Published: 6 Dec 2018
Our next PE class was a hoot. The Head Coach was now our instructor, our previous one was fired. Coach had prepared for our class. He had had thick pads spread out along half of the basket ball court and had invited our parents to the class. David and Dad arrived from the fire house and were introduced to the class and about twenty other staff of the school who wanted to see the demonstration. My Dad was filming it all so at some point John could also see it. Captain Harris and Carl came out from the police station and joined Dad and David. Mom was there, of course, and admonished us to take care and not hurt ourselves, or any one else. Two of the Coaching assistants were selected to be our “props” and both Brian and I told them we weren’t going to really hurt them, what we were doing was showing defensive moves only.
It took about an hour and we had the two coaching assistants on the mats about twenty times each, and the applause from our fellow students was thunderous when Coach called a halt to the whole thing, thanking David for the technical assist and our parents for allowing the demonstration. He then had Brian and I come to the mat in front of the crowd and thanked us for explaining that our moves were defensive, and not aggressive, in keeping with the tenants of Judo. The class was then released and Brian and I were the only ones to have to go clean up and get back into our school clothes. We didn’t dally, as we knew our folks wanted to say goodbye, so we rushed through our shower and we quickly dried off and dressed out.
Mom gave us big hugs and our dads and David and Carl shook our hands before we had to scurry to our next class. There we were bombarded with questions, with the approval of the teacher who had seen the demonstration. All in all it was a great way to show we might be the smallest ones in the school, but we were there to learn, not to have to defend ourselves every time we turned around.
Mom had invited John and David and Captain Harris and Carl and Brian over for a cookout of hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and potato salad. Brian and I had to go through everything all over again for my brothers and sisters, but Betty said she had snuck down to the gym on her study hall and had seen almost all of it and she couldn’t be prouder of us two. The same sentiments were expressed by all the adults, but more so by John and David.
Our studies included some college level classes, and truthfully, studying with Brian not only allowed me to make him more thoughtful in his answers, but it helped me to see the origin of the answers expected. We both learned to look at the problems proposed from different perspectives and arrive at the expected conclusions on our own. He constantly amazed me with his insightful views and his amazing tongue in our play time after the books were put away, he said he liked mine a lot too.
By the end of the school year we were sent to Dr. Francis again and this time we were allowed to take the tests in the same room, but at opposite ends. Dr. Francis told us he thought we were ready for Junior level classes, but he was going to recommend we stay in our accelerated classes through out high school, and by then we would be entering college as late semester sophomores or first semester juniors. We thought that was cool and our parents did too when the good doctor had a chance to explain everything to them. On this schedule I would be graduating college at 16 and Brian would be 17 for a month when he matriculated. I would turn 17 a month after college graduation.
College life was exciting for us, We were housed in the home of our faculty adviser, Donald Hastings, a professor in the Education Department. He was about the same age as David, about 29 when we entered college as first semester Juniors. We had been recruited by several colleges, but we chose Amherst College as it was really close to home, but offered free room and board. Brian and I had received several scholarships and we were pleased that even though we had chosen a very high priced college, it wouldn’t cost our parents anything for us to go there. I knew that Brian and I were intellectually ready for this, but we both were glad we were together, as being so totally away from home for months at a time would be hard on us.
Don had shown us the two bedrooms he had set up for us and when we asked if we could use one for studying and the other for sleeping he agreed, but we had several speculative looks cast our way, until a week later when on a Saturday David and John drove over the mountain to visit us. They were of course introduced to Don and we all shared a very pleasant dinner and then the three of them went to the bar in the hotel at the Amherst common for a few beers. David and John must have had a talk to Don about us because he was so much more relaxed around us after their visit.
Don had a high school student who took care of his lawn and when the guy broke his arm in a football game the guys brother, Clinton, took over. Clinton had recently been demobbed from the Navy and was taking courses at the university up the road. The 24 year old was a treat on the eyes as he worked the grounds shirtless and Don found any excuse to go talk to him. It wasn’t long before Clint was joining us for dinner and going out for a few beers with Don and spending the night with him.
