Adventures
Daryl
You're all settling in at Stonehill. A garden is started in the hope that you'll be here for awhile. You're mainly a hunter but you and Merle kept a small plot of favorites so a little weeding and watering isn't beneath you. You work in pairs and when it's yours and Glenn's turn you ask him if he's filled any gaps in the story.
Glenn
My mother doesn't waste time so the day after Christmas she makes a few calls and tells us that a real estate team will meet with us as soon as we get to L.A. to begin showing properties.
"Team?" Daryl asks.
"Two men and a woman. Very good. Highly recommended. Here is a questionnaire. Complete it and I will fax it back."
The questionnaire is brutal. These people will know more about us than our families do. They better find us a house we love.
Daryl bought Merle a motorcycle after his first job in Atlanta. He saved his money from the Texas and California jobs and he's getting a new truck for the drive to California. He's leaving the truck he and Merle share for Merle. We're not taking a lot with us so everything will fit in Daryl's truck and my car. Road trip!
Daryl's truck is filled up with his motorcycle, weapons and a huge animal head with antlers. He packs it carefully in a padded reinforced crate and wraps it in plastic. It was a beautiful animal. I guess the head still is but it makes me uneasy.
"Did you shoot that antelope while it was playing with the deer and the buffalo?" 'Home on the Range' is the only old West song I can think of.
"It's not an antelope."
"Well, it's not a moose. I know what those look like."
"It's not a moose and it's not an elk. Here's a hint. I bagged it on a hunting trip with Merle in Canada."
"Daryl, you didn't kill a reindeer!"
"Fuck, no. It's a caribou."
"And then you cut off its head and had it mounted."
"Quality taxidermy like this isn't cheap. That head will last forever."
I was afraid of that but I don't say it out loud.
It takes us a week to drive from Atlanta to L.A. There's no particular hurry so we stop and do tourist stuff and basically fuck our way across the country.
Daryl
You stop at a rest area. You and Glenn are at opposite ends of the urinal because gay is no reason to ignore the male code of bathrooms and movie theaters. Leave a space or seat between you whenever possible.
You're alone so Glenn wanders around looking in the stalls and calls out excitedly that there's a glory hole.
"No," you tell him, knowing what he'll suggest.
"Don't you want to experience something new?"
"I'm not sticking my dick in that hole and I'm not sucking your dick through it."
Glenn has taken a closer look by now and agrees. "Yeah, that's nasty." He pauses. "Let's use the end stall."
So you do. Someone comes in but there's only one set of feet visible and you're both quiet and the guy leaves pretty quick.
"You're going to get us arrested," you tell Glenn.
"I hope we're in the same cell. Jail sex. That would be something. Actually, adjoining cells would be better with bars between. Daryl, we should turn ourselves in."
You laugh because he's joking. Probably.
You stop overnight on the outskirts of Dallas and while Glenn is in the shower you call Tom Chase, a good ole boy you met last year on the Texas shoot. Tom is a stuntman who only works locally because he's as married to Texas as he is to his wife. You got acquainted and Tom said give him a call anytime you're in the area. That's the bullshit kind of thing people say and don't mean but you decide to call anyway.
"Tom, it's Daryl Dixon. From the 'Range War' remake last year."
"Hell yes, Daryl. What are you up to?"
"Driving to California."
"Driving? Are you in Texas?"
"Just outside Dallas."
"We gotta get together."
"That'd be nice if the timing isn't bad. There's something I want to mention. Never came up last year but if we work together again I wanted you and the others to know. Unless you already heard. I'm gay."
You've never said it out loud to a stranger before. It seems wrong to say such a thing but this is an experiment. Tom is silent for a few moments. You would be, too, if someone you knew for a week five months ago called up out of the blue with an announcement like that.
"I, uh, no, I didn't hear that. Don't make no difference," Tom adds but you can hear in his suddenly too hearty voice that it does matter.
"So you're on your way to California." Tom switches subjects.
