Just Friends

Our condo in Hawaii had a sense of being more filled up than ever before.  Dave and I had the larger bedroom.  Jamie had the smaller bedroom. And Julian had crashed on the couch.  We had met Julian and his partner Tristan one year ago on the beach near Diamond Head.  We had helped them out by coaching them in their relationship.  I had often wondered how they were doing but we had no way to contact them until we returned to Hawaii for the one-year anniversary of our wedding.

We had been shocked by Julian telling us that Tristan had died yesterday morning.  He was sobbing and too upset to tell more than Tristan had died in his arms. 

I guess that Julian had actually been able to sleep because he woke in the middle of the night with a scream.  Dave and I were grabbing our shorts to head to the living room when we heard another scream.  We rounded the corner to see Jamie already at Julian’s side.  He held Julian, saying, “you’re safe.  You’re safe here.  You’re safe now.” Then I was amazed to hear Jamie say, “I’ve been through this. You can get through this too.  It’s not easy but you can do it.  I am here. I’ll help you as much as I can.” 

Julian was crying again.  The tears were flowing. But he was able to say, “Thank you for being here.”

Jamie said, “I am just here in the next room.  I’m leaving my door open to hear you.  I’ll be with you when you need help.  Try and see if you can get some more rest. OK?”

Julian was settling down.  Dave and I had done nothing but watch as Jamie’s caring skills were coming to real life.

*              *              *              *

The next morning, we got up quietly and were making some breakfast, trying to let Julian get a bit more sleep.  We took our breakfast out to the balcony to leave Julian in the quiet.  We slid the big glass door almost closed when Dave said to Jamie, “I was very impressed when I saw you comforting Julian last night.”

“I really feel for him,” said Jamie. “I don’t really know what happened, but I can tell that he is reacting very much like I did when I was beat up.  I hope that I might use my bad experience to be helpful to Julian.”

Dave said again, “I’m impressed.  You have not met this guy before, but you picked up on him immediately at the beach and you were definitely there for him in the middle of the night.”

I added, “Thanks for helping out our friend.”

Jamie asked, “How did you meet Julian?”

“We met Julian and Tristan on that same beach where he was sitting yesterday.” I said., “They were working on being a couple then, but they were having very rough sex and hurting each other.  We tried to help them learn to communicate better and be sensitive to each other.  I think we often wondered how they were doing over this last year.”

Julian had gotten up and found himself some juice to drink for breakfast.  He had it in his hand just on the other side of the big class door.  I guess he had heard the last part of my description when he said, “We were doing pretty good.  We did learn to communicate much better and realized that we loved each other.  We were going to get married the day after tomorrow.  It would have been so cool if you two could have been at our wedding.”

We encouraged him to come onto the balcony and sit.  That is when he turned to Jamie saying, “Thanks for being there for me last night.  I really needed for someone to be there, and you really helped.  I actually got back to sleep as you can see. Thanks.”

Jamie replied, “Sure, OK.”

Julian continued, “You were there at the right time and you seemed to know exactly what to say.  How’s that?”

Jamie started, “Hey man. I’m not pressing you to say, but I guessed that you had been beaten up.  I had been beaten up once too.  I remember what it was like, the feelings after.  And the bad dreams too.”

“You guessed right on,” Julian said.  “You’re pretty perceptive.”

“Well,” responded Jamie. “I saw the bruises too.”

“Ya. That’s a give away I guess.” Julian said.  “I’m still trying to put it together in my head, what happened.  And the police want me to call and go for an interview as soon as I feel like I can.  I thought I might call today and arrange to go in tomorrow.”

Dave suggested, “Sure. That sounds like a good plan. And you can stay here as long as you like.  But I would like to suggest that you might not want to be absolutely alone today.”

Julian agreed and said, “I would like to go for a walk on the beach later. Would one of you like to come along?”  Jamie immediately volunteered.

Dave and I took Julian to a grocery store.  We asked what he liked because we wanted to stock more stuff in the cupboards at the condo.  He picked out some stuff and we picked out some stuff and created one big order.  We each carried a bag as we walked home.  I could tell that Julian was working on getting things straight in his head.  He dropped some unorganized thoughts.  He and Tristan had been living in a tent, up the hill and behind the lighthouse.  But that comment seemed to make him more nervous. 

We encouraged him that it might come clearer as the day goes on.  He relaxed a bit. 

