Last time in chapter 15…

I pulled a bandana out of my back pocket and handed to him.  “Listen, buddy, it’s no business of mine what you do and who you do it with, but if it hurts or you don’t like who it is, you have a right to say ‘no’ or ‘stop’.  Don’t let someone take advantage of you or your body. You were bleeding pretty good from that ordeal. He could have hurt you worse than he did.” 

Joey tried to regroup himself and wiped his face.  “Let’s get back to the ranch. Do you want to spend the night in your bunk house or with me at the cabin? I promise you can have the bed and I’ll take the couch.”  He looked over at me with those dark eyes and messed up face, “Could I stay with you?”  I know the smile on my face was a mile long if not ten. “You are always welcome at my place. And remember, you can always share with me in confidence about anything.”  Joey worked up a smile along with a few more of those tears, and then he reached over and squeezed my leg.

 Chapter 16

We pulled out of the parking lot and headed on down the highway toward the ranch.  The whole time, I was envisioning John having Joey pinned putting the hurt to him.  My blood pressure was dangerously high and I was ready to kick some ass! I kept re-running lines in my head as to what I was going to say to the son of a bitch.  I could see myself catching him out in the livery stables or garage and taking a whip to him. As I got myself worked up to frenzy, Joey broke the silence, “Aaron?”  “What!” I snapped back at him.  I was so in depth with John on my mind that I responded to Joey as if it was John.  “Oh, I’m sorry buddy.  I didn’t mean to snap like that. I’m just really pissed off over John and how he tore up your ass.” Joey just paused for a minute looking down at his hat in his lap.  “I don’t want you to get messed up in my troubles. This is my do’n.”  I knew exactly what he was trying to say but the fact that he was put in a position infuriated me. My jaws were locked down tight.  After a minute of silence, I realized I needed to say something.  In no way did I want to make him think I was upset with him.  “Look Joey.  I’m your friend and I’m your appointed sponsor while you get settled at the ranch.  I have a duty to look out for you.  I will not get in the way of your personal life. That I promise! But this is a little beyond personal.  Another supervisor raped you and for me, I feel obligated to protect you.”  Joey just sat staring straight ahead. He’s the “thinker” type.  If he is zoned in on working out a problem, you can see it in his face.  “Listen, I’m not going to embarrass you or cause you problems while you’re here at the ranch. I know you want to get established and on with making a new life here.  I just want you to be careful.  There are wolves here that may be wearing a title or pretty face, but they can get you into trouble.”

We pulled into the ranch and up to my cabin.  I climbed out of the truck checking my tires as a habit and then began to walk over toward the cabin.  My senses soon kicked in that no one was following me.  I stopped and looked over my shoulder, back at the truck.  Joey was sitting in the same position, staring at me like he was waiting for something. A little puzzled, I raised both hands in the air as to say, “Well?”  Joey had absolutely no expression on his face.  He was looking me dead in the eye. My god, did he die on me or what?  I walked back over to the truck on his side and stood there. He slowly turned his head and looked at me.  With the last few seconds of power still in the electronics of the truck, he rolled the window down.  I tilted my head and gave him a look of anticipation.  Then Joey said, “Is this how you treat all your dates? Leave them sitting in the truck fending for themselves?”  That hit me between the eyes and I just went plain stupid.  “What the hell?”  Then Joey broke out laughing trying to contain himself but he enjoyed that sudden and unexpected jab.  I grabbed the door and opened it up, “Get your little ass out here before I carry you to the door.”  Instantly Joey played that idea and put his finger to his mouth like he really liked the idea.  I reached in and scooped him up like a new bride, pulled him out, slammed the door shut with my ass and carried him to the front door.  Joey was laughing and snickering all the way.  I dropped him to his feet while I pulled the keys out of my pocket. “Hey! The groom is supposed to carry the bride across the threshold!”  I looked at him halfcocked and then grabbed him up in my arms again. I tried to manage the storm door but it caught me in the side while I was trying to juggle Joey. The next thing I heard, thump! I managed to whack Joey’s head into the side of the cabin trying to get him in.  He grabbed his head and curled up on my shoulder all while I was trying not to fall.  His laughing stopped but he was doing a lot of snickering and groaning while holding his head.  I hated that it happened but I knew there was bound to be a scrape or scratch come out of that playful act.  I set him back down on his feet fearing the next thing I did was drop him altogether.  He stumbled in, still holding his head sputtering a few cuss words. I got the door shut and walked past him long enough to kiss his head and said, “Welcome home.” 

