The story below is a work of fiction, except the location. All characters named are figments of my imagination. This story contains explicit sexual situations between high school aged boys, (and some girls). If this is illegal, etc., well you know the drill.
Also, because it's based in the past, some of it may not be politically correct as I have tried to be true to 1969.
Thanks to everybody who has emailed me, I appreciate the tips and feedback. Please let me know what you think of this chapter. Flip 1977.flip@gmail.com
Chapter 16
"I said: Jake, what the hell are you doing here?" This was Ace again, and this time much louder, and causing the portly tattoo artist to look back and forth between all three of us.
"Oh, hey Dad. Hi. I didn't see you standing there. Ryan and me are...a...um...gonna go see a movie."
"Oh, is that so? You boys came all the way down here to this side of Pasadena just to see a movie. Exactly what movie were you planning on seeing? Midnight Cowboy? Or maybe Cinderelly?"
Ace looked pissed, but the tattoo dude started to smirk.
"Um, well, we were going to try and get in to that theater over there," he said, pointing to the triple X-rated theater next door to the tattoo shop.
"You were, were you? Well, whadaya think about that, Sonny?" Ace said, looking over at the grinning tattoo artist.
`I think it's kinda cute, Mr. M. These here boys wanna go see some big lady parts. Looks ta me like they want ta get some ed-u-katin."
"Is that what you're doing here Jake? You came all the way down here for that? And you, you look familiar to me. Where have I seen you before, kid?"
"I live next door to Jake. I'm Ryan." Thinking fast I added, "This was my idea. Don't get mad a Jake. He just wanted to see the pussy...I mean, the movie too, and he came with me to keep me company `cause I didn't want to come down here all by myself."
"Well how about that! My little boy has grown up," he said, starting to laugh and look over at Sonny. And then just as quickly as he started laughing he stopped dead, turned around and gave Jake an icy stare.
"Just exactly how do you think that you were going to get in there, boy? You're not even close to being old enough to get in, and it's not cheap, either."
"I don't know. We just thought we'd give it a try. Like Ryan said, they probably just want to make some money so we figured they'd let us in when nobody was looking. We really didn't give it much thought."
"They're perky lil' kids, ain't they Mr. M? I'm a thinkin' they got em some big ole donkey balls! "
`It appears so, Sonny, it appears so. Come with me boys. Let's go see what happens. Don't be surprised if you get booted out the door and end up out on your asses. Then you can get your butts out of here and back on home where you two belong."
We followed Ace down the sidewalk sneaking a few sly glances at each other, not daring to say a word and neither one of us wanting to go in the theater now. We should have listened to Coach Brian when he told us not to come down here. Man, were we stupid. What the hell were we thinking?
As we reached the front of the theater, Ace stopped for a second and looked all around the sidewalk for someone or something and not seeing anything marched right past the crusty old lady in the ticket booth and straight to the front door, opening it for us to go through first and then he followed us inside. That was weird, I thought to myself. We stood inside the lobby for a second or two and then Ace spotted a creepy looking guy behind the `candy' counter.
"Wilfred, would you please go find Mr. Jimmy and bring him here to me?"
"Yes sir, Mr. M. I'll be back in a jiffy," he sniffed, wiping off his runny nose with the back of his gray-haired hand.
Wow, how does Jake's dad know all of these strange people?
While we were waiting for Mr. Jimmy, and because we were too scared to talk, I took the opportunity to glance around the lobby area. The place had definitely seen better days, but it looked like it could have been an old vaudeville theater with some of those fancy doo-dads still decorating the walls and rafters. It had a huge ornate ceiling that was beautifully painted with stars, sky and dark blue clouds-and it looked like it hadn't been touched in over fifty years. Beautiful old glass light fixtures in bright colors hung from the ceiling casting an eerie glow.
What made this look different from Disneyland, though, was all of the coming attraction posters of naked women, boobs and pussys front and center, trying to look sexy and making you want to come back for more. The carpet was a filthy red and black palm tree print and was really crunchy. The tall walls were covered in a red velour fabric, and the counter was made of cheap red plastic. I guess all of these red colors make people get really turned on and horny. Some sort of old elevator/Las Vegas music was playing softly in the background, muffling the non-stop moans and the "Oh-Yeah's" and the "Do-Me's" coming from the movie playing in the next room.
