The Carny

Part Two:

We reached the fairgrounds by a quarter to nine.

"Go help Larry fire up the generators. That's him over at the Ferris Wheel. After that just do whatever looks like it needs doing, and don't be afraid to ask if you're not sure. It's all about teamwork!"

"On my way!"

I wanted to prove myself to the big man in the worst way and was scared to death of failing him as I set off. When I found Larry I introduced myself and told him what Roy had instructed me to do. He was a gruff looking man in his fifties, maybe older, considerably bigger than me but not nearly as big as Roy.

He turned out to be friendly, though, and lost no time showing me what to do. After he fired up his generator he pointed out another half dozen or so for me to tend.

The last one I fired up was at the Kiddy Coaster. I asked the man who showed up to run it where I should go next. He suggested helping the gaming tents set up.

My familiarity with the basic layout of the carnival came in very handy and I quickly fell right in as we breathed life into the place. By about a quarter to ten everything was spinning like a top and the warm up spiels of the barkers melded with the clanking of the rides and the canned calliope music. In spite of Roy and me being a tad late, we managed to make our ten o'clock opening with just over fifteen minutes to spare.

I found a place to sit and catch my breath while we waited to swing the gates open. A familiar pair of work boots peeking out from under cuffed khakis came to rest within the periphery of my vacant stare. I looked up to see Roy beaming down at me, his massive hands balled into ham-sized fists and resting on his wide hips.

"Well, that was certainly a baptism by fire," he chuckled.

I heaved an exhausted sigh in response.

"Had my eye on you. You did a great job, Eddie...a real self-starter, exactly what I need from you."

"Thanks, Roy."

I was relieved by his praise.

"Let's take a walk around. I'll introduce you to some more of the crew and then we can head off for an early lunch."

We toured the grounds for about another ninety minutes or so and more names than I could possibly remember came at me. Many of the carnies were just as friendly as Roy. A few others were perfunctorily polite in his commanding presence, but left me with the distinct impression I had my work cut out for me proving my worth to them.

"A few more days like this and they'll come around," he assured me, "Just do your job and don't take offense if they get a little bossy."

"No problem."

Our final stop was the trailer Roy operated from as manager and advance man. He showed me the safe where he kept the daily take, from which he paid any fines or other unplanned expenses and doled out the cash payroll.

I was once again smitten by the authoritative figure he cut as he settled behind his big desk. I sat on the couch and attentively listened as he gave me the rundown on my responsibilities in that shrine.

"How about some food?" he asked when he concluded.

"I'm starved!"

"Me too. Sorry we had to miss breakfast, but I think Gold Star serves it all day if you still want one. That's what I'm going to have," he said as he showed me out.

"Sounds great."

Before long we were back at his beloved greasy spoon. Our same waitress from the night before spotted us and hot-footed it to our table.

"Missed you this morning. Can I get you some coffee?"

"You bet!"

"Make it two," I chimed in.

She set two lunch menus down and left. In a couple of minutes she was back with two steaming mugs.

"What'll you have, gentlemen?"

"You serve breakfast all day, don't you?" Roy asked.

"We sure do."

"Bring me the biggest one you got - whatever's on it - and keep the coffee flowing, please."

"One jumbo breakfast platter and a bottomless pot coming up. How you want the eggs?"

"Over medium."

I was so hungry I just told her to make it two and to add a large milk to mine.

Her eyes got kind of big. She looked Roy over and then eyed me again.

"You sure?" she asked, "I've got no doubt your granddad can polish it off, but I'm not sure you know what you're in for."

"I'll give it a shot," I assured her.

"Well...alright, sweetie...if you're sure. I'll keep a to-go box handy for you. How you want those eggs?"

"Scrambled."

"Same check?"

"Separate," I insisted, eager to pull my weight.

When she left to place our order with the cook Roy leaned forward.

"I think she's sweet on you."

"She was just being friendly...Granddad," I teased.

My joke caught him off guard and, in laughing, he spewed a bit of coffee out onto his chin. He raised a bristly forearm to wipe it off.

"Good one!"

"Besides," I continued, "I was thinking it's you she's sweet on."

He laughed again and reared back in his chair, making a stunning display of his barrel chest and bay window belly. My hard-on raged at the sight.

"I seriously doubt THAT!"

I smiled and took a sip, studying the size of his hands as we spoke. Whereas all four of my fingers comfortably fit through the handle of our identical mugs, he could only comfortably fit his index and middle fingers through it. Getting his ring finger in to join them would've been a torturous squeeze for him.

I also observed that the nail on his pinky finger was nearly the size of my thumbnail. The enormity of his hands never failed to get my attention, but I tried not to be obvious in my appreciation.

