The Peacock 14

 Carl draws a deep breath before he continues.  it is clear this is going to be difficult for him.  And we are all ears, fascinated, though we could well be watching an elephant give birth or a deer being swallowed by a python.  The cookies are great, chocolate chip, homemade.   I wonder whether they were made by brother or sister.  Carol and Aaron, are for some reason, exchanging meaningful glances.  Could this be the start of a geriatric flirtation?  But they aren't really that old, or don't seem it.  And I also think that Aaron could be gay, but it's so hard to tell now, and so many guys, even if they say they are straight, are still prone to experimenting with the right dude.  Which also leaves me wondering about Jesús, whom I often catch glancing my way, but it is really hard right now to start a conversation with him.  To be fair, I am not exactly myself a social butterfly, especially since coming out of palliative care work and support.  Father Griffin has been towards me a saint, his awful past notwithstanding, an absolute saint and angel.  Carl is ready to resume speaking...

"Melissa and I must have spent nearly two hours standing on the side of the highway with our thumbs out.  We finally got a lift, and that is when everything began to change.  He would have been a man in his early forties, and seemed very well-off.  I think he was a banking executive.  He was driving a late model Mercedes.  He of course wanted to know what two kids like us were doing wandering the highway during the small hours of the morning.  I simply explained that our dad had gone missing and the phones weren't working and we had to get help.  That was when he offered to put us up in his house for the night, or even for a few days if we needed.  To our surprise, we both accepted.  

He lived in a large house and Melissa and I each had our own bedroom.  The next morning after breakfast, he took me aside to talk a bit with me.  Basically, he offered us both, not only lodgings, but all the pocket money we both needed in exchange for sex with me.  Again I accepted.  I was already no stranger to the sex trade since, for the last couple of years I was hooking on the sly in Amsterdam, partly as a rite of passage, partly from boredom, but also because it seemed like a very interesting way to meet men.  The money was great too, since I was also using a lot of drugs at the time.  I suppose this guy could read me quite well, which is why he asked.

But then he wanted to farm me out to some of his friends, one of whom was expressing interest in my sister.  It was then that I knew it was time to bail.  When our host was away from work, after a month of this, Melissa and I packed our things.  I had also conveniently lifted some cash from his wallet.  We were on the first bus to Vancouver, where we found a hotel, and then went straight to the Dutch consulate office in order to track down our mother, who  was away on a retreat in Switzerland....Within a week, we were on a plane back to the Netherlands...