I turned back around just in time to see a very tall, very skinny distinguished looking black man with a giant graying afro coming fast towards us as he walked out from behind a red velvet curtain off to the left side of the lobby, and, of course, he was wearing a dark-red plaid suit, red shirt and red tie. "Mr. M, what brings you back so soon? It's always magnificent to see you again."
"Jimmy, this is my son Jake and his friend Ryan. They would like to watch your movie this afternoon."
"Oh, I see," he said, clasping his big hands together and pausing for dramatic effect while giving us the once-over. "Ordinarily I'm not quite sure that I could accommodate such fine upstanding young gentlemen such as these, and seeing them here standing in front of me I must stress the term young. However, if you can vouch for their upstanding virtuous qualities, I would be most honored to graciously allow them to enter into my unique establishment, free of charge, as a courtesy to you, Mr. M."
"That would be fine Jimmy, and most generous. I don't believe that they will cause you any trouble. If they do, kick them out and let me know about it right away. I'll be in the neighborhood all day. Let them watch the movie and then maybe let them take a quick peek in the back room, but under no circumstances are they to, how should I say this, mingle about with any of the other patrons here on the premises.
"And boys," he said turning to us, "I want you out of here in an hour, no longer. Follow Jimmy's instructions completely. And when you leave you go out the side exit and go straight home. I don't ever want to see you in this neighborhood again. It is not safe here downtown for children. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Dad."
"Yes sir."
"OK. I'll see you later. I'm very busy right now and I've got an important situation that needs my immediate attention. Jimmy, thanks for this and I owe you one. I promise you that I won't forget it."
"Nary a problem, Mr. M. I will take earnest care of these dandy fine young gentlemen. Do not concern yourself with their well-being."
"I'll be seeing you then, fellas," giving us both a hard stare one more time and pointing his finger at us. With that, Ace walked out the door.
"So, my fresh-faced and fledgling young gentleman friends, am I correct in my assumption that you would appreciate viewing some exquisite adult entertainment?"
"Yeah, we sure do!" Jake said, obviously glad his dad was gone. "What's playing?"
"Well actually, I've got a girlfriend and she wants to go all the way so I thought this would be a good place to see how to do it so she doesn't think I'm a virgin," I rushed out and said too quickly while continuing with my lie, hoping that Jake got it and wouldn't say something to get us both into any more trouble. "And I didn't want to come alone so I brought Jake with me. Can we just go in and watch a little of the movie and then we'll take off? We promise that we won't cause you any trouble."
"That sounds completely satisfactory to me, gentleman. As this appears to be your first experience in this exotic setting, I must advise you before you cross the threshold into the auditorium that in attendance are certain patrons who may, shall we say, be enthusiastic by what is transpiring up on the screen and seeing such handsome young men such as yourselves enter, they may want to sit next to you to try and engage in some rather spirited and unsavory sexual behavior. May I suggest that you sit some distance apart from the other patrons and be attentive of your surroundings as you view my discerning cinema? Please refrain from participating with those individuals, and if need be cordially suggest that they move themselves along."
"I sorta think I understand what you're trying to say. I don't think we want to get involved in any of that kind of stuff, mister," I said.
"What's in the back room that my dad was just talking about?" Jake asked, not paying any attention to anything that Mr. Jimmy had just told us.
"Ah, yes, that. On your exit from the auditorium I suppose that you may want to choose to continue to enlighten and broaden your minds with the rather colorful multi-faceted side of human sexuality. I believe that in the numerous audiovisual compartments that I have assembled are examples of some quite fine and extraordinary collections of rare and enthralling films representing sexual fantasies that young gentleman such as your-selves could never quite imagine and may actually appreciate viewing. Please feel free to partake in those erotic visual spectacles if you so wish. You may find some of them quite stimulating. But please, excuse me for saying this and as crass as this may sound, favor me by refraining from pulling out your genitals and manhandling them.
