Chapter 1
Young Adam was a very shy boy.
A little awkward, a little on the geeky side, Adam was very much into science and building models. He spent much time in his room.
By the time he was 18, Adam had won a scholarship to attend Indiana University. It was the summer of 1977, and Adam had a few weeks left with his step mom, Natalie, and his step sister, Rachel.
Adam lost his father when he was very young, and spent his entire childhood growing up with two women in the household, and no males.
It was weird at times for him, but a very happy time. Adam thought of Natalie as more of a friend than a mom. He also couldn't help notice how attractive she was, and ever since he hit puberty, there arose some feelings of arousal whenever she was near.
And then there was the cute, young Rachel. Adam's step sister often teased him for being nerdy, but it was goodhearted humor. And young Adam also was very shy about his sexuality.
Any time the women talked about sex, it made him feel uncomfortable. It especially bothered him when the two women would make jokes about the male anatomy, that special part of the male anatomy.
When he was younger, and watching television with his step mom and step sis, if there was a penis joke or some kind of physical comedy involving the male member, young Adam would run out of the room, embarrassed.
He hadn't totally shaken off this kind of behavior yet by the time he was 18.
On a hot Kentucky afternoon one Saturday, Natalie and Adam were out doing yard work - Natalie was busy in the garden, and Adam was pulling weeds.
Adam loved when his step mom wore these tight white shorts she often wore when doing yard work. She had really big, tan thighs, and seemingly liked showing them off just to tease young Adam. She was squatting right next to him at one point, and he couldn't help staring at her thighs. He wished he had a camera to take a picture.
The two were braving the hot afternoon sun, and getting an awful lot of work done. But they needed another pair of hands.
"Where is Dick?" Natalie asked rhetorically. Dick, or Uncle Dick, as Adam called him, had been Adam's dad's best friend, and had remained good friends with Natalie over the years.
Even though he wasn't actually related to Adam, Dick had been a good friend of his and sort of a male role model, which he sorely needed.
Suddenly, the lovable uncle came through the backyard gate, much to Natalie's enjoyment.
"Dick!" she said enthusiastically.
"Well, I'll tell ya,' Dick, we sure could use your help," she said, wiping some sweat from her brow. Adam's eyes were still locked on her tan legs.
"Must be a hundred degrees out here, Dick," she said.
She always seemed to call the lovable uncle by name an inordinate amount of times, Adam noticed, like she enjoyed calling him by name, but maybe it was Adam's imagination.
As Uncle Dick started helping out the two, Adam noticed that he had unusually baggy shorts on.
"See, Nat, I want shorts like that," Adam said to his step mom.
"Like Dick's?" she asked with an amused grin on her face.
"Yeah," Adam answered. "See, they're nice and baggy."
The shorts Adam had on were sort of tight, and out of style. His uncle's seemed more comfortable.
"Honey, I think Dick goes to a special store to buy those shorts, dontcha Dick?" Natalie asked the man. Dick grinned back at her.
"Special store?" Adam asked.
"I'm just kidding with him," said Natalie, running her hand through her shoulder-length, brown locks. "Sweetie, we can try to find you ones like that," she said to the boy.
And the three continued to fight the heat.
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"Did you know I was almost a Rockette, Adam?" Natalie asked the boy one day as he was setting the table.
"Y-yes, mam," he stuttered, as he sometimes did. He paused, and then had to add something. "You have beautiful legs."
Natalie looked at her daughter, and they gave each other a smirk.
"Well thank you, young man," she told him. "You made my day."
As Natalie relaxed in her seat, wearing a nice, somewhat revealing sundress, one that showed off plenty of those legs, Adam began to ponder something out loud.
"Natalie, why does everyone call Mr. Roberts, Dick?" he asked.
Like she had long planned for this exact question, Natalie was undaunted.
"Oh, it's just a nickname, sweetie," she said. "It's short for Richard."
Adam had a bewildered look on his face.
"But his real name is Oscar," he said. Natalie quickly tried to divert attention away from that last statement.