Dave intervened, “Maybe we could talk about it tomorrow when you’ve thought and slept on it again.  It might be easier then. How about we make time in the morning?”

“I like that idea,” said Julian.  “When I call the police, I’ll try for the afternoon time for them.”

We walked back to the condo and put our food away. After a quick lunch, Julian and Jamie headed out for a walk together.  We still didn’t know what had happened to Julian.  But we were amazed how Jamie had picked up on what had happened.  I said, “I hope Jamie is able to handle what’s coming his way, whatever it is.”

Dave agreed but also expressed some confidence in Jamie saying, “He seems to be trying to make positive use of his own experience to help Julian.  And I think Jamie is smart enough to ask for help if he can’t deal with it.”

*              *              *              *

Jamie and Julian eventually showed up late afternoon.  They had walked and chatted.  Julian wanted to thank us again for letting him stay at our condo.  When the words came out, he started to cry again.  Dave asked, “Did something happen just now, to upset you?”

Julian responded, “I don’t think so.  I think I wanted to cry all day, but I was all cried out for a while.  It just happens, I guess.”

Dave said, “Ya. Sometimes you can just run out of tears. Go ahead and cry if you want.  It’s OK to do it here.”  He did cry for a bit while we made some supper.

Julian did wake again during the night and Jamie got to his side immediately.  Dave and I arrived intime to watch Jamie providing the comfort.  Dave motioned for us to go back to bed, saying, “Jamie is doing a really good thing, and we can’t improve that by interfering.  Let’s just let it happen.”  We did.

 

The next morning after breakfast, we responded to Julian saying he thought he was ready to talk. 

Dave started, “First, we don’t want to overwhelm you. Are you Ok with all three of us being here?”

Julian nodded, “Yesterday, Jamie told me that you are a very good listener.  And Alex is someone who also knew Tristan.  And Jamie has been such a great support so far.  Sure.  I think I should tell all of you at the same time.”

“OK,” Dave responded.  “It can be helpful to tell it in chronological order if you can.”

Julian launch into it, “I think I mentioned that Tristan and I were going to get married in a couple of days.  We had thought that we wanted to have that at the beach.  We were sitting on the beach, trying to figure the best spot.  But there was a rowdy and noisy group having some sort of party on the beach.  It was already evening and starting to get dark. So, we decided to leave the beach and go to our tent.  We climbed the hill to the lighthouse and crossed the road.  We climbed again, up a path between the trees. to the place where our tent was pitched.  We crawled into the tent. We got naked and cuddled for a little while.  I decided to light the lantern so we could talk about the arrangements for the wedding.  We were talking and cuddling.  I think we had learned to communicate pretty well, thanks to you. 

“Suddenly this big strong hand reached through the open end of the tent and grabbed Tristan by the ankle dragging him out. I heard a gruff voice say, ‘see, I told you they were fagots.’  I tried to spring out of the tent.  They had Tristan by an ankle.  Again, the voice said, ‘One fagot at a time. We’ll deal with you later.”  I got a big powerful punch in the face.  This is when it gets fuzzy.  I think I was knocked out cold.

“I don’t know how long I was out.  I was coming to again and heard Tristan screaming.  I tried to get up.  I could see that Tristan was face down in the dirt with a big foot between his shoulders and some other big guy thrusting his dick into Tristan’s butt.  I yelled, “No, you’re hurting him!’   All that got me was another punch in the face.  I was out again.  I was totally useless.

“Next time I came to, they had finished with Tristan.  He was unconscious with a pool of blood between his legs.  It was my turn.  They manhandled me face down next to Tristan.  Same routine: a foot on my back and I felt something violate my butt.  I screamed. 

“Thank goodness for the lighthouse keeper who came out of the bush with another lantern.  That scared off the three brutes.  The lighthouse keeper immediately pulled out his cell phone, dialed 911, requesting an ambulance and the police.  I crawled over next to Tristan and tried to get a response out of him.  There was none.  ‘It’s probably better not to disturb him too much until the ambulance arrives.’ Said the lighthouse keeper.  I gently laid my arm across his back and waited for what seemed like a long time.

“I heard the ambulance arrive. Then the paramedics climbed the hill with a stretcher.  They put me in the stretcher and tried to assure me that I was not too bad.  I said, ‘but Tristan?’ 

“The paramedic was on the radio to the ambulance, ‘Another stretcher up here, on the double.’  Then he turned to me and said, ‘He’s alive, but I can’t determine here just how bad he’s hurt.  We are going to rush both of you to the hospital.  You will get more answers there.”