Over the Christmas Holidays we saw a lot of Brian’s dad, and his now roommate Carl, and even more time with David and John. There were discussions about our school work and whether or not we should stay on and work towards our masters, or try for teaching posts right out of school and work on our masters degrees in our spare time. We received very good council on that one, they (along with Don) advised staying on at Amherst (our scholarships would definitely cover the added expense as we had not needed to pay for a freshman or sophomore year) and we would be more mature and look more like adults by that time. They thought we’d be more accepted by not only the interviewers, but by any potential students as well.
They also asked us questions I had never ever even contemplated. Were we going to live together after we graduated? And were we hoping to get teaching positions in the same school? I looked at Brian’s shocked face and, taking his hand I responded that those two answers, in my mind anyway, were a given. That I loved Brian unequivocally, and I couldn’t imagine a life without him. As for if we were to teach in the same school, well that could possible be hard, as we both were geared toward degrees in English and we might one go to a middle school (neither one of us had ever gone to middle school) and the other teach in a high school. We understood we were not joined by an umbilical cord, but as long as we had some time together every day, and got to sleep together every night, we’d be content, that’s what I thought. Brian held my hand tighter, and for the first time, he pulled me to him and kissed me ferociously in front of another, telling me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.
David, and then John hugged the two of us, telling us they had always thought we were boyfriends, and they were so glad we had remained so close, and I told them that they had set a great example for us. They advised us to keep our true relationship hidden as much as possible, and to not let anyone else try to come between us. Brian and I looked at each other, I’m sure with the starry eyed innocence of young love, but then we nodded to each other and I turned to John and David and told them that we had already picked our graduation present from them, when the time came. We told them that what we wanted was a weekend in bed with the two of them. We’d be legal by then, and it had been something we fantasized about for years, talked about for years, and even now, when we had intercourse, something we enacted in our fantasies.
They were a bit shocked I think, and then they started to both grin and admitted that since they had first seen us together, they too had wondered what it would be like to have sex with us, just to make sure we had learned our lessons well, John said. It was agreed it was something we could all look forward to.
One of my families favorite Winter pastimes was tobogganing. The ones we used, at the big cleared hill at the end of he woods about three blocks away from our house, were made for three adults, so by using two, all of us kids could go down at the same time, usually seated by age, with the youngest tucked in at the front. We had introduced David and John to it the previous winter and they often accompanied us with their own sleds. On one of our excursions we had attracted quite a crowd as we dragged our sleds and toboggans to the hill. My youngest sister had a cold so she didn’t accompany us, but John and David, who had the day off, did, as did some of the neighbors. We got to the hill and noticed that someone had created a short jump on one side of the downward slope. Pat tried it on a sled, as did David and they declared it great. John, Brian and I tried it on one of the toboggans and we hit the jump hard and while air born we tilted and as we landed Brian’s right arm, and my right leg were not on board, in fact as we hit the hard packed, snow covered ground the right edge of the toboggan landed with my knee and Brian’s elbow under the edge as we slammed to the ground from about 4 feet high. Everyone on the hill, and I guess in some of the houses at the bottom heard that something was not right, as the howl of our pain could be heard, echoing down the 400 foot hill. By the time we had slid the rest of the way down there were people running out of the houses at the bottom, telling us they had called the ambulance already. John and David and the other adults were all over Brian and I, trying to find out what had happened and David determined where our injuries were and packed snow on our injured limbs with John’s help and using the toboggans they pulled us out to the street.
It was ironic that my Dad was driving the ambulance, but he remained stoic as he helped load both Brian and I into the back and he drove us to the big hospital in a neighboring city, after letting David ride with us in back. In route he radioed to the hospital that he was requesting Dr. Carver be in attendance when we arrived (he was a friend of my folks and a great orthopedic surgeon) and he then radioed the fire station to ask that my mom be called and Brian’s dad be called and that they be informed that we were in route to Baystate Trauma Center, with an arrival time of about 30 minutes. I was told all this after, because David gave each of us a shot of something that made us both woozy and kind of out of it. I was told this was because of the extreme pain we were both having, and because of the extent of our injuries.