"One final item, if I may be so bold. Should the house lights come on at any time, I must insist that you please make haste out the back exit and into the alley and join the public out on the boulevard. Do not look around and please rally away from the structure. Should you be captured by the constables and incarcerated, your father will eliminate me. Literally. Now go and enjoy!" he said, flipping his arms around in some crazy dramatic fashion and clapping his hands twice. "I will return within the hour and as I do not expect to continue my relationship with you any further, I must say thank you for joining us today and I bid you both a fond farewell."
Once Mr. Jimmy had slinked away from us and disappeared back behind the red drapes, I whispered to Jake, "Oh, man, this is so fucking strange. I can't believe this is happening to us. These people are really, really weird! Let's get in there and see some of the movie and then let's get the hell out of here, OK?
"All right. But you wanna get a Coke and a candy bar first?"
"You idiot. Come on!"
I grabbed Jake's arm and we went through the big doors and into the middle of the theater. Standing just behind the closed doors I noticed that it was a lot bigger inside than I had imagined. Once my eyes got used to the dark I looked up at the screen and saw what had to be a fifty foot boner moving steadily across the wide screen as it was slamming into an equally large dripping wet pussy. I had to bite my tongue from the craziness of our situation and keep from outright laughing.
I pushed Jake down a few rows and we took our seats, making sure that we were away from the handful of people that were scattered about in the large theater. As we walked by one of the top rows I was pretty sure that one guy had his dick out of his pants and he was whacking it off in time with the movie. No wonder the floor was so shiny and sticky!
After we sat down and watched about ten or fifteen minutes of the movie I started to realize that this was actually getting rather boring. Sure, the guy had a nice big hairy cock with a big red head and I did like looking at it, but I really didn't want to see him plowing it into some girl, over and over and over again. I really don't know what I was expecting, but the dialogue was stupid, if you could even call it dialogue, and the music was even stupider. It sounded like Jordy practicing on his toy piano using his feet. Sloan could make better music than that, just by burping and cutting a few farts. I looked over at Jake who had his arm up and his face half covered by his hand. I couldn't tell whether he was embarrassed or bored, or both. Either way, it was time to for us to split from this freaking place.
I nudged his elbow off the armrest that we were sharing and asked, "This movie is stupid. Let's go check out that back room to see what it's all about and then let's get the hell out of here, OK?"
"Yeah, I've already seen this kind of stuff for real before when I took pictures of Lisa and the football team getting it on," he whispered. "I like watching the guys and their big equipment but not the girls so much."
We got up and started down towards the screen where there was a door that led to the mysterious back room. I noticed out of the corner of my eye a grungy looking guy from a couple of rows behind us get up and start to follow us, but when I turned around to shoot him a dirty look, he sat right back down in another seat. We both stumbled along on our way down the rest of the aisle and through a dark archway next to an old emptied out orchestra pit and then on to the back room door. Once inside, we looked around and saw that the brightly lit room was filled with what looked like those tall photo booths they have at the county fair where you and your friends can all squeeze into and take four goofy pictures for a quarter. But these booths were entirely different.
The compartments here were lined up evenly along each side of the long and tall narrow room, at least twenty or more on each side. More of those coming attraction posters were hanging up high above the booths, big tits starring down on us like gods from above and the red nipples seemed to eye our every move. Smaller, glossy pictures were hanging on the sides of the booths showing various poses and stills from the different movies that you could watch inside. The booths had ratty black curtains that you could close once you were inside so you could have some sort of privacy and to keep someone else from looking in, or to let someone walking by know that a particular booth was in use. Luckily no one was in the hallway that ran down along the middle of the booths, but some of the booths had the curtains closed and you could hear some of the soundtracks playing, with more of that funky sounding music. The smell in here was like a bad combination of a stinky, rotting bathroom that hadn't been cleaned in many years and an old empty dumpster that had been sitting for hours in the hot sun out behind a cheap Chinese restaurant.
Jake and I walked down the gummy and dirty linoleum lined hallway looking at the pictures on the sides of the booths, whispering comments to each other. We were both amazed by the huge variety of the films. Shit, I didn't know people did some of this stuff, and for a quick second I pictured my parents doing some of these things in their bedroom, and then just as quickly pushed that gross thought right back out of my head. Yuck and double yuck! My friend from third grade, Scott, who moved to a farm a few years ago, used to tell me about his parents making a lot of noise when they would screw each other, but I never heard my parents doing it and I'm kinda glad that I never had.
