This is the continued story of Simon’s Journal.
Before you begin this third volume in this series,
I would highly recommend that you read the first and second volumes
as each picks up were the previous left off.
Simon’s Journal -
Volume I
Thirteen Days – The First Crusade
Thirteen
Nights – After the Crusade
ADMONITION:
The
following narrative is nearly a complete work of fiction. Some events and
characters were pulled from real life but have been changed, enhanced and
twisted to comply with my will. Any other similarity to actual individuals
living or dead is completely unintentional, but it would be incredible!
WARNING:
The
following story contains diaper use, violence, adult language and strong sexual
content. If reading a coming of age story about boys wearing diapers and
exploring their awakening sexuality doesn’t tickle your pickle, or if pickle
tickling is illegal in your area, then I suggest you select something else to
read.
Simon's Journal
Volume III
Thirteen
Sails
Adventures Abound
Written by Danny
And
a friend will not say never
I have no idea if Pinky’s is a national
restaurant chain or not but I do know that they are all over the eastern US. If
you don’t know what Pinky’s is, it’s a 60’s style restaurant with burgers the
size of a small child’s fist. They have a nickname too, most people call them gas
burgers and you can guess why. There are two kinds of people, those that like Pinky’s,
and those that utterly despise Pinky’s; it is that black and white with no grey
at all.
Mr. and Mrs. Otteranski wanted to take my
parents out for dinner and you can bet that BJ and I begged to go too when we
heard they were going to Pinky’s. Aside from having some of the most awesome
food that isn’t good for you, they also have the best gourmet ice-cream in the
entire world not to mention the coolest kinds of games. I am wicked good at
this one game called ‘Romper Stomper’ and except for the first time I played it
when I was six, I have never been beat.
Before we could leave, BJ and I were sent to
go ask Tom if he wanted to join us. I don’t know why they didn’t just call him.
Maybe my parents and BJ’s parents wanted a few minutes alone to talk. BJ and I
agreed that they were probably talking about me.
Unfortunately, when we got to Tom’s camp site
he wasn’t there. We called for him and looked all over the place but he just
wasn’t anywhere around.
“Come on, he is probably out looking for pine
cones to wipe himself with!” BJ said.
Instinctively I reached around with both
hands and clutched at my bottom, “Ouch! Now that has got to hurt!”
For the second time today BJ surprised me, BJ
took off running toward the beach house with me running after him and steadily
loosing ground. BJ reached the front porch a good 45 seconds ahead of me.
“You ran faster than that today when Tom was
chasing after you.” BJ said laughing and gasping for air.
“Well I was running for my life then!” I said
jumping into the car ahead of BJ, “If you had someone stuff a fish down your
pants and then chase after you, you would be breaking the sound barrier too.”
“A fish?” Mom asked with a chuckle.
Boy, Pinky’s was screaming busy. There were
probably 50 or more kids there of all ages and you can figure for each kid
there was at least one and in most cases two parents. That should give you an
idea how popular Pinky’s is. Our parents were off in some booth yapping it up
while BJ and I were tearing up every one of the games. He and I had played
‘Romper Stomper’ five times. The first time we played against each other and
the other four times we played as a team against other kids. On the fifth game
we scored a Pinky’s ‘Romper Stomper’ record for the most points ever scored in
a single game.
We were carrying our winning tokens up to the
prize booth when this kid jumped in front of us. At first I was a bit ticked
off but then he turned slightly and I realized I knew who he was.
“Peter?” I said not really sure I believed my
own eyes and more then a little scared.
The boy turned to face BJ and me, “Simon?” he
said, blinked and then near killed me when he grabbed me and hugged me,
“SIMON!”
I managed to get him to let go of me, “Peter,
I can’t believe it! What the heck are you doing here?” I asked trying to burry
my fear deep down inside so that he couldn’t see it. “I mean I thought you were
up at...”
“
“You’re squad?” I asked.