Hours later I awoke to find myself in a big hospital room with my parents, and Brian’s dad in the room with us. Brian and I were in separate beds (of course) and there were other people there as well. There was Doctor Carver (I know, I’ve always thought that was an appropriate name for a surgeon!) and two nurses, one by my bed and the other alongside Brian’s. The folks were all watching Dr. Carver as he explained our injuries and what was to be done in surgery in just an hour to Brian and then to me right after. The nurse next to me told everyone I was awake and then Mom was all over me, kissing me and telling me she loved me and saying Brian was alright for now, but was still out of it. She told me that in a while Dr. Carver was going to take Brian to surgery and he was going to have to replace Brian’s elbow with an experimental artificial one, and when that was completed, he’d do the same with my knee. She explained calmly that our joints had been shattered and that the safest way to deal with it was to totally replace them with these new joints that Dr. Carver had been developing and replacing for a year or two by then.
By now Brian was coming around and we both let it be known that we were in a lot of pain so Dr. Carver told everyone to say goodbye for now as he wanted us rested before our surgeries. Once the parents had said they’d wait in the family waiting room in the hall with John and David and we had said our good nights to them, Dr. Carver gave us each a shot and told us to rest for a while. He left us after assuring us both he knew what he was doing and he told us that although the operations were new, he was sure we would regain just about all our functions after some therapy. After he dimmed the lights and left our room I was able to tell Brian how much I wanted to hold him and kiss him and he said, “Archie, you don’t know how much I love you too, there will never be enough words to express that, and I can’t wait until we are both well enough for me to show you, my love”. I think we both drifted off after that.
The next time I woke Brian was sitting up in his bed with his right arm strapped to his chest, He was staring at me with the most loving expression on his face. “Hey, Archie, are you awake yet? I love you.” I mumbled that I loved him too. Looking down I was so relieved to see two feet under the blanket. I’d been so worried that the operation wouldn’t go well and that my whole leg would be removed. As I became more aware I realized that the bandages around my knee were very thick and that the elbow area of Brian’s right elbow was very heavily padded also.
We chatted for a while, in between the nurses checking on us every few minutes, and after we were given some juice to drink our folks and John and David were allowed in to see us. Everyone asked how we felt but to be honest we were both feeling rather good. Dad joked that was the pain medication doing it’s job, and then I told them all that I had been so afraid that my leg was going to be amputated, and Brian admitted he felt the same about his arm. Mom told us both that a few years ago that would have been the case, or that rods would have been implanted, eliminating the joints entirely, but thankfully Dr. Carver and his team had developed the artificial joints and had successfully replaced about a hundred damaged joints for people already. She explained that if we didn’t do the exercises the therapists showed us that our joints would stiffen up and we wouldn’t have any movement in them after a while. She did tell us it would hurt at first, but we both had to do them.
We promised to do them and then the good doctor himself came in to check on us before he left for the night. It was then we were told it was now midnight and the others had to leave for home soon as well, the doctor wanted us asleep in an hour or less. I was missing our pre bed cuddle, and I could tell by the look in Brian’s eyes he was too, but before we could even talk to each other a nurse came in and shot something into the IV’s we both had and off to dreamland we went.
The accident happened on a Friday afternoon, and the next week we had a visit from Don, who had been called by John and appraised of our situation. He had gone to each of our professors and obtained assignments for the next month and either John or Don himself would administer tests or quizzes as the professors had indicated. That wouldn’t start happening until classes resumed in another week. Brian and I personally were ahead in our classes by two months anyway so we were not too worried about all that, and the doctor had told us that we’d most likely be released in a few days anyway, the problem was going to be the physical therapy the doctor wanted performed every day by the both of us. Don put our concerns at ease when he told us he had been in touch with the athletic department at the college and two trainers had been in touch with our doctor and arrangements had been made for us to have our therapy at the college, whether we were physically able to attend the actual classes or not. If not, accommodations would be made to allow us to have tutors available for our class work and to give us tests or quizzes.
