!" The head slides ridiculously tightly into John's rectum, hitting the edge of his prostate. It hurt John going in, but the touch on his prostate created a vibration of unique pleasure that made John forget about the entry hurt.
Biting his lip because his boner is feeling so sexy and good, Gary squints his eyes, sucks on his lips, and pushes his absurdly fat boner inside John's rectum an inch and a half more, both guys moaning, "Mmmm, oooh," and John going up on his toes while reaching back to hold onto Gary's hips. Gary wraps both arms around John now, pulling him tightly against his hairy chest, his remaining boner pushing the fat, hard head further up John's ass until John's buttocks are flattened against Gary's pitch-black pubic hair.
Grinding his hips, Gary's super-fat boner moves against John's prostate; John gasps, "Ooh! Umm, I'm going to cum, Daddy."
Ignoring that, Gary pulls his boner back and then drives it in, then again, then again, before he gets into a steady rhythm, "slap, slap, slap," the lube slimy and slippery as it melted in their body heat, drooling under John's buttocks to pool behind his scrotum. "Slap, slap, slap, " slippery and warm, John moaning, "Um, um, um, Gary, I'm gonna cum."
All Gary can think about is the indescribable pleasure coming off his stupidly fat boner, wave after wave of sexual pleasure. He has John Darling in his head as he fucks him lovingly. It doesn't last long at all, though. Just past the minute mark, John thinking he'd cum every second of the entire minute.
He climaxes with Gary, who lets out a long gasp, a breathy gasp, and climaxes into John's bowels, humping against John's buttocks. Simultaneously, with another of his embarrassing banshee squeals, humping his kind-of-chubby hips, John fired his streaking line of cum, flying out like a bat out of hell, straight out from his body. The creamy load splatters on the pile of pants and underpants on the desk chair where Gary put them two minutes ago.
Heavy breathing and heart pounding from both young men, Gary lets go of John, who staggers over to grab tissues to put under his asshole, then he plops down on the bed. "Was that making love, Gary?"
Picking up his pants, Gary shows John, "Look at the cum shot on my pants. Couldn't you have nudged your pretty boy boner to the side an inch? Not even an inch, and you would have missed my clothes."
"Goddammit, Gary. Do you need to start arguing right after making love? What's that all about?"
"I'm not arguing, Darling. Look, though," he says, holding up his pants. John tries to look guilty but starts laughing, saying, "You should have hung your pants up. They're wrinkled anyway, so what difference does it make if there is a tiny cum shot on them too?"
They're both grinning and smiling, then John, still sitting on a pile of tissues on the bed, says, "I started to tell you that I read about some guy online who is some relationship expert or something who claims there is a reality where love, at first sight, does occur. There's a catch, though."
Sitting next to John, Gary's got a handful of tissues, wiping his flaccid penis, asking, "What's the catch, pretty boy?"
"We need to take the time after realizing we're almost a love-at-first-sight casualty..."
"Casualty? What the...?"
"No, he didn't use the word 'casualty.' It's something else, but we really need to take the time to get to know one another now. It's only after we do that can we validate that we're victims of love-at-first-sight."
"Victims?"
"Um, don't get hung up on semantics. He didn't say 'victim.' It's getting to know one another, etc., which is the important part."
Gary shrugs, "This asshole didn't go too far out on a limp with that analysis. What does he think? People who fell in love at first sight will say, "Okay, that was cool. Now let's separate and never see one another again.' Obviously, they'll stay together and get to know one another better. Christ!"
John leans against Gary, mumbling, "Let's not talk about that anymore. That was a 'making love' sex thing that you, that WE just did. Didn't it feel different from just having sex?"
Pulling on his underpants, Gary mutters, "Yes and no. Having sex with you was very, very good from the first time we did it, and there was something extra right from the start, too. So, that's the 'No' part, because it's always been special for me, although I didn't make a big deal about it with you until recently because I wanted to keep the same upper hand in our relationship that I had in all my previous ones."
Zipping up his zipper, fully clothed again, John says, "Wow, that was my experience with you, too, up to that part about you wanting the upper hand. I've always felt better in the lower, ah, position. So you said that was the 'no' part; what is the 'yes' part?"
"You asked if we made love having sex, and the 'yes' part is me feeling the love as much as you do. Feeling love for one another, being 'in love' with one another even though we agree, doesn't make sense because we've hardly spent any time together and have only known one another for a little over one month! But, yes, I felt we were making love, especially after we both climaxed, and I had a deep loving feeling for you in my heart."
"You felt love afterward? Yes, that's a beautiful way to put it. An honest way because during the actual sex act, there are a lot of things demanding our attention, but immediately after climaxing, the love blossoms and shines for each other. Just fucking a pal or a stranger is still great, but immediately after climaxing, it's see ya later, bro. That kind of thing."
