Sir, I really need a job.

I was doing the laundry when I heard the door bell.  I'd just taken off the shorts and jock I'd worn while trimming the hedges that blocked the view of my back yard from the neighbors.  They'd gotten over grown and sparse.  I cut them back so they'd fill in.  The neighbors fourteen year old boy kept spying on me when I was laying out at the pool.  He saw me jacking off.  Damn I wish he was a few years older.

Well, to get back on track, I was sweaty and smelly, so I didn't want to put clothes on, but instead, I grabbed a pool towel and went to the door.  I walked into the front room and saw a young guy peering in the window.  He'd gotten an eyeful.  I had the towel wide open as I got to the entry.  I opened the door, kinda pissed but my anger left as I saw him better.  He was sex in boots.  "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Hi, I'm Jacob.  I'm looking for work.  I notice your lawn needs cutting and the garden needs weeding.  I'd appreciate it if you could help me." Jacob said humbly.

"I'm not going to give you money so you can buy drugs or alcohol." I said scenically.

"I understand, I'll work for food.  I'm homeless." Jacob said.  His eyes begged.  "Sir, I really need a job." he pleaded.

"I've only got a push mower.  It's hard work.  I'm trying to keep in shape.  That's one way I get extra exercise.  I'll give you a good dinner for cutting the front.  If you do a good job, we'll talk about more work."    I said.  "Let me put some clothes on and I'll get the mower out for you."  I left him outside and went to the my room to get a pair of shorts.  My head was full of lustful thoughts about the sexy young man at my door, but it was full of cautions to.  I hurried back to the door.  He was patiently waiting.  I took him to the garage and got the mower. 

"Thanks man, I really am grateful. I haven't eaten for two days." Jacob said.

"Maybe we ought to get some food in you before you go pushing this thing around.  Come in, I'll fix us lunch." I said, letting down my guard.  His face looked sweaty and pale.  I didn't want him keeling over in my front yard.

I took him in and sat him at the kitchen table while I made us a chef's salad.  If he hadn't eaten in two days, anything heavy would be too much.

"You look like you're in great shape.  How long have you been homeless? I asked.

"Two months.  I was staying with a friend, but he was in the Army and got shipped off.  I've been looking for a job, but I don't have any clothes and no one will hire someone living off the street." he said.

"What happened to your stuff?  How'd you end up homeless?" I probed.

"Everything I had was burned up in a fire at the apartment complex I worked and lived at.  The whole place burned down.  It even got my car." Jacob said.

"No insurance?" I asked.

"Liability only.  It was an old car." he said sadly.

"Man, that sucks.  Won't the owner of the complex do anything to help?" I asked.

"He died in the fire." Jacob looked like he was on the edge of tears.

"Where have you been staying?" I continued my inquisition. 

"Anywhere the cops wouldn't run me off.  I stayed with a guy......" He stopped.

"You hustled?" I asked looking at him.

"Yeah, I was desperate like I am now.  He did some weird shit to me." Jacob said.

"I hope he was safe about it at least." I said.

"It was a mostly bunch of bondage and crap.  I barely got out of there with my clothes such as they are." he said.

"Did he hurt you?" I asked angrily.

"Not that bad, but he humiliated me.  He tied me up and got a bunch of his buddies to come over.  They pissed on me and all sorts of crap.  The sex part wasn't the worst.  I can live with sucking a guy off, and getting fucked, but not the way they treated me.  I felt like a dog." Jacob said.

"Man, I'm sorry that happened to you.  Do you want to call the cops?" I asked.

"No, I went there willingly knowing I was going to have sex with him.  The cops don't care what happened from there on." he said.

"Is that the first time you hustled?" I asked.  I wanted him to say no.  I wanted the think he wasn't worth worrying about.  

"Yeah, I never even dreamed of doing anything like that.  I just wanted to finish college and start a life.  I can't believe I'm in this situation." He said looking out the window at my pool and gardens.  "It's beautiful out there." He said, looking melancholy.  

I put the large salad in front of him and sat down across the table from him.  He dove in and gobbled the food down.  "Slow down.  You'll make yourself sick." I cautioned.

"I'm sorry.  God I'm a pig.  It's just so good." He said.

"It's alright.  I understand.  I just don't want you to get sick and throw it up.  Your stomach can't handle too much to fast." I said.

"I must have lost twenty pounds." he exaggerated. 

"If you did, you lost it in all the right places.  You're in great shape." I complimented.

"Thanks." he said suspiciously.  He was looking at me like he was suddenly afraid of me.

