Camp Echo - Chapter 1 (part one)

Boys and girls come out to play, 

The moon does shine as bright as day; 

Come with a hoop, and come with a call, 

Come with a good will or not at all. 

Loose your supper, and loose your sleep, 

Come to your playfellows in the street.

 

When you go to camp echo your goals are high, it’s the most beautiful place on earth. One big family, you never want to leave, it’s a magic place, you’ll make memories and bonds that will last a lifetime. If only they aren’t broken like crushed dreams that evaporate in the air, disappear, and leave no trace, only dried up tears. 

 

 

second edition

 

Quite how Max became friends with Geoffrey is a mystery, but he was the person whom he often turned to for reasons unknown, he had become Max's confidant.

“It was a shed. Well, you know, not an actual shed. I mean it was a railway building. Used to be a shed.” Max was explaining to Geoffrey.

“Used to be?” Geoffrey questioned.

“Yeah. It was next to the railway.”

“Oh. You don’t know where?” Geoffrey frowned..

“Well, I guess.”

“Never mind. I’m listening.”

“Aeriol took us.”

“Aeriol always takes you darling. I know, believe me.”

 

Geoffrey knew Aeriol probably as well as he knew Max. Each of them had in some way settled into their own roles, something which left Max in a sort of relationship, living with Aeriol, and Geoffrey like some independent guru recluse in his own bedsit.

That, of course, is a massive over simplification, and it was nothing like that.

 

“Me and Jules. We were meeting up with Reuben and his boyfriend. That's pronounced Ru-ven.” Max continued his explanation.

“And?”

“So, yeah. We go upstairs and there’s rows of benches. Screen in front. We were just in time. It was about to start.”

“The film?”

“Of course, what else?”

Geoffrey raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“It was one of those gay art films. I don’t remember the name.”

“Reuben. You were telling me about him," Geoffrey prompted.

“I squeezed in along the bench next to Reuben. Kevin was the other side.”

“His boyfriend?”

“Yeah. Nice guy. So... Aeriol is next to me and Jules at the end. We had to squeeze up. The lights dim. Reuben didn’t say anything. Then the palm of his hand is on my leg. On my thigh. And I’m like, instantly hard!”

“I suppose you would be, darling.” Geoffrey now had a broad grin across his face.

“Geof...frey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Now if I have to spell it out.”

“I was surprised. It was so unexpected.” Max's attention drifted to his surrounds. His eyes wandered around the room, straining at the details in the dim light.

“I’m sure it was." Geoffrey's voice curtailed his vacuous idyll. "Do you always get hard when you’re surprised?”

“Cut it out. You wanna hear this or not?” Max was in defensive mode.

“Oh well, now you’ve got me interested. Reuben, that would be Jewish?”

“Yeah, it is. So what?”

“Does he have a large nose?”

“Meaning?”

“Well my dear. You do know about men with... um, large proboscis?”

“No, no, no. Nobody believes that stuff. It’s like from Hello Magazine or National Enquirer.”

“If you say so.” Geoffrey adopted that stance of his, where he conceeded the point as if it had no value whatsoever. It was a mild, not quite worthless, observation.

“It wouldn’t matter anyway.”

Geoffrey raised his eyebrows again, and gave a little flick of the head. It was his silent I don’t believe you, response.

“He doesn’t do that.” Max knew how Geoffrey's mind was in the gutter, he knew exactly where this conversation was going.

“Uh ha!”

“Geoffrey... he doesn’t fuck!”

“Oooh! Another bottom.” Geoffrey quipped.

“No. Not another bottom. You’re making me jump ahead.”

“Mmm, well I’m sorry, but Jewish and a large honker!”

“He does NOT have a big nose. And I don’t believe that crap anyway. He has black hair and dark skin. He’s actually pretty good looking. And very sexy!” Geoffrey was irritating and Max always got drawn in.

“I think you mean sallow skin. Mediterranean.”

“Whatever. Shall I stop?”

“No, no. Mother wants to know all. You were getting hard. Nothing new there.”

Max ignored the last comment, although he briefly wondered. 

“After, we went back to Reuben’s place. Aeriol, Jules, and Reuben were talking about the film. I never paid it much attention.”

“No you wouldn’t have. You had other things on your mind.”

“You make it sound like I jump into bed with every new guy I meet.”

“I do? ”

Max ignored the insinuation.

“So I’m talking to Kevin. He’s an interesting guy. He had just come back from Japan. I mean, can you believe that? Japan!”

