Chase of a Lifetime by Ryan Field

hanging out just like
you used to do.”
    Jim heard footsteps coming from behind. He
knew Len was following them. He didn’t turn back. He nodded and said, “I’ll
give him a call, Janice.” Her first name still didn’t sit right with him. But
he didn’t want to be rude. After all, he’d just been seduced by the poor
woman’s husband. He’d just seen her husband’s erection, for God’s sake. He owed
her this much respect.
    On his way down the front walk, he heard
Len’s voice. “Thanks for driving me home, Jim. I really appreciate it. Make
sure you have some fun this summer with the girls. You’re a man now.” He
emphasized the word girls, as if making a joke about it.
    Jim’s balls jumped up in his scrotum. “No
problem, Mr. Mayfield.” He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He’d never be
able to look these people in the eye again. But more than that, he’d never be
able to look his old friend, Cain, in the eye again either. With any luck at
all, he wouldn’t see them again for months.

Chapter Five
    ----
    On the fourth of July, Jim’s mother and
father had their annual poolside party. It always began at two in the afternoon
and lasted until six in the evening. They never deviated. They always served
grilled salmon and free range chicken. The side dishes were organic veggies and
fruit salad. The bar was stocked with vodka and mixers for almost every
different martini available. They even had cute little stirrers with
multicolored cowboy hats to keep the Texas cowboy theme flowing.
    This year the party was extra special
because it was Jim’s twenty-first birthday and his mother and father had just
put in an outdoor living space next to the pool. The outdoor living space
consisted of plush sectional sofas in tasteful shades of beige, state of the
art stainless steel appliances that would have made most standard indoor
kitchens pale in comparison, and specially sized outdoor carpets in
southwestern patterns to cover the expensive pavers.
    It wasn’t as large a party as Jim’s
graduation party had been. There were only thirty of his mother and father’s
closest friends there that afternoon. The men wore baggy swum trunks and
lightweight jackets to hide their middle aged paunches. The women wore one piece
swim suits and sheer jackets. They hid under umbrellas, bathed in sunscreen,
fearing a hint of sun would drive them to the nearest cancer center. If anyone
wanted to smoke, even though they were all outdoors anyway, he or she had to
leave the poolside, walk through a gate at the far end of a tall fence, and
stand alone, as if being punished, beside an old tool shed Jim ’s father had
been meaning to renovate for years. Jim’s mother had set a yellow plastic
ashtray on a dead tree stump. If a hint of cigarette smoke made its way back to
the pool area, it was amazing to watch them cover their faces and hold their
breath. The pot they would smoke later that night didn’t seem to bother them.
    Because this birthday was a milestone for Jim,
his father had planned something special that afternoon. While he quieted the
guests and explained that Jim was about to come outside and do something
interesting, Jim stood in the kitchen holding his palm to his stomach. He wore
tight black swim trunks and a jock strap to keep his penis packed down. As he
listened to his father ramble on about how he would be attending law school
soon, Jim groaned and glanced down at his bare feet. He hadn’t told his father
he wasn’t going to law school. But he hadn’t said he was definitely going
either. On one hand, he had no great passion to be an attorney. On the other,
he wasn’t dead set against law school. Unfortunately, the only passion he had
that summer was to find out what it was like to be with a man. And this
need…urge…seemed to cloud his judgment in ways that made him feel irresponsible
and unreliable.
    His father walked up to the glass doors off
the kitchen and said, “Are you ready?”
    Jim adjusted his