As with Chapter 45, a journey to East Harbor allows you to follow the exploits of Aiden, Nolan, and Mason. It informs you about things like how will Aiden fare when he tries his hand at surfing?
CHAPTER 46
NORTH TO MAYFIELD
MONDAY, AUGUST 17
<Coast Starlight>
The Mayfield party arrived at Los Angeles Union Station in a pair of Ubers at nine in the morning. Sunday had been a tiring day for both families. The boys had enjoyed swimming, surfing, eating, and lots of socializing. Aiden and Nolan agreed that the East Harbor boys were a great group. Aiden was happy that Michael and Alejandro would be coming to his birthday party in a couple of weeks. He was happy to have mended his fences with Alejandro. He was more than happy for Mason and how he had blossomed as a musician and, more importantly, as a person.
The group waited in the Metropolitan Lounge which was open to business class and sleeping car passengers. The lounge attendant buzzed them into the lounge from the outside hall at about ten after nine. She looked over their tickets to confirm they were eligible to use the lounge, told them they could sit in any open seats, pointed out where the drinks and breakfast snacks were and asked if they wanted to check any luggage.
The Moyers checked their two large bags and kept two carry-on bags containing what they needed for the overnight. Larry and Phil checked one bag each and kept their backpacks. Aiden and Nolan followed the same procedure.
The group had enjoyed a free breakfast at the hotel restaurant, but that didn’t keep Aiden and Nolan from grabbing a couple of donuts apiece. The boys found out from the attendant that their train would be spotted on Track 10 at sometime between nine-thirty and nine-forty.
“Is it okay for us to go on the platform without our parents to watch the train coming in?” Aiden asked the attendant.
“As long as your parents approve, you have your ticket with you, and you stay out of the way,” she responded.
“I’m going to take some pictures,” Aiden said. The attendant was about to say something, but before she could, Aiden went on. “Nolan and I have both taken Operation Lifesaver safety classes and we can show you our cards.” Operation Lifesaver is a national organization using volunteers in multiple venues ranging from school classrooms to driving classes to county fairs to teach people to be safe around trains.
“That is a first-class organization and I’m happy to hear you take safety seriously. I hope you get some good pictures.”
The adults were staying behind and would be riding to the train in an electric cart driven by a redcap. “I understand my parents using a redcap, because that’s the way they are,” Nolan said. “But, damn, your dads are both in great shape, so why aren’t they walking?”
“Maybe because they like the company of your ‘rents?”
“Hmm, yeah, that kinda makes sense to me. I mean they are my parents after all.”
They were soon at Track 10 where a lot of passengers were waiting—mostly coach passengers. Nolan and Aiden walked to the south end of the platform where the sleepers should be if they were at the end of the train, which was the usual practice. At 9:33 the train arrived from the Amtrak yard. Aiden busily got pictures of the locomotives and the train as it entered the station on the new through tracks, which meant it no longer had to be backed in. It also meant Aiden would get better pictures since he would be shooting the train from front to back instead of back to front.
The redcap cart carrying their parents arrived on the platform just as the train rolled to a stop. The boys told their parents that the 1431 car, which was their car, was the second sleeper. The redcap unloaded the adults’ bags. They tipped him, and were then greeted by the car attendant, who introduced herself as Trish.
Paul and Vivian were in Bedroom D. Larry and Phil were next to them in Bedroom C. The full bedrooms had a couch, a bunk bed that the attendant set up, a sink, a toilet, and a shower. Aiden and Nolan were in Roomette 3 which had two seats made up into a lower bunk, which was narrower than the ones in the bedrooms. An upper bunk was pulled down from the wall. It had no sink or toilet—if the boys had to take care of a call of nature they had to go out into the corridor and use the restroom that was across from them and to their left by the length of one roomette.
The train left at exactly 9:51, their scheduled departure time. One of the conductors scanned their tickets within minutes of the train’s departure and the two families were soon ensconced in the first-class lounge. They had managed to reach the lounge early enough to get seats on the water side of the car.
They knew the victory didn’t mean all that much since they probably would be in the dining car eating lunch during the best part of the trip along the ocean. But for now, they sat and watched the cities north of Los Angeles pass by with stops along the way. The best part about this stretch was the run through the Vasquez Rocks where many episodes of the original Star Trek series were filmed. Aiden was a science fiction fan and had seen all of the original Star Trek episodes. The rocky hills seemed like familiar friends and seemed brighter and sharper than on the trip south in the Silver Solarium dome, which didn’t make that trip any less awesome.