One poster had a picture of two women with an enormous plastic pink phallus sticking in both of their cooters at the same time. A lot of the posters showed various groupings of men and women, some with more women and some with more men, usually with the women having a prick stuffed into her mouth and another schlong up her honey pot at the same time. Most of the men were older dudes, but the women were almost always very young looking and almost always had big boobies. Quite a few showed one woman eating out another woman's quim, usually with big sloppy grins on their mugs. That must be a favorite for these patrons, but it sorta grossed me out. Some had petite women dressed up as young school girls with shaved hoo-hoos riding big monstrous black poles. One even showed a woman smiling at the camera while parting her twat lips and looked like she was pissing or squirting some type of twat juice all over a guy's hard tallywhacker. Double and triple yuck!
Finally, we found a couple of booths down at the end that had posters that showed just naked men standing alone in different poses, flexing their muscles. None of the guys looked young like us, and instead they were either long haired hippies or buff loggers or hairy macho truck driving dudes. Some were dressed as cops or firemen, or park rangers. They mostly looked butch and they all had big cocks or really big ball sacks or both. Since they all had huge tools, I figured that when I got to be twenty-one me and Jakes dicks would be that big too. Maybe that's how you can tell if you're queer or not-you have to have a really big member! Maybe I'll ask Lisa if that was true when we got back home. It was funny that the other womenie posters showed some of the sex scenes, but the posters with just the guys had them just standing around in poses with their hard-ons sticking out, but not fooling around with other guys. It was also strange to me that only one guy had an uncut cock, and of course that was the one Jake wanted to see.
"Let's go in here!" Jake said. "This one looks like it could have been filmed up on my uncle's farm."
We both squeezed into the booth and I shut the curtain closed. It was a tight fit and I could feel the excitement flowing through Jake's hot body. We were both trying to figure out how this thing worked, and then I finally realized that you had to put coins into the machine in the slot under the little window to play the movie. I told Jake to put in a quarter to start the machine playing. Once the film started to roll, we saw two big hairy chested guys with huge hard-ons and hairy bushes standing in the back of an old rusty pick-up truck parked behind a garage or an old shed as they were pulling on each other's dicks. There was blue-grass music playing in the background, which made me want to laugh again. I was so glad that Jake and I hadn't smoked a doobie and gotten high before we came in here, or we would be in even bigger trouble and probably would have got kicked out.
One guy had long curly blond hair and a big full moustache that hung down past his lips and the other guy was shorter and had black hair cut real short. He was actually quite a bit smaller than the other guy, but was way more muscular. And he was hairy all over, too. He had some sort of leather strap tied around his dick and balls, the stings left to dangle freely between his legs and he was uncut and had long foreskin just like me. They stroked each other's cocks for a little bit and then the black haired guy got down on his knees in the pickup truck bed and sucked down the other dudes dick. He sucked it all the way down his throat in one fast move, his nose stuck right up into the guy's pubes, the blond guy's hairy ball sack swinging around and hitting him smack on his chin. Wow, I thought. Far out! That looked hot and I knocked my leg into Jakes. I wanted to try that! Just then the movie shut off.
"Hey, what happened?" Jake asked.
"I don't know. I think you have to put in another quarter. Maybe it only plays for a little while and then it shuts off. That was cool looking, huh?" I whispered.
"Yeah! Let's see what they do next."
"Keep your voice down, man. I don't think that we're both supposed to be in one of these booths together," I said.
He put in another coin and the machine started right up where we had just left off. The black haired guy was still sucking the blond guy's big dick all the way down his throat and then pulling all of it out, and then all the way back down again, really fucking his mouth. They did this for a few more times and then they changed positions. This time the blond with the moustache sucked down the other guy's smaller boner, but he wasn't as good at it as the first guy was. I guess sucking cock takes some practice! He mostly licked around it and slurped on his dangling ball sack. He did lick and pull and bite and chew on the black haired guy's foreskin, though, which was something that I liked when Jake did that to me. One time he made a special point of pulling down the guy's foreskin and slapping his erection all over his face and rubbing it around on his moustache. If that was my wiener I think that might have hurt a little, `cause my cock is so sensitive on the tip, but I didn't know exactly. I wondered if moustache hairs are real scratchy. This looked like something else to try some time when we could grow big hairy moustaches like that.
