The churchman slept fitfully in the cold night. But he was vaguely conscious enough to hear the old church clock strike 1. Sure enough, a vivid light at the side of the bed shone, embracing a smiling sort of androgynous creature in a charming old fashioned robe of shimmering damask and lined with white fur. It seemed to have a great burning lamp on its head. The apparition smiled at him with radiance and enthusiasm.
"Well you seem to me almost a well-costumed child. You must be the first spirit the ghost of Jacob Moorfield spoke of. Tell me, who are you?"
"I am the ghost of winter solstices past."
"Long past?"
"Well for the purposes of tonight, just your past.".
Ebenezer felt the chill of the room on his bare skin and quickly grasped the end of the bed sheet to cover himself. He spoke sheepishly. "Many pardons, spirit. In the unexpected commotion of coping with my dead partner's ghost, it seems I have forgotten to cover myself in my night shirt. Now, I am just naked."
The apparition laughed in sort of a pleasing quiet high pitch, but not precisely as if female. "Scribner Ebenezer, you have cared for your mortal countenance very well. You are not just naked, but splendid in your nudity. In the solstices of long past, some cultures would celebrate and dance nude ~ well, once the bonfire had been blazing for a while, at any rate. It would be a privilege and a tribute to old times if you would accompany me just your natural self."
"But spirit, there are no bonfires in recent ages. I would surely expire very quickly in the deathly cold of the night. If not dead yet, I would expire from embarrassment when others would encounter us, me in my indecency."
"When you clasp your hand on my robe at my heart, we will be able to travel effortlessly through the night sky. The wind will be like the brush of a soothing warm blanket to you. You will be protected from all the natural elements. The flow of your night shirt would just be a nuisance. What indecency? The past was better than our current times. Mortal people enjoyed encountering and frolicking together unclothed and natural. Maybe in future times, they will return to such sociability. But no reason to be concerned all the same, for no one will see or hear us despite being in their presence."
Ebenezer sheepishly climbed out of bed. The ghost beamed its smile as it ogled his naked form. "As I say, everything splendid. Now place your hand over my heart.'
Doing as it instructed, he was enveloped with warmth. The window flew open instantly and the strange pair floated out the window up into the moonlit sky. They traveled 100s of feet up over the small houses in a way that was strangely liberating to a naked churchman who under other circumstances, would be vulnerable to most dangerous and compromising calamities. Like magic, they approached their first destination in broad but frosty daylight.
The naked man recognized the campus buildings of what had been the first college he had attended before transferring to the seminary. He saw students he knew and had been friendly with each other. They were greeting each other "Merry Christmas" as they were climbing into vintage period autos. He beamed and tried to wave at them. But remembering his nudity, he quickly scooted behind the spirit when he realized some female students were among them.
"Silly mortal. I told you they cannot see our presence. But come with me, I have something else to show you." They approached a dormitory building that the naked man recognized as his campus residence. The lobby seemed deserted. But they took the elevator to a deserted floor all the same. It was as if they drifted through a closed room door to witness a naked youth lying on the bed with many open magazines of apparently varied erotic content. Ebenezer in his own nudity was horrified to recognize the naked student as himself years earlier.
The younger version in present company had his fist wrapped around his hard throbbing cock and stroking it with grunting conviction in a brazen semblance of hot masturbatory pleasures. The magazine he focused on in the other hand was opened to a glossy photograph of young naked youths wrapped into themselves in the variety of orgiastic gay group sex on an otherwise barren beach.
"I like that. I call that some skillful handiwork." The ghost looked on with grinning approval.
"Really spirit! What purpose does it serve that I should be reminded of such things?"
It was as if it ignored him. "Look at the way he grasps his cock with such confidence. Pleasuring oneself well is truly an art. Look how he retains the same quick rhythm about his meaty cock. Those glazed eyes set on the exciting picture and the way his tongue tip sticks out just beyond his lower set of teeth demonstrates a total commitment to ecstatic feelings in the body."
The ghost's naked accompanist protested. "Spirit haven't we seen quite enough?"
"Wait! He will be interrupted before he brings himself to climax. You will see."
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. "Who is it? Give me a minute and I will be right there." The naked youth scurried to shuffle the magazines into an obscure pile.
"Scribner, it 's me, Fannie."
"Fannie, I am just getting ready to use the showers. I will be right with you." He next wrapped himself in his over-sized robe.
"Oh Scrib sweetheart, I have so much to tell you. You are coming home for the holidays this year, anyway. Let's go into the boys room and I will tell you about it in the shower. We are the only ones here." The acoustics were such that he could not hear her through the rushing water. So they waited for him to step out and towel off before she spoke up.
The older Ebenezer looked at the spirit. "You don't have to say anything to me. She was the older sister who doted on you even in your bath time. You were both very close. That was a nice thing in your life Scribner Ebenezer."
Tears welled up in the eyes of the older naked man. "It was a very nice thing. I loved her so. She died too young."
They both listened intently to the older but still young woman, now deceased. "Dad is so much nicer now. He rented a car that I could drive out here and fetch you to bring home for Christmas after all. I think now it does not matter to him if he thinks you are gay, Scrib."
"Oh Fannie, after all the denial, I think now maybe Dad is right after all. I think I am gay."
His sister shot him a funny cross-eyed expression. "You big cutie. Do you really think that makes any difference to me? I almost hope you are right. It would be so super cool to fix you up with cute guys. . . . Anyway, if you recall, our family tradition was to always decorate the tree on the winter solstice. I put my foot down and told him I wanted Scribner home and I would do nothing with the tree until after Scribner got here. I was so surprised when he agreed with me right away."
The whole setting started to fade and the ghost spoke, now. "In your brief stay home that holiday season, you two almost became remarkably closer."
In reply, Ebenezer tried to avert his gaze from looking the phantom directly in the eye. "Spirit, you confront me with scenarios of my past I have tried to forget. She noticed the magazines on my bed were pornographic and that intrigued her. At home, she dared me to masturbate in her presence. She said she always had imagined me doing that since I grew hair, . . well, . . you know. I declined right away of course. . . . But, . . ."
"Over the years, sometimes you regret not complying with her most intimate requests."
"Well, it was completely innocent, really. The more personal things I would reveal to her about myself the more endeared she would be to me ~ the closer we would become. She was probably my most loving friend. She was scrupulously discreet about all my confidences, as I was of hers."
"But you two were not able to enjoy your home stay for very long."
"It was shorter than I had expected. My father was seldom direct with me, as if he did not trust me. I did not know until two days before New Years that I was to be transferred to the seminary. There the semester started only a day or so into the year. I did not believe him at first. Who would admit a student only on a parent's recognizance? My alma mater did.
"At first, I dreaded it. But the faculty and school staff were very tolerant and patient with me. Asking other students questions about their beliefs and understanding of religion and all its associated cultures, I found their enthusiasm infectious. Within weeks, I was caught up in the spiritual mysteries of faith in things unseen and the attendant inspiration of joy in possibilities of love and fellowship."
The ghost had taken Ebenezer's hand and applied it to its robe. The naked accompanist again marveled at the sensation of dizzy flight in warm embraces.
******************