Joey sat on the sofa and kicked the television on while I kicked the AC down to cool the place off.  I turned the blinds down as I was not too comfortable knowing who could be prowling around when it got dusk.  About that time there was a knock on the door. I could see through the side of the blinds it was Terry.  “Come on in buddy” I yelled through the door.  Terry popped the door open and stepped in.  “Hey. How are you guys doing?”  “Oh we just back a minute ago. We’re getting settled in.”  Terry looks over at Joey, “Hey Joey, how are you feeling?”  “Pretty good, thanks.”  Terry begins to grin east to west and I knew something was up, “What was that little scuffle I just saw outside?”  I don’t know what is wrong with me anymore. I seem to be clueless to the fact that there are always eyes around.  “So you saw that huh?”  Terry still having fun with it, “Yeah. Me and half of the guys on their lunch break.”  “WHAT?”  “Yeah, we were on the back side of stable number two.”  Joey perks up and looks over at me with a major stern face and speaks up, “We were just rough housing and pick’n on each other. Nothing more.” “Yeah, we’ll just go with that.” Terry sarcastically put it.  “That is what you better say or my boot will be up your butt.”  “Oh it’s all good. I’m just giving you a hard time.  No one saw but me.”

Terry spend a few minutes chatting with us and being the true friend he was, didn’t bring up anything in regards to Joey or what happened.  As he was leaving, I gave him a big hug and then to my surprise, Joey was in line and gave Terry a hug as well.  Terry grabbed Joey by the shoulders, “We’re all friends and family here. You’re safe but let Aaron give you the low down on who to stay away with.”  Joey smiled, “Ok. I will. Thanks.” 

It was pushing 4 o’clock and I was beginning to get a little hungry. “How about a pizza tonight for dinner? Oh, I forgot. Did they give you any papers or orders as to what you can or can’t have to eat?”  Joey looked at me and said, “I don’t know. You tell me.”  “Huh? They didn’t say anything to me, bud.”  I could tell by the smirk on his face he was still at it. “Look at the paper in your back pocket” he smarted back at me.  “My back pocket…I’ll be damned”  I reached around and there was a paper folded and sticking out of my back pocket.  “When did you have time and how did you get that in my pocket?”  I opened it up and sure enough, it was some instruction from the hospital.  Joey snapped back, “While you were carrying me in I slipped it in your pocket.”  This kid just amazes me every day!  “Ok. Let’s look here and see what you’re supposed to do.”  The paper simply said to take the antibiotics, a normal diet and instructions for cleaning and prepping his rectum.  Wow. I wasn’t expecting this. “Well. It says here that you need to take a bath or shower each time you get off the pot and every other day you are to have an enema for the next 7 days, not to exceed 4 enemas total.”  Joey just looked at me with screwball face.  “I’ve never done that before” he said.  Feeling kind of ornery myself, “What? Take a bath or shower?”  “No! One of those things you said.” “An Enema?” Joey did a slight dance and just shuttered, “I don’t even like the sounds of it.”  “Well, it’s not all that bad, but you need to make sure you take care of yourself.”  “Yeah whatever,” as he turns back to channel surfing.  “I’m going to go hop in the shower and then we can run up Wades Run and grab a pizza and pick up your unmentionables at Wright’s Drug store.” Joey didn’t respond as I knew the enema matter was not at the top of his list.

I grabbed a shower and we ran up to Wades Run. “Do you have your advance money on you?”  Joey pulls out his wallet and takes a look in, “Yeah, I’m good.”  “Okay, I’m going to pull in here and run across the lot to grab us a pizza. You can run in here and get your prescription and OTHER things” and I greatly stressed the word ‘other’.  Joey just looked over at me with a crooked smile, “If you say so.”  “Oh be a big boy and get your ass mov’n.”  We parted ways and as I’m walking a few yards over to the pizza shop, I look back and see Joey’s ass disappear inside.  

