Turbulent Night.

Ted woke up, precisely one minute before his alarm went off, that day, like millions, of days before it. He huffed at it, when it finally went off, and turned the damn thing off. He never used his cell phone, he stuck to the old clock his mom and dad gave him. It was one of the first things they gave him, it had seen very better days. A few mornings it had gotten 'accidentally knocked off the night stand, when he was still in high school.

Those were terrible, dark days, They called him all kind of nasty slang names from other countries. For a month he was the marapon, but the Spanish teacher quickly figured out that, and stopped it. For a while he was called pufter, he found that one amusing.

"Groan." He groaned while getting out of bed. He walked to the closest door, and picked out the fresh-pressed, pair of dress pants, and mostly wrinkle-free polo shirt. He tried to smooth it out, he even thought about ironing it, but knew that was futile. So continued to the bathroom to shower. He ran the hot water in the shower, and brushed his teeth. He knew by the time that was done, he could turn on the cold and get in.

Ted loved the predictability of his morning, and the rest of his day was like clockwork, the people changed, the things he did, a bit from day to day, so it still felt fresh. But he just felt sad, his mom called it depression, and he knew his mother had depression, so he had resigned himself to living alone, and being sad and lonely. He made breakfast, two eggs, two slices of bacon, and toast, today, wild current perseveres on the toast, Jelly, jam, and whatever else sounded good on his toast. Was never the same in a month. Just enough variety to keep his breakfast from getting stale.

He locked up for work and glanced at the sky South western Illions's weather was rather predictable. Red at night Sailors delight, red at daylight sailors firght." He smiled at another normal sunrise, and hopped on his not quite street legal moped, but he had his motorcycle instances, and 65 mph, was plenty fast enough for him. He slid on his helmet and drove to the next town, to work. He enjoyed the drive nonetheless, at least during the summer.

He parked his Moter scooter, behind the store, and opened the back door the old IGA. He took a deep breath, he enjoyed, the 'history' of the smell. The building had been standing for fifty years after all. He walked by the bread. "I am sure billions of loathes of bread have been sold from those shelves." He thought aloud to himself. He flipped the lights on, set up the till, for his cashier, turned on the open sign, and unlocked the door.

"Morning Teddy." Ms. Winters nodded at him.

"What can we get for you today?" He asked, containing his amusement at the lady.

"Oh..." She mumbled. "I think I have a nasty case of swimmers ear." She sighed. "I haven't heard right out of my left ear in days.

Ted, glanced at her ear, and almost sighed. "Ms. Winters!" He said loudly so she could hear him. "Have you replaced the battery in your hearing aid?"

"Teddy you are a sweet boy." She smiled condignly at him. "But your not a doctor."

"Very well." He nodded at her, and let her by. Ms. Winters took her walker to the back of the store where the pharmacy was Ted, prepared to ring out Ms. Winters, he groaned.

"I am old, not Deaf boy!" Ms. Winters hollard at him. Ted shook his head and raised an eyebrow at her, which she couldn't hear at least. "And don't look at me in that tone of voice..."

"How?" Ted lipped to himself.

"I have 6 children, and twenty-one and counting grandchildren." she laughed.

"So when did you go swimming?" He asked her scanning the swimmer's ear kit.

She glanced at her walker, and then looked at Ted as if he were an idot. "Boy, I'm too old to go swimming." She lectured him. He nodded at her, as she droned on.

"Ms. Winters?" He asked before she left. "If you didn't go swimming, why do you think you have swimmer's ear?"

"A woman knows." She huffed and stormed off.

Jeanie came him, an hour later, his cashier, and Jimmy, the cute stocker, came in an hour after that. There wasn't much managing to his assistant manager position. He mostly stocked, helped out where it was needed, and apologized a lot.

"HEY THEODORE!" Trish his manager said from the door to her office. "Are you ok?" She f0pm her own desk, and spun her office chair at him.

"Yea, Why?" He shot off at her.

"I was talking to you for five minutes about the new, cakes we are going to carry..." Ted glanced at her. "They are so cute." He rolled his eyes at her. "Now I know something is upsetting you, you haven't rolled y our eyes at anyone since the Coke Vendor told you he ran out of coke..."