“We were raced along in the same ambulance.  I could see Tristan, but he was still unconscious.  I did reach out and touch his shoulder, but that was all I could do.

“At the hospital, all the attention was rightly on Tristan.  A young doctor gave orders that seemed more like commands. ‘Get his blood type, stat.  Get an intravenous in and hang a unit of blood as quickly as possible.’ The staff scurried to it and the orders were done in a few minutes. 

“Then the doctor turned to me.  ‘You’re bleeding too.’ I responded, ‘yes, but not as much as Tristan. Is he going to be, OK?’

“‘We don’t know yet. I can keep you informed.  Are you family?’ I said, ‘We are to be married in a couple of days.’  The doctor appeared to immediately perceive the situation. And gave a few more orders.  ‘Keep this one for observation. Find a semiprivate room and put them in it, together.’  Again, the staff did exactly as ordered.

“Once in the room, I was given a couple of hospital gowns.  One I put on forward and the other backwards.  My attention was on Tristan in the next bed.  I got out of bed and got to his bedside.  He was connected to a heart monitor and blood pressure monitor.  A unit of blood had been hung and was dripping at a good rate into Tristan’s intravenous.  The same doctor came in and motioned for me to come out to the hall.  He said, “There seems to be internal bleeding we are having trouble telling how bad it is. I think you saw the blood from his anus.  But there is also blood in his urine which is not a good sign.  And we don’t know how extensive the bruises on his body are.   I am guessing that he was beaten and raped.  I nodded.

“‘He’ll be Ok, won’t he?” I said.

“The doctor responded, “I don’t know yet.  We are hoping that his body will do some healing internally and stop up the bleeding.  But we can’t tell, and we can’t do any kind of surgery that would help.  If he survives the night, he will probably heal.  But I don’t know.  He may come around at some point, which is why I got you in the same room.  I shouldn’t really have you in for observation. But you know him and will probably notice first if he starts to come around.”

“It seemed like a long time of worrying.  I noticed Tristan start to move. I went to his bedside.  He didn’t move much but his eyes opened.  I pressed the call button.  I knew it would take a minute for the staff to arrive. I felt that he was weak and in pain. He whispered, ‘kiss me please,’ I did.  Then he whispered, ‘hold me please.’  I was trying not to hurt him but laid my arm onto his chest.  He smiled.  I kissed him again.  That is when the heart monitor gave out a continuous tone.  I saw the light go out in his eyes.

“The staff arrived and asked me to step back.  I asked, “You can help him, right?”

“The response was, “There is nothing we can do.  Even if we restart his heart, there is not enough blood there to revive him.  I’m sorry.”

“I responded “No. no. This can’t be, not in a hospital!”  But the staff couldn’t do anything.  They closed his eyes and pulled a sheet up over his face. 

“They gave me a few minutes to say ‘goodbye.’  I pulled the sheet down a bit to see his face one last time.  Then they came to take him away. 

“I didn’t sleep.  The same doctor came in in the morning.  He said he was sorry.  And he said he would release me from the hospital.  Did I have anyone to be with me today, any family?  I said, ‘no.’  He suggested the hospital chaplain and gave me a card.  The doctor came back in a few minutes with a pair of shorts for me. 

“Outside the hospital, I felt abandoned but got a city bus back to the area of the lighthouse.  The area where our tent was, was cordoned off with police tape as a crime scene.  I went down the hill instead, to the beach.  I wasn’t there long when Jamie found me.  Thanks, Jamie.  You know the rest from there.”

Dave touched Julian’s knee, saying, “It’s Ok to cry.  It would be strange if you didn’t. You have had a terrible experience.  It makes me want to cry too.”

I think we all shed some tears.  Each of us, in turn, touched Julian on the shoulder or back, except for Jamie who gave him a hug.

Then Dave said, “I am very surprised that you have pieced all this together, considering that you were knocked out for parts of it.  There’s nothing wrong with your head.”

“Except that I keep having bouts of crying,” Julian said.

“You loved him. He has been taken from you. You’re going to cry,” Dave offered. “And there may be other reactions to all of this.”

“Like what?” Julian asked.

“Like parts of this showing up in your dreams,” Dave offered.  I think Dave knew that was happening when Julian woke at night and screamed.

Julian said, “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about that yet.”