"Yeah, moving to L.A."
"Good place to be in our line of work. Good luck. Well, I wish it could've worked seeing you but ..."
"Yeah, it's short notice and I've got an early start tomorrow." You both hang up. Now you know.
Glenn is leaning in the bathroom doorway wearing a towel. He's got that sleek swimmer's body and his skin has a gold tinge and the tilt of his eyes is very noticeable. He looks foreign and familiar at the same time. You've never thought of him as beautiful but he is. And you don't mean in a girly way like a woman is beautiful. This is a masculine way but you've never thought that about any other man so maybe it's just a Glenn thing.
He heard enough of the conversation to know what happened. "I'm sorry," he says.
You shrug. "I'm not."
"Not everyone is open-minded."
"Your folks are okay with it. Hell, even Merle is. That's more than I expected."
Glenn is studying you. "You really don't mind." He thinks for a minute then nods. "It was a test. You wanted to get the first time telling someone outside of family over with but you didn't want it to matter too much. Tom isn't going to leave Texas so it's possible you'll work with him again but not probable."
You smile slightly. "Getting inside people's heads like that, you should have been a psychologist."
"Not sure I have much insight into anyone else but I know you pretty well."
"You missed one thing but that's because you don't know Tom. He likes to talk and he'll tell everyone. Even though he's in Texas, word will get around. I may not have to tell anyone else."
"You don't have to tell anyone anyway. It's nobody's business but ours."
"It's better if word gets out. Don't have to talk about it but I'd rather they know so it doesn't feel like a secret."
"You're pretty good at head games, too."
"Are you going to stand there in that towel all night?"
"I could stand here without the towel." He untucks it and lets it drop.
"You could come over here and shove your cock in my mouth."
"After that will you shove yours in my ass?"
"My pleasure."
"Mine, too."
Glenn
Our last night we stop in Vegas and get our names tattooed in Korean on each other's chest. Daryl tells me he felt like he was proposing when he asked me to move to California with him. I felt that way, too. And if that was the proposal, this trip is the honeymoon.
The real estate team has done its work and the questionnaire must have helped because we look at 20 properties in a week and none of them are impossible. We narrow it to four and look at those seriously although one already stands out for both of us. The deal is quickly made and we have a contemporary Craftsman that we couldn't have afforded by ourselves, maybe ever. Daryl and I both know this house is an apology from my parents for their behavior the last few years. They can't say the words and truthfully, I'd rather have the house. It's bigger than we need and the lot is a decent size but it's a good deal in this economy even in L.A. It's the middle house on a three-house circle so it's as isolated as it's possible to be without gating.
On one side are Dale and Andrea Horvath and their daughter, Amy. Dale is 64, a recently retired car salesman although with the high-end autos he sold he's probably called a vehicle vendor or something like that. He was a widower without children when he met Andrea who is 25 years younger. But she's not a trophy wife. She's an entertainment lawyer and one of her clients lives on the other side of us. Theodore 'T-Dog' Douglas was a rapper with some success a few years back and even more smarts. He didn't burn through his earnings and he didn't get cheated by his agent or accountant, maybe because Andrea was his lawyer. He lives with Jacqui and stays home with their son, James. Jacqui is fairly important in the city planning department.
Daryl
"You're using our group for neighbors? Even the dead ones?"
"I thought you'd be more comfortable with people you could relate to."
"I think you didn't want to make up new names and people."
"I can do that. Do you want to live among strangers?"
"No," you say grudgingly. "But what about the rest of them?"
"Just wait. I have plans for everyone."
Glenn
While Daryl is in Montana I think about what I'm going to do. I don't want to deliver pizza in L.A. I miss Scooter's a little but it was time to move on and I had been thinking about it for awhile before we left Georgia. I've got memories of the people and the work, enough to write a book. A lot of funny and crazy stuff happens when you deliver pizza. And that gives me an idea for a screenplay. So many people in L.A. are in the business one way or another. Why not me?