“I think the morning light and the direction we’re traveling may have a lot to do with the difference,” Nolan said after Aiden shared his observations.
“Yeh, I think you’re right. But the look this way is epic. I mean I can almost see Captain Kirk battling the Gorn in those rocks.” While Nolan wasn’t the big fan that Aiden was, he knew what his boyfriend was talking about. The view was often broken by tunnels, but for around twenty minutes Aiden felt like a crew member of the “USS Enterprise”, which he told Nolan.
“As long as you’re not wearing a red shirt, you’ll be fine,” Nolan chuckled. The red shirted security officers who were beamed down seemed to have a habit of taking a one-way trip to whatever planet was being visited.
After leaving Oxnard they ran along the ocean with Highway 101 separating them from the beach. The parking area along the highway was full of RVs and campers.
The Mayfield party got a 12:30 lunch reservation and were called to the dining car just after the “Coast Starlight” left Santa Barbara. They were soon back along the ocean, only this time there was no highway between them and the shoreline. Once again, the light made a difference. On the run south, the sun had been to the west which, of course, was where the ocean was. This time, since it was midday, the sun was high in the sky and they didn’t have to deal with its glare.
The scenery was the same as they had seen traveling south and yet it was different. While the Parlour Lounge was at the same level as the domes on the Zephyr cars and had large windows on the side and curved windows above, it didn’t have the view front and back that the dome cars had. But the big windows still made for great viewing and the train-loving boys were amazed at the many things they saw this time that they hadn’t seen heading south.
They went through a long stretch through Vandenberg Space Base where phone service was blocked. When they had a signal, Aiden had a text from Mason and one from Michael. Nolan had one from Michael and one from Alejandro. They asked how the train trip was going and Michael and Alejandro said they couldn’t wait for Aiden’s birthday party. Mason said that he was ready to come home. Aiden also texted Landon, who had told them he would be taking pictures and waving as they travelled through Winton. Aiden told him they would be on the left side of the train in the second sleeper.
Aiden and Nolan were in the diner enjoying steak dinners as the train raced through the Salinas Valley. It was dark when they left Oakland, and they were in their bunks when the train left Emeryville.
They had shared the same hotel room with Larry and Phil the three previous nights. Instead of requesting a roll-in bed, Aiden’s dads had let the boys share one of the two king beds and admonished them to be good. The boys had been too tired to try anything.
As they dressed down for the night, both boys admitted being tired and horny. Neither one could figure out which feeling was stronger.
In the roomette they each slept in a t-shirt and a pair of pajama shorts in case they had to go out into the corridor to use the restroom. Waking up to use the can rarely happened for either of them but the experienced train riders felt it was good to be prepared. Plus, Larry made sure they understood what they needed to prepare, including having their crocs at the door. In reality, their toughest job was charging both of their phones and having them placed so that Nolan, who had the lower bunk, wouldn’t roll over on them. They had a plan which proved to be successful. Having packed a multi outlet extension cord made their job easy. As with good Boy Scouts, which they weren’t, being prepared paid off.
Everyone in the two families slept soundly. A quick jerk off helped the boys relax. That, along with the motion of the train, had them falling asleep quickly.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18
The next morning the boys woke up about fifteen minutes before arriving in Klamath Falls. They shared a good morning kiss and then quickly dressed in jeans and hoodies and were ready step off for a quick fresh air walk when the “Coast Starlight” arrived right on the advertised at 7:33. Aiden wasn’t surprised when his dads and Nolan’s dad came down the stairs for a quick walk as well.
“Where’s mom?” Nolan asked his dad, Paul. He knew his mom well enough to anticipate Paul’s answer.
“It will take her a few more minutes to get ready. She was ready to shower when Larry knocked on the door just before we stopped. She said she’d meet us at breakfast.” The answer was almost word for word what Nolan imagined it would be.
After enjoying a ten-minute walk, they boarded the train when the engineer gave two blasts of the horn, the signal to the passengers on the platform to reboard the train.
