Mike meets Chuck
Andrew and I were able to keep our relationship to ourselves for the remainder of the school year. It wasn’t like we were ashamed of it, but in 1977 it was better for us to not have to put up with all the prejudiced people judging us. Not only did we have the gay thing to deal with, but the whole racial issue was another can of worms we didn’t want to open. I just kept thinking about Walter and Ellis, while these issues were difficult for us, they would have been much worse for them. Andrew and I didn’t worry too much about what anyone else thought, we knew how we felt about each other, and I for one was the happiest I had ever been.
I continued to look for any more information on Walter or Ellis, Andrew would help me whenever he had time. So far, we had found out that Walter’s dad did indeed die in the house fire on the day of Walter’s last journal entry. One paper reported that there may have been two bodies in the house fire. That article worried me the most, I really hoped that there wasn’t a second body in that house. I just couldn’t stand the thought of Walter dying in that fire. We found another article that said the sheriff’s son had drowned in the pond on the following day. About a year later the sheriff resigned after some sort of scandal, we were still looking for any details on that. I wasn’t sure if this had anything to do with Walter, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence to just disregard. I still had found absolutely nothing on Ellis Jackson or any of his family.
As our first year of classes were winding up, I decided I was going to stay in Memphis for the summer. I was going to need to find a place to live and a job to pay for it.
I headed downtown to the Memphis Press, the local daily newspaper. I walked into the lobby of the paper and found the reception desk empty. I waited for someone to come back, but after about ten minutes I was still waiting. I walked over to a set of doors and opened them to find a large room with about 20 desks scattered around and people on the phone and typing on typewriters. I caught the eye of a large gruff looking guy at the end of one of the rows as he hung up his phone.
He bellowed “Hey kid, what are you looking for?”
I stepped in, “Sorry to bother you sir, I was looking to apply for a job. I was wondering if there were any openings here?”
He asked, “What kind of job are you looking for?”
I stammered, “Well sir, I am a journalism student at the University. I would be willing to do whatever was needed just to get a start in the business.”
He rolled his eyes, “I am not ‘sir’, kid, I’m Chuck. You ever work at a paper before?”
Chuck looked to be in his late forties to early fifties, with a receding, greying hairline. He was wearing a dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up and his tie was loosened around his neck. He was looking at me over the top of a pair of half glasses. He appeared to have worked at the paper for a long time and was certainly a no-nonsense type of man.
I said, “Yes sir, er… I mean Chuck. I worked on my hometown paper back in Westburg when I was in high school and on both my high school and college papers. I have brought a copy of each paper to show you some of my writing.”
He chuckled, “You came in prepared kid, that is a refreshing change.” He turned and yelled into an office behind him, “Hey Fred, do we still have money to hire a copy boy in the budget?”
I heard a voice from the office, “I guess so, everyone that I interviewed wasn’t worth a damn. If you find someone, just remember you are the one that has to deal with them, not me. You’re stuck with them.”
Chuck said, “Let me see those papers.”
I handled them to him and waited while he read. He asked, “This you, Mike Jennings?”
I nodded, “Yes sir... Chuck.”
He handed the papers back, “What year are you in college?”
I said, “I’m just finishing my first year, I was hoping to stay in Memphis and work through the summer. If it works out, I would like to work parttime when school starts back up in the fall.”
He asked, “Do you know how to type?”
I said, “Yes.”
“File, make copies?”
“Yes sir.”
He looked at me over the top of his glasses, “Work on the sir thing, do you know how to take pictures?”
I nodded, “Yes sir, sorry, I mean Chuck, and I took a lot of photos for Mr. Johnson back home.”
He sighed, “Don’t tell me you’re sorry, it’s a sign of weakness. Be here Monday morning at 8. I’ll give you one week, if you don’t piss me off, you can stay.”
I grinned, “Thank you, I’ll be here.”
I went right to the library, I knew Andrew was working and I told him my news. He congratulated me, and we made plans to go out for supper to celebrate.
We sat at our table waiting for our waiter to bring our food. I was telling Andrew all about my brief interview, such as it was.
I said, “Now that I have a job, I am going to need to find a place to stay. I have to be out of the dorm in a week.”
Andrew was going to stay in town for the summer as well; he was going to work at the library full time and take a couple of summer classes. There would be other students taking classes, so the library was still open. Most of the others that worked in the library during the school year were going home for the summer.
He said, “They do keep one dorm open during the summer, maybe you could get a room there.”
I shrugged, “Maybe, is that where you’re staying?”
He nodded, “I guess so.”
I thought about it for a minute, I didn’t want to rush things or make any assumptions. I felt like I was ready to move in with Andrew, but we had never talked about it. I didn’t know if Andrew was in the same place as I was.
I took a deep breath and asked, “What do you think about us trying to find a place together?””