Then the blond turned the other guy around and pushed him so his hands were leaning on the top of the rusty truck's cab, and spread his legs out in wide stance. The camera moved to the side so you could see the blond start licking and kissing the black haired guys ass, and tickling him with his big furry moustache. The black haired guy's ass was really hairy too, which I found different. They were both really getting into it, the black-haired butt guy bending over more and sticking his ass out so the blond could get in easier and lick all around the bulls-eye, his floppy cock and balls bouncing all around. He really slobbered all over the dude's hairy hole, his moustache getting all shiny and wet. You could see the tip of his tongue starting to really get in there deep. Then he stood up and then, damn! The machine stopped again.
Putting in another quarter, Jake whispered to me, "This is so fucking hot. We're gonna try some of these moves when we get home, dude! I'm gonna grow me a moustache."
"Yeah, like you can."
The film started playing again and now the blond guy was standing up behind the black haired guy and spitting into his hand and wiping it all around his hard cock, getting it good and hard and slick with is saliva. It looked really big, but it was probably a lighting trick or something like that. He spit on his finger this time and then stuck that finger right into the black haired guy's hairy ass hole. He really fingered it around, in and out and in and out, and not being very gentle, either. The ass guy seemed to love it though, because he kept bending his knees lower and sticking his butt out even further like he was gonna pinch a loaf or something. He pulled out his finger, spit on his fingers again and this time stuck two fingers in the guy's butt hole, twisting and turning just like before. Then without warning, the blond pulled out his finger, leaned over and dropped a big glob of spit onto the tip of his cock, then aimed his hard dick at his friends exposed butt hole and jammed it right in, up all the way, in one fast move and pushing the guy forward towards the cab's window.
"Ouch," Jake said.
They really fucked, and I could tell that the ass guy really loved it because his hard dick was dripping loads of pre-cum out of his piss slit and was bobbing all over the place. Just as the fucking got faster, the damn movie machine stopped playing again.
Putting in another quarter, the fucking in the back of the rusty red truck resumed. Slamming and slamming, and I thought that the blond guy was going to fuck the black haired dude right through the damn window. Then the blond pulled out and then the film changed to a scene where the blond was standing on the ground in the tall green grass and the hairy guy was on his back on the edge of the rusty tail-gate. His uncut cock and balls still had the leather strap tied around it and the blond was pulling on the strings, making his friends really hard cock and tight balls dance around all over his chest. That looked like it hurt and it didn't really turn me on much. His dick was so red it looked purple. After a while, he let go of the strap and grabbed the guy's furry legs and hoisted them onto his shoulders and then buried his cock deep in the guy's asshole one more time in one fast furious thrust.
Apparently they liked fucking this way because the blond guy was really ramming it in, standing in the grass and holding up the guy's legs straight up in the air by his ankles. Sometimes the blond guy would pull his big hard cock all of the way out and then, just as fast, shove it right back in his butt hole all the way in. The furry black haired guy was really working on his own cock now, stroking it fast with one hand and twisting and pinching his hard tit with his other hand. He'd push his ball sack down and into the blond's chest every time the blond guy would deep dick him. They were really going at it now, moving so fast it was like a blur. Then they guy getting plowed looked like he was about to&
"Fuck! Not again." I said.
"Oh man. I can't stand this anymore. I'm almost out of quarters and we need those for the bus ride home. Plus, I'm about to blow my load. My shorts are soaked with so much dick juice I'm gonna have to un-tuck my shirt to hide it. This day has gone from cranky to sexy to fun to bad to weird and now to horny! Ry, let's get the hell out of here and go home and get naked and make out before I blow my load all over the inside of my shorts!"
"OK, Roger that! But remember that Mr. Jimmy said we have to go out the back way into the alley. Let's hurry so we don't run into your dad or any of his fascinating friends. Ya' know, I think I'm about to blow my wad, too."