"Hey Jacob, I'm gay, but we aren't all like that son of a bitch.  You've got nothing to worry about here." I said, suddenly realizing he was now the one fearing me.

"Sorry, I wasn't scared of you cuz you're gay.  I had a gay room mate in college." Jacob said.

"How long ago were you in college?" I started with questions again.

"Just two semesters ago.  I ran out of tuition and got a job so I could go back.  Terry, my room mate wanted to pay my way, but I couldn't ask him to do that.  Now look where my pride got me.  I'm sucking dick and begging." Jacob said.

"Sounds like a good friend." I said.

"Aw man, he was the best.  Really, he was a great guy.  We had so much fun together." Jacob said actually smiling for the first time.

"Where's he now?" I asked.

"Still in school.  I can't let him see me in this situation." Jacob said.

"And you family?" I asked.

"My folks split up and took off with other people.  It was like they forgot they had a son." Jacob said.  "God, I sound like the worst sob story in the world." 

"Not at all.  Unfortunately you're like lots of young people these days." I said.  We finished out meal and went out on the deck.  It was hot outside but there was a nice breeze in the shade.  No sooner had we sat down when he was snoring.  I fixed an umbrella over him so as the sun moved, he'd still be in the shade.  I left him there to sleep.  I was finishing the last hedge when he woke up.  The sun was on it's way behind the horizon.  He jumped up and started to say something, but his head began to spin and he staggered around.

I just barely caught him before he fell in the pool.   "Hey, you alright?" I asked.  "Of course he's not alright dumb ass." I thought.

"Wow, the lights went out." He said, trying to focus.  I carried him into the house and laid him on the leather sofa in the den.  "I'm okay." he protested. 

"No you're not stay put." I ordered.  I went to the kitchen cabinet were I kept a blood pressure kit.  I checked his blood pressure twice.  It was 90 over 52.  I checked it again.  It was still low, but coming up.  "Has that happened to you before?" I asked.

"A couple times lately." he said.  

"Never before though?" I asked.

"Oh, once in a while I'd get a little dizzy when I stood up too fast, specially after a big meal, rarely though." he said.

"You need to stay there.  I'll make us dinner in a while.  Here, watch TV and rest." I said handing him the remote.

"Man, I stink. I going to mess up this nice sofa." he protested.

"It's leather, it can take it.  You just stay there.  I'll bring you a glass of buttermilk.  It's good for you." I said.

"I love buttermilk.  I used to drink it instead of cokes." he said.

I went to the kitchen and poured him a glass of cold buttermilk and took it to him.

"You know, I don't even know your name."  He said as I handed the glass to him.

"How rude of me." I said. "It's Nate."

"Thank Nate, I'm sorry I didn't get any work done." He said.

"I'm not.  Now you owe me some lawn work so you'll have to stay and keep me company tonight." I said.

"I'll owe you more work for giving me a place to stay." he said.

"And I'll feed you breakfast, so you'll owe me more and lunch and so on and so on.  You may never get away from here." I joked.  He smiled like he had a million thoughts going on at once.  I realized I'd probably said something stupid.  I went to the kitchen a made dinner.  When it was done, I called him.  He slowly got up, and came in to eat.  His face was pale and he was slow moving.

At dinner, I got a good whiff of his body odor when the air conditioner came on.  "Woo, you're smelling even riper than I am.  "When we get finished you can take a bath.  No shower.  If you konk out in the shower you might hurt yourself bad."

"God, I remember how the street people smelled when I worked for a coffee shop.  I never imagined that could be me." Jacob said.

"It could be anyone, anytime.  People don't realize how fragile life is.  All you need is to be in the wrong place at the right time." I told him.

We finished eating but before we got up, he fell asleep.  I woke him up and checked his blood pressure again.  It was low, but not dangerously low.  "You better come with me in the bathroom.  I might fall asleep in the tub and drown." He said to my surprise.

"Okay, you ready to go now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can't stand my own smell.  I don't want to mess up your furniture." He said.

"Okay, let's go." I said helping him to his feet.  He seemed to be fine, but while he was undressing he got dizzy.  I helped him get his pants off.  He got in the warm tub and sighed, "Oh God this feels so good."

"I'm going to throw your jeans in the washer.  The shirt goes in the trash.  I've got some you can have.  I'll be right back." I said.  I rushed to the laundry room and pulled my clothes out of the washer, put them in the drier and put his clothes and my shorts in the washer.  I rushed back to the bathroom.  He was washing his hair.  He looked up and smiled.  I got in the shower and washed off.  We got out about the same time.  He looked and smelled like a new man.

