Thanksgiving

Tuesday was the day for Olney to go to the doctor to see if he could get help with his impotence problem. Neither Jeff Johnson nor Olney Jefferson could sleep so they went down to the kitchen early to see what they would have for breakfast. The maid had arrived with donuts. While they sat at the kitchen table eating, Olney’s mother came in. "You two are up early."

Olney replied, "We had a lot of fun yesterday. I taught Jeff how to surf. Today we may go back out surfing if there are waves, but we’d also like to go shopping and maybe go out in the boat. I’d like to teach Jeff how to water ski."

They left early and drove down to the complex where the doctor’s office was located. They parked in back next to the garbage containers and went into the building via a back door. They watched television in the waiting room while they were waiting for the doctor. Olney was the first person called. Jeff wanted to go with him into the examining room, but the nurse asked him to wait in the waiting room. She took Olney into the inner office and closed the door.

The nurse showed Jeff into an examination room where Olney was sitting on an examining table in a paper gown balanced on his one glute, propped up by his right arm. The nurse left them alone. Olney told Jeff what was happening. "The doctor has given me a pill that might make me hard. He wants you here with me to help me cum if I can."

"Look." Olney pulled up his gown showing him his dick. It was larger than Jeff had ever seen it. Jeff stroked him and could feel him getting hard. Olney held out a plastic bottle in his left hand. "The doctor wants me to capture my jism in this jar."

"I can feel you getting hard." Jeff went over to the counter next to the sink and found a tube of lubricant. He put it on his hands and began stroking Olney vigorously. "You’re really hard. It’s gynormous!"

As Jeff stroked him, Olney began making small noises: "Nuh. Nuh. Neh. Neh. Nuh. Nuh." Almost immediately he erupted, shooting every which way. Olney managed to catch most of it in the jar but some went on Jeff, some on the examining table and some on the floor.

"Wow! You erupted like a volcano. You must have been saving that up for a long time."

"Yeah." Jeff cleaned up the mess as well as he could with tissues and washed his hands. "Now what do we do?"

"I guess you give this to the nurse." Olney handed the jar to Jeff and Jeff gave him some tissues. While Jeff took the bottle out to the nurse, Olney used the tissues in his left hand to clean himself up.

When Jeff came back in the room, Olney was excited, smiling, "Look what I can do!" He showed Jeff that he could flip his dick back and forth using his muscles.

"That’s great, Olney." Jeff remembered what Jimmy said about the way he used his stub with girls. He wondered what Olney would prefer to do with his dick now that it could be hard. "You’re still hard. Being able to move it means you have another leg. I’ll bet you could use it to walk. I wonder if you would have an orgasm every time you took a step with it. Step. Step. Spooge. Step. Step. Spooge." Olney grinned.

"Let me clean you up some more." Jeff got paper towels and washed and wiped the lubricant off Olney. When he was done, he stroked Olney enjoying the feel of his rod.

Just then, the doctor came back into the examining room. Olney tried pulling away from Jeff, but Jeff held onto him.

"Well, Jeff, how would you judge the quality of Olney’s erection ... say on a scale from one to ten?"

"If ten is the best, I would say this is a twelve." Both Olney and the doctor chuckled.

"Great. Why don’t you go back out to the waiting room while we finish up here?"

Jeff went back out to the waiting room. Several minutes later Olney joined him, showing him a small plastic vial with a few pills in it and a sheet of paper. "He gave me these for free, but I have to get this prescription filled." Olney went to the office window and paid for the doctor’s visit with cash.

After leaving the doctor’s office, they went directly to a pharmacy to get Olney’s prescription filled. While they were waiting, Jeff selected a greeting card for Mrs. Jefferson that thanked her for her hospitality. He also picked up some candy in a fancy box to go with the card. He found lubricant, some condoms and medical gloves. He took all five items to the checkout counter where Olney smiled at what he was buying but seemed puzzled by the gloves.

When they got home, Olney wanted to fool around with Jeff. "How about spending some time with me in my whirlpool tub?"