They're in the bathroom washing up as Gary mumbles, "Yeah, something like that, but we've broken it down inside and out, so do you think we might drop the subject, satisfied that we're pretty sure we're in love even though neither of us has experienced being in love before."
"So, you're saying we're beating this topic to death?"
Laughing, Gary mutters, "You're so quick, Darling. You pick up things fast, and I think it must be the crossword puzzles that keep your brain sharp as a tack."
John hugs Gary and hangs on him, murmuring, "I like being in love, I really do, and I'm glad it's you I fell in love with because you make me vibrate and my dick shiver when we're together. It's a cool sensation, usually ending in a hard boner."
Gary nods and murmurs, "Being in love is so new, too! It's fun joking around about it, but there's something equally wonderful for me, and it's that I like you as much or more than I've ever liked anybody. I love AND like you, Johnny Darling. That makes me feel great and vulnerable simultaneously. You could take advantage of me like nobody else could, but I know you won't."
Grinning, John gets a fistful of Gary's hair, pulling Gary's head over for a wet kiss on his mouth. Then, John, looking serious, says, "Don't be too sure about that."
Gary grinned and muttered, "Oh, that made my fat dick tingle. Let's get some lunch, lover boy."
Carrying their coats, Gary wore his cowboy hat for once. John says, "Hey, I've been wearing that," and Gary says, "Not today, though. I got it first."
John holds Gary's hand as they stand at the bank of elevators, a woman and a teenage boy waiting with them. As they get on an elevator car, John hears the teenager mutter under his breath, "Fags," and the woman sternly says, "Albert! Shh!"
Gary and John exchange smirks, grinning and mouthing 'Fags.'
John doesn't want to eat in the cafe again, so they put their coats on, both Gary's coats, and go outside, where John lights a cigarette and mutters, "It's cold as a witch's tit," then Gary takes the cigarette and drags off it as John lights another one, they hold hands and walk down the sidewalk, Gary saying, "There is a small Irish pub three blocks down Ranchero Street that we can try. I had a Ruben there once."
"What's that?"
"Ruben sandwiches? You don't know what a Ruben is?"
Exhaling cigarette smoke, John squeezes Gary's hand and says, "No, I don't, which is why I asked what it was.'
I was going to try the Irish clam chowder but didn't. I think I'll try it today."
John frowns, "Irish clam chowder? Calling it Irish clam chowder is stupid! How different could that be from the New England version?"
Gary shakes his head. "You never would have been so smart-ass when we first met! You were properly respectful of the fact that I'm two years older, stronger, and smarter than your insignificant self. Now, Omigod, you show no respect at all."
"Yeah, well, that's because I found out you're a pussy cat without a bite. I'm walking all over you now, so answer my questions."
They both laugh, then stop walking, hold their cigarettes away, and then hug and kiss. John lies against Gary after the kiss, murmuring, "I want to stay with you, Gary. I'll go home with you on Wednesday."
Gary's fingers are in the hair on the back of John's neck, "No, Darling. You'll get that 6:10 flight back to Billings tonight. That gives you an hour to get there and go through all the airport security shit. You should be in a cab at about five o'clock."
"Oh, man, Gary, that doesn't give you and me much time together."
"I know, but I need to put in some study time these next three days. You've been a Godsent to me, revitalizing my outlook and determination not to let you down. Let's face it, no offense, but I'll be doing most of the financial support for us, and I need the best-paying job I can get for us, baby."
He kisses John, mumbling, "No more talk of staying here. Okay?"
"Yes, Gary," and they start walking again. John snuggles against Gary, Gary's arm around John's shoulders as they walk and smoke without talking, but John feels guilty for not telling Gary about his three-million-dollar inheritance, plus an eight hundred-thousand-dollar house. Damn, he should have told Gary two or three weeks ago about everything. John makes a face, thinking how Gary is going to feel like a horse's ass when he finds out his thousand dollars a week job isn't all that important... oh, dammit!
John glances at Gary's face out the sides of his eyes and sees Gary's determined, handsome face under that pitch-black beard. He feels so proud of Gary, and then that feeling of a flood of love comes over him again, making his eyes water. He rubs his eyes on Gary's shoulder. Gary flicks his cigarette butt in the street, giving John's shoulders a tight squeeze, asking, "Are you okay, baby?"
Nodding, John murmurs, "I'm great, Gary. How much further?"
Gary laughs, muttering, "Are we almost there? That's what you sounded like--a kid on a family trip getting bored."
Dropping his cigarette butt, John asks, "Well, are we almost there yet?"
Laughing again, Gary says, "You smart ass! God, do you need discipline?"
"Oh, don't tease me, Daddy. You know I'd love a touch of your discipline."
Gary says, "There it is, Patty's Irish Pub."