He smiled, “I kind of wanted to suggest that, but I wasn’t sure how you felt about it.”
I smiled back, “I want us to be together as much as we can.”
Andrew took my hand and said, “Me too, we’ll start looking for a place tomorrow.”
The waiter sat our plates down and with a smile and said, “Here you go guys, enjoy, if you need anything else just holler.”
The next morning, I read through the classified ads and found a couple apartments for rent. I made appointments and headed out to the first one. I arrived and was greeted by the building manager; the building was three stories and contained twelve units. It was a newer building and just a little more expensive than I was comfortable with, but I took the tour. The manager told me that she lived in one of the apartments, no pets, or parties and in the single bedroom units only one person was allowed unless it was a married couple. I finished the tour and thanked her; I told her I had a couple more places to look at and I would let her know. She told me that she had another appointment this afternoon and the first to pay the deposit, gets the apartment. I thanked her again and left for my next appointment. It was in a more run-down area of town, but I decided to look anyway. The rent was more affordable; it was the basement of a large house with the owner living on the main floor. When he gave me the tour, he never even put out his cigarette and it wasn’t very clean. Again, I thanked him for his time and told him I would let him know if I wanted to take it.
The last appointment was with a property management company; the owner lived in another state and hired the company to keep the building rented. I was greeted by Ann, a nice lady that gave me a quick tour. The apartment was in a converted house that had three units. Two were two bedrooms and already rented. The one she showed me was a single bedroom. The rent was affordable, and she told me the same rules that I had heard on the first appointment. She said the management company is supposed to check on things every month or so but admitted that due to the large number of properties that they manage, they usually only check once a year. Unless they get complaints from the neighbors or other tenants. I decided she didn’t need to know that Andrew would be living with me, if she ever stopped by when he was there, I would just tell her he was visiting. I gave her a check for the deposit, and we went back to the office and signed the lease.
Andrew and I moved in the next weekend. When we met the other tenants, I knew that we wouldn’t have any issues with them, as they weren’t necessarily following all the rules either.
We finished unpacking and were both beat, so we went to get some takeout pizza and settled in for the night. We watched a little tv and sat on the couch with Andrew laying his head on my chest as I had my arm laying across his chest.
I kiss the top of his head, “God Andrew, this feels so right, I love being with you.”
He looked up at me, “Me too Mike, I feel so safe with your arm around me.”
I said, “I imagine this is what Walter and Ellis were taking about in the journal.”
He nodded, “Yeah, I think you’re right. What do you think happened to them?”
I sighed, “I don’t know, but I will find out… someday.”
We held each other in silence for a few minutes.
Andrew kissed me, “I need a shower would you like to join me?”
I grinned, “Like you have to ask.”
We showered and got each other worked up and headed to bed, we made love like it was the first time. We slept in each other’s arms, and it was the best night’s sleep that I have ever had. I never wanted to sleep without Andrew ever again.
Mike’s First Day at the Press
I arrived at the paper about ten minutes before 8 on Monday morning. I told the lady at the reception desk that I was reporting for work, and that Chuck had told me to ask for him. She looked me over and picked up her phone and started to dial. Just then the door to the office flew open.
Chuck walked out, “Good you’re here. Come on kid, we got a house fire.”
He handed me a camera as we walked out the front door. We got in his car and sped down the street. We arrived as the fire department was pulling hoses across the front lawn of a house in a rough part of town.
Chuck walked over to start talking to the neighbors that were gathering on the next lawn.
He said, “Take a lot of pictures and stay out of the way of the firemen.”
I started snapping pictures from every angle I could think of, being careful to stay behind the caution tape that had just been put up. The camera was fairly new and had a nice telephoto lens, so I was able to get some good shots. I saw some charred marks out in the driveway and made sure to get close ups. The firemen had gotten the fire under control and were starting to sift through the ashes for any clues to the origin of the fire. The police and fire marshal were also asking the neighbors and any other witnesses questions.
Chuck waved me over to the car, “Come on kid, the fire marshal is going to send me his report when he finishes it. We need to get back to the office and get those pictures developed so I can get the story in this afternoon’s edition.”
As we drove back to office, he asked, “What did you see kid? What stood out to you?”
I said, “I got few pictures of what I thought were tire marks on the driveway that lead to the house. But now I kind of think that they were where gas was poured on the pavement and was lit to burn the house.”
He snorted, “Damn kid, my instinct about you was right. I saw those too, I think it was arson. You know I usually don’t report on simple house fires; that’s a story for first year reporters. I am doing a series of stories on drug gangs, and this house is one their hangouts. The fire was probably set by their rival gang.”
We got back to office; Chuck showed me where the film lab was. We went back to his desk; there was a small table set up behind him.
He said, “That is your desk, here take my notes over to copy machine and make a copy of them. I need to make a phone call.”