Peter puffed out his chest proudly, “Yeah, I
got promoted about two months ago to Cadet 3rd Class and was given
my own squad. See those guys there in the matching vests?” he said pointing to
several boys standing with their backs to us. “Those are just a few of them.”
BJ was slowly inching himself in between
Peter and me. So slowly in fact that I hadn’t noticed but perhaps Peter had. Peter
looked at BJ and said, “It’s PJ right?”
“Actually, it’s BJ, but you were close
enough,” BJ corrected him.
“BJ, right, sorry. Yeah it has been a long
time.” Peter said.
I couldn’t believe the way Peter looked; his
hair was cut short and he was wearing a navy blue knitted sweater over a crisp
blue dress shirt with a navy blue tie and matching dress pants. Though his face
hadn’t changed much, he seemed to be at least a foot taller than the last time
I saw him.
Peter asked me, “Hey, do you remember Max and
Johnny?”
“Yeah of course I remember them.” I said casually
whipping the sweat from my upper lip.
“They’re in my squad too.” Peter said and I
started to turn around to look for them but then he added, “Unfortunately, I
had to leave them behind. They broke curfew two nights ago and I had to confine
them to barracks. Man they are going to be so mad when I tell them I saw you
here. They probably won’t even believe me.”
“Dang Peter, you sound like a real G.I. Joe!”
I commented.
“Hey what can I say, I...” Peter stopped
talking when this wall of a man walked up to us. He was in full military dress
uniform and looked mean enough to wilt flowers just by farting on them.
“Cadet Alderman!” the man spoke softly but
his tone reminded me of my school principle, Mr. Andy Freeman. Heck, even I
snapped to attention when the man spoke.
Peter was standing stiff as a board facing
the huge man, “Sir?” he said and snapped him a salute.
The man bent down so that he was eye-to-eye
and nose-to-nose with Peter, “Cadet, tell me I didn’t just see you rudely insert
yourself into the middle of this here line.”
I looked up at Peter and saw little beads of
sweat forming on his brow. My mouth opened and words were coming out before I
even had a chance to think. “Excuse me sir, but he didn’t jump in line, he’s my
friend from back home.”
The man, without moving his head, put one
eyeball on me, scanned me from head to toe and back up again before returning
his gaze back to Peter. “That right Cadet?”
Peter only looked away for a spit second to
look at me before he answered, “No Sir, that is not
completely true. He is a friend but I didn’t know it was him when I jumped the
line Sir.”
I couldn’t believe my ears, I had just given
Peter a perfect out and he hadn’t taken it.
The man turned his head but not his shoulders
and eyeballed me the way he had been eyeballing Peter. “What’s your name?”
Something about this guy made me want to play
the part of the good little solder too. “Simon David Leonard Jr. Sir.”
He suddenly stood upright, looked at Peter,
then me and back to Peter once more before asking, “Wait a second. Cadet, is
this the same boy you told me about?”
“Sir, yes Sir,” Peter said and I could hear
the fear in his voice.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a streak of
yellow and I glanced to see BJ fleeing.
“Coward!” I murmured but apparently not as quietly as
I thought.
“Friend of yours?” the man asked me.
“Yes Sir,” I answered.
He thrust out a hand toward me and I jumped
backward with alarm. “Sorry,” I said and took his hand.
Leaving Peter standing at attention he shook
my hand and introduced himself. “I am Colonel Slater Jackson. Cadet Alderman
here has told me an awful lot about you. And I must add that I am honored to be
shaking your hand. What you did was nothing short of heroic!”
I looked over at Peter, his brow wasn’t just
beading with sweat, it was poring off him and he looked positively scared.
“Thank you Sir,” I said feeling uncomfortable
with the praise.
He gave my hand a squeeze and I thought he
was going to pop every bone in my hand. He got right in my face and spoke in
the same tone he had used with Peter when he had first walked up to us, “Don’t
you ever let anyone tell you anything else.”
“Yes Sir!” I said nervously.
Releasing his grip on my hand he said, “I
know Cadet Alderman would never tell you this,” he paused momentarily, “but he
thinks very highly of you son.”
