My Story, 12

Graeme came with me to the truck and, of course, I had to give him the guided tour.

“Gran’s bed is in the loft above the shower and the back-door there.”

“You’ve got a shower!”

“Of course it’s got a shower. It’s little, but it’s big enough. There’s a dunny too, over there. Mum’s bed is in the front loft, over the driver’s cab.”

“And where does Virgil sleep?”

“In my tent.”

“No, I mean, where do you sleep when you’re in the bus?”

“On the couch. It’s a real pain. It’s comfortable enough, but there’s no privacy and I hear every snore and every fart, and eww!”

“Double eww! Hey! You’ve got a TV.”

“Of course it’s got a TV – it’s got colour too, and a DVD. There’s a computer too – well, a laptop. No internet connection though, we have to go to internet cafes for that.”

“But you can still play games? It’s all very cool, Virgil, but I don’t think I’d like to live like this all the time.”

“No, neither would I.”

“But you do, don’t you?”

“No, we don’t live in here. Gran does but Mum and I live in a house. We’re just on holiday.”

“Oh, I see. Sorry. Not everyone’s got a granny with a house on wheels.”

“They don’t. Little Red Riding Hood would need a motorbike to go visit her.”

“There’s a motorbike on the porch at the back of the housetruck – a little motorbike.”

“Yeah, a 50cc Yamaha. That’s just Gran’s runabout for when she’s parked up somewhere.”

“Your Gran is very cool.”

“I guess she is. She’s just Gran.”

“Hard to believe that she’s Aunt Iris’ sister.”

“It is! I think Aunt Iris finds it hard to believe too.”

“I’m sure she does. Are we getting this tent out?”

“Yeah, we are. It’s all packed in here under the seat.”

I laid the air-mattress on the ground outside and plugged the pump into the cigarette lighter in the cab. We took the rest of the gear through to the backyard and returned for the mattress. It was a queen-size, of course, and it nearly filled the floor area of the small tent. There’d be plenty of room for two in there, especially if they got close.

We put the tent up, on the back-lawn, with the entrance facing toward the house. Well, I put the tent up. Graeme tried, but he wasn’t much help. He’d never done it before, I had, I’d had lots of practice.

We put the fitted sheet on the mattress and my two pillows and sleeping bag. It was a good quality bag, so I didn’t sleep in it, unless it was really cold, usually, I just left it unzipped and used it like a duvet. I’m sure you needed to know that.

Graeme brought the duvet and pillows out from his bed in the house, and laid them next to mine, and we were all set.

Then, we went inside to check-out what new DVD’s they’d bought since the last time I stayed there. There was nothing interesting, just old people’s movies.

“Want to come and see my room now?” Graeme asked.

“I’ve seen your room. That’s where I usually sleep when we’re here.”

“Of course it is. Come and see anyway, I’ve got my Playstation.”

“Cool. What games have you got?”

We spent the next hour or so in there, and then had dinner with the family. Aunt Iris really was a great cook; she could make anything taste good. Pity Mum and Gran never learned from her. No wonder Uncle Bert was a bit overweight too. She fed him too well.

After dinner, Graeme and I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood. There was a park just up the road a bit. It was disappointing though, there wasn’t much to it, just flowers and trees mostly. It did have a great fishpond though.

The avaries had gone. I wondered what they did with all the birds?

I was enjoying being with Graeme. He was not only very nice to look at, he was good company too. He was a nice kid and I liked him.

Back at the house, Mum and Gran had gone out for the night. ‘On the rantan’, according to Uncle Bert. He and Aunt Iris were watching TV. There was one of those stupid ‘reality’ shows on, so we went back to the bedroom to battle on the playstation.

“It’s great having you here, Virgil,” Graeme said as we settled down on the floor. “If you weren’t, I’d be stuck in there watching that crap on TV.”

“Yeah. It’s good to be here too. I’d rather watch paint drying than that garbage.”

“Me too! We think alike my friend.”

“We do; and now I’m gonna whip your arse.”

“You’ll try, Pussy.”

He started the game. It was a car-racing game and it was one that we both knew and liked. I couldn’t help wondering, exactly how much alike did we think? A lot, I hoped.

We had supper in the kitchen, with Aunt Iris, and then showered, separately, brushed our teeth and went outside to bed.

“Good night, Boys,” Uncle Bert said. “Don’t talk all night. Try to get some sleep and don’t pee on the vege garden during the night. We’ve got to eat that stuff!”

“I’ll leave the back-door unlocked,” Aunt Iris added. “Goodnight Boys.”

We went down the yard to the tent. We had flashlights, but didn’t need them, it wasn’t dark at all – there was a big, bright moon up there. We crawled into the tent, I left the flaps open but velcroed the mozzie screen shut.

When I turned around, Graeme was busy getting naked! He already had his jeans and briefs off and was peeling his t-shirt off. Still gorgeous!

“You don’t mind, do you, Virgil? I always sleep in the buff.”

“’Course I don’t mind. I sleep naked too, it’s more natural.”

“It is! More fun, too.”

‘Fun?’

We crawled into bed and stretched out, me under my sleeping-bag and Graeme, next to me, under his duvet. He fidgeted around a bit, and then sat up.

“No. This is no good. I’m never going to sleep like this. I can’t get comfortable.”

“What do you want then? You’re not going back inside, are you?”

“No way! I want to sleep here. We can try it like this.”

Graeme threw the duvet off, pulled the edge of my sleeping bag over him, and then spread the duvet across the both of us. He lay down again.

“There, that’s better.”

It was! Much better. I was now naked in bed with a beautiful boy and he was naked too! Way cool. I could feel the heat from his body already. Jealous? Yeah, you should be.

We lay there, side by side, talking quietly about this and that. Graeme said that he was stuck there for the holidays, with Bert and Iris, because his parents had gone to Fiji. He didn’t say why they didn’t take him. I was glad that they hadn’t.

“Fiji? I’ve got a friend at school, well, I did have, he’s going to a new school next year. His mother lives in Fiji and he goes there a lot.”

“Why doesn’t he live there with her?”

“Don’t know. She’s got a new boyfriend and Dennis lives with his grandparents. I suppose that it’s better for his schooling or something. He’s really bright, way more than me.”

“He must be really, really, bright then, you’re far from stupid.”

“Well, I try. How do you do at school?”

We continued talking about nothing much, mostly school and stuff. I was careful to give him a very edited version of my life at school. I was very much enjoying being there, with him, and we talked about lots of things, everything except what was really in my mind.

Things got hard, everything got very hard, when he moved closer and our naked bodies pressed together. I stopped talking, I couldn’t talk. I didn’t move away.

Graeme went all quiet too, and then he cleared his throat. “Well. Here goes nothing.”

(Gotta love cliffhangers!)