We were honored that everyone seemed to be bending over backward to help us and Don laughed and said that the college wouldn’t want their two prize students to be ignored in their time of need. He told us that we were evenly matched in our grades, and not only were we the two youngest students, but we were on track to be the highest GPA earners in the college’s history. He told us he certainly hoped we would stay at the college to earn our masters, and to stay as his roomers during that time.
Over the next few days we began to feel less doped up and our pain medication was reserved for after therapy and for bedtime. Mom brought all the younger kids to visit us a couple of times that week and of course the therapy started. We were surprised one evening when Dad and Captain Harris arrived on their own and after a while Dad asked me if I was in love with Brian. Right out of the blue! I was shocked, and very nervous, but he was looking at me so concerned, and lovingly that I started weeping and told him that I did, and it was a lasting love, a true love, and I knew that it was going to tough on us, but he was worth it, and I knew in my heart he felt the same about me. I was even more shocked when he reached over and hugged me close to him, telling me he loved me and he had always thought of Brian as another son, as he was sure Mr. Harris felt about me. I looked across the room and there were Brian and his dad hugging and I soon found out that they had had the same conversation when my dad went over had hugged Brian and his dad came over and hugged me.
Before they left, Dad had one of the nurses and an orderly come to our room and had them move our beds alongside each other. Not exactly close enough that we could touch, as space had to be left around each bed, but at least we could whisper to each other, and gaze into each other’s eyes of we wanted to. None of our other visitors that week, or any of the staff for that matter ever mentioned our new room arrangement.
So after several weeks our incisions were healed enough for the stitches to be removed and with that our therapy sessions increased and became more intense. We were granted the use of the college’s indoor pool for two hours twice a day and the hydro therapy was so much more pleasant than the other stuff we were tortured into doing, but within a month we were getting around pretty much on our own. I helped Brian dress as he helped me. We studied together, took our tests together, cooked meals for Don and Clint when we were home before them. We also hosted our parents (Carl included) and of course John and David a couple of times a month. Mom told me once that she loved being around all the handsomest men, even if only one had eyes for just her. We of course visited them too, with Brian’s dad or mine driving us over the mountain to see them, and we got to visit with my brothers and sisters and kept up with what was happening in their lives too.
When the semester ended, and all the final papers and tests were done we prepared to move home for the Summer. Don and Clint insisted that they were going to take us out to eat, so on the night before we packed for the 15 mile trip home, they then drove us to the little hotel the college owned on campus and instead of the main dining room they led us to a small banquet room where our professors and their spouses (if they had any) and the Dean of the college were waiting, along with the two trainers who had acted as our therapists. The Dean made a little speech, talking about our drive and determination, our study habits, our easygoing attitudes, and our mature outlook on life. He then congratulated us on achieving the highest GPA’s of any previous junior year students, and he hoped to see us do it next school year also. It wasn’t a fancy dinner, but it was one I don’t think Brian or I will ever forget. We had a great time with a bunch of adults who didn’t treat us like kids playing at being college students. We would both be 17 within two months.
Our summer was fun, if tiring. We were gifted with a car to share for our final school year, both sets of adults had contributed to the cost. We had both been hired for the summer program at our town park. We had daily activities for the children, everything from ball games and crafts to Summer tutoring sessions. John had been hired as director for the Summer and he had recruited us, never telling us how much fun we would have. As a special treat that summer Brian’s dad had asked us to use Brian’s room in their apartment as he and Carl were going to be away for a month on a training course for the police department. We still had the garden to keep up and we took my brother Ron and sister Mary in hand and taught them how to maintain not only our two rows, but to tend to John and David’s when they could, as this was the first Summer since they had moved in that they would both be working. What free time Brian and I had we spent making love, and studying ahead for our senior year. We wanted to get as far ahead as possible as we would have to spend two months practice teaching at a local school, since we were too banged up during our Junior Spring term to do that then, like our classmates had done.
