THE SWORD AND THE SCABBARD (4/11)

“Gus what did he say?  This is important.”

“Pop he said ‘OH MY GOD NOT YOU.’  He knew who I was.  Tell me what happened to Monty?  Why is he dead instead of me?”

“Detective Coons what do you know about Monty?”

“Well Mr. Taylor based on what Gus just told us and what we know from the scene my guess is that the Strangler let Gus go for some reason, evidently he knew him, and then the other young man must of come upon the scene.  There was a struggle since the victim has bruises on his face and hands in addition to the strangulation marks.  We figure that the Strangler must have had to hit him in the face before he was able to overpower him and strangle him.  Hopefully the Lab guys will be able to figure some things out from the bruises.  Thank you for your help Gus, I need to get back to the scene and tell them what you have told me.  Someone will be here in the morning to get an official statement from you.  We'll do everything possible, Mr. Kinney, to keep the media away from Gus.  You know that since he's the only survivor of a Strangler attack that he'll be the bulls eye of their attention though.”

“Thank you Detective, Brian appreciates everything you have and will do for us.  His rudeness is directly related to his concern for our son.”

“Good bye gentlemen.”

“Now Gus why were you going to some building on Liberty Avenue instead of coming home?  You know full well that in November you don‘t go anywhere near Liberty Avenue without me; especially after dark.”

“Pop can’t that wait until morning?  Oh God I’m the reason Monty is dead.  How will I explain it to his folks?”

“Gus you aren’t to blame for anything, the Strangler is to blame.  Why do you Kinneys feel the need to take the blame for everything bad that happens around you?”

“But Dad I was the one who wanted to practice for the King of Babylon contest.  Monty just wanted to go dancing after the Homecoming festivities; then go home after the dance.  It's my fault; if I hadn’t been such an ass about it we wouldn’t have been near Liberty Avenue tonight.  I almost begged to get him to agree to work on our stripping routines.  He even found a friend who was willing to let us use his apartment while he was out of town.”

“King of Babylon, why would you want to practice for the King of Babylon contest?”

“Because you were King of Babylon when you were my age Dad.”

“Why didn’t you come back to the house, there certainly is room to practice dancing in the basement?”

“I had some other plans as well.”

“What plans that you couldn’t do at the house?”

“This is kind of embarrassing Pop but I planned on busting a few cherries after we got through practicing.  We certainly couldn’t do that at Monty’s dorm room and I wasn’t willing to risk doing it at the house.”

“Gus Kinney you are way too young to be having sex.”

“Pop isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?  How old were you when you fucked for the first time?”

“Gus you mind your language.”

“Wasn’t Dad my age when you popped his cherries?”

“That doesn’t matter Gus, just because I did something foolish doesn’t mean that I should be okay with you doing the same foolish thing.  I think you had better go to sleep Sonnyboy, we can talk again in the morning.”

“OK Pop, but I hadn’t said anything to Monty I’m not sure he would have done anything with me anyway. I mean I think he liked me a lot and I know I liked him a lot but he might not have found me sexually attractive.  He is a college man and I’m just a High School boy.  Oh God; I’m to blame for his death.”

“Gus you're not to blame for anything.  Hopefully the police will finally be able to catch the bastard because of the information you were able to give.  Just close your eyes and go to sleep.”

“Brian if I didn’t realize how much strain you're under I think I would be upset.”

“Why would you be upset Sunshine?”

“You just said that your taking of my virginity was something foolish.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“I know Brian I’m just trying to lighten the mood somewhat.  Do you remember what led up to my winning the King of Babylon contest?”

“I remember everything we’ve done together just like it happened yesterday.”

“Like I believe that line of Kinney.”

“Sunshine have I told you lately how much I love you?”

“Just this morning after our wakeup 69.  King of Babylon I’d almost forgot about that, but I wonder did Gus really think he would be able to even get into Babylon to enter the contest.  After all they’ve become much stricter about letting under age guys into the club after they almost lost their liquor license for letting minors drink.  It always amazed how I was able to drink alcohol in pretty much every liquor establishment we went to back then, my fake ID really wasn‘t that good especially considering I looked like I was 14 most of the time.”

“I’m going to guess he was probably using the whole ‘lets practice stripping for the King of Babylon contest’ as a come on to get into Monty’s pants.  He gets the kid down to his underwear and then he gives him a Sunshine smile and cherries get popped.   As if a Kinney has to use a come on line to get laid.  He's going to blame himself for that boy’s death for a long time Sunshine.”

“I know but we'll just have to be there to lessen his pain.  But I remember that I won that contest simply because you and David got into some stupid argument about Gay society and mores.  You egged each other on until neither of you could back down and you both signed up to strip.  The two of you were acting like you were 10 and 12 instead of 30 and 40.”

“I was not 30 I was still only 29, and David had to be closer to 50 than to 40.  What Mikey saw in that fossil I‘ll never know.”?

“Whatever.  While David’s strip was bearable yours was just laughable, I mean Brian a scarecrow could have danced more erotically than you did, swaying from side to side as you take off your clothes is not much of a striptease.  Then Michael got snippy about how much better David did than you so I had to challenge him.  Mikey might have been your best friend back then but he certainly never taught you how to dance; he made you look like a positively perfect stripper.  I of course blew all of you away and won the contest in a landslide. The best part came afterwards when I got my royal reward.”

“Just what, exactly, did you win?”

“Hell I don’t remember what I won from Babylon, what I remember was the fact that the royal sword got sheathed in a totally new scabbard for the first time.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard topping and bottoming described quite that way before.”

TBC