“I can believe anything. Suddenly you seem more interested in Kevin than Reuben.” Geoffrey knew how to play Max.

“Just not interested in that arty film. Kevin is definitely into one to one relationships. I got the idea all was not well between them.”

“So that’s what you were doing. I just knew it.” Geoffrey sort of huffed and raised his shoulders. “You were testing the water.”

“No, it wasn’t like that at all.”

 

Max looked around the little room again. If he reflected on Geoffrey's situation, mirrored by where he lived, it didn't seem so great. Still the guy was an excellent listener, despite his airs and graces, and Max liked being able to talk to him. He thought his time spent with Geoffrey would cost him a fortune on the couch of a professional, without ever being so entertaining. Even if Geoffrey annoyed and irritated him, he was amusing. Max smiled to himself.

 

“This Reuben guy. How old is he?” Geoffrey asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t go round asking everyone's age.”

“He’s older then?”

“Yeah. He’s older. Maybe twenty-six, or twenty-eight, or something. But anyway, we didn’t have that much time cos Aeriol wanted to get back.”

“That’s it then?”

“No. I arranged to come over and see Reuben. Next Friday.”

“That would be a day that Aeriol is busy, and Reuben's boyfriend won’t be there.”

The thought crossed Max's mind that Geoffrey was good at this. He was very astute.

“Not at all! As it happens yes. But Aeriol and I have an open relationship.”

“Is that what you call it? I thought he clicked his fingers and you jumped. And he does have a big honker!”

“You're, a size queen.”

“You don’t deny it?” Geoffrey ignored the comment.

“What that Aeriol is a big prick, or that he’s busy on Friday?”

“If you talked back to Aeriol like that. Well, I simply can’t imagine what would happen.”

“Oh, I’m sure you could. You know him quite well.”

Max was holding his own and giving Geoffrey as good as he got.

“And so. You’re off to see Reuben.”

“This was last week. I went to see Reuben already.”

“Oooh, you’ve picked up the Jewish parlance.”

“Shut up.”

“What happened?”

“He explained that he didn’t do anal.”

“And you were so looking forward to it.”

 

The banter was going back and forth like the climax to a tennis match.

“Fuck you, Geoffrey!”

“No, Max. Fuck... YOU.”

"New balls!" The empire would have shouted, if he had been there.

“There was this other young guy when I arrived.”

“And, he was whom?”

“Davy. He was youngish.”

“Yeah, you said. I’ve got it. Davy was a few years your junior. Which makes him what? Sixteen?”

“I don’t know. He looked young, but...”

“I know,” Geoffrey interrupted smiling broadly. “You don’t ask their age.”

“Well Davy left, but they arranged to meet up.” Max smiled sarcastically.

“I assume Davy was not his son then?”

“Nah. Of course not. But as it happens, Reuben is married. They’re separated.”

“Well, no surprise there," Geoffrey told him.

“You have an acerbic commentary every time.”

“Big word, Max. No doubt it comes with experience.”

The ball was whacked into Max's court.

“It could be why Kevin and Reuben are splitting up. His wife lives in America, and Reuben wants to move back there,”

“You lost on all counts. Except the split with Kevin.”

“I did not go there as a pick up.”

“Of course you didn't. But, well, long distant relationships never work, and definitely not when the other guy is married.”

“You think you know it all. He’s not going back to America yet. It’s a plan. And he’s not going to join his wife. He can live there, and he prefers that country. He’s got a green card. He can find a job and, well that’s the plan.”

Like usual, Max was losing the game.

“And poor Kevin?”

“Well Reuben is like Aeriol. He’s not into monogamy.”

“I’m glad you qualified that. Because he does sound very similar to Aeriol.”

“Kevin is going back to Japan. He has a job there. He came back to see where their relationship was. Before he made up his mind about Japan.”

“And you and Reuben?”

“There is no me and Reuben. But it’s odd.”

“How so?”

“I like him. Even if he isn’t into sex. Well some sex. And that Davy. I wonder what they do?”

The odd truth about Geoffrey and Max, was that Geoffrey could see more clearly what Max was doing, than he could himself. 

“Don’t tell me you’re jealous of a man and boy who don’t even have sex. And all this comes from a hard on at some art cinema.”

“You make it sound sordid. And you make me... I don’t know.”

“Look. Forget it Max. Whatever they do. Whatever the relationship. Forget it.”

“I can’t.”

Game, set, and match. Max admitted to Geoffrey a fascination with this boy Davy, a stranger he glimpsed when he went round to see Reuben. Geoffrey's advice might prove to be well founded, but Max would never follow it.