Song for Guy

by Mark Peters

Chapter 19

My head had barely hit the pillow it seemed, when I was being forcefully shaken awake.

'What's wrong?' I cursed, without even knowing who it was that was doing the shaking.

'It's for you,' my father rather grumpily said, thrusting the telephone into my hand. 'It's Ben's mother.'

'What time is it?' I asked.

'Barely seven o'clock,' he replied, then stormed out of my room and, presumably, back to his.

I just stared after him for a moment or three, as my mind wrapped itself around the fact that I had only been back in bed for about an hour and a half, then remembered the telephone in my hand.

'Hello,' I managed to eventually say.

'Is that you, Tim?' the rather emotional sounding voice said.

'Yes, Mrs Walker. Are you alright?'

'Do you know where Ben is?' she asked, coming straight to the point.

'I'm sorry, but no, I don't,' I answered truthfully.

'You must do. You boys know everything there is to know about the other. Surely he told you!'

'Look, I'm sorry Mrs Walker, but I truly haven't seen Ben since Guy and I dropped him home after school yesterday afternoon. And he never said anything at all about what he was doing this weekend.'

There was an audible sigh from the other end of the line, followed by what I though was a sniffle.

'Are you alright, Mrs W?'

'He never came home last night, Tim. He left a note saying he was going out and would be home soon, much like he does any other time, only this time he hasn't come home. And his bed wasn't slept in last night either.'

I refrained from saying that any time that I'd been in Ben's bedroom it was never possible to tell if it was last night or last week that his bed was slept in last, it always had that unmade look about it, but thought better of it.

Instead I just said, 'I'm sure he's alright. If he'd have gotten into trouble or anything he would have called someone, wouldn't he?'

'Maybe,' she replied.

I did have an idea about where it was that he might be, but I decided that I wasn't going to mention it just at this stage, not until I tried to confirm things first. Instead I simply asked, 'Have you tried anyone else yet?'

'Like who? I thought you and Guy, and Jonathon, were his closest friends?'

'Well, I guess we are, but that doesn't mean he might not have other friends.'

'But surely you would know about them?'

'Well, maybe. I don't know. How about new girlfriends?'

'You would know more about them than me . . .' she said, then paused. I could almost hear the cogs turning from here, then she said, 'Or old ones!'

'What do you mean?' I asked, while being extremely thankful that she had come up with that conclusion all by herself and that I hadn't let slip by telling her what my thoughts were.

'That Samantha girl. Where does she live?'

'Errr . . . Samantha left town at the start of the year. She's away at University somewhere.'

'Oh. Do you know where?'

'I'm sorry, but not really.'

Okay, so I lied, again!

'Look, I'm really sorry Mrs W, but I don't know where Ben is. If I did, I would tell you. And if I do hear from him, I will. I promise you that.'

Another sigh.

'Mrs Walker?'

'Yes, I'm still here,' she answered.

'If I hear from him, I'll call you straight away. And I'll tell him to call you. Alright?'

'Thank you, Tim,' she replied, then disconnected.

Despite the fact that I had only had about one hour's sleep, I was now wide awake. Somewhere deep in my brain I remembered that I had a mobile telephone number for Samantha, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember where I had written it.

It was while I was searching for it that my father came back into the room, propping himself up against the door frame, startling me.

'So, what's Ben gone and done now?' he asked.

'He didn't go home last night,' I replied.

'Jesus, is that all,' my father said. 'Aren't you lucky I don't worry about you when you stay out all night and don't come back in until just before dawn?'

It was enough to make me stop what I was doing and look up at him.

'Yeah. I heard you come in,' he said. 'Little wonder it took so much to wake you up this morning. I almost felt guilty doing it!'

Not wanting to tempt fate, I said nothing.

'It's alright though, I won't tell your mother,' he said, in quiet conspiratorial tones. 'I hope the girl knows how lucky she is.'