They headed to the dining car and were seated at two adjacent tables on the left side of the train, which was the water side. The Millers and Nolan sat at one table and Paul took a seat at the other. Nolan’s mother entered the dining car as the waiter started taking drink orders and sat next to Paul. It had been agreed the day before that Nolan and Aiden would sit with Nolan’s parents at lunch and that dinner would be a family meal with the Millers and Moyers each sitting at their own table.
They pulled out of the station ten minutes late. The conductor apologized for the delay on the PA system saying they had to wait for a red signal to clear.
As the train started out of town, Aiden saw a sign he didn’t remember seeing on their trip south in the Zephyr cars. Then he remembered they would have gone past it at night. The sign was situated above the scoreboard at the high school football stadium and read, “Home of the Pelicans.”
“Dang, look at that sign,” Aiden said.
“No way there’s pelicans in Klamath Falls, Oregon,” Nolan said. “It’s in the center of the state across the mountains from the ocean.:
“You never know,” Aiden said as he went to work on his phone, stopping to order French toast and bacon when the waiter came to take their food order.
Aiden paused to butter the French toast and add syrup even though the toast had fresh berries spread across it. He tried it and liked it—loved it in fact. He also found that pelicans did indeed migrate to Central Oregon from the Pacific and could be seen in the Klamath Lake region this time of year.
They were soon traveling along the lake. Although they saw many birds including cormorants and bald eagles, no pelicans were seen.
“We’ll see them next time,” Phil said as he paused between bites of his omelet. Nolan and Aiden liked the idea that there would be a next time and since it was dark along the lake when the train traveled south that meant it would have to be a round trip to have a chance of seeing pelicans.
They left the shore of Lake Klamath about an hour after leaving Klamath Falls. They were all sitting in the Parlour Car by then. They crossed Willamette Pass and then followed the Willamette River through thick forest and twenty plus tunnels down to Eugene. They enjoyed lunch in the Willamette Valley just after leaving Eugene, and an early dinner before arriving in Centralia, their destination. Food was important to the young adolescents: Aiden and Nolan relished every bite.
Not long before arriving in Centralia the train raced through Winton and past the “World’s Largest Egg” where they saw Landon with his camera standing north of the Egg. Nolan did the waving and Aiden had his camera set on continuous exposure and got off six snaps of the shutter.
<Landon>
Landon checked his train tracker before leaving his house to watch Train 14, the “Coast Starlight” run through his hometown of Winton. He placed his camera in the saddle bag of his bicycle and headed to the “World’s Largest Egg” where he would shoot a video of the train carrying his best friends Nolan and Aiden as it raced by at 79 miles per hour.
He knew he wouldn’t be able to see his friends, but he planned to give a copy to each of them when he went to their welcome back party in a couple of hours. They would be able to see the video he shot of the train speeding from one end of town to the other, getting the Egg into the video as the train entered into his view. He caught the train from the front to the back and continued taking the video until it disappeared from view. While he didn’t see his friends, he knew in his heart that they had seen him and waved. Then he wondered if maybe one or both of them had photographed or taken a video of him taking a video of them.
Just as he was mounting his bike, he received a text from Aiden saying they had seen him from the train. “Thanks for being there and for taking the pics or video or whatever you took,” Aiden said.
Landon waited until he got home before he played the video. He smiled as he looked it over. The late afternoon lighting was perfect, and his framing of the train was as well.
“thnx. loved doin it. it was video,” Landon texted back.
<Aiden and Nolan>
The ”Coast Starlight” arrived in Centralia on time. The Millers and Moyers picked up their cars in the downtown Centralia parking lot and were soon on Highway 12 making their way home. The conversations in the two vehicles were nearly identical. Everyone agreed the 12-day trip was one of their greatest trips ever, if not the greatest ever. However, all of them were ready to sleep in their own beds. Aiden and Nolan agreed they would wait a night or two before sleeping together.
“Are we stopping anywhere for dinner?” Aiden asked his dad as they entered the Mayfield city limits.
“No, I figured that after all that Amtrak food we had the last couple of days it would be a good idea for us not to eat tonight,” Larry said.
“Come on pop, you know that’s not true.”
“Think what you want,” Larry shrugged. “We’ll talk dinner once we get our stuff put away.”
