A Grateful Heart (ONC 2023; manxman)✅

Chapter 10

Despite the chilly air, Teddy and I were warm and toasty under the covers. I wished I remembered things the way Teddy did. My hands glided down his hot, sweaty back. Squeezing his ass, I responded to his kisses. He broke away to kiss my neck, rocking me, his dick throbbing inside me. He sat up, bringing me with him. "Is this good?" he asked, letting the blankets fall off our bodies.

"Oh, yeah, it's good," I said.

Chilly air? What chilly air? The room was steamy. He slid his hands under my ass, propping me up on his lap, his dick still up there. I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my lips on his neck, muffling my sounds. He brought his lips back to mine, grasping clumps of my hair. His lips quivered, moaning and grunting.

After he finished, he rested his head on my shoulder, his heart beating fast against mine. "I don't belong here, Eric," he said. "I was born way too early."

"Or I was born too late."

"No, you were born in the right time," he said. "You'd never survive here. I wish I could be like you. Hmm... how did you say it? I wish I could be out of the cellar."

I fought back a laugh. "Out of the closet," I corrected him.

"Right. Out of the closet."

"When's your birthday, anyway?"

"January 12, 1913."

"So you'd be a hundred and ten years old. That's fucked up. I was born eighty years after you, but I'm eight years older than you right now. I'll be thirty-one on July 4th. I wonder why I was brought to 1935. Why not 1940 or 1950? And why were you brought to 2014? What's so special about that year?"

"I've been trying to figure that out, too. That's why we need to talk to that lady."

"Did you have a job in 2014?"

"I can't remember."

"Did you live with me and my family?"

"I can't remember that, either."

"But you remember television, cell phones, and me."

"And everyone had cars. I can't even drive."

Teddy gently guided me off him and lay beside me, his arm draped comfortably around my shoulders. "How did your sister die?"

"She had breast cancer."

"And your mother?"

"She had a lot of medical issues... like diabetes, obesity, asthma, COPD... there's a virus that's sort of like the flu and very contagious. Some people get really sick from it; others don't. I got it and I didn't even know I had it. My mom got it in the beginning and didn't make it."

"A pandemic like the Spanish flu?"

"Yeah... a virus that spread all over the world. Countries shut down, trying to prevent the spread. It sucked."

"Did your father get it, too?"

Erin and I rarely talked about our father's death. When I was nine, he fell off a ladder and injured his back. A doctor prescribed him Oxycontin to help deal with the pain. He developed an addiction and accidentally overdosed when I was thirteen. "No, he died long before the virus was a thing. He died of an accidental drug overdose."

"That's awful. I hope the druggist got fired." The opiate epidemic was too complicated to discuss, so I let Teddy believe the 'druggist' (i.e. pharmacist) gave him too much medication. Teddy always asked follow up questions. "What was the medication for?"

"Pain."

"Like aspirin?"

"No. Something much stronger... like heroin or morphine. I'd rather not talk about it."