I copied the pages and handed them to Chuck as he was hanging up the phone.
He handed me back the copies that I had made, “Here kid, use my notes to write your story. I am going to write mine and we will see how you do. The lab should have the pictures back to us in an hour.”
There was a notepad and pencils on my table, I sat and wrote out my article. Chuck started to type his.
Just as Chuck had said, a young guy delivered our pictures about an hour later. I was putting the finishing touches on my article. Chuck had finished typing ten minutes earlier and was in Fred’s office. I learned Fred was the editor, Chuck’s boss.
I heard him say, “Looks good. As soon as the photos get here, find the best one and go ahead and run the story.”
We looked through the pictures, Chuck picked the one he liked best. He showed me how to file a story. We went back to his desk, and I handed him my story. He nodded his head as he read it.
He said, “Not bad kid, better than I was expecting from a first-year journalism student. The pictures were very good too, and good job picking up on the signs of arson.”
I smiled as I went back to my desk. I was feeling really good about my first day of work. I was starting to see through Chuck’s rough exterior. I think under that tough guy act was a kind, caring man. I think I’m going to like working here.
I spent the rest of my day making copies and running papers to other reporters. And learning how to file things so Chuck could find them later. I went home at the end of the day feeling very good about my first day, I couldn't wait to get home and tell Andrew all about it. Damn that was a good feeling, having someone that I could talk to about my day, and I wanted to hear about his too.
Andrew was making supper as I walked in the door, he rushed to me and gave me a big kiss, “So tell me, how was your day?”
I grinned, “God Andrew, it was great.” I filled him in on all the details, he sat smiling at me the whole time as I rambled on and on.
After I finished, I said, “So how about your day? You started that class that you have been dying to take. How was it?”
It was my turn to smile as he told me all about the teacher and how great he was and how he knew he was going to love the class.
We ate our supper and after we cleaned up, Andrew said, “We both had such a great day, I think we both deserve a little reward.”
I grinned, “What kind of reward did you have in mind?”
He reached down and unzipped my pants; we were both naked before we made it to our bedroom. Yes “our” bedroom, I will never get tired of saying that.
We wrapped our arms around each other as we fell onto the bed. Our hard, leaking cocks were smearing precum all over our stomachs. Our lips remained locked together as Andrew rolled on top of me and then I rolled on top of him. I broke our kiss and began to work my way down his chest and stomach, leaving kisses all the way. I stopped briefly at his pert nipples to give them the treatment they deserved. God, his body was beautiful.
I continued down until I reached that perfect ebony, hooded, one-eyed slab of man meat. I fondled Andrews cum-filled, chocolate nuts, I lapped up the pearl of precum that I had coaxed out. Andrew moaned as I took his entire tool into my mouth. It still tasted as good as it did the first time I savored it. Andrew pulled me off his cock and up for a kiss, then pushed me onto my back and gave me the same love that I had just given him. He didn’t stop there; he gave my nuts a good sucking and moved down to my waiting pucker. God, I loved it when Andrew licked my ass and fucked me with his tongue. I held my legs up, so he had all the access he wanted as my head swam in pleasure.
I finally panted, “Damn it Andrew, will you fuck me already?”
He grinned as he moved into position and granted my eloquent request. He was soon pounding me as we had resumed kissing. I had my arms locked around his neck and my legs around his ass; I wasn’t going to let him get away. When I felt Anderw start to tense up, I knew he was close, so was I. We both groaned and I felt Andrew’s love juices fill my gut and mine spilled out between our heaving chests. It felt like Andrew’s cum was shooting right threw me and coming out of my over sensitive love stick. Andrew went limp on top of me as our tongues continued to dance. As his cum covered cock slipped from my well used hole. Andrew rolled beside me as we tried to catch our breath.
I sighed, “That’s what I call a reward.”
Andrew chuckled, “Yeah, I can’t disagree.”
We held each other and Andrew asked, “Have I told you today that I love you?”
I smiled and kissed his cheek, “Yes, several times. But you can tell me again.”
He grinned, “I love you.”
I said, “I love you too.”
We fell asleep feeling very content. Andrew’s classes were going well, I loved my new job, and we were both in the arms of the man that we loved.
The rest of the summer went by very fast; I was still loving my job and Chuck was teaching me a lot. As gruff as he was, I think he enjoyed having me around and I was doing my best not to “piss him off”.
Andrew and I had settled into our life together and I still can’t remember a time when either of us were mad or even upset with each other. School was going to be starting in two weeks, and I had worked out my schedule with Chuck so I could get the most hours as possible at the paper. I walked into the apartment after work to a ringing telephone; I set my bag down.
“Hello”
“Hi Mike, it’s mom.”
“Hi mom, how are you?’
I just heard her crying.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
To be Continued…
