I worked on a cattle station in far west Queensland in Australia. I'm gay but was completely in the closet. There's no way I could come out in the place where I lived and worked and to the other guys there. I'd be subjected to so much abuse that I'd have to leave and I thought I wouldn't get a job anywhere else without a reference.
The nearest big town to the station is called Charleville, my home town. It's three hours drive away and I got to go in there a few times a year. That's the only chance I had to have sex. I've only ever had sex with men but that's not what I told the guys I worked with. I had lots of stories to protect my secrets.
There's a place on the highway just out of Charleville where long distance trucks park at night. There's a 24 hour petrol station with a road house and there's also a public toilet block with hot showers for the truckies. I'm not the only young guy like myself that hangs around there after midnight hoping to pick one of them up. We were pretty much all only after one thing; to get a cock in our arses.
None of us were very safe. If the guy wanted to use a condom then fair enough. If they didn't then we didn't care. Nearly all the truckies are straight, are married and have families somewhere so I guess the risk is low.
Six months back, we got a radio call from the boss. It hadn't rained for months but there was a band of thunderstorms moving in. He told us to go out and make sure there weren't any head in Shady Gully about ten k's from the homestead. It gets flash flooded in storms. He sent one of us up the road in the Land Rover to the bridge to radio us if there was any water coming down our way.
We were about half way out when lightening hit a tree and blew it to pieces. It was I guess five-hundred metres away but it scared the shit out of my horse. If I was telling the truth I'd say it scared the shit out of me too. I ended up on my back in the dirt and it was no pretty fall. I was okay, or I thought I was okay. One of the guys brought my stinking horse back and I finished the job. We drove about a dozen head out of the gully.
Next morning I couldn't move. I had to call out to one of the guys to get help. The RFDS flew out to look at me. The doctor said I'd better get a scan and I was flown all the way down to Brisbane strapped to a board. It was a workplace injury so the company that owns the cattle station had to pay all the bills, or at least their insurance did.
I spent a few days in the hospital. The scan didn't show anything too serious. I got a few injections in my back which hurt like hell but after that I was right as rain. I had to come back to see the doctor again after I was allowed to leave the hospital so the boss gave me a week off and put me up in a motel.
I'd never been in Brisbane before. I was born in Charleville, raised in a Catholic foster home and then when I was old enough, Father McPatrick got me an apprenticeship out at Red Hill Station. I'd been there ever since. I wasn't happy there but didn't know any other life.
Of course I was horny as hell but being unfamiliar with Brisbane, the only way to satisfy myself was with my hand. I did eventually check out a public toilet at a park near my motel late at night. There was no one there but I noticed written on the back of the toilet door amongst the graffiti a few phone numbers. "If you want your ass fucked, call me" followed by the number and that sort of thing. I put a few of the numbers into my phone.
It was already 1am so I went back to my motel and called one of the numbers in the morning.
"Hello?"
"Oh hi mate. Ah... you don't know me. I ah... saw your number on a toilet door..."
"Oh hahahahaha, where?"
"In a park in Brisbane. I was..."
"Oh sorry. I'd love to help you out but I wrote that when I was on holiday up there a month back. I'm back in Sydney now."
"Oh okay. No worries... Sorry to..."
"Hey... have you checked out Wet?"
"Wet? What's that?"
"It's a gay sauna. If you're looking to get off it's very cool."
"Oh really. Where is it?"
"Fortitude Valley I think. Just google it."
"Oh thanks mate. Will do."
"No. Problem. Have fun."
I did google it and I found it just around the block from my motel. I saw that it didn't open till 11am but I checked it out anyway. I must have looked like a dick if anyone saw me; walking past a few times trying to look like I wasn't interested.
Then at about ten past, I went in. There was a guy at a window. He seemed surprised to see me.
"Hi, have you been here before?"
"No. No this is my first time."
"Can I ask your age? If you're under twenty-five you get a discount."
"Oh, actually I've just turned twenty-five a few weeks ago."
"Can I see your ID?"
I showed him.
"Oh okay. I'll take you as twenty-four since it's your first time."
"Thanks," though it looked like is wasn't that much cheaper.
"Here's your locker key and towel. You can stay twenty-four hours but ask for a pass out if you want to take a break. I should tell you that there's no one else here at the moment."
I sort of assumed that since it had only just opened.
"When do most guys come here?"
"Oh there will be a rush around lunch time. Mainly office workers from around here, but it doesn't really start to fill up until about six. Take your time exploring the place. There's a pool, spa, sauna and the café is open upstairs."
"Okay, thanks."
There was a sign in the locker room spelling out the rules. I got undressed and put my stuff in the locker and put my towel around my waist. My locker key was on an elastic band so I put it around my wrist and went in. I had a shower and then looked around. I don't know what I expected but it was a very classy place.
It had private rooms with vinyl covered beds and porn playing. It would be a lot better than the smelly cramped cabins of semis, toilet cubicles or even in the trees at the Charleville truck stop where I'd usually had sex. That was assuming anyone turned up and I scored.
After about fifteen minutes I heard the door. I guessed it would take a while for whoever it was to get changed and I felt like a goose waiting around so I went into the porn cinema I found earlier and acted casual.
He came right in and sat beside me. He was a young slim Asian guy, not really what I was used to. Nearly all of the truckies I'd met at Charleville were double my age and well, truck drivers tend to be on the heavy side.
"Are you top or bottom?" He asked me right off.
"I'm bottom," I said.
"Oh damn. Me too. How long have you been here?"
"Since it opened. You're the first guy to come since then."
"Oh yeah. More guys will come around twelve-thirty."
"Okay... You come here a lot?"
"Yeah. A few times a week if I can afford it. I haven't seen you here before?"
"It's my first time. What do you do? I mean as a job?"