Once Summer was over we attacked our studies even harder and by the time the holidays arrived we were already working on Spring semester work. We never would have been able to do this without the cooperation of our professors, but they all seemed to know about our injuries and our surgeries and having to do two months of practice teaching during the Spring semester. It was recommended that we take an offer from a neighboring small town whose middle school could accommodate both of us, that way we wouldn’t encounter some of the students we actually went to school with in our hometown school, or students we might have tutored during the Summer. We spent three days a week teaching 7th and 8th grade English, with the regular teacher in the back of the room, and after the second week the principal of the school and occasionally someone from the college would be there to evaluate us.
Both Brian and I would discuss our classes and how we felt each one was doing. We helped each other with lesson plans and would ask each other’s opinion on some of the essays turned in. It really was a great learning experience for us. We learned that we really loved teaching these grades, and we felt the students were of the right age to be introduced to different writers than those most of the students had been exposed to before. We could see that even in the short time we were there we had made an impact on some of the kids. We were able to keep up with our own classes by arranging them for the two weekdays we were on campus during the week, and the professors helped by scheduling our tests and quizzes to be taken on Saturdays for the two months we had the practice teaching schedule. Everything was working out really well and at the end of the two months we were asked to report to the principal’s office at the end of our last class sessions. We met outside his office and Brian said it was the first time we had been sent to the principal’s office in all our school years. We were laughing at that when one of the staff, who we hadn’t met, walked by and asked if we shouldn’t be in our class. We laughed a little harder and told her we had been sent to the office to report to the principal, and she said that she understood why.
Once we got ourselves under control we went in and sat with the principal and listened as he asked if we’d be interested in contracts for the next school year. We told him of our plan to go for our Masters Degrees next year and he asked us to notify him when we had achieved them, he wanted us for his school, and if he had to wait he would. We thanked him very much and left for our rooms at Don and Clint’s.
The next month was a flurry of final exams and getting ready for the Masters Degree classes that would start just two weeks from graduation. Two weeks before graduation, and only two exams left on our schedule, we were summoned to the Dean’s office and presented with a proposal to use us as guinea pigs in a new program the college wanted to offer students. A program where you studied for your masters while also getting your PHD, presented when all the credits from earning the masters degree had been recorded and your thesis accepted. It would be a two year program, and the college would definitely make us an offer of employment, as full professors, at the completion of the program. It only took a look between us to know we were both interested, but it was Brian who spoke up first when he asked if financing would be available for this program, or at least a partial scholarship, and he also asked looking at me if he thought we could complete all requirements in a year, as we had been offered teaching jobs at a local middle school.
The Dean considered for a few moments and then asked if we were sure we wanted to teach middle school, and we explained how good we felt just after 2 months doing it. We felt the students at that age were ready to be taught, and what we could teach them they’d carry for the rest of their lives, they were not as jaded as college aged students, and really, the doctorates would normally price us out of public schools, but we both felt we could do it, no matter where we taught, for our own gratification. He sat there for a few more moments and then told us he would secure financing for us, but in the form of private scholarships not tied to our accepting positions at the college. But, he told us, if we ever wanted to teach at the college level, he begged us to get in touch with him and he’d make it happen, for one of us, or for both of us. He said the time line was up to us, but if when we started the program we wanted to speed things up to just let the professor know and he would back us up.
So that’s exactly how we became Doctor Harris and Doctor Blackmer, but before that we had to graduate with our BA degrees from college, much to our proud parent’s enjoyment, and ours, as we had a weekend in bed to collect from two of the sexiest men we knew. At the graduation ceremony we were announced as the valedictorians and had to give a speech, much to the amusement of my siblings. We did make it somewhat amusing, adopting the persona of little kids following us into the college, their age about nine. It must have amused the crowd because when we ended the little parody we got a standing ovation. We then continued on, explaining the encouragement we had received all through school from teachers and family and friends. We extolled the virtue of this encouragement, how it had shaped and molded us as individuals, even though most of our fellow graduates and our own families thought we were Siamese twins. We told them that the encouragement and guidance from professionals also planted the seed to “pass it on” and that was why we had decided to enter the education field, to pass on to future generations the experience, the knowledge, and the good advice we had received along the way.