Ted looked at her and sighed. "Yea, I used to find so much purpose here." He paused looking for the words. "Now I just don't know what I feel." He sighed.

"You sound like you need a vacation honey!" She smiled at him.

"And do what?" He asked her crossly. "Go where, See who?" Ted wanted to shut down this conversation before it started.

"Don't know don't care!" She said so off the cuff and casually it caught Ted off guard. "My problem is finding someone to cover for you, for the next two weeks, that is half of your unused vacation isn't it?" She looked at him like his mom would have.

"Fine I guess." He sighed. "But thanks Trish, I think I needed this badly." He nodded at her.

"Oh, no, you aren't talking your way out of this one!" She chuckled leaning across the gap between her desk and his, grabbed his plastic name tag, and tossed it in the paper shredder.

"Ok, but that's going to Jam, I can fix it in fix minutes!"

"Be gone!" She chuckled, pushing him out the door. "And good riddance." She laughed, closing the door.

"Love you too Trish!" He chuckled as he walked away. Ted knew Trish couldn't have kids of her own, and knew that she was fond of thinking of him like a son. Annoying at times, but Tirsh was right, he worked too much, too hard, and too long. This did however mean he, had lots of money to blow in the next two weeks, he thought about how he was going to spend it,

Suddenly having most of the day free, Ted took the long way home, a path he didn't often take, as it added an hour to his trip, but it was different, and perhaps that is what he needed now, different. There was a new thing that popped up over the horizon. "Well what is this?" He mused to himself. He decided to stop and see, although he didn't need to stop, to see that it was four baseball diamonds, a small playground, and a connecsion stand. "Looks like something different to me." He muttered as he turned his signal and turned.

There were a few cars, and two of the fields had ½ as many boys on it as he thought a game should have, so he got out, to use the bathroom and look around. We walked to the concession stand, the door to the stand was opened, but the half garage door, was shut, he peaked in. "Hello?" He asked.

"The stand is closed for pratices." An old masculine voiced bellowed from behind him.

"Oh, I just wanted to know if your restrooms are opened." Ted smiled politely at the man.

"No these are closed, but the one in the locker room is opened." The man smiled and pointed to the only other structure on the park. Ted glanced nervously at the two fields being used, one was the high school, from his town, and the other was a group of middle school boys, from another town. He felt bad for the coach of the other team, the younger boys were more interested in goofing off. "They won't bite." The man smiled.

"Uh, thanks." Ted sighed and went to the bathroom. "If he hurried, he could be in and out in no more than a minute.

The old man was amused by Ted's hurried use of the bathroom, and went to the stand, and grabbed a can of coke, and two bags of chips. He sat on a picnic table next to the locker room and waited. "Easy there." He smiled at Ted, "The stand isn't opened, but can I give you some advice?" He slide the can of coke, and a bag of chips across the table, Ted, mulled over leaving, but he was hungry, and a coke sounded nice, he could always ignore the advice.

"Sure!" Ted nodded and sat.

"Son, I've met many boys your age..." Ted sighed at him. "Not a-one of them, was a jumpy as you are. What has you so anxious?"

"You wouldn't understand." Ted sighed.

"You wanna bet me on that?" The man said as if he wanted him to take him up on it.

"Well, I like guys, and well, those guys on that field...." Ted pointed. "Are from my town... and kinda cute..."

The old man sighed. "Well, then honey, is that all?" HE chuckled, Ted glared at him, annoyed. "It was hard for me at first too, probably a lot harder for me, than you." Ted glared at the man again but considered the age of the man, nodded in agreement.

"Your gay?" Ted asked all of a sudden.

"Bingo." The old man chuckled.

"You knew I was?" Ted asked quickly. The old man nodded. "How?"

"Relax." He chuckled. "I knew only because I am, I remember running in and out of bathrooms, and locker rooms to." HE sighed. "I also remember many other things happening in them too..." He laughed.

"Oh." Ted said not quite sure how to respond.