"Man I feel so much better." he said.

"I'll get you a razor and tooth brush." I said, digging in the cabinet.  

"I've managed to keep my teeth sort of clean by chewing on twigs and lemon grass in the park." Jacob said.

"That's smart.  I did notice your teeth are clean and white.  I'll see if I've got something for you to wear to bed." I said.

"That's okay, I sleep naked most of the time if that okay with you." he said.

"Silly boy, if I had my way you'd never have anything on." I joked.  He smiled.  "I have a guest room and another bedroom, but I haven't put any furniture in them yet.  I spent too much on that leather sofa.  You can sleep on it, or if you trust me, I've got a king sized bed." I offered.

"I'll sleep on the sofa tonight.  Maybe after one night, I'll feel different.  Shit! that's a stupid thing to say.  I'm fuckin' inviting myself to stay." He said.

"I've already decided you need to stay.  You can't go back out on the street.  This isn't the friendliest town for street people.  Besides, we need to keep an eye on your blood pressure.  I kinda like looking at you to." I said.

"Ha, thanks.  I can't believe seeing me like I was when I came to your door, you'd like looking at me." Jacob said.

"Are you kidding? You didn't smell so good, but damn you looked good, shirt open, slick with sweat, pants so low and no underwear, pubes sticking out. Woof."

"I never wear my pant like that.  I've just lost so much weight, they slip down." Jacob said.

"If anyone should be a sagger, you should.  That flat belly, your little trail, sexy" I said." I said tracing my finger down the soft fuzz descending from his navel. I jerked my hand back realizing I was taking liberties.  "I'll get bedding for you." I said quickly leaving the room.

I made the sofa for him.  He laid down and sighed.  "This is going to be the first real nights sleep I've had in a while." He said.

"I hope you sleep well." I said heading to my room.  I lay in my bed wide awake for over an hour.  I had so many thoughts going on in my head.  This is such a trite situation.  Fag falls for street trash and get screwed or worse.  What was I going to do?  I got up and opened my laptop.  I Googled the apartment complex he said he lived in and worked at.  There were dozens of hits on the terrible fire that killed the owner and destroyed the complex.  It put fifty people out on the street.  Then I saw something that shocked me.  "Jacob Deering, the complex handyman was instrumental in saving the lives of at least eight people.  He ran into the burning building and rescued a family trapped by the fire.  He was over come by smoke and almost didn't  make it out when he went back in after the family was safe, to get their puppy." The article went on saying he'd lost everything.  When they tried to find him for an interview, they were unable to locate him.  The Red Cross had found shelter for the other people, but didn't have any idea where Jacob was.  A search of hospitals didn't turn up anything either.

I wondered why he walked away from the Red Cross.  Why hadn't he let someone help him?  I closed the computer and went back to bed.  I fell asleep with even more questions, but some comforting answers.  I don't know how long I'd been asleep, but suddenly I felt the bed move.  I rolled over and saw Jacob slipping under the covers.  "I've been alone long enough.  You don't mind do you?" he asked.

"Not at all." I said.  He got in bed.  We turned toward each other.  In the dim moon light, I could see him smile.  He looked so young, so sweet, so vulnerable, so dangerous.  His eyes closed and soon his breathing changed and I knew he was asleep.  I wanted to kiss him.  I fell asleep.

The bright morning sun was hot.  It woke us early.  This was day three of my two week vacation.  I'd taken vacation to get my yard in order.  I hadn't had time to work on it since I moved in.  I'd spent all my time on the inside.  We laid in bed for a while talking.  I asked him about the article I'd found.

"I guess I can't blame you for checking me out.  I would have to." He said.

"You were a hero, but you didn't stick around for anyone to help you.  Why'd you do that?" I asked.

"I don't know,  I just did what I had to.  I think I was in shock when I did it.  I don't remember much about it.  I woke up when the floor under my bed jumped up three feet.  Next thing I knew, I was in the laundry room under my apartment and there was fire all around me.  I'd hit my head of the concrete floor.  The building was coming down around me.  I found my pants and boots and ran out.  There was another explosion and a shirt, well part of a shirt flew out.  I don't know who's it was, I put it on cuz it was cold.  I don't remember going back in for the family.  I remember the puppy though." Jacob said.

"Hey, you hungry?" I asked

"Starving?" he said.