I think I managed a wry smile, but at the same time I thought I could hear some muffled giggling coming from Jason's room, which was right next door to mine.

'So, what are you looking for then?'

'A telephone number. Ben's old girlfriend, Samantha. It was something his mother said that made me think that maybe he's been in touch with her.'

'So, you going to give the number over when you find it?'

'No,' I answered. 'I'm going to ring it, and see if she's heard from him.'

He just nodded and said, 'Good thinking Ninety-Nine.' Then just turned and left me to my search.

Moments later Jason appeared at my door, wearing only his boxers, and a grin from ear to ear.

'What's your problem?' I asked.

'Well, you've sure got the old man fooled at least,' he said, then he also turned and left me to my search, before I had the chance to say anything.

I went back to my search, and a few minutes later I came across the program for the musical that we had done last year. Just seeing it brought a smile to my face, as it brought back so many happy memories, so I opened it up and had a quick flick through the pages.

And there it was. On the inside of the cover page I'd written 'Sam' and then directly underneath her name, I had written her mobile number.

I went back over to my bed and sat down on the edge, then picked up the phone and pressed the numbers.

It rang.

And it rang.

Then just about as I was ready to give up, it was answered.

'Hello. And do you know what bloody time it is?' Samantha said.

'Well, it's nice to hear your voice too, Sam,' I replied.

'Who is this?' she asked, suddenly coming alive.

'Sam, it's Tim. Remember me?'

'Shit yeah!' she replied. 'How are you? And how's that beautiful boy of yours?'

'We're both fine, thanks. How about you?'

'Never better, thanks. But I suppose you are looking for Ben, huh?'

'Is he there?'

'Yeah, he is actually. Just hang on a sec.'

There were some muffled sounds while I waited, then finally Ben came on the line, saying, 'So, you tracked me down, huh?'

'It was just a hunch,' I answered. 'Your mum misses you. She woke me up about half an hour ago wanting to know if I knew where you were.'

'Fuck,' he said quietly. 'You didn't tell her did you?'

'No, mate, I didn't. But she started asking about new girlfriends. Then old ones. Then she asked if I knew where Samantha lived.'

'What did you tell her?'

'Just that Sam went away to University at the start of the year. But I never said where.'

'Okay, thanks, mate.'

'You better get your ass back here, bud. Otherwise your folks will go ballistic.'

'They'll do that anyway.'

'True.'

'I suppose I'd better ring them, before they send out a search party or call the police or something.'

'Might be a good idea, mate.'

'Yeah.'

'So, how are you going to get home? And when are you coming home? And what's it like up there?' I asked, which only caused him to laugh.

'Okay, one at a time, eh? Bus. This afternoon. Fuckin' fantastic . . . well what I've seen so far.'

'Fair enough, mate. Look, I better get going. But will you ring your mother? Please? I don't want to slip up during my next interrogation and let slip that I know where you are.'

'Alright, mate. Will do.'

'Give Sam a hug for me.'

'No, bugger off. She only gets my hugs,' he answered, laughing.

We disconnected after that, and I breathed a little easier.

I can't believe that the rest of the year flew by so quickly after we had finished our mid-year exams.

We all got better results than any of us had expected. Even Ben. So we all had cause for celebration. In the aftermath of Ben's little trip away, which, for starters earned him a pretty serious grounding from his folks, there was little chance of actually doing any celebrating, so we decided that we would save it for when we would all head north for Schoolies, once our real exams were over and done with.

In the meantime, however, we still managed to do alright, given the circumstances, and partied as best we could.

A few months later, when it was all well and truly over, and we had walked out those gates for the last time, we vowed to make up for it on the Gold Coast in the coming weeks, with Ben promising us all that it would be a time that we would never forget.

He kept his promise.

One day, though, while starting to grow tired of the endless parties, Guy and I managed to slip away from our friends, and we found ourselves on a scenic drive along the coast, when we saw a sign that said the turnoff to Flynn's Beach was four hundred metres ahead.