"Rachel, honey, can you get the iced tea out of the fridge?" she asked her 18-year-old daughter.
"Nat?" Adam asked. She ignored him.
"Nat-uh-lie," he said, purposely dragging out her name for greater impact.
"Yes, Adam, what is it?" she asked, turning to him somewhat annoyed.
"If his name is Oscar, why do they call him Dick?" he asked. Suddenly, Rachel had a look of amusement on her face, like she knew something Adam didn't.
"Oh for crying out loud sweetie, I don't know, everyone calls my brother, Buster, and his name's Kevin!" she said in an irritated tone. "I have no idea why Oscar goes by Dick."
"I was just wondering is all," he answered.
"Well you should have more important things on your mind right now," she said. "That lawn isn't gonna cut itself. After supper, you should get that done."
And they had a somewhat quiet dinner.
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A few days later, Adam tagged along with Rachel to her friend's, which he tended to do sometimes.
Nikki, who Adam usually spoke to the most out of the five girls that Rachel called her clique, began to tease the young boy.
"So I heard you kept asking your step mom why they call Mr. Roberts, Dick," she said. Adam was surprised that Nikki heard of this.
"Oh...yeah, why was that such big news?" he asked. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, even more uncomfortable than just a few weeks earlier, when Adam was again the only boy in the room, and the girls had gotten a hold of one of Nikki's dirty movies, featuring full frontal male nudity. Adam almost went out of the room screaming that day, feeling overmatched by the aggressive, voyeuristic young women.
But he held his composure then, and did now as well.
"What, do you know why they call him that, Nikki?" Adam asked the girl. Her face flushed bright red.
"Um, yeah, sort of. Rachel told me," she said.
Adam's eyes immediately darted in Rachel's direction, and the young, busty brunette now had a tightened look of concern on her face.
"We're...not supposed to talk about that," she said.
"Why? What is the big deal?" Adam asked.
Rachel got up, her big butt almost right in Adam's face. She was wearing a wet bathing suit, and Adam could clearly make out those two, big luscious cheeks. She looked like a younger clone of Natalie.
"We aren't supposed to talk about that guys," she warned her friends. "My mom would kill me."
Adam let the matter go, for the moment.
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The next afternoon, when Natalie and Adam finished their daily yard work, she said she had something to talk to him about.
When they were finished the yard work, the two of them joined Rachel for some lemonade in the kitchen. Adam sensed there was something going on.
Natalie came over and sat down at the table, next to Adam. Rachel sat on the other side of him.
"Sweetie, we have to talk," the step mom said, drawing in closer to Adam.
She cleared her throat slightly.
"Nikki told me you were bugging her too about Mr. Roberts' nickname?" she asked.
"Not bugging -"
"Sweetie," she interrupted him. "She told me you brought it up over Nikki's. This is really eating at you, huh?"
"Well," he began, thinking maybe she would finally spill the beans. "I just wanted to know. I feel like everybody knows but me."
Natalie looked over at her daughter. The step mom took a deep breath.
"Well," she said hesitantly. "I guess you are 18 now...which means I can trust you to be mature about certain things."
Adam nodded, and he was somewhat nervous now.
"As you know I have known Dick since high school," Natalie began. "He and I were best friends back then - we grew up together, Oscar started going by the name Dick back then as far as I know, and it was a nickname back then that stuck."
Adam was getting bored by all this. Natalie, meanwhile, was reluctant to get to the good stuff.
She gave Adam this look like he should get it by now, that he should have figured out why his "uncle" had that certain special nickname.
"Sweetie, haven't you gone to the Y with your uncle a few times?" Natalie asked.
"Uh yeah," Adam replied, not knowing how that was pertinent.
"And...haven't you...showered with him?" Natalie asked.
Now Adam was confused.
"Not with him, kind of separately I guess," he said.
Natalie shook her head, frustrated. She really didn't want to have to spell it out for him.
She looked at Rachel, with this look that suggested 'I just don't know how to get the message across.'