The subject of the fire seemed to make him sad so I changed the conversation.  We decided on what we wanted for breakfast and I made it.  After breakfast, I found him some clothes that I hadn't gotten into in years.  They were long for him, but they fit fairly well.  I loved the way they sagged down low enough to tease me with a few pubes and a little butt crack.  We started working on the front yard.  The humidity was deadly.  The sun was hot.  We took turns mowing, then decided to go back and work around the pool. He seemed to get week a few time, so we drank a lot of sport drinks and stopped for a lite lunch.  He bounce back quickly but later we stopped again for a snack.  "You're going to fatten me up again." He joked.

"Oh no, I like you just the way you are.  Just get health again." I said.  

"I'm glad I lost that weight.  I'd gotten lazy.  I wasn't fat, just not cut at all.  Now I've got abs and a cum gutter." He said drawing a line up the middle of his abs.

"I never heard a straight guy call it that." I said.

"My girlfriend called it that.  She calls these an Apollo's belt" He said tracing his obliques.

"I call it hot." I said, starring at the sexy man in front of me.  He flexed his muscles like a belly dancer.  "Fucking prick tease." I said tossing the last bit of soda and ice in my glass at his stomach.  He yelled and jumped up. His drink was empty, so he scooped water out of the pool and tossed it on me.  I jumped up and tackled him, throwing us both in the pool.  We splashed around for a while.  Both of us took our jeans off and tossed them out of the pool.  We played some more.  I wanted so much to grab him and get nasty all over him.  He knew it and teased me.

We finally got tired and climbed out of the water.  We lay on the deck in the sun for a couple minutes.  Then we went inside.  We showered separately, and had dinner.  I wanted him to talk about what his plans were. "If I let you stay here, use this address, buy you come clothes, what would you do?"  I asked.

"I'm the best handyman you've ever seen.  I can fix anything.  I can weld, build and repair anything.  I'll find a job, but I'll never live and work in the same place again.  I'd pay you back and then start taking classes again.  I've got a two years to go for a degree in mechanical engineering." he said.

"You won't have to pay me back if you start school.  If you get a job and stay here for six months, I'll put you through the rest of you college.  You have to promise me you won't get in any trouble or take advantage of me and I won't take advantage of you." I offered.

"That's too much.  I'll work for a year and take classes.  Then if you feel like you still want to put me through the rest of my schooling, I'll go full time." He countered.

"Deal" I said.

"Deal" he repeated.  We shook hands.  The next day, I took him to buy clothes.  We stopped a couple place and he put in applications.  One looked promising.

"Say, you're going to need transportation.  You're such a Mr. Fix-it, can you rebuild the engine on a '63 Corvair? It was my dad's first new car.  It had three hundred thousand miles on it.  Everything's been redone except the engine.  It runs but not well and it blows smoke like a mosquito fogger." I asked.

"I guaranty it will run as good as the day your daddy bought it." He bragged.

"Good, when you get it done, you can drive this one.  I'll drive it." I said.

"This is an old man's car." he joked.

"Watch it punk." I said.  We laughed.

He got the job that had looked promising and worked through almost a year while taking classes.  He often lay in bed with me, doing his home work.  I watched him regain his health both mentally and physically.  He started college full time the next summer.  His grades were good at first, but excellent the next semester.  He reconnected with his girl.  Reality hadn't ever escaped me.  I knew from the start he was straight and would always be.  He started calling me Dad.  He officially disowned his parents and asked me to adopt him.  That raised some eyebrows but we did.  Now he introduces me to all his friends as his father.  Even though I'm only fifteen years older than he is.  

He reconnected with Terry and I met him for the first time.  He was everything Jacob had described.  He really cared about Jacob and chewed him out for not calling him when the fire happened.  They were like two little kids playing round in the pool.  Terry visits often.

 The girl he's engaged to is fantastic.  She knows our whole story and thinks it wonderful.  They are getting married next month.  She's already moved in.  She's got her own room.  He's got his.  I've got mine.  She only agreed to move in if she had her own room.  She's a virgin.  He said she'll stay that way till they get married.  What a wonderful old world commitment.  Her folks are a bit stand-off-ish with me.  I don't think they believe Jacob and I have never had sex.  Tuff!  They're ultra conservative Republicans with Bibles stuck up their asses.

I'm going to be at the wedding to see my son marry the sweetest girl I can imagine.  Then I'll take them to the airport for their honeymoon in Hawaii.  I'll go home alone.  I'll try to get used to being alone again.  Her parents gave them a house and they'll be moving in when they get back.  At least it's only fifteen minutes away.  

Alone again.