'Check that one on the map, will you?' Guy asked, so I fished out the tourist map from the glove compartment and quickly found it.

'It's a nudist beach,' I said to him, which soon brought a smile to his face.

'You game?' he asked me.

'Shit. Are you?'

'I'll try anything once,' he answered.

'Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.'

Without any more words being spoken, he turned down that road and we soon found ourselves parked in a car park that had about a dozen cars in it.

'I'm not too sure about this, mate,' I said to him as we got out of the car.

'Come on,' he said. 'You only live once.'

Reluctantly I followed him away from the car, with both of us wearing only our board shorts, and with towels draped over our shoulders, and we took the path down to the beach, which meandered down the hill from the point, through some trees and scrub.

'Well, at least it's isolated,' Guy said.

'Yeah, I suppose that is something.'

When we emerged from the bushes we found ourselves on a sandy white beach, with the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean rolling in, and about twenty people, of all shapes, sizes and ages enjoying themselves.

'Like. Wow!' I said to Guy.

'Yeah, that's one way of describing it.'

A couple of guys about our age, both naked, walked past us, holding hands, and smiled and nodded.

We turned and watched as they disappeared into the bushes, while following the path back up to the car park.

'Well, what do you reckon?' Guy asked me.

'We're going to have to take it all off, you know?'

'No shit!'

'Okay, then. How about we strip off. Go for a swim, then come back here and just sit for a while?'

'Fine by me, mate,' Guy said, before then dropping his shorts and stepping out of them and his shoes.

'My turn now, huh?'

He just grinned at me.

I took a deep breath and did the same.

There was no clap of thunder. Nobody started laughing. Nothing happened.

'See? It wasn't that bad was it?' Guy asked.

'Come on, let's hit the water before something does happen.'

We found a spot for our towels and shorts and shoes, then headed down towards the water, basically staying clear of most of the other people for the time being, but still, we were on the beach, and we were naked and there were other people about.

Yeah. I'd say that was a major step forward for us both.

After a while we grew tired of swimming so we headed back up onto the beach and laid ourselves out on out towels for a while, until the sun had started to sink a little too low and we became covered in shadow.

'What do you reckon, mate?' Guy asked me as we pulled our shorts back on and started back up the hill. 'Will we come back?'

I looked at him and grinned and said, 'Shit yeah!'

When we got back to the unit that we were sharing with Ben and Samantha, we didn't tell our friends about our little discovery that afternoon, although Ben did ask us where we had gotten to.

'We just went for a drive,' I told him, and he never asked again. I could tell by the look on his face though that he thought he knew what we had been up to. I didn't disappoint him by telling him the truth.

The next day we did exactly the same thing, only this time I told Ben we were heading off for a drive.

'Find a nice spot then, did you?' he asked.

'Yeah, something like that,' I answered.

We spent about two hours on the beach this time, seemingly now free of the inhibitions that we had had the first time that we had come here. We were letting the constant din of alcohol-fuelled parties be replaced by the gentle roar of the ocean, which we found to be quite soothing.

And as strange as it seemed, considering that we were a couple of country kids a long way from home, and who had never even dreamed of doing anything like this before, we felt comfortable here. We no longer attracted the curious stares of the locals as we wandered hand in hand along their beach. We were now just another couple of tourists who had discovered what the locals had discovered years ago.

We swam for a while. We sunbathed for a while. Then we decided to go for a walk along the full length of the beach, which I found to be quite an eye opener.

When we were almost back to the point where we had started, just below the car park, Guy said to me, 'Hey, aren't they the two guys that we saw here yesterday?'

I looked up and noticed the two boys walking in our direction, holding my hand up to shade my eyes and study them a little better.

'Yeah,' I answered. 'It's a bit hard to mistake them isn't it?'

'Hmmmmm . . . especially the bigger one,' Guy answered, with a grin on his face from ear to ear, which soon earned him a belt up the side of the head for his troubles.