"Sure." Jeff went to the guest bedroom, undressed, wrapped a towel around himself and took the lubricant, gloves and condoms to Olney’s room. When he closed the door to Olney’s bedroom, he locked it. Almost immediately there was knocking on the door and the maid was saying something in Spanish. Jeff opened the door. "Come in." The maid walked into Olney’s bedroom, looked around and then walked back out. Olney shrugged. Jeff closed and locked the bedroom door again. Olney put some music on his stereo and they went into the bathroom. There were speakers in the bathroom. Jeff closed and locked the bathroom door.

They spent a couple of hours in the whirlpool spa playing around with one another. Jeff was so nervous he could barely speak. Olney enjoyed that. Olney gradually lost the ability to get hard leading Jeff to ask him if he could probe him with a gloved finger.

Jeff replied that he thought it might help. They argued about it for a while and finally Olney gave in. Jeff inserted his finger and felt around inside for Olney’s bulge. He found it and rubbed it from the inside and also from the outside. Olney became hard again so Jeff asked him if he could use another part.

"Well, OK, I guess." This time, as they made love, Olney tried talking with Jeff and Jeff tried to reply but his verbal tic took over and he made small barking sounds, "Urk. Urk. Urk. ..."

Olney immediately spasmed. The verbal tic turned him on as nothing else ever had. Olney’s spasm seemed to go on and on and on, exciting Jeff to orgasm, too. The simultaneous orgasms seemed to last forever.

When Jeff recovered, he put his hand in his mouth trying to stop the tic. He felt humiliated.

Olney saw the look of fear and shame in Jeff’s eyes and didn’t say anything. Slowly the barking sounds faded. Jeff slipped out of Olney.

They cleaned up, showered together and dressed. Olney suggested they go down to the circle. "I’ll buy you a late lunch as a thank you for your help this morning and also in appreciation for helping me see my whirlpool bathtub in a whole new light."

The traffic on the circle was extremely heavy. They parked and walked to the restaurant, Olney strutting along with a macho swagger that reminded Jeff of Jimmy’s swagger coming back from his successful ascent of the climbing wall.

They ate lunch and discussed what they should do that afternoon. Olney wanted another session in the whirlpool bathtub. He was as excited as a small child with a new toy.

Jeff wanted a rest. "No. I think we need to recharge. I think we need to wait until later tonight. Let’s go out on the boat now – maybe do some water skiing. What do you say?"

That afternoon they started out just cruising around. As Olney drove the boat he explained the rules to Jeff. Then Jeff drove the boat with Olney watching over his shoulder, pointing out sandbars, buoys and channel markers. Eventually they drove out into the gulf and did some water skiing. Even though it was difficult, Jeff found it to be easier than surfing. When the waves picked up in the late afternoon, they returned to the house.

When they got home, they were tired and sore, so they took naps separately in their rooms. Jeff found that the maid had cleaned his room while they were gone.

Later that afternoon, the maid was cooking dinner and Jeff awoke when he smelled it. Jeff knocked on Olney’s door, but he was still asleep. He went down to the kitchen where the maid was preparing the kitchen table for dinner. He found Mrs. Jefferson there.

"Yes. We went shopping this morning and had lunch on the circle. In the afternoon, we took the boat out. Olney taught me how to operate it. He taught me how to water ski. When the waves picked up, we came back and took a nap."

"We’ll be ready for dinner in a few minutes. Would you, please, go back upstairs and wake Olney for dinner?"

Jeff went up to Olney’s bedroom and woke him using his special technique. They arrived in the kitchen just in time for dinner to be served. Mrs. Jefferson told them she had picked up some movies from the rental place. She suggested they watch a movie that evening. They agreed.

After dinner, they went into the great room and watched two movies. One was a comedy and the other was a thriller. Both Olney and Jeff enjoyed them even though they wanted to be doing something else. After watching the movies, they went to Olney’s bedroom and played video games. Olney wanted to play another kind of game with Jeff but Jeff asked him to hold off until late at night.

They agreed to meet in Olney’s bedroom at 4:00AM. Jeff went back to his bedroom to sleep alone.

At 4:00AM, Jeff wrapped a towel around himself and went to Olney’s bedroom. Out on the balcony, the beauty of the scene through the high windows struck him: the waning moon was up and the moon and the lights of Sarasota were particularly beautiful. Jeff knocked on Olney’s door; Olney opened it, grabbed him and pulled him inside.