I opened the curtain and stepped outside slowly to make sure that the coast was clear. But unfortunately, leaning against the booth next to ours was the sleazy, creepy guy who had started to follow us down the aisle from inside the theater. Jake followed me out, and not noticing that I had stopped, ran right into my back, one more time.
"Hi sweet boys. Did you fellas like the movie? Looking at the great big bulges in your shorts tells me that you did. Oooh, and you guys have wet spots-how sexy is that? That clip on the farm is one of my all-time favorites and I especially like the blond guy with the big moustache," he said with a leer. "The black haired guy can sure take a hard cock, can't he?"
"Um, no, we really didn't care for it. In fact, we're about to leave `cause it's just too weird in here and we need to get home," I said.
"Are you sure? Don't be in such a party pooper. I can guarantee you that the three of us could make some of that fun like those guys were having all on our very own. Maybe you boys could come back to my place and I could film you two naked and then you could have your own little movie playing in here. I bet you'd like to do that with each other, huh? Do you do that already? I live real close-just around the corner- and I've got a great big comfortable bed. Who knows, you could become big porno stars making big money and I'm sure that Mr. Jimmy would be delighted to add you to his collection. He's always looking for fresh faces. If you're really good, he might be willing for you to do a live show up on stage sometime, in front of an audience. Then you could earn some really big tips, too."
"Ah, no thanks, we've got to go," I said again, starting to move around him.
That didn't work and he stuck out his arm to stop us. The leer disappeared from his face and was replaced with a look of lust as he said, "Are you sure? I promise it will be fun and I'll definitely make it worth your while. We don't have to film it if you don't want. I'd really like to see your naked bodies and your hard dicks and smooth asses. Can I just feel your dicks just once?"
"No. I'm positive," I said raising my voice.
"How about if you just pull out your cocks and let me take a quick look at them?"
"Fuck! I said no. We have to go," I said, starting to get pissed.
"We'll OK, if you must. If I see Mr. M I just might mention what films you boys were watching."
We stood there speechless for a second letting what he had said sink in and then all of a sudden Jake let out a growl and then went ballistic. He pushed past me and grabbed the little creep by the front of his shirt, pushing him hard up against an all women fuck-fest booth and told him, "I don't want you to say shit to my old man. We were just looking at all of the different films and if you say anything to anybody about it I'll make sure you never talk again. Got it?"
"OK boys, simmer down, simmer down. I understand. You're just shy, that's all. Well, I'll be see'n you later then," he said as Jake let him go and he backed off.
Then, as the guy started to walk back into the theater I heard him say under his breath, "Like father, like son."
I don't think Jake heard that, but it made me wonder again what Ace was really all about.
"Jake, that was so totally fucking awesome. What got into you? I've never seen you like that before," I said pulling him down the hall towards the exit and into the dirty alley behind the theater and out into the bright sunshine. "You could have gotten hurt. What if he had a knife or something? What would you have done then?"
"I don't know. I guess I've just had enough of this shit that's been going on with my dad. Remember when I told you about the guy that I punched in the nose at our apartment? Well the same thing just happened to me here. I don't know why it happens to me, `cause I'm usually always pretty cool and mellow. But when someone pisses me off like that, and I mean really pisses me off, I just go wild. I go from zero to a hundred in like 2 seconds. I guess I'm just trying to protect us. Let's get the fuck out of here."
"All right, Batman, let's go."
After we went through the back door and into the alley, we started walking down De Lacy Street instead of Fair Oaks and crossed Colorado Boulevard at the corner. Jake had calmed down enough to borrow a dollar bill from me to toss into the guitar case of the Vietnam vet who we saw earlier and was still playing his six-string on the sidewalk. Then, just to be safe and to make sure we didn't run into anybody that we had just met, we walked down two extra blocks to Arroyo Parkway to wait at that bus stop to take us back home, sitting down on a bench in front of an old dive bar called the Hunt Club. Somebody had crossed out the H' in the sign and used spray paint to paint it over with a C'. All we needed now was for my dad to drive by seeing us sitting in front of the Cunt Club.
We were quiet for a long time and when the bus finally came we hopped aboard silently. Jake took the window seat and I slid in next to him. This time the bus was a little bit more crowded, since it was Friday and close to quitting time for the office and factory workers in the area who might be working half-day or had the real early shift. We rode in silence for a few more minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.