Dave responded, “Sure, not now. OK. When you want to, each of us is here for you.  Just try to remember that all the reactions you are having so far are normal under the circumstances.  You have had a really horrible experience.  You have lost your best friend and partner. You have been beaten and raped.  These are not what anyone would expect will be part of life. But your reactions to all this are normal and to be expected.”

Julian said, “Thanks for that.  I was wondering if I was losing it.”

“I don’t think you’re losing it.” Dave said.  “And we are all here for you when you want.”

“Thanks guys” Julian said.  “I am supposed to go to the police station this afternoon.  Can someone come with me?”

 Again, Jamie was the first to offer.  Jamie took a moment to explain, “I have been through some of this before.  I haven’t really used the word, but I was raped too.  It was not so terrible as what happened to you.  I went to the police.  Actually, a detective found me.  I went and identified the attackers.  It turned out better than I had expected.  The attackers are behind bars now.”

“Really?” Julian exclaimed.  Dave nodded to confirm. Julian continued, “I think that you guys are about the only good thing that has happened to me in the last few days.  Especially meeting up with someone who has survived this before.  It can’t be easy, but thanks for sharing that,” he said to Jamie.

After lunch, the two of them caught a city bus for downtown Honolulu and the police station. 

 *              *              *              *

Dave and I figured that we would have the afternoon to ourselves.  We got naked and cuddled.  Our penises were as limp as I had ever seen them.  Dave suggested, “should I suck you to get you hard?”

I knew he was very tentative about the question.  I answered, “I don’t think I really feel like it.  But I’ll suck you if you want.”

Dave said, “I don’t really feel like it either.”

I offered, “I am like you. I am really impressed how Jamie is handling himself in this horrible event.”

“Eventually he will make a great doctor with his empathy,” Dave said.  “But you know, even a really good counsellor needs to unload on someone.  We need to make an opportunity to sort of debrief him.  It would help him to deal with all of this.  And it would help him to get even better at it.”

“Well,” I said.  “Any ideas on how we could do that and still have company for Julian for the next few days?”

We both puzzled for a while.  Then Dave suggested, “How about, you take Julian for a shopping spree tomorrow and I’ll get some time with Jamie?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I responded.

We cuddled and comforted each other and eventually had a nap entangled in each other’s arms.

We woke to the sound of the door with Julian and Jamie returning.  Darn. We had left the door open to our bedroom.  Jamie and Julian walked right up to the door jam.  We were a little embarrassed.  I guess they had both seen us naked at one time or another.  Jamie said, “You kind of get used to this.  They are like this as much as they can. They are practicing their communication skills.”  I threw a sock at him and asked him to close the door. 

Julian got into the tease too, “I don’t think there are any blocks in communication between them, or anything else between them either.” 

I asked again, “Please close the door.”

Jamie responded, “Maybe Julian and I want to do a study of communication skills.”  I threw another sock. They laughed.  We laughed too.  It was good to see Julian lighten up.  It was perhaps a rest bit from his recent experiences. 

As Dave and I pulled on our underwear and shorts, I commented, “I’m guessing that the police station went well.”  They giggled again as if how they had found us was normal for us.  I suppose it was and is.

“Yes, I think it went as well as it can,” offered Jamie. Directed at Julian, he said, “What do you think?”

As we walked back into the living room and sat, Julian started into an account of the afternoon, saying, “First of all, the police actually apprehended the three characters on the night it happened.  The Lighthouse keeper identified them and what direction they had gone.” They were drunk and had passed out not too far away.  The police had all sorts of forensic evidence: their clothes with both Tristan’s and my blood on them. 

Jamie cut in, “and Julian was a star.  He picked out each of the three from three different line ups.  He could even say, ‘That one punched me, that one had his foot on Tristan’s back, and that one raped Tristan.  It was exactly what the police needed to hear.”

Jamie continued, “Their faces were quite something to see when they were told that the charges were upgraded to murder, on top of the sexual assault.  Just before we left, the detective invited us into his office to say, ‘we got them arraigned quickly. The judge denied any form of bail.  They are behind bars until the trial.  They will not see freedom for a long time.  Hawaiian judges are very strict about this and preserving the Hawaiian tourist paradise.  You might have to testify but the several statements that we have might do it all.  We have a pretty good victims’ services department.  Would you like to talk to them.”

Julian cut in with, “I told them that I have some friends who are good at this. I’ll be OK.”  It was the first time that Julian had used the word ‘OK’ about anything. 