"No. I was waiting for you." Olney went in the bathroom with his bottle of pills. When he came out, he was carrying the condoms, lubricant and box of gloves.

"Let’s go out on the balcony while we’re waiting. The moon is up and it is really pretty out there."

Olney put on a silk pajama top that was short enough to let his dick show as it hung down. Olney put his right arm around Jeff as he walked Olney out onto the balcony. Olney’s bedroom lights were reflecting in the high windows so Jeff turned and closed the door to the bedroom. It was dark in the great room, the only light coming from the moon and the lights across the water. When Olney reached the balcony railing, he squatted down on his one leg and took Jeff’s tool in his mouth. Because Olney hadn’t done this before, he was not doing a very good job. Jeff looked down and saw Olney’s dick flick back and forth. It almost touched the floor.

Jeff grabbed Olney’s huge hose and began stroking it. It was getting harder. "I think you’re almost ready. Let’s go back in." Olney opened the door to his bedroom and light flooded out. Jeff turned, and as he turned, he thought he saw someone in the great room. Olney’s mother? He couldn’t be sure. Jeff walked Olney into his bedroom and they closed the door.

Olney wanted to reproduce what had happened in the whirlpool. They managed to do that and when they were done, they agreed that this was their best experience so far. Jeff, though, had a disappointment: Olney would not be affectionate with him. Olney never hugged or kissed him and did not want to be kissed. Jeff was hurt by that and learned that sex can be lonely sometimes.

In the morning, as Jeff was combing his hair before going downstairs, he heard voices. The guest bedroom door was open a crack so he went to it to listen. He heard Olney’s mother talking. She sounded angry. Through some trick of the acoustics, he could hear her clearly. "Olney, what is wrong with you? I’m very angry with you. I saw what you did last night. It’s depraved. How could you do that? It’s sinful and disgusting. I raised you better than that."

Olney tried saying something. She cut him off. "Jeff is not a proper friend for you. Maybe he led you astray. How could you let him corrupt you? How could you bring that worthless trailer trash into our home? – into our home! – to do that!? I want him out of here now. Take him to the airport."

Olney tried to reply but his mother cut him off. "Get him packed. I want him out of here now."

Jeff was in shock. He could hardly breathe. As he listened at the crack in the door, he heard the elevator descend to the great room.

Jeff stood at the door for a minute, unable to move and then began putting his stuff into his backpack. He finished just as Olney arrived at the door to the guest bedroom. "You have to leave." Jeff nodded and followed Olney down the sweeping staircase. Olney opened the door to the stairs down to the garage but Jeff turned and went into the kitchen. Mrs. Jefferson was looking out of the kitchen window. She looked toward Jeff as he entered. Jeff went over to the kitchen trash container, pressed the pedal with his foot, took the "Thank you for your hospitality." card and the candy in the fancy box and threw them into the container. Then he turned and, without a word, walked out of the kitchen and down the stairs to the garage.

They rode to the airport in Olney’s red SUV in total silence. At the airport Olney parked the SUV and took Jeff into the airport terminal to help him get the ticket changed.

At security, Olney said, "I’ll see you back at school." Jeff turned away without a word.

Jeff arrived back at State University in the late afternoon. So few people were on campus, it looked abandoned. He was still in shock as he trudged across campus. When he entered the quad, the door to the A bedroom opened and Eddie crutched out. "Jeff, you’re back early."

Eddie followed him into his room. "Do you want to go over to the snack bar in the student union to get something to eat?"

They walked over mostly in silence. Eddie did all of the talking. At the snack bar, they sat at a table and Eddie chattered away, trying to make conversation.

Jeff either didn’t reply or gave one-word answers to Eddie’s questions. Eddie couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so he began probing.

Eddie didn’t know what to say; he just stared at Jeff. They returned back to their quad, Eddie going into his bedroom and Jeff going into his.

Jeff got ready for bed. He was still numb from his experience but he couldn’t sleep. He started to cry.