I looked over at Peter once again; he had
gone ghostly white and had his eyes were rolled upward looking at the ceiling.
“Really? Uh, wow I... uh, I don’t know what to say.” I stammered.
“He followed your story through the news
papers since day one.” Colonel Jackson said.
When I got home I learned that since the
disappearance all of the local news papers had carried the story. And when we
returned there was no end to the reporters that wanted to talk with us.
“He probably doesn’t want me to tell you this
but I am going to tell you anyway. He came this
close,” Colonel Jackson held up two fingers nearly touching, “to going to real
prison. He tried to sneak out one night and stole MY car but was caught about
an hour later.”
The thought crossed my mind, “Now why doesn’t
that surprise me none?” but what Colonel Jackson told me next really knocked me
for a loop.
“Seems Cadet Alderman here felt that he owed
you something. So, when
the authorities called off the search for you and the other missing boys, he
was intent on finding you and bringing you back home all by himself.”
I looked over at Peter and he was still
looking at the ceiling but I could tell by the glassy sheen of his eyes that
what the Colonel was telling me was true.
The Colonel’s voice changed and sounded
almost fatherly, “The only reason he is standing here now and not sitting in
some
I was looking directly at Peter while Colonel
Jackson spoke. “Cadet, do you want to tell your friend here what you told me
that night?”
When Peter spoke it didn’t sound like him; at
least not like the Peter I had known back home. His voice quivered and cracked
as he said, “I, I said that you were the only friend I ever had that treated me
like a real friend and not because you were scared of me like everyone else.”
“And what did you tell me after that?” Colonel
Jackson asked.
Peter cleared his throat and tried to speak
but he had to clear his throat two more times before he could get the words
out. “I said that I couldn’t let some whack-jobs take my friend away.”
I was beginning to get choked up too and I
was so relieved when my dad and Mr. Otteranski appeared.
“Oh hi dad,” I said stupidly.
“Simon, is everything ok here?” Mr. Otteranski
asked.
Dad must have recognized Peter because he
said, “Peter?!” but the tone in dad’s voice made it clear that he still held a
good deal of ill will toward Peter.
Peter was still standing at attention so Colonel
Jackson said, “As you were Cadet.”
Peter’s posture softened and he turned toward
my dad and stuck out his hand. “Hello again Mr. Leonard.”
“Well I’ll be!” dad exclaimed as he shook
Peter’s hand.
Mr. Otteranski also took Peter’s hand and
said, “I never would have recognized you. You look all grown up.”
“Mr. Leonard, Mr. Otteranski, would you allow
me to introduce my commanding officer, Colonel Slater Jackson.” Peter said.
“Wait,” Colonel Jackson said as he was
shaking Mr. Otteranski’s hand, “You wouldn’t be any relation to Daran Otteranski would you?”
Mr. Otteranski looked puzzled, “That’s my
older brother!”
“Well I’ll be a son of a gun! I served with
your brother in the Gulf and we were in rehab together for about three months.”
Colonel Jackson rapped on his thigh with his knuckles and I was caught off
guard by the sound it made. It was like a hollow metallic sound.
The Colonel continued, “How is that old one
armed card shark?”
“You might not believe this but he married
himself a Vegas show girl and now has five kids with another on the way.” Mr. Otteranski
said.
“Married with children? I never would have
guessed it of him.” Colonel Jackson then said with a grin, “But a Vegas show
girl? That doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
My Dad jumped into the conversation; “I am
sorry, but was there a problem here with Sim...” he
began.
Colonel Jackson cut him off, “Oh no nothing
like that. I was questioning Cadet Alderman here when it became apparent that I
was in the presents of a true hero.”
I blushed and started to feel uncomfortable
again. I always feel like that whenever someone starts to praise me for what
happened. They all think what I did was something amazing but they don’t see
the things that I see every time I close my eyes. They don’t know the daemons I
wrestle with on a daily basis. A hero? No, I don’t
think so, I did what I had to do and that’s all there is to it.