Jamie cut in again with a tease, “You’re not really supposed to hug me in front of all those policemen.”

Julian teased right back, “I couldn’t help it.” They giggled and we all laughed.  I guess the tension was subsiding for us.  But Julian would be hurting for a while.  It took months and months for him to heal especially in his memories. 

The next day I took Julian shopping to some stores nearby.  He picked out a nice Hawaiian shirt and a new pair of shorts.  He said he had a pair at the tent but did not know when he would be allowed to go there again.  I was trying to keep the conversation light without appearing to shy away from any of the issues which he might want to talk about. 

He told me about ‘coming out’ to his parents.  They had been supportive, but it was difficult for them.  He said they lived in a small town.  His father had a small business which he was afraid might be compromised if his son came out as being gay.  Julian had volunteered to make a life further away.  That was how he got to Hawaii.  His partner, Tristan was from the same town and was just as happy for a new start in a new place.  The surprise came when I asked where the town was?  He told me.  It was about a 40-minute drive from Dave’s family’s lake house.  We were both amazed that we came from the same area. 

Jamie and Dave got time together.  I didn’t hear much about it.  Dave said that Jamie was doing OK.  And about Julian, the only thing he said was that Julian was having serious difficulty with the bad dreams.  I knew the dreams had wakened Julian every night since the incident. 

After lunch, Jamie and Julian said they had someplace special to go and would not be back until sometime later in the afternoon.  We very much trusted Jamie by now and wished them success with whatever they were doing.

While they were away Dave and I discussed what we wanted to do when we leave for home.  We were concerned that Julian didn’t have friends here.  We felt bad about the possibility of abandoning him.  I told Dave where Julian came from.  Dave said, “That clinches it. I think we should take him with us back to continental United States.”  I agreed.  I think we both knew that it would be difficult.  He would require considerable amounts of time and energy.  We were also concerned that Julian would become dependent on Jamie.  We didn’t know if Jamie could handle either the dependency or could Jamie break it off if necessary.

Jamie and Julian came back late in the afternoon.  They offered that they had gone back to the hospital.  Julian wanted to thank the staff and especially the doctor.  We didn’t ask but we knew that they had been gone for longer than would have been needed for a thank you visit to the hospital.

We said that we wanted to invite Julian to come back with us.  We said that our home was near his original home.  He could see his parents if he wanted to. And we would be there to help him as he healed from all that had happened.  Julian took us up on the offer.  Jamie seemed happy too.  That was the first night that Julian did not wake up in the middle of the night.  It seemed that all the tensions were becoming less.

The next day, Julian decided that it was time to go to the place where they had pitched their tent.  He didn’t want to go alone.  Jamie offered to go with him.  Dave and I offered to go too.  We wanted Julian to decide and have some sense of control over what was happening.  He wanted us all to go.  We all walked together up the road to the lighthouse.  The police tape was gone.  Julian led us up the hill to the campsite. 

When we got there, Julian was clearly overwhelmed.  He could hardly talk.  He stopped.  Looking at the ground, he said, “That would be Tristan’s blood.  And that would be mine there.”  This time Julian latched onto Dave for a hug.  “Thank you. I don’t think I would be getting through this without you.  Thanks for listening.”  After a few minutes, Julian collected up his lantern and a pair of shorts from the tent.  He said he didn’t have anything else, and he didn’t want the tent. 

We headed down the hill.  Julian wanted to thank the lighthouse keeper too.  He credited the man with saving his life.   The lighthouse keeper said he wished he had gotten there sooner and maybe helped Tristan too.  We started our walk down the road and back to the condo.  Julian wiped some tears from his face, but he was doing much better now.

Back at the condo, we set up a video call with Dave’s parents.  We introduced Julian and told them the main parts of the story.  Mom said that she wanted to make our trip home easier.  She said she would connect back tomorrow evening to tell us if her idea could be worked out.  It did.  She had approached the president of the university where Dave and I attended.  She had a lot of connections with the medical school faculty and other departments because of the family’s generous donations.  She had talked the president of the university into lending his private jet.  It would land at Hickam Field two days from now.

Julian had to decide how to deal with Tristan’s body.  I expected that this would be more difficult than it appeared to be.  He asked our thoughts on cremation or burial.  In the end he chose burial.  This decision was helped along by the fact that there is a beautiful cemetery just behind Diamond Head with a view of the ocean.  It was walking distance from the beach which they both loved.  The city supplied the casket and the plot.