He stuffed a corner of his pillow in his mouth to muffle the sound but it didn’t help. He couldn’t stop. In fact, the crying was getting louder and louder. Because he thought that Eddie might hear, he got up, dressed and left the quad. He didn’t have anywhere to go so he just wandered around campus in the dark waiting to calm down.

After walking aimlessly for a while Jeff had calmed down enough to go to Jimmy’s room to see if he was still on campus. When Jeff got there and knocked on the door, he heard voices. Tommy opened the door and Jeff saw Jimmy behind him in the room. They were pretty much undressed.

After wandering some more, he found himself near the AC. The Secret Garden where he had found Billy was nearby. He went into the garden and sat down on a bench and sobbed. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t stop – why his sobbing was getting louder.

He tried to gain control by putting his hand in his mouth and suddenly had a flashback to the times when he would hide from his father. He would crouch in his closet behind a large box, stuff his hand in his mouth and try to stop crying so that his father could not find him. Just as when he was a small child, he sat in The Secret Garden, hand in his mouth trying to muffle the sound. It didn’t help. The crying got louder.

While he sat there "crying at the top of my voice", as the song said, he realized he was sobbing so loudly that he could hear echoes. That phrase, "crying at the top of my voice", was from the first part of the song In Too Deep, by Genesis, where the singer wonders what he could make of his life, asking questions and not finding answers. To Jeff, it was the perfect expression of how he felt.

Jeff’s questions were the same as they always had been: "Why is my life one disaster after another? Why doesn’t anything good ever happen to me?"

He sat there for a long time in the dark thinking about the song and crying. Slowly he began to understand. He was crying over the Jeff that could have been, that should have been, that would have been, had his life not been a series of disasters.

Jeff realized that the disasters in his life had nearly destroyed him as a person just as Kevin’s accident nearly destroyed him as a person.

What was worse, Jeff realized that no one except his grandmother really loved him. Jeff knew that had he been the one in The Tank needing help, Olney would not have saved him. No one would have saved him. He wasn’t even sure he would have saved himself – worthless trailer trash.

After a while, Jeff heard someone approach. He had pretty well stopped crying but his face was messy. He tried wiping his face on his sleeve so that the person would not see that he had been crying.

Jeff shook his head. He started hiccuping. Between the crying, the hiccups and his stutter, Jeff couldn’t say much. Finally "The LAKinator" sat down, put his arm around Jeff and just hugged him. Jeff leaned against his massive shoulder and accidentally bumped the end of his stump.

Jeff scooted over on the bench and "The LAKinator" hopped around him and sat so that his stump was not between them. They sat there for a long time with Jeff crying and hiccuping while "The LAKinator" hugged him. Gradually Jeff quieted down.

"The LAKinator" reached into one of the panniers on his bike to take out a pad of paper and some tissues. He gave Jeff the tissues to clean himself up. Then he said, "What are you doing here in The Secret Garden?" and handed the pad of paper to Jeff.

Jeff wrote, I couldn’t stop crying, so I came here because I feel safe here. Why are you here?

"We are all looking for you. Tommy and Jimmy said you looked upset. All three of us have been riding around on our bikes looking for you everywhere. May I call them and tell them I found you?"

Using his cell phone, "The LAKinator" made the call. "I found him. We’re in The Secret Garden. We’ll wait for you."

They sat on the bench quietly. Jeff still couldn’t speak. He was ashamed he had been crying. He didn’t want Jimmy and Tommy to see him that way.

Several minutes later, Jimmy and Tommy rode up on their bicycles. "The LAKinator" was holding Jeff. The crying and hiccups had almost stopped.

"Look. Our group is more than just the group that goes biking. There are a bunch of us. It’s a club – a social club – sort of like a fraternity. Guys like you have always been important members of our little amputee community. You are rare and special."

From the look on his face, Jimmy could see that Jeff wasn’t getting it. "I don’t know how to explain this. Maybe I can show you. Stand up."

Jeff looked around unsure what to do. "The LAKinator" stood up and took Jeff’s hand. Jeff stood up. Jimmy and Tommy hopped over to them. "The LAKinator", Jimmy and Tommy joined hands in a circle around Jeff. Jimmy said, "Jeff, you need to understand: you are rare and very special to us. We knew you were in trouble. That’s why we came looking for you. We care about you and don’t want to lose you." They closed arms in a circle around him and hugged him. "Come home; come home with us."