When the house is put together I start writing seriously. They say you should write what you know. Maybe that's why it goes so well. I think it's pretty good. I let Daryl read it and he laughs where I hope people will. When he's finished Daryl says he wants to screw a screenwriter. I tell him I won't feel like a real screenwriter until I sell it. He says he's not waiting. We're already in bed so I'm screwed. Literally.
Daryl
You pull into the garage and go through to the house. Glenn is in his office and doesn't look up from the keyboard, just says he'll be finished in a few minutes. You don't mind. You're glad he found something he's interested in because you felt a little guilty asking him to move out here when you had a job and he didn't. You start dinner and 15 minutes later look in again.
This time he sets his laptop aside, tips his head back and smiles. You lean over the back of the sofa and kiss him upside down. He pulls at your shirt so you roll over and land beside him and make out for awhile until it reaches the point where you'll have to stop now or you won't be able to. Easy decision. Dinner is on a slow simmer but you and Glenn are on fast boil.
You and Glenn are going to Merle's wedding. Glenn asks if there will be women at the party afterward that you fucked.
"Probably a few. I'm sorry. We can skip it."
"Hell, no. How many, do you think?"
"Three or four."
"That's all? What about the other 20?"
"Everybody I ever fucked is not invited to Merle's wedding reception. Some of them didn't know about Merle."
"You never mentioned you had a brother?"
"A couple of them I didn't even tell my name."
"Do you know why that doesn't disgust me like it should?"
You think about it for a minute. "Because you did what those women couldn't. You got me."
Glenn
We meet Penny Grimes' family. Parents Rick and Lori, younger brother Carl, older sister Carol and niece Sophia. Carol is the other witness. She was divorced and now her ex, Ed, is dead. No one seems to miss him. Carol arrives with a date, a storm trooper type named Shane. Merle has grown on me but still, I have to wonder about these women's taste in men. I got the best of the bunch and I don't have tits and a pussy. Although Daryl likes my nipples and ass.
I had told Merle he'd get a good wedding present if he invited my parents so he did. He looks around like he can't believe he and Daryl are outnumbered by Koreans at his own wedding.
At the party afterward where most people know Daryl, Merle's introduction is unique. "You remember Daryl. I guess this is my brother-in-law Glenn. They're gay. I don't wanna talk about it."
Merle might be smarter than I think. He acknowledges the relationship and gets it out in the open before anyone else can make a comment, at the same time making it clear that he can barely tolerate the situation. He usually follows up with a reminder that Daryl is doing stunt work in California and what else could be expected when you move to La La Land.
Daryl
A slightly drunk Roy Miller comes up to you. "It was my sister, wasn't it? I bet Ellie turned you gay."
You fucked Ellie a few times a couple of years ago and haven't seen her since but the memory makes you think she might actually have had something to do with it. But you tell Roy, "That wasn't it."
"You can admit it, Daryl. Wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last."
You can't pass this up. "What do you mean?"
"Steve Henderson."
Steve was three years behind you in school, the same age as Ellie. He moved to Fort Lauderdale after he graduated and you heard he was queer. But you didn't know he tried Roy's sister before he left. Ellie must be feeling a little paranoid.
Glenn
Daryl and I go to the caretaker's cottage when we finish in the garden. It's the last one and we're looking it over and thinking about moving in. We've been at Stonehill for three weeks and I know the others are picking cottages as well. There's plenty of privacy in the main building but not like having your own enclosed space. We haven't had that since before the ZA unless you count tents. Which I don't.
We end up in the bedroom so why not try the bed? And that leads to an amazing afternoon. I'm not sure why it seems that way because we don't do anything out of the ordinary. In fact, it's very vanilla. No anal, no blowjobs, just face to face frot. I have to believe it's the players not the play. Everything came together, including us, to create a perfect sexual experience.
Although I admit that a mutual hand job in our tent at dawn was satisfying in its own way.