A few minutes later, I head back to the truck and can see Joey is already inside waiting on me.  I popped the door open and there he sat looking at the enema carton.  “Well, that wasn’t so bad was it?” I jabbed at him.  He looked over at me and gave me the finger.  I knew it was in jest but something didn’t go as expected.  “What happened?” I prodded.  “I picked up the wrong thing and the guy behind the counter made a big deal of it.  Told me I was supposed to get the non-laxative kind.”  I had to hold back the tears because I wanted to laugh so badly. My face knotted up in ways it looked like I was having a stroke. He never caught on because he was very humiliated and still looking at the carton’s instructions.  Then he began reading the instructions out loud, “Oh my God! I’ve got to stick this thing up my butt?!” he yelled out. I lost it. I started snorting and sputtering while trying to hold it all back. Joey looks over at me with mile wide eyes, overlooking my reaction, “What the fuck?!”  I wiped my eyes and tears of utter disbelief, “Oh, come on now! You mean to tell me you didn’t know what that’s all about?”  Joey looks back at the carton, “You stick this up your butt, man!” he growled back at me.  Again, I started laughing so hard that I about let the pizza slide out of my grip and into the floor.  “What did you think you were supposed to do?”  In a state of frustration and desperation, “Damn it, I thought you put it on a cotton ball or tissue and wiped your butt with it.”  That finally struck me so odd and unbelievable that I couldn’t laugh anymore. I just sat there staring at him trying to take this all in.  He put the enema carton back in the bag and sat there for a minute. It was dead silent in the cab of the truck. I still was motionless, staring at him while he just looked on out the windshield with a demeanor that he had been beat at the game of life.  As I was about to move, he reached back in the bag and pulled the carton back out and began to open it, “Okay, let’s see just how bad this is going to be.”  He pulled the bottle out and looked at it, and then he peered down in the box like something was going to jump out at him.  He tilted the box up and slid the nozzle out. He held it up in his hand, he studied it, twisting and turning in the fast fading daylight.  Then he stopped and looked over at me.  “What the fuck have you got me into here?” with a deadpan glare.  “ME?” I zinged back. Then an ever so slightly smile began to curl up in each corner of his mouth.  All I could hear in my head was the theme of ‘The Grinch’.  In a split second and perfectly synchronized, we both busted out in a laughter that was so unbridled I thought I was going to piss myself.  I was doubled over snorting while Joey fell back against the door letting out a deep, rumble of a laugh. About that time, I lost control of the pizza box. The lid opened and it slid out and down between my feet, on the floor.  We both instantly stopped laughing and just looked down at the pizza in disbelief.  Joey was making ever so slight gasps then we looked at each other and broke out again.  We sat in the truck and laughed our asses off for the next five minutes all while the pizza was in the middle of the floor and Joey was clutching the nozzle of the enema in his fist. 

We finally made it back to the cabin shortly after dark.  I managed to get the pizza scooped up and back in the box.  Joey followed behind me to the cabin.  I couldn’t help but look back to see if he was there.  When I did look, I noticed a wet spot in the crotch of his jeans. “You dumb shit!” I exclaimed. “WHAT?” Joey yelled back, while looking around him. “You’ve managed to puncture that enema bottle.”  Joey was looking at the paper bag and digging through it.  He found nothing leaking or wet.  “I think you’re crazy!” he said.  “What’s the wet spot there along your zipper?”  Joey holds the bag away and looks down at the front of his jeans then looks back up at me slightly embarrassed. “What is it?” I pried. “If you have to know, I laughed too hard. Okay?”  Once again, it hit me in the right place and I let out a laugh that almost woke the community. “Shhh! Will you stop it”, Joey demanded in a low tone.  I recomposed myself, “Come on, get in here.”  He followed me inside. We sat our stuff on the kitchen table. I reached over and took him by the arm, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”  Joey wasn’t too sold on that excuse. He just gave me a funny, half of a smile.  I grabbed him again, “Seriously, I’m sorry.”  He pulled away again, “Okay, okay. I forgive you. Now I’ve got to go piss!” and off he ran to the bathroom while stripping out of his jeans.  We both had an incredibly stressful day and we needed that time of laughter and venting together.  I think it helped the sense of trust between us.  He’s okay. A really great guy.