Jeff finally understood that he wasn’t alone; these friends were his "insurance" – they were his "Plan B."

They walked with Jeff back toward the residence halls. Jimmy didn’t want to leave Jeff out of his sight, so he invited Jeff to stay with him overnight. Jeff agreed. Before they split up, "The LAKinator" asked Jeff what he was doing for Thanksgiving dinner. Jeff said he didn’t have any plans, although his amputee quadmate, Eddie, might be expecting them to go to dinner together.

"Why don’t the both of you join us for the special Thanksgiving dinner in the student union tomorrow? State University makes a special dinner. I think you’ll enjoy it."

Jeff stayed with Jimmy that night. Jimmy held him until he fell asleep. Both of them enjoyed the closeness.

The next morning, using his bicycle, Jimmy walked with Jeff to his room. They knocked on the door of the A bedroom.

"I stayed with Jimmy last night. Eddie, this is Jimmy Klosters. Jimmy, this is Eddie Johannescu."

"Eddie, Jimmy here is a member of a group that will be going to the union for the special Thanksgiving dinner today. They have invited us to eat with them. Do you want to go?"

"OK. I’ll get ready, too." Eddie went back into his room. Jeff got a towel and went into the bathroom.

While he waited, Jimmy sat at the large round table in the quad’s lounge and looked at some sports magazines. Eddie came out and joined him. Jimmy had noticed that Eddie had only one leg and he now noticed the brace. "I was born with only one long leg. My left leg is just a stub leg. What happened to you?"

"Oh, I didn’t call him that; Jeff did – and he didn’t stutter when he said it either."

"When he and my mom brought me here last August. Jeff was very nice to me. He helped me a lot. He’s a great guy – and he’s right about my dad."

"Eddie was just saying what a great guy you are. I was about to agree with him: I think you’re a great guy, too."

Jeff felt uncomfortable with the praise so he went into his bedroom to get dressed. He left his door open so he could hear the conversation.

After a few moments of silence, Eddie asked Jimmy, "Why are you here for Thanksgiving rather than at home?"

"Our group has a reunion of sorts here at State University on Thanksgiving Day and this year I’m going to a wedding on Saturday, too. So I thought I’d stay here instead of going home. Besides, my parents and I don’t agree on how I should handle my stub."

"My parents were disappointed I couldn’t walk better. What I can’t understand is how other people think they are a bigger expert on your disability than you are. It makes no sense to me. Before the accident, my right leg was totally paralyzed. My mom and dad tried to make rules about how I should use it so I would be more normal. They couldn’t understand that it was practically useless. When I lost it in the accident they were upset. Now I’m even less normal."

"I think I understand. They tried to make you ashamed of your leg and change it into a stigma that had to be hidden. My parents tried to do the same thing with my stub. I keep trying to tell them there is nothing wrong with me but they can’t see that.

"See, here’s how the world thinks: you’re different in some way. That means you’re not normal. So, there is something wrong with you. Whatever is wrong with you is automatically bad. They want you to be ashamed of it. That makes it a stigma that you have to hide. So, they make up rules about how you should present yourself to hide your difference.

"People see your difference and put you into a group and judge you by your membership in that group. That’s prejudice. Then they justify treating you badly by saying there is something wrong with you – that your difference is bad. Believe it or not, the whole purpose of all of this is to avoid embarrassment both for you and the people around you by hiding what makes you different.

"But, it doesn’t work that way: instead of minimizing embarrassment, the net effect is to diminish you as a person and impoverish the people around you."

"Exactly. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t acknowledge, don’t notice, try to fit in, pretend, act normal."

At this point in the discussion, Jeff joined them in the lounge. "I have a question. What does ‘normal’ mean?"

Jimmy replied. "It means standard or typical. Mathematically, there is the normal distribution." Jimmy took a pen from his pocket and drew the normal distribution on a page of a magazine. "Here, normal or norm means average." Jimmy tapped his pen on the highest point of the curve.

Eddie understood. "Don’t wish to be normal, wish to be great! Josh says that all the time."