Thankfully Peter was keen enough to pick up
on the signs and came to my rescue. He cleared his throat softly but it was
enough to get Colonel Jackson’s attention.
“Oh yes! Well, I’ll let the two of you get
reacquainted,” the Colonel said and before he left us he readdressed Peter, “We’ll
talk about the line jumping at another time.”
“Sir?” I quickly jumped in, “I-I don’t know how things are done at
Colonel Jackson gave my shoulder a thump with
the side of his hand and looking at me he addressed Peter. “Cadet you have a
fine friend here, be sure you don’t take that for granted.”
As the Colonel and Mr. Otteranski started to
move away my dad gave me a look and a nod. It was his way of asking me if I was
ok; I smiled and nodded back.
Peter sighed strongly, “Whoa that was close.”
He said and added, “Thanks for getting me out of trouble.”
“Yeah, well thanks too.” I said.
“What did I do?” he said.
I just shrugged and said, “Ah forget it!” and
then a thought occurred to me.
“Hey, what about Steven? Is he in your squad too?” I asked.
Peter kind of withdrew before saying, “Steven’s
not at
“A.W.O.L.?” I asked.
“It means Absent Without
Leave.” Peter explained, “He was picked up seventeen days later but they didn’t
bring him back. I hear that he had broken into someone’s house and was sent to
Juvenile Detention. I also heard that he won’t be out until he is nineteen.”
“Wow! Man that sucks.” I said.
BJ returned looking a little apprehensive.
“Where did you go?” I asked.
“To eat,” he lied. I knew he’d gone and told
our dad’s to come up by the prize booth.
“So you guys want to go cash in your tokens
or what?” Peter asked.
“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot.” I said.
I ended up letting Peter go first and I am
glad I did because he had 53 tokens but he wanted this model airplane that cost
65 tokens. I suspected that he wanted the model because he used to be friends
with Mikey Winston, Tate’s younger brother and Mikey was a big time model
builder.
“Hey, here are twelve of my tokens so you can
get the model.” I said.
“Really?” Peter said and I caught a glimpse of BJ
behind Peter and he didn’t look too happy about me giving away some of our
tokens; especially to Peter.
“Wow, cool! Hey thanks!” he said to me and
then said to the lady behind the counter, “Could I have that model right there,
please?”
As it turned out, together, BJ and I still
had 141 tokens. We had trouble deciding what all to spend them on but then BJ
saw this weird multicolored snake puzzle thing that cost 35 tokens.
“That’s all I want, you can have the rest.”
He said to me.
“No way man, you should get something else.”
I argued.
Peter pointed up to the top shelf on the
left, “Look at that!”
It was a remote controlled boat and it was
only 85 tokens.
“Whoa, yeah that’s what I want!” I said and
then turned to BJ, what do you think?” but he was totally absorbed in trying to
figure out the puzzle snake.
Since I still have a few tokens left I looked
to see what else I could get. Down on one of the lower shelves I saw a model
paint kit and it was one token less then what I had. Peter was at the other end
of the counter looking at something so I whispered into BJ’s ear.
“Hey, would you care if I got those paints
and gave them to Peter?” I asked.
BJ looked at the paints, then shrugged and
nodded, “Yeah, you should do that.”
So I did.
“Are you serious?” Peter said when I handed
the paint set to him.
“Yeah I’m serious!” I said.
Peter nearly shouted, “Wow, thanks man!”
The three of us hung out by the games talking
for a few minutes until another of Peter’s cadets walked up to us. He was
young, probably nine or ten years old and he looked more than a little upset.
The young cadet was frowning and wiggled a
finger at Peter to get him to bend down so that the boy could whisper into
Peter’s ear. Peter stood back up and looked down on the boy with concern.
Suddenly Peter snapped his fingers and turned to me, cupped his hands around my
ear and whispered.
“Oh yeah, sure back at the table!” I said and thumbed toward the eating area.
“I’ll get my pack.” I said and took off for the booth where BJ’s and my parents
were still sitting and talking.