The four of us kept walking towards each other, all still holding hands with our partners and each pair following the border between where the smooth wet sand, that had waves washing over it endlessly, gave way to dry sand filled with dimples and foot prints. We were set for a collision course, sooner or later, and I noticed that they were talking between themselves, while every now and then they looked directly at us.

'I think they're wondering if they should stop us and say hi,' Guy whispered to me.

'Yeah, well, aren't we wondering the same thing?' I replied.

He just grinned at me.

'Do you think we should say g'day to them, then?' I asked.

'Sure. Why not?' he answered. 'They're heading in our direction after all.'

As they got closer to us, Guy and I stopped and looked out towards the sea, where a large oil tanker was anchored some way offshore, but every now and then we glanced up to see if the two boys were still coming. We gave them every chance to check us out and maybe stop if they wanted to.

A minute or two later we found out that was apparently just what they wanted to do.

'Hi,' one of them said as they stopped next to us. It was the shorter one of the two. Fairly cute, I thought, but nothing like the other guy, who was fucking hot.

'G'day,' I answered. 'Nice day for a walk.'

'Yeah. It sure is,' the taller guy said. 'Certainly feels a bit different doing it like this though!'

'Yeah. We know what you mean,' Guy answered. 'But it is fun though.'

'Yeah, it is. So, are you guys here for Schoolies too?' the shorter guy asked.

I nodded. 'Yeah, but we had to get away from our mates for a bit. Things back at our unit are a bit too full on for us!'

They both laughed, then the taller guy said, 'That sounds pretty familiar. Booze, bands and busty babes . . . that's all our mates seem to be after.'

I laughed. 'Sounds like you guys must be staying at the same place as us then.'

'Nah, I don't think so,' the taller one said. 'I think we'd have probably noticed you.'

We all just grinned at each other.

'I'm Tim, by the way,' I said, stretching out my hand towards them.

It was quickly taken by the shorter guy, who introduced himself as Luke, followed by his friend, whose name was Matt.

Guy introduced himself and shook their hands as well.

We stood there chatting for a little while, and found out that they were indeed a lot like us. A couple of guys who were from a small country town and who were deeply in love with each other.

It felt so good to see someone else like us. I think it gave us the confirmation that we longed for, letting us know that we weren't alone in this world and that it was alright to be who we were.

We also found out that they were staying at one of the motels just down the road from ours.

In the end we all knew that we had to get back to our friends, but for some reason I didn't want to let go of this pair. I wasn't sure why, but somehow I wanted to keep in touch with them, even if I didn't quite know how to bring it up. In the end it was Luke who saved the day.

'Ummm . . . we're having a bit of a barbeque with our friends at our motel tonight. Would you guys like to come along?'

I looked at Guy, but couldn't quiet read what it was he was thinking, so in the end I just said, 'We'd love to, thanks. But we'll just have to see what our friends have got planned for tonight first, though. We'll see how we go. Is that alright?'

'Yeah, of course. We hope you can make it, though.'

'Yeah, thanks. So do we,' I replied.

We said our goodbyes and we watched as they wandered back towards the path up to the car park on top of the point, still holding hands.

'What do you think?' I asked Guy.

'Nice guys,' he answered.

'I meant about tonight, dickhead!'

'Sounds good to me. I'm game if you are.'

'Yeah. I think it'll be good for us. I'm not sure exactly why, but I like these dudes, and I hope we can get to know them better.'

'Yeah. Me too.'

We started back up the hill ourselves then, heading towards the car park, and noticed Matt and Luke just leaving the car park as we got to the top of the hill.

'Wow. Nice car!' Guy said as we watched them drive past in a black Commodore sedan.

We all waved to each other and they disappeared into the bush as they followed the track back up to the main road. I was already starting to look forward to the evening ahead.

Who could say where this chance meeting may lead us!

~ The End ~

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Song for Guy

by Mark Peters

Chapter 19