"Great. You two might want to join our group. Check us out today during the special Thanksgiving dinner and see if you might want to be part of The Group."

Jeff, Eddie and Jimmy walked together over to the union. Eddie was surprised to see Jimmy use his bike as a left leg. When he wasn’t using his bike, he put his hand on Jeff’s shoulder.

They arrived at the union a little before noon. Tommy and "The LAKinator" were waiting outside the doors to the ballroom where the dinner would be held. Tommy was wearing his prosthesis and "The LAKinator" was using forearm crutches. Jimmy introduced Eddie to them. Promptly at noon, the doors opened and they went in. "The LAKinator" directed them to a large table in a corner near the windows. "I think this table will be large enough for all of us."

The dinner was a typical Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, potatoes, dressing, cranberry sauce and all the trimmings served buffet style.

Jeff went to one of the student workers and asked if he could borrow a tray to bring drinks to the table. He brought water for everyone and a few cups of coffee. Then he went back for several cups of mulligatawny soup. Jeff sat between Eddie and Jimmy at the table. It turned out that Jimmy was able to get his food so long as he was able to put his hand on Jeff’s shoulder to walk. Eddie also was able to get his food by himself if he used the tray. The tray proved very helpful to everyone.

More people began arriving. "The LAKinator" introduced everyone to the new arrivals. One of them was an LAK woman, Tammy, on underarm crutches and her intended Frank. They were going to be married Saturday at a church near campus. A male couple in their late 20’s also arrived, Steve Adams and Kevin Washington. "The LAKinator" introduced them as the founders of The Group. Steve was a very muscular guy and Kevin was an LAK amp using a prosthetic leg.

The Group ate slowly and there was a lot of talk. Steve and Kevin explained how they founded The Group after Kevin had been bashed during his first year at State University. Jeff enjoyed hearing the story with all the details and especially enjoyed hearing about Steve’s courage and about "The Kiss." That part of the story caused a lot of hooting and hollering. The group began chanting, "Kiss. Kiss. Kiss...." until Kevin grabbed Steve and kissed him on the lips. That was followed by a lot of cheering and other couples kissing.

Just then, an older woman came over to their table and told the group in a very haughty voice, "I think you all are disgusting."

Steve replied, "So we don’t care what you think – and you need to learn some manners."

"The LAKinator" stood up and crutched around to the woman. She could see his scarred stump sticking out to the side. Twitching with indignation, she said, "That looks disgusting. Speaking of manners, you should be decent enough to cover it up." When she said disgusting, she practically spat.

"It’s not disgusting. It’s the way God wants me to be. Now, go away and leave us alone."

Shaking his head, Kevin said, "There’s always somebody trying to make up rules for other people." The group laughed.

A little while later, a policeman arrived. He came over to their table. Steve and Kevin stood up and greeted him warmly. They introduced him to the group. "Hey everybody, this is Captain Jerry Buchanan."

Jeff thought he might be responding to a call from the disgusting woman but apparently he just came to visit with The Group. As he left, the disgusting woman went up to him and began speaking to him and gesticulating toward them. As he turned to leave, he said loud enough for them to hear: "They’re not bothering anyone. You are. You should mind your own business."

After the pie and ice cream, "The LAKinator" stood up and tapped his glass. The group quieted down and he said, "It is the tradition of The Group that at each meeting we show our appreciation to Steve and the people like Steve. It is especially fitting that we give thanks for them on this day, Thanksgiving Day." Tommy, Jimmy and the other amputees stood up and joined hands around the table.

Jimmy said to Eddie, "Please stand up." Eddie pulled himself to his foot using his crutches. When he was stable, Jimmy took one hand and Kevin took the other.

Jeff started to stand up, too, but Jimmy said, "As a person like Steve, you should remain seated." Jeff noticed that Steve stayed seated and so did Frank along with two other men.

"The LAKinator" took a card out of his pocket and began reading: "Almighty God, we give thanks on this day – especially on this day – for all of your creation. We thank you for sending us new people like Steve every year to form the core of The Group. We know they would never come to us were it not for the intense desire for us you implant in their hearts. We thank you for that. We also thank you for their courage and their love. Guide us, as we love them in return. Amen."

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