When I rushed up to the table mom looked
concerned, “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, just need my pack.” I said and they
all knew why I needed it; or at least they thought they did.
I hurried back to BJ, Peter and the young
cadet. “Here ya go.” I said handing my pack to Peter.
Peter looked around before handing the pack
to the boy and without hesitation the boy took off for the bathroom.
“Thanks Simon!” Peter said, “The others tease
him a lot about that so I have been trying to help him with it. He’s been doing
real well until tonight.”
“That’s really cool!” BJ said slapping Peter
on the arm, “Peter Alderman helping instead of bullying other kids.”
“Just a good thing you were here,” Peter said
to me.
“Wait, how did you know about Simon having... Well you know?” BJ asked.
I knew perfectly well how Peter knew that I
wore diapers but there was no reason that BJ needed to know and I was just
about to change the subject when I spotted across from us an instant photo
booth. On the side of the photo booth it read Photo’s One Token.
“Hey I have an idea,” I said fishing in my
pocket for the last token, “Let’s get a picture of us for you to take back to
Max and Johnny. That way they will know you really saw me.”
“Good idea!” BJ and Peter said in unison and
then laughed when they realized they had said it together.
The three of us crammed ourselves into the
booth and I thought it was only going to take one picture of us but it took
three.
“Wow, that’s a deal! Three pictures for one
token!” BJ said when the three of us scrambled back out of that cramped little
booth.
“Look at your face in this one!” I said
showing it to BJ.
“Hey, you guys each want one?” Peter asked.
I really would have liked to have had one of them
to put on my dresser back home but BJ came up with the best idea.
“You know what?” BJ said to Peter, “You
should take all three and give one to Johnny and one to Max and then you can
keep the third one.”
“Yeah!” I agreed.
I think Peter was getting choked up again but
he was spared the embarrassment of us seeing him all emotional when that same
young cadet came running up to us with the biggest grin on his face. He tossed
my pack to Peter and without saying thanks or anything started to run back to
the games.
BJ must have jumped two feet in the air when
Peter barked out, “Cadet Williams!” Peter suddenly sounded very grown up.
The young cadet froze in mid-stride, spun
around and ran back over to us.
“Did you forget something?” Peter said to
him.
The boy grinned, looked at me and said,
“Thank you sir!”
“Very good Cadet but that’s not what I
meant.” Peter said.
The boy looked confused and cocked one side
of his mouth, “Huh?”
Peter leaned forward and spoke softly but
loud enough that BJ and I heard him, “XYZ-PDQ!”
The boy looked down at the front of his pants
and saw that his zipper was wide open.
“Oops!” the young cadet said and zipped up
his pants before saying, “Thanks Petey!” and took off
running for the games.
I was giggling fairly hard when I repeated, “Petey?”
Peter looked like I’d just jabbed him with a
sharp stick.
“Ahhh Petey’s just a big softy!” BJ teased.
Right then my dad came over and said, “Simon,
BJ, suppers on the table; time to come eat.”
“Ok dad!” I answered.
Peter handed me my pack back and BJ and I
said our goodbyes to him. I promised to write to him and he said I could get
the address from Mr. Freeman at school because he comes up every so often to
check on them.
“Tell Max and Johnny I said hi!” I said.
“Sure will!” Peter said.
I also wanted to say that I forgive him and
the others for what they did. I also wanted to finally explane
to Peter that I wasn’t the one that had hung those pictures of him up in the
school but I knew that Pinky’s wasn’t really the place for that sort of thing.
In the end I decided that the first chance I got I would write it all down in a
letter and mail it to him.
BJ must have been feeling brave because as we
were walking away he said kind of loud, “See ya Petey-Petey”
When I knew Peter before, if he had looked at
me the way he did just now, I would have probably turned and run in the
opposite direction.
“See ya guys!”
Peter said one last time and turned away.
** As always, your thoughts matter to me
very, very much, so please send any comments, questions, suggestions, or
criticism to me at: [email protected] **