The chaplain from the hospital came to say a few words.  There were only the 4 of us and the chaplain there.  We thought that Julian would have a tough time, but he seemed to be coping.  Yes, he did cry.  The chaplain didn’t say a lot.  I think Julian had requested “short.”

The chaplain said, “I didn’t personally know Tristan, but I do know that he was much loved, and he loved in return.  He also loved the beach here, not so far away.  He will be missed by those who loved him. 

“Now we commit his body to the ground, and we commit his person to the loving and merciful almighty God.”  We each stepped forward and put a rose on the casket.  Julian’s was the only red one.  We had decided that his should be special and stand out.  The lowering was a bit too much for all of us.  Julian was the first to shed tears and the rest of us soon followed.

*              *              *              *

We only had another day before our trip home.  We took a minivan/taxi to the airport and directly to the waiting private jet.  We piled in with our luggage.  An announcement instructed us to use the seat belts.  We did.

Once in the air, another announcement from the pilot said that we could unfasten our seatbelts and move about the cabin. We didn’t have serving staff and were invited to help ourselves to snacks in the tiny kitchen area.  We moved to four comfortable seats that were arranged to face each other.

Julian said, “There is a part of this that you don’t know, and I want to tell you.  I’ll try.”

Jamie assured him, “We’re all here for you.  And I know part of this story so, I will help if I can.”

Julian started with, “Thanks.  Jamie and I went to see the hospital chaplain when we went to thank the staff.  I was feeling really rough.  I was blaming myself.  If I had not lit the lantern, maybe those brutes wouldn’t have found us in the dark. If we had not been cuddling when they found us, maybe they would not have hurt us. If I had not brought Tristan to Hawaii with me, he might still be alive.  That and the feeling that I had lost control of my life.”

“The chaplain helped a lot.  He explained that when things go out of control. It is normal to try to figure how you could have stopped this from happening.  But really, it’s only the attackers that are at fault.  His explanation of this seemed to help.”

“Then I asked if Tristan would be accepted in heaven?  I said I was brought up in Sunday School and told that the lifestyle we were living was wrong.  Would Tristan be dammed by our relationship?”

“The chaplain responded, ‘I can see that you were very much in love with him, and still are.  I don’t believe that God wants to condemn people.  I think God is loving and merciful.  No one is perfect before God.  We are all dependent on his love and mercy.  If you’re asking my thoughts, I think Tristan is in heaven now.” 

“Thanks for letting me come with you,” interjected Jamie.  “I was brought up with the same ideas and I was so relieved to hear what the chaplain said.”

Then Julian said, “The doctor had heard that I was in the hospital and came to meet me when I was coming out of the chaplain’s office.  He said that the autopsy discovered that Tristan had a burst spleen from being hit in the stomach.  He explained that the spleen is located on the left just below the lung.  I was glad for the information.  I had been concerned that our rough sex a year ago might have weakened Tristan and made him more vulnerable to the attack.  But now I know that had not contributed to his death.”

Julian continued, “I'm sure you heard me scream when I woke up at night.  There is also a part that none of you know.  After going to the hospital and thanking people was the first night that I did not wake up with a scream.  But I did have a dream.  Tristan came to me in the dream.  He said, ‘I am OK.  I will always love you and you will be OK too.  You have friends. You’ll be OK too.  I can’t come visit again. I will say goodbye and wish you a good life and love too.’”

“That is when I started to be able to deal with all of this.  The anger which I had turned on myself was dissipated.  Knowing that Tristan was in a good place lifted my depression a bit.  Now I have to look ahead.”

“I don’t know if that was really Tristan or just my inner self talking to me, but it brought home all that the chaplain had said.  I started to get some peace about it all.”

“Wow, that is a beautiful dream,” I think we all wanted to say it.

We enjoyed snacks and chatting for the rest of the flight.  Our four-way friendship was becoming much stronger.  Julian expressed that he was not ready for another partner and didn’t know when he could do that.  Julian was unsure what he wanted to do with his life. 

Toward the end of the flight, Dave noticed that Julian was becoming less comfortable.  Dave asked, “Are you OK?”

Julian responded, “I still have some pain from being raped so roughly.  I thought it would go away by now.  But it’s not.”

Dave said, “My Mom is a doctor and my Dad too.  When we land, I am going to make a call and have them meet us at the house.  They can arrange whatever you need.”