"Jake, are you doing OK?" I asked him quietly, hoping nobody would hear us.
`Yeah, I'm just thinking about my dad. What was he doing there and why does he know all of those weird people? Now that I think about it, he never talked much about his work other than to say that he was a business man. My mom never asked about his work and Lisa usually avoided him altogether, well, so did I, but still, you'd think we'd know what he did to make a living. Now I'm not so sure that I want to know."
"Yeah, I was sorta wondering how he knew all of those people too. He even knew all of their names, even the old grizzly guy behind the counter at the theater. And did you notice how they treated and respected him? I think if he told them to hop around on one foot they'd do it. Maybe he's just a landlord and owns the buildings and he goes there to collect the rent."
"I don't think so. Today is the twenty-seventh and usually rent's not due `til Tuesday which is July first. I remember from living in our apartment how the landlady would be at our front door first thing in the morning on the first day of every month with her grubby hand sticking out to collect the rent. That was the only time that we saw that old bitch. She would never fix things, but she sure was there to take our money."
"Well, when we get home let's ask Lisa. Maybe she'll know."
We rode the rest of the way in silence watching the crummy area turn into nicer, taller buildings and fancy department stores. When we got off the bus I glanced over at our bikes and was happy that they were both still locked up. "Let's go in Thrifty's and get us an Ice Crème Cone. I think we should call Lisa to see if she wants to maybe come down and get and us. It's too hot to ride up the hill and it will take us forever to get home. Do you think she'll mind?"
"Nah, I think that's a groovy idea. Here's a dime for the phone. I'll go get our cones. What kind you want?"
"Just a chocolate dip," I said heading over to the pay phone on the wall.
Lisa was a good sport to come and get us, not really wanting to miss her Dark Shadows show, but once I told her that we had run into her dad she hung up the phone, grabbed Jordy and was in the Thrifty's parking lot in just over five minutes. Of course Jordy wanted an Ice Crème cone too, so I gave him some money to grab one and meet us back at the microbus. Then the three of us had a quick pow-wow about seeing her dad, and of course then she wanted to hear the entire story, from the beginning. But Jordy was back by then and so we decided to go home and the three of us would meet up in the pool house later on and we'd tell her everything. We unlocked our bikes and tossed them into the back of the bus and we all climbed in. Everybody was lost in their own thoughts going up the hill, except for Jordy who slurped noisily on his tutti-frutti ice creme cone.
The ride up the hill was quiet and uneventful, and surprisingly even the radio wasn't playing. Since the folks weren't due home for a few more hours yet I had to figure out how to ditch Jordy, in a nice way of course, so the three of us could talk. We really needed to figure out what Ace was really all about.
"Hey Jordy. Why don't you give your friend Chris a call and see if he wants to play. Maybe you can go over to his house and play with his Hot Wheels and show him some of your new cars. The three of us need to talk about something boring that you wouldn't understand."
"I don't want to. I want to hang out with you guys."
"Jordy, if you go over to your friend's house I'll give you a super-secret surprise after dinner when you come back, OK?" Lisa asked him.
"All right. But it better be good."
"Oh, it will, I promise," Lisa said, giving him a wink.
"Hey sis, does Uncle Gus have an old rusty-red pickup up on his farm?"
"Um, maybe, I really don't remember. Oh wait! Yeah, way out in the hay field by that old tractor shed I think. Why?"
"Oh nothing, just something that popped into my head."
Could this day get any stranger, I thought to myself?
NOTE: This chapter is dedicated to my hilarious neighbor from many years ago, Mr. Brian, who taught me what gay life was all about for him in the 1950's, 1960's and the early 1970's. Cheers, Brian, whether you're up there, down there or someplace else, hopefully you're fucking your brains out!
ALSO: Please don't flame me too much for taking some liberty with the theater and the date. From research I know that there was an X-Rated theater named the Tom Cat in Pasadena, but I don't think it opened until 1970 or 1971. I've tried to make everything else as accurate as possible.
FINALLY: A special thanks to the many readers who helped me out with some slang terms, and especially to Thom and Hans for their help with the great music tips coming up in the next few chapters.