After arriving home, they took their baggage to their rooms, unpacked, and either put away their clothing or tossed it into their dirty hamper depending on their cleanliness. Most of it went into the hamper. The routine wasn’t much different at Nolan’s house.
“Aiden, finished or not, we need you downstairs NOW,” Phil called out.
Since Aiden had dropped the last of his dirty underwear into the hamper, he didn’t have any reason not to head downstairs, especially since there was a good chance the topic to be discussed had to do with dinner. He zipped downstairs, skipping the last two stairs, and screeched to a stop in front of his dads, who were waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.
“Was that close enough to NOW?” Aiden asked.
“Well, since you didn’t break your neck coming down the stairs, I’ll call it acceptable,” Larry replied.
“I had to do fast since you did say NOW plus I figured it had to do with food.”
“I’m guessing the food aspect has more to do with it than me yelling out NOW,” Phil chuckled.
“Where are we eating?”
“The community center.”
“Say what? They don’t serve food there.”
“They will tonight.”
“I assume you’ll tell me what’s going on, like maybe now,” Aiden said.
“How about we tell you in the car,” Larry told him. “We’re running a couple of minutes late.”
“That’s not my fault.”
“Nobody said it was. Now, let’s move.”
A somewhat different conversation occurred at Nolan’s house.
Phil got behind the wheel of the Honda Pilot. As they headed west for the short hop to Mayfield, Larry told Aiden some of what would be happening at the Mayfield Community Center.
“Some of the Goat players and parents decided to have a little welcome back party for you and Nolan,” Larry said.
“Why?” Aiden asked right away. “Guys and their families go on trips all summer long, so what’s special about Nolan and me going on one with our families?”
“None of them text pictures taken from the dome of a private rail car. None of them go to programs featuring a budding Mayfield singing star. I suppose some of them might go surfing, but other than that your trip was unique.”
“Nobody that I know of went surfing. In fact, I don’t think anybody even went to California this summer.”
“At least not yet,” Phil pointed out.
“Dad, there’s only two weeks until school starts,” Aiden said as Phil turned into the community center parking lot.
“That’s plenty of time to get a trip done,” Larry said.
“I guess so, if it’s, like, planned out ahead of time and everything.”
Larry elected not to give Aiden grief over using “like” as a filler, since this was obviously not the time to escalate a delicate situation by being nitpicky. Phil parked the car and waited for the conversation to play out.
“When was this planned and who planned it all out?” Aiden asked. He suspected his dads played a big role in this before they even left Mayfield on their epic train trip.
“I guess Gordy and some other Goats came up with the idea. Martha Hallion took over the planning. She’s good at this kind of project and has the connections to make things happen quickly.” Martha Hallion was the wife of Goats’ coach James Hallion.
All of the Goat players who were able to attend the party attended with one exception. Max was that exception. He was in town but wanted nothing to do with celebrating the dubious accomplishments of Aiden and Nolan, who he thought were way too full of themselves as it was.
Mason, Miles, Muddy, Rusty and Grant were out of town and couldn’t attend. On the flip side, Cal was able to talk his dad into taking him to Mayfield from Clark Pass and was at the party. A surprise guest at the party was Landon who received an invitation from Gordy because he had played a big role in the big train journey.
Aiden, Emmett, Lenny, Lance, Gordy, Mac, Riley, Scott, Scott’s cousin Ronnie, Trent, Skip, Nolan, Cal, Landon, and Jackson meant there were fifteen adolescent boys to feed along with the parents attending. Jackson had been recruited by his mother to help serve the food. The Mayfield Café supplied the food for the party. They guaranteed that the menu of lasagna and Caesar salad would fill the team of bottomless pits. And to make sure that promise was fulfilled, a large supply of chocolate chip cookies with ice cream was available for dessert.
The boys sat at two long tables in their own section with the adults at rectangular tables that could seat four. As everyone started digging into their desserts, Martha clinked on the side of an empty glass with a spoon. The loud chatter calmed down quickly. Martha was amused by the fact that the boys were quiet and attentive before the adults were.
“Thank you to so many people for coming on such short notice,” Martha said. “As most of you know, this gathering is more than a welcome home party.” Aiden started getting a bad feeling about where this was going. “It is also to honor a young man for being presented with a special award at the Out Festival in Los Angeles.”