After crossing the street and walking up to the pub, Gary holds the door open for John, who asks, "What the fuck is an Irish pub doing in Montana?"
"I haven't any idea, Darling..."
As the door closes, they hear what sounds like, "Aye there, ya call your friend, darling, do ya?"
John asks, "What?" He and Gary look over at a smallish forty-year-old man with a prominent chin, small, narrow eyes, and a slightly turned-up nose.
Gary smiles at the man and says, "Yeah, I do because that's his name, which you'll see when the bartender asks for his ID."
Lively Irish music plays over speakers with fiddles, flutes, harps, and whatever, creating a fun kind of atmosphere. The smallish man with a heavy Irish accent, eyes shining brightly, says, "And check his ID; Danny will surely do. C'mon, boys, have a seat at the bar."
It's a long, dark bar with about half the seats taken. Gary says, "Okay," and he and John sit two bar stools away from the leprechaun, who says, "In case ya don't know, if you're just drinking, you do dat here at the bar. If ya wanna eat here, too. Ya order here at the bar, have a seat at a table, and it'll be brought to ya." He gestures to the large menu written on a chalkboard over the bar.
The bartender, also sounding Irish, asks John, "Can I see your ID, son?" Then to Gary, "You too, if you please..."
When Danny, the bartender, looks at John's driver's license, the leprechaun asks, "What's his name, Danny?"
Danny mutters, "Aye, it's John Darling. He's twenty-two if, ya can believe that wit his baby face." Then to Gary, he says, "Thank you," and hands Gary his license, asking, "What can I get you, boys?"
The leprechaun's name is Mr. O'Hara, and on the wall is a license for Joseph O'Hara, allowing the operation of a spirit-selling establishment in this county. Gary says, "Two Guinness Stouts, please." Then he asks John, "Have you ever had Guinness? I should have asked you first."
John shrugs, "Nope. I never have, but I want to try it."
Mr. O'Hara asks, "Have you boys heard the one about two lads in a London pub?"
Both with half-grins, "No," and, with a big smile, Mr. O'Hara says, "A fella is in a London pub when he hears a familiar accent. He asks the guy, "Are ya Irish, then?" The man gleefully replies, "That I am!" and the first man says, "Well, I'll be. Let's have a whiskey to celebrate that. Where ya from?" "I'm from Dublin," and the man says, "Me too. That calls for another whiskey. Barkeep!" Then, "Where in Dublin?" He answers, "Blanchardstown." The other man, "Fuck me! I went to school right there at St. Thomas. Another whiskey on me friend here." The Irishman says, "St. Thomas? That's where I went. That calls for another drink!" The Second man asks, "Who was your teacher there if ya don't mind telling me." "I don't mind. It was. Miss O'Connor." The Irishman replies, "Holy Mother of God, she taught me too. Bartender, another round if you please!"
Gary and John are grinning full out now because the man has a great Irish accent, and they're waiting for the punchline. Mr. O'Hara says, "Another man comes into the bar, sits down, and asks the bartender, "Anything different happening tonight, Frankie?" "Nah, same old shit. The Murphy twins are getting drunk again."
John and Gary have a good laugh, not expecting that. Mr. O'Hara mutters, "That's one of my favorites, boys. Enjoy your drinks," and he heads off to pat people on the back and greet them. John tastes his Guinness. "Oh, jeez. This isn't anything like beer!"
Gary says, "It's not a Bud Light, that's for damn sure. Guinness has a slightly malty sweetness with a definite hoppy bitterness. It's creamy, and I don't know, but it tastes a little like coffee, maybe." John leans close to Gary and whispers, "It sucks!" Gary smiles and mutters, "It is an acquired taste, perhaps. Give it a fair try, though."
Not wanting to be a pussy, John forces it down, and then Gary asks, "What do you want to order for lunch?''
They read the menu on the wall, and Gary tells the bartender, Danny, "I'll have a bowl of Iris clam chowder and lager draft. John says, "The same for me, plus that Reuben sandwich on marble rye."
Danny says, "Have a seat at a table. Mary will find you with your lunch."
Nodding, they get off the bar stools and sit at an empty table for four, Gary saying, "I'm really going off my diet with the Guinness, Lager, and the bowl of chowder."
Their waitress, Mary, who appears to be in her seventies, finds them and, as she puts the food on their table, says to John in a heavy Irish accent, "Aren't you the pretty one, though?"
Frowning because it was hard to understand her, John hesitantly says, "Thank you?" as a question. She chuckles, then says, "Enjoy, Laddie's."
Gary and John shrug and smirk at one another, then eat their lunch. While eating, they discuss whether Gary should go with John to the airport or not and decide he won't because he needs to study and it's only a short ride. They'll say their goodbyes in the hotel room.
The food was okay--good enough that John ordered a second bowl of clam chowder and a second lager, mumbling, "This is a low-calorie meal for me, Gary."