The weekend of sex was scheduled for the weekend after graduation, at a bed and breakfast in Provincetown. Dave had booked the two bedroom cottage at the 420 House on Commercial Street. The A frame cottage faced the ocean’s bay with that end of the cottage having glass windows facing the bay and a large deck off that end of the cottage. We ate our meals there, when we weren’t changing partners or having foursomes in one of the bedrooms. Outside of our first time jerking together, or our first time frotting, or our first time having oral sex, or the first time we had anal sex, it was definitely one of the best times in our lives, all four of us apparently, for David and John told us that yes, it had been a fantasy of theirs, and now it was a wonderful memory they, and we, would have for the rest of our lives. It certainly didn’t taint either of our relationships, except to make us closer friends for life.
We were working for the parks department again, with John as our supervisor again. We had a great time with the kids, many who remembered us and this Summer we stayed in the newly renovated basement at David and John’s house. They had created a wonderful play room/den with a really good sized bedroom and bath down there. They had even had the ground graded off the end with the bedroom and the now exposed outer wall was beefed up and a French door opening onto a bricked patio between the driveway and the fenced in garden. They had told us it was an added graduation present, but we insisted on contributing a hundred dollars a week from our parks department pay checks.
Three weeks after starting our jobs we heard about three of the guys in our graduating class getting drafted. That ugly conflict in Vietnam was wrecking havoc all over the place and a friend of Betty’s who had enlisted after their graduation had already died over there. The conflict was a major topic of conversation in the town, and in the country and protests were happening just about every where in the world. No one wanted any part of it. Brian and I were not yet of draft age, but we had been assured by Dr. Carver at our last post op evaluation that we would not be eligible for active duty in the forces should we be called up. Our artificial joints would prevent that. A couple of years later we were both ordered to induction physicals and the examining doctor was more thrilled to have two individuals with relatively new artificial joints in front of him, he was practically salivating as he examined first Brian and then me. He wasn’t very gentle in his manipulations and he apologized but told us it had to be done, and in front of the military onlookers he dis-jointed first Brian’s elbow and then my knee, showing the military guys that there definitely was something in our joints that would disqualify us from service. As the military guys made notes and walked away he gently reset our joints and said that the military always treated the letters and notes brought in, like we had done, with great suspicion, and he had to prove that what Dr. Carver had written for us was not faked. We both ended up with 1Y classifications, which basically meant if the country was invaded we could be called up to serve in some non combat capacity. Of the 25 people on the bus we had to go to the physical in, only 5 had been excused. They even took a guy we knew to be deaf in one ear and another who had had three toes from one foot amputated after he caught his foot in a lawn mower when he was a little kid.
At the end of the Summer we returned to Don’s and with the summer school classes we had taken and the extra work toward our masters we were able to settle in and begin on the extra work needed for our PHD s right away. It was grueling, but we thrived on it, and on the nights in our bedroom. By Christmas Don, still acting as our faculty adviser, informed us after our semester finals and term papers were turned in, that we had actually completed 90% of our work for both degrees. He was as proud as our parents and friends.
It was a wonderful day in June when we walked the walk again across the stage at graduation, and left the stage as recipients of our Masters degrees, and at a smaller ceremony a month later we exited the stage as Doctors of Letters, a degree more powerful than the PHD we were aiming for originally. Drew University was the only institution we knew of that offered it as part of their curriculum. We were 18 years old, and there was some media coverage, but we kept it very low key for a couple of reasons. One was we were really well known in our home town, and that was bad enough, everyone in town knowing who you were, and two, we didn’t want to scare off any school districts with our doctorate degrees. We didn’t want them to think they couldn’t afford us, or we might not stay at their school, like if they thought we were just waiting for a college position to open up.
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