© 2014 by R. Keith Peck
He lights up the joint he'd been fingering the moment he steps off the bus, even before the other riders dispersed Looks of horror are fired his way. Doesn't he know where this is? This isn't Denver. This isn't the inner city. This is suburbia. We're normal! A mother with a Greenpeace handbag clutched her fifth-grader's shoulder and scurried off, casting over her shoulders spear-sharp expressions of fear and opprobrium.
He spits. He grins. Fuck 'em.
He doesn't look the stoner. More the jock. Maybe the Marine. His hard body is on display as he strides down the sidewalk. Athletic shorts, too small for him, reveal long legs firm and strong. Substantial genitalia sway in those shorts with each step. This kid's hung like a Shetland pony. Tight fabric molds itself to taut, round, proud buttocks. His midriff is bare, exposed by a cutoff tee. It is flat as a prairie, hard as granite. His skin is the color of wheat ripening in the sun. The tee sports the logo of State College. If you've watched an intramural scrimmage on Saturday afternoon you've seen it. Biceps threaten to rip the fabric. In fact, the seams in both armpits have parted. There, amidst the sweat-soaked cotton, you can glimpses light wisps of blond hair. He totes a backpack slung over one shoulder. He could be a kid making his way to PE, if it wasn't for the joint, smoldering and laying down an odor as pungent if not as enticing as that streaming from his armpits.
His face? A little slack now, a little stupid. Quite happy and glowing with anticipation. A soft grin. A strong clean-cut jaw. His eyes, though narrowing as he comes to each intersection, studying the street signs, expand in the shadows under the old trees to show sapphire gemstones large, luminous, and somewhat bloodshot. High and tight cut hair glitters on his sculpt like golden-brown moss.
Sparkles of gold dapple the sidewalk as he exits the shadow of maples freshly-leaved into the sun, which is too warm for the calendar.
Call him the Wild Boy.
Demeanor? Clean-cut Mom-and-apple-pie fresh.
Age? Set it at twenty two.
Character? Decadent.
Goal in life? Sleaze and filth.
The day, warm and humid, bathes him in sweat. Cars roll past, windows up, air conditioners set to maximum. The houses he passes drone like angry bees, emitting the hum of air conditioning.
Shit. It isn't that damn hot. Fuckin' pussies! Global warming? Fine, stop emitting carbon. If your computers are right -- and the mathematicians, Pythonesses of the modern era, have mastered the Butterfly effect -- it'll be centuries before you return to 'normal.' Adapt, motherfuckers, adapt! The sturdy old oak falls in the windstorm, the slim supple beech grows, and thrives.
The Wild Boy is fragrant. Smell his pits and you might become lost in hallucinations of orgies in locker rooms. Au natural, the Wild Boy. A creature of earth.
Six blocks after leaving the bus stop his phone rings. The Wild Boy pulls it from his pocket, thumbs it on. He rec0ognizes the number. "Yeah?"
"You on the way?" The voice is anxious, as if pressed for time.
"Fuck yeah. Three studs? No wives? You think I'm gonna skip out on you fucks? A kid's gotta party!"
"Where you at?" The stress has left the voice, deep and mellow now, perhaps as stoned as the Wild Boy is.
The Wild Boy squints. "Corner of Mason and Wayne."
"Coo." To someone lingering near the caller: "Fucker's on the way!" Back to Wild Boy. "Go one more block and hang a right. We're at the house at the next intersection. I'll meet you out front. How long you free?"
"'Till we're done," says the Wild Boy. He puffs deeply, exhales. His crotch swells. The streamer rises and floats up above this suburban paradise like a ghostly kid's balloon inflated with sin.
"Well, the wives're going to be back sometime around six."
"Cool man, no marathon, got it."
"Wish it could be. That profile's hot." A pause. "I'd pound you all night!"
"Maybe we can hook up later. I'm always up for it." The Wild Boy grins. "But don't worry. I'll get you fuckers to unload before the bitches gets back!" He thumbs off.
At the corner of Mason and Hartman he lingers briefly, finishing the joint. An old lady passes him slowly, driving a giant purple Cadillac at a speed a retreating glacier could outpace. She lingers at the stop sign, waiting for traffic that doesn't exist to get out of her way. Seeing the handsome young man on the corner, she waves, smiling brightly.
The Wild Boy finishes his joint, flings the roach into the grass, waves back. As he makes the turn and moves on down the sidewalk his ass rolls in the gray cotton shorts in full blown bitch-in-heat mode.
The house at the end of the block is a small, neat brick cottage draped with ivy and bejeweled by flowers. A thick hedge screens the yard. Parked on the street are a turquoise Prius and a gleaming black Mercedes. The driveway, leading into a detached garage, holds a crimson Volvo. Oil spots on the pavement indicate where the wife of whomever owns this place parks when she's here.
Blood continues filling the Wild Boy's cock. Anticipation electrifies him.
A man leans against the brick post beside the driveway. Staring at the Wild Boy as the young man struts down the sidewalk, eyes glitter, measuring, categorizing, fantasizing.
The Wild Boy grins to himself. Yeah it's gonna get sleazy!
The man is tall, slim but well-built. A tank top reveals a lanky frame. Good chest, nice biceps. This man looks to be in his lower thirties. He sports shoulder-length brown hair, wavy, combed but it hasn't been trimmed in a while. Shaggy. Undisciplined. It is easy for the Wild Boy to picture this man as a musician, strumming a guitar in a smoke-filled club, crooning about moonlit oceans and warm, languid brown eyes, with the object of eliciting a shower of women's panties. The feral quality of his eyes, as he rakes the Wild Boy's sweaty flesh from top to bottom, suggests that this crooner is the type who would gladly insert himself between girlfriend and boyfriend and jam his fingers -- perhaps even the one wrapped by the golden band -- up the boyfriend's snug butthole.
"Nice," murmurs the man, grinding a cigarette out on the post. "I'm Todd."
"Call me WB," says the Wild Boy. Brazenly he palms Todd's crotch, right there on the sidewalk, the noise of kids playing in the yard a few houses down providing the soundtrack. He hefts what he feels there. The Wild Boy is always curious about the toys he gets to play with. Todd wears boxers. Goddamn motherfucking boxers, but at least they allow the Wild Boy to gauge the size of a man's cock.