Lifebonded

"It was a dark and stormy night" (my apologies to Mr. Shultz and Snoopy). The rain was beating against the windows and door of our patrol's club house. Even though it was the middle of summer, you could feel a slight chill in the air. It was Monday evening and our scout patrol was having its first meeting of the New year. I should explain that my name is Lukas. I was 13 years old at the time, an Australian boy living in a little coastal village called Ceduna, northwest of Adelaide, in the state of Southern Australia. It's not a big city or thriving metropolis. The only source of employment here is the Telecommunications center that serves all overseas transmissions. Anyway, enough of the boring stuff.

I am 172 centimeters tall with dirty blond hair and bluish/grey eyes. Nothing to write home about. My older sis tells me when I laugh you can see gold specks floating around. "Poof" Girls! I weigh 48 Kilograms soaking wet, which is not too often as I have this great fear of the water (Great Big White clunky things under the waves can have me as an appetizer. NOT!). But I am a great outdoors person, as my bestest mate, Tay is also. We both love any activities that involve being outside. If it was up to us, we would live our lives out entirely on horseback roaming the Australian Outback and living off the land bountiful. But that's all wishful thinking. What do teenagers really know? There are all sorts of creepy crawly things out there, things that slither under rocks and bushes and love to stay warm during the cold Australian nights. They certainly love occupied sleeping bags because of the warmth. Oi! But I am being remiss. I forgot about Tay.

TAY! My bestest mate! My Life Bonded as he calls it. My mum calls him my shadow. We share so much together that it would be easier if he was my sib. He is a Kiwi, a New Zealander by birth. He re-located here to our little village when his da became employed by REMCO, a large telecommunications company, two years ago. His family moved into a cottage a little ways down the lane from our home. His real name is Taylor but that got quickly shortened to Tay by yours truly. No boy should be saddled with a name such as Taylor. Gods.

Tay is just a tad larger than myself, standing tall at 175 centimeters, but we weigh just the same. We are both of European decent, me being mostly Scandinavian (hence my blondish hair and bluish eyes) and Tay, Eastern European. Tay has this way neat light brown hair with streaks of lighter hair that suddenly appear in the summer months. His eyes are a light green like the first signs of spring when the grass starts getting back its colour. I keep telling Tay that with his colour combination, he can hide in a forest and blend right in.

I can remember the first time we went camping together when we were 11 years old. It was in the fall out by Lake Everard. It started raining after we left the trucks by the auto park and had hiked in about 5 kilometers. We still had a few clicks to hike, but even with our rain gear, we were getting very soaked. Tay and I were teamed up by our leader. Because of our sameness, we could carry identical gear. We finally got to our campsite and picked out a spot for our tent. Needless to say, we were drenched to the bone. As Tay and I were setting up our hike tent, Mr. Brooks was starting a huge warm-up fire.

"Tay, I don't know about you, but I'm cold and I just want to crawl into my sleeping bag as soon as possible." I said with a shiver.

"Thump, we are in tune here mate," Tay answered, "I'm with you all the way. Forget dinner, I have enough snacks to feed the whole partol. We can share it just between us two."

Oh! I should mention that my pet name amongst the patrol is "Thumper," like the tiny rabbit in the Disney movie Bambi. Tay gave it to me the first night we met, and it stuck. I am still trying to think of a real good one for him, but we are not allowed to use that kind of language in the patrol!

By the time we had our tent set up, Mr. Brooks called us around the fire. "Okay boys. I can see dinner is a bust, so everyone get into your tents and get out of those wet clothes. Put dry socks on and clean skivvies, and don't forget your watch caps." We rushed back to our tents and did exactly that. I felt a little better but my teeth were still clicking away. When Mr. Brooks came by our tent and peeked in, handing us each a large thermo full of hot chocolate, he noticed my distress right off.

"Right! Taylor, Lukas. Out of your bags. Tay, slip yours inside of Lukas'. Now, both of you. This is not funny. Get inside of them. I don't want to have to rush either of you to the hospital tonight. Get inside and build up some body heat"

He closed the tent flap and went to check on the other boys. By the light of our portable candle we did as we were told. But when it came time to crawl inside, I hesitated. What were people going to say? What were they going to think for that matter? It was bad enough that Tay and I always seemed to be paired up for any scout activities, but now I was supposed to climb into the same sleeping bag and get very very close up and personal with another boy. I looked over to Tay and he had this evil grin spread across his face. He was enjoying this. Oh, was he in for it.

I looked at the sleeping bag and then at Tay He still had that little grin upon his face. What was he up to? What was he thinking? Now, it should be said that at this point I had no inner feelings towards anyone, male or female (sheesh, I was only 11 years old), but something was drawing me into that sleeping bag without any real protest from my lips. I wanted to know what Tay was smiling about but most of all I wanted warmth, so I dove into the bag and waited.

Next morning I woke up to the strangest sensation. Besides being warm as toast, I felt safe and secure inside my little cocoon. Then it hit me. I wasn't alone. That warm sensation was being produced by a very skinny body almost wrapped around my skinny little body. TAY! We were cuddling together, face to face. Chest to chest. Hip to...well, you get the idea. I was looking directly into Tay's eyes when they fluttered open and stared back at me.

"Tay. You've got some killer eyes you know." Gods. I couldn't believe I had just said that, but I didn't turn away. I just kept staring into his deep, sea green eyes, feeling quite content as we cuddled together. Was this right? Why was I okay with this? "Thump, as much as I'd love to stay here like this for the rest of the day, we have to get up and get the patrol moving."

With that, he lightly brushed his lips across my nose and exited our cocoon. Since that first campout, things had gotten a bit friendlier between us. Now, don't get your mind into the gutter here. It wasn't about sex. Tay and I had grown very close in our friendship. Closer than anyone knew. We had both admitted to each other that we liked our relationship very much.

We shared so many things in our short lives together, from school to our love of the outdoors and sports. We loved the feeling of just being free to do as we pleased, but like everything else in this oh-so-confused and mixed up world of ours, things cannot be perfect. Mistakes are made, illnesses happen. Death awaits at our front doorstep biding its time. N=e=way...back to that "dark and stormy night!"

It was a big night for our patrol. We were planning on a four night camping trip for the next week since we had a fortnight off due to the summer holidays. I was really looking forward to the trip because we were going by horseback way off into the bush without any adult supervision. It was going to be Tay and me, Jon and Kevin, Conner, Ralph, Josh and Brian. I was the first there getting set up because I was the leader, and also because we were using my family's horses. N-e-way, I was really nervous about this and I could feel it inside. I did not know what was going on but I felt very strange. Maybe it was all the chocolate and cola I had at mid meal that day. I am a closet choco-holic and I was never without a bar of the creamy confection.

AH! Here comes Conner and Josh, followed closely by Brian and Kevin. Right behind them is my Tay. God's, this is going to be a great meeting. I wished, though, that I could get over that strange feeling. The last thing I remember is running over to give my mates the Hi 5.

Then everything went blank

Comments welcomed and appreciated at aussie-brats@acannex.us. No flames please.