"So, got a girlfriend back home?"

"Oh! Gosh no!"

He raised an eyebrow. I immediately regretted blurting that out so quickly.

"A good looking fellow like you?"

Suddenly I worried that he might be picking up on my fascination with him and squirmed a bit in my seat.

"Too busy...with the books...I guess," I stammered.

He spotted my discomfort I think and laid a hand on the arm I still had folded on the table in front of me.

"Look, don't mind me...didn't mean to pry...none of my business."

"Nothing to worry about...really...I just..."

I let the sentence trail off, unsure where it was leading anyway.

"Hey, I never had a girlfriend, either. Not every fella needs one I guess and I was just making conversation."

He looked and sounded reassuringly dismissive of his initial question. My fear of discovery vanished.

At that moment our waitress showed up with our food. I was stunned at the size of the servings.

Our plates were each laden with two breakfast steaks, three eggs and a heaping mound of hash browns with a side bowl of grits. She followed that with a plate each stacked with four big pancakes. After that came an extra-large basket teeming with buttered Texas toast and a syrup dispenser, which she placed between us. Lastly she found just enough room on my side of the table for the biggest glass of milk I'd ever seen.

She laughed at my reaction and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Remember, I got a box for you over there in case you need it. Dig in, boys."

Roy laid waste to his in record time, keeping the waitress busy trotting over refills. I worked like a Trojan at mine for several minutes longer, but couldn't hold another bite after finishing a little over half of it.

"Ready for that box?" she asked when she collected Roy's empty dishes.

Before I could answer Roy grinned and said, "No place to store leftovers where we're going, honey. If you'll just fill my mug one more time I'll bat cleanup for my grandson here."

I laughed and pushed my plates across the table to him. Off she went.

His utensils vanished with her and he seemed to think nothing of using mine, which I'm sure sold our 'grand' relationship to her. She returned to fill his mug, then laid our checks down and bid us good day. The giant effortlessly put my remainders away.

"I feel like I should get this since I ate mine and nearly half of yours."

"I wouldn't dream of it!"

"Then I'll cover the tip. I ran that poor girl's legs off."

He pulled the wad of neatly ordered bills from his pocket again and peeled off over twenty-five percent of our total in ones. Ten percent was a pretty generous tip in those days. I saw her jaw drop as she watched from behind the counter.

"No wonder she's so sweet on you," I said, jabbing my elbow into his belly to satisfy my curiosity about its firmness.

"Easy, sport!" he responded with a laugh, "No telling what could happen!"

We settled our bills at the cash register and headed out to his truck. Minutes later we were back on the grounds. He rattled off a few odd jobs for me and cut me loose while he retired to his office.

About an hour later he walked up while I was spreading some hay around the pony ride.

"Next week I'm gonna need you to spell some of these folks to break up their day. Finish this up and let's go observe a few so you can see what they do."

He lifted his left foot up onto the lower rail of the barrier in front of him and rested his forearms on the top rung to watch me work. I wasn't prepared for the full on view he gave me of his bulge. I caught myself staring at it and then quickly jumped back into action. If he saw my lingering look he didn't let on.

When I was done we set off on our walk. Again he draped his arm over my shoulder. In spite of how grown up I felt at the outset of my adventure, I found his touch tremendously exciting and didn't balk in the least.

"I'll start you out on the rides. People just line up for those so you won't need to learn any patter to drum up business. But eventually I'll need you to spell some of the game and sideshow barkers, too. They make it look easy, but you'll be surprised how hard it is to keep your yap running without repeating yourself too often."

"How did you learn it?"

"Natural gift for gab, I guess," he replied with a laugh.

I stayed at his heel like a puppy while we wandered from one to another. He first stressed what was the same about running each of them and then began to focus on their differences. My brain was getting overloaded with the technical details of how the rides were operated.

"Roy?"

"Yeah."

"They're all starting to get jumbled in my head," I confessed, a little scared, "Are you sure you want to trust me handling all this?"

He laughed and hugged me to his side.

"I'm sorry, Eddie. I've been doing it so long I sometimes forget how much is really involved. If you'll trust me I'll trust you, though. Deal?"

"Deal."

He checked his watch.

"It's going on seven. Let's go collect the tills and get dinner."

"I'm with you."

We went to get a pull cart. As we started his round he explained that he timed collecting the evening tills to allow each station to build enough of one by close to begin the next day. It took us about an hour and then we were back in his truck headed for another meal.

"I'm still pretty full from breakfast. Would a drive-in burger be okay with you?" Roy asked.

"Fine by me."

He drove past the motor court about a mile and pulled into one. A teen aged carhop skated up to his window and took our order.