Aiden looked at Nolan, hoping his boyfriend could find a way to rescue him. He swore if he had to stand up and say anything he would run straight out the door.
As a mother of two teenage boys, Martha could make out teen distress in an instant. “That boy, as you know, is Aiden. And don’t worry, Aiden, you won’t have to stand up and say anything. Your teammates just wanted you to know that what you do is appreciated with this welcome home party.” The Goats broke out into a round of applause accompanied by hoots and hollers. Aiden was blushing a deep red.
After the noise died down, Martha went on. “Before we close, Landon, from Winton, and a friend of many of you on the team, traveled with Aiden and Nolan over most of their trip. We invited him here because he was a big part of the adventure. He would like to show you all a quick video.”
When Landon arrived at the Community Center, he and his dad had sought out Larry. Landon had texted his plan to Larry earlier and Larry was ready to plug his video in the Center’s AV system, which he had used on other occasions.
Landon stood up and said, “I just thought you guys might want to know what Aiden and Nolan look like riding a train. After you see the car with the big windows go by look real careful at the third car. At about the middle of third car you can just barely see them through the window.”
Larry played the video which was displayed on a monitor on the front wall. Everyone watched the “Coast Starlight” highball through Winton. During the third replay. Larry paused the video at just the right point so everybody could get a good look at Aiden and Nolan,
Mrs. Hallion stood up after third replay and said, “To tell you more about the team banquet, here’s my husband James, who is better known to the team as Coach Hallion.”
James got some cheers from the team as he stood and faced the partiers. “The date of the Goats end of the season banquet will be announced once school starts,” he said. “We wanted to wait until everyone was home from family vacations before scheduling the banquet.” James looked down at Aiden. “Aiden, that will give you time to polish your speaking skills,” which brought a round of laughter and caused the blond tween to turn even a deeper red, as if that was possible. “My thanks to Gordy for coming up with the idea and for contacting his teammates, to Gordy’s mother Flo for getting things going quickly, my dear wife Martha for organizing the catering and location, and to Leslie Hazen for all of her help. You all accomplished quite a bit in less than two days.”
“You go mom!” the Hazen twins yelled out in unison which started a round of applause for the mothers.
Aiden then stood up and said, “Thanks moms and dads and Goats for a great welcome home party. And thanks to Landon for showing Nolan and me at our best—which is going 80 miles an hour on a train.”
On that note, James thanked everyone for coming and closed the banquet.
“Dads, why did you guys have to keep the whole thing about the award secret from me?” Aiden asked his dads on the way home. “I mean, really, it ended up not being a big deal, but not until it was made into a big deal.”
“Son, you’ll have to ask Mrs. Hallion,” Larry said. “I disagreed with that decision since it really wasn’t a big deal. But I bet you can figure out that it will be a big deal at the team banquet, and you will have to speak.”
“Hey, I managed to speak okay when I got the award, and that was an epic surprise. It’s just that this time it was in front of my friends and teammates, which is what got me all embarrassed. I’ll be ready to say something better at the banquet, whenever that is. But you know what really surprises me?”
“Tell us,” Phil said.
“That everybody on the team could keep the secret, including Nolan.”
“That’s probably because they didn’t have time to make something out of it. As for Nolan, would you have expected anything less from him?”
“It all depends,” Aiden chuckled.
After the quick trip home, Aiden gave his dads good night hugs. “Good night dads. I love you both.”
“Good night son,” Larry said. “You’re the best, and never forget it.”
The tired tween hustled upstairs to turn in early.
After pissing, washing, and tooth care, Aiden climbed into bed. He was naked as he usually was in bed. He checked his phone and saw he had six texts. One was from Gordy, who told him how great it was to see him back home. Aiden thanked him. The next one was from Trent, who told Aiden, “my mom did a good job organizing the party was wrong embarrassing u.”
Aiden texted him back that he survived and wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
The third was from Nolan. “hey Sweet Cakes…sorry the moms embarrassed u.”
“It’s all good Sugar Bear. The moms were awesome, and I lived through it. A nice BJ tomorrow will have me all back together.”
He instantly received a smiley face meme. The other three texts were from Miles, Trent, and Scott congratulating him on his award. He said a brief gratitude prayer and went to sleep grateful that he had so many amazing friends.
Little did he know how much he was going to need them soon.
Next: Facing Teendom