"What brings you out here?" The old man asked. "I put these fields here cause they're between four towns, which puts them squarely in the middle of now where."

"Oh, I took the long way home from work..."

"I took the long way home from work, where do you live?" He asked.

"Just about five miles outside of Eton, off-highway 73."

The old man nodded, Ted knew that he knew. "You the Sheriff's boy then?"

"Yea, he's my dad." Ted nodded, desperately wanting the man to move on.

"It's awfully early to be off work." He pointed out.

"My boss said I was taking a vacation or I was taking a vacation." Ted nodded.

"Ah..." The old man nodded. "What are you going to do with yourself?"

Ted looked worried. "I don't know, I don't have any friends, my father saw to that." He sighed.

"Yea, that was fucked up what he did." The old man sighed, Ted winched. "Well, this place is new, but I still got more work than I can do." The old man sighed. "For however long you got off, consider yourself hired."

"I wasn't looking for a job, I'm on vacation for two weeks." Ted sighed.

"Well, you were looking for something todo." The old man pointed out, Ted nodded. "I'm Buck." The man extended his hand. "Pays $22.50 an hour..." Ted almost fell off the bench. "It's hard work, but you'll have a nice tan, and some good muscles by the end of... Say how long you going to be off?"

"Two weeks." Ted nodded.

"Expect some overtime, at least 6 days for those two weeks, and if you wanna stay, I could use you to run the stand, and close up on weekends."

Ted quickly did the math on an entire day of overtime. "Done!" He added. "I can get new tires for my car." The old man looked at Ted's motor scooter. "It was a nice day." Ted smiled. "I have a car at home."

"Let me give you the fifty-cent tour." Buck nodded at Ted. "It's probably worth $34." He glanced at his watch. "By then the boys should be done, and I can show you how to lock up, not hard work, just a certain way I like it, I'm an old man set in his ways ya know." He stood nodding at Ted.

Buck showed Ted the fields, the dugouts, the maintenance garage on the backside of the locker rooms. A pile of the middle school-aged boys bursts out, making far noises, and fighting, followed by the older ones. "Well, that was all of them." Buck nodded at Ted. "Now it ain't hard work." The man said. "Just look in all the showers, and stalls and make sure no one is hiding in here, grab the trash, clean any messes, and lock up." He handed Ted the Keys and pointed him at the door.

Ted sighed, took the keys, and walked in. There was someone in there, and his sobs said that he wanted to be alone. Ted, did everything else first, no trash, no messes, he tripped. "Hello?" The sobs stopped.

"Hey, I was just locking up for the night." Ted sighed. "I can wait, or I can listen."

"You wouldn't understand." The voice said shakily.

Ted smiled to himself. "Try me." It was very effective, as he had just found out.

"My dad said I can walk home, and I only joined the team cause he wanted me to." the voice shook. Ted decided that the owner of the voice was probably cute.

"My father was like that too." Ted sighed. "Sometimes I thought he hated me, others I knew it." He sighed.

The door to the toilet opened. The player who poked his head out was wearing a JV practice shirt "Really?" One of the middle classmen from the baseball team peaked out. Ted smiled at nodded. "Even after you tried to do what he asked but couldn't?"

"Yea but that was a long time ago." Ted nodded. "I am older now, and I choose not to deal with him." Ted sighed. "I can give you a ride." He added.

"IF you wouldn't mind." The Boy dried his eyes and came out just a step from the stall. He was medium height, had green eyes. He was one of the cutest guys Ted had Seen. helping him would be at the very least not hard on his eyes. Ted snagged the Trash.

"Not a problem, I am Ted." He smiled

"Dallas." He smiled back.

'Please God let him be gay." Ted prayed silently, he was hot, he was sensitive, Ted wanted to hold him until he felt better, and Dallas was a hot name.

"Nice to meet you Dallas, Let's get out of here." Ted held the door, trying not to be as akward as he felt.

"I wondered what was taking you so long." Buck stood, at the table. "Someone must have gone back in, and gotten counted twice." Something didn't add up about that to Ted, but he also couldn't place it so he ignored it.