Even on her skates she was short enough that I knew he had a view straight down her blouse into her ample cleavage. He suddenly started drumming his fat fingers on the steering while he spoke to her, but he made no mention of what he'd seen as we waited for our food - nor of girlfriends, nor girls in general.

Our conversation was largely about how tiring a carny's work is. When our food came we ate mostly in silence. He then shoved our refuse out onto the tray hanging from his window and after she collected it we headed back to the room.

As he had the night before, he immediately stripped down to his boxers and stretched out on his bed.

I decided I had to do likewise, but quickly slipped under my covers to conceal the hard-on I always sprang at the sight of him. He remained on top of his.

He rolled onto his side facing me and pulled his pillow down under his arm to prop his head up on his fist. His other arm was draped down his side.

I'd never seen anything so sexy. I rolled onto my side under my covers in a similar pose to take in the view.

"So, what do you think of the carny life?" he asked me.

The atmosphere in the room felt like a sleep over.

"Even the muscles under my scalp are sore."

His burly girth shook with laughter.

"I was real proud of you today."

A warm tingle ran the length of my body at those words.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me. I really want to do you a good job and I don't want ANYBODY on the crew to think I get a pass for being Bruce's nephew," I stressed.

"Well, I'll see what I can do to make that happen. You gave me every reason today to believe you won't need one."

I basked in his approving smile.

He slid his hand down into his boxers and lazily scratched his balls again. When he pulled his hand out that time his fly stayed open just enough to reveal a bit of his hairy scrotum.

A shiver ran down my spine at the sight. Roy chuckled. I was sure I had given myself away.

"Do I keep it too cold for you?"

"No, I like sleeping under covers."

"Me too," he contentedly replied,

He ran a hand over his heavy five o'clock shadow.

"So, did you play any sports in school?"

"Track. I ran the 880 and mile events," I told him.

"Ah-h-h, that's where all that endurance came from. It'll serve you well on this job."

"I wasn't very good, really, but nobody else wanted them so..."

I finished with a shrug.

"That just tells me you're team oriented. Like I said this morning, teamwork is essential for success on this job."

"You're sure a good team captain, Roy."

"Why, thank you."

He looked me up and down, grinning like an overgrown kid.

"This is fun...having someone to talk to at the end of a hard day, I mean. I'm awful glad you were game to do this."

It dawned on me how lonely he must get spending so many nights alone. I felt pretty sure at that point he didn't view my presence as some unwelcome favor to his boss - my uncle. I couldn't help returning his infectious smile.

"Me too!" I gave him my heartfelt assurance.

He altered his position by lifting his top leg and crooking the lower one back to rest his foot on its ankle. Then he draped his hand over his knee and I saw for the first time how truly thick - and shapely - his arms were.

Next he pointed his toes down until they touched the mattress. I almost gasped as I watched the inner head of his massive calf muscle roll up like a sinewy fist. My eyes then zeroed in on his balls, still pinned to his thigh by his tightly stretched underwear.

We chatted for a good while longer and I began to feel perfectly at ease allowing my gaze to roam his massive body, titillating my boyish curiosity about it. He eventually fell into a deep yawn and I knew 'lights out' was coming.

When Roy shifted his great bulk onto his back, his cock popped up out of his fly and flopped over in my direction. His was by FAR the fattest one I'd ever seen and, spying the leathery ring that wreathed its pronounced slit, it introduced me to the wonder of foreskin.

It had never occurred to me that my exposed glans was not natural. The topic of circumcision had never been raised in my health class and the practice had become so entrenched in our society by that point that all the illustrations had been of cocks like mine. I was completely entranced by his intact condition, as my gape-mouthed stare must have attested.

"Sorry," he chuckled while quickly sheathing it back in his boxers, "I'm sure that was more than you ever wanted to know about me."

I wanted more than anything to come right out and admit to him how wrong he was; that I was actually dying to know EVERYTHING about him.

All I could bring myself to say was, "No need to apologize. We're both guys."

"Good," he said sounding relieved, "See you in the morning, sport. We only have to drive a couple of hours up into Virginia tomorrow. Our next stop is Christiansburg, about half-way between Wytheville and Roanoke, so we can afford to sleep in a little."

"I'm sure I can use that."

Visions of the unexpected treat he'd displayed danced in my head while he finished getting under his covers.

"G'night," he said and turned out the light.

Soon he was snoring away. Meanwhile my heart was still pounding.

I wanted desperately to go to sleep, but couldn't resist wrapping my hand around the modest knob of my own fully engorged member. My imagination ran wild contemplating what the head of a cock as unbelievably fat as his would feel like in my hand, and how much bigger it must get when he was as aroused as I was.

Eventually the rhythm of his comforting snore did its trick and lulled me to sleep.