"You need to stop piling on the calories, Darling. Seriously! You've got the extra ten or twelve pounds, so now all you need is to turn it into muscle. You don't need any more plain old fat weight with your frame and bone structure. How much weight did you put on, anyway?"
"As he starts in on the second bowl of chowder, John mutters, "Closer to fifteen pounds. It's a little over the estimate you mentioned. I've learned to enjoy food, lots of food."
Gary shakes his head but keeps his thoughts to himself about that. They split the bill, and then, outside, John bumps into Gary's side and says, "C'mon, Gary, can't I stay with you? Please! It's only until Wednesday afternoon, and we can fly back together."
Gary hugs John's shoulder, mumbling, "Jesus, nobody has ever made me feel as good as you do. You can't stay, though. I've got too much studying to do, Johnny. I loved having you here--I loved it! But come on, don't make me the bad guy. I've got to study!"
Putting his arm across the back of Gary's waist, John murmurs, "I could argue that I'd stay out of your way when you're studying, but, okay, I won't nag you anymore." Then he grins, adding, "Daddy."
Gary says, "Goddammit, someone is going to hear you call me that, and we'll both be embarrassed. So will the guy who overhears it, probably."
As they walk back to the hotel, John looks at the side of Gary's face, feeling his eyes stinging, and then a tear runs down his cheek. Wiping at it with his hand, John murmurs, "I just want us living together full time. I want to work with you, live with you, play golf with you, and fuck with you, and... and I love you." Tears running down his cheeks, he adds, "I'm sorry for being so emotional about it. Sorry, Gary."
Stopping, Gary hugs John with both arms, pinning John's arms to his side. The tears keep coming, and he doesn't care as Gary hugs him, the sides of their faces together so that John's tears are on the side of Gary's face as he mutters, "How in the world did we come to this? Darling? I know we've said it a hundred times, but how can we be in love if we hardly know one another? And yet we are..."
John's tears stopped as he mumbled, "Hearing you include yourself in our love affair makes me feel so good, Gary. It makes me think I'm not crazy, or at least not the only one crazy."
Reaching a hand in his back pocket. Gary pulls out a fresh, never-used, right from the package men's white handkerchief, "Here, Johnny," and standing back, taking the handkerchief, John asks, "When did you start carrying a handkerchief?"
John wipes his eyes with the handkerchief, then blows his nose as Gary mumbles, "When I noticed how emotional my boyfriend gets at times. The handkerchief is yours now, by the way."
John snickered and put the handkerchief in the side pocket of his coat; well, it's actually Gary's coat; then muttered, "Your boyfriend who you love, right?"
Gary puts his arm across John's shoulders again, and they continue walking back to the hotel. After walking a block, Gary says, "Yes, the boyfriend I'm in love with."
"I didn't appreciate that hesitation," John jokingly mumbled, and Gary said, "I thought it was a rhetorical question."
"Ha!"
They walk in silence, John smiling, contentedly rubbing against Gary's side, glancing at Gary's profile every thirty seconds until Gary says, "Stop doing that, pretty boy."
At the hotel's front entrance, Gary takes his arm off John and checks the time on his phone, saying, "It's almost three o'clock. Let's have a drink in the hotel bar, then go to our room for some see-you-later sex. Some goodbye sex. Whaddaya say?"
John takes a deep breath, then says, "Okay, but can I smoke a cigarette first? I'm strangely nervous, and I don't know why. Well, I know why."
"Let me have one of your cigarettes, Johnny."
Drifting away from the hotel's entrance, they light cigarettes, and Gary exhales smoke, mumbling, "You have nothing to be nervous about. You can take care of yourself. Look at these cabs here waiting for a fare. You'll take the first one in line and be at the airport in no time. You've been through all this."
"It's not that, Gary. I'm not a fucking baby."
Gary goes, "Aw, you were nurse Andy's baby, or at least he babied the shit out of you."
"What? He was helping a person, me, who had lost his parents, was in a coma, and then had amnesia. How you can call that babying is beyond me."
Blowing smoke out, Gary mutters, "Many things are beyond you."
They look at one another and start laughing, then Gary says, "We were arguing again. We're always arguing about something. What's up with that?"
John exhales smoke, muttering, "You, as the person in charge of this love affair, need to be more authoritarian; that's what's missing. I need to know my place."
Gary steps on the cigarette butt, "I already tried that, and it didn't work with you."
"Well, I'll try harder!"
Gary mutters, "Maybe not. Let's get a stiff drink, and then I'm going to fuck your brains out..."
To be continued... donnymumford@outlook.com
My dear readers, please consider helping nonprofit Nifty by making a tax-deductible donation to help them maintain and grow this amazingly huge, free-story site. Easy directions for donating are at Nifty.org. Thank you so much!