Part Five:
I thought I was tired and sore from that first Sunday's flurry of activity, but Friday gave me a whole new understanding of the concept. When Roy finally succeeded in shaking me awake at five-thirty that morning my young body ached in places I didn't know I had. I slowly came to and even the sight of his vast nakedness looming over me was no match for the exhaustion I felt down to the very core of my being.
"Up and at 'em, carny!"
Roy had a big smile.
"Oh-h-h, GOD! You can't be serious!"
I clutched at my covers and tried to pull them over my head.
"I can. I am."
He easily wrested them from my feeble hands and pulled them in the opposite direction. I was too tired to care that he had exposed me. The only thing bothering me at that point was the room chill that tightened my scrotum around my testicles.
When I reached down to cup my balls in the warmth of my hand Roy intercepted it. I tried fighting him off, but his bristly wrist was too thick for me to get a solid grip on.
With the other hand he effortlessly fended off the parries of my free arm and dragged my legs out over the side of the bed. He then pulled me up to a sitting position by the arm he held onto.
His big belly was right in my face and his bulky genitals were close enough to touch by merely lifting a hand. It wasn't that I was immune to the allure of what I beheld. My arms were simply too heavy for the task, even if I had felt so bold as to try.
He calmly exerted his authority.
"Come on, sport, let's get a move on. Those people are expecting to line up for their pay at eight o'clock sharp. We've BOTH got to be there when they do or all your hard work to win them over yesterday...and don't think for a minute I don't know it was the hardest work you ever did...will be undone. This time I expect to have breakfast first."
I mumbled something in response even I couldn't understand.
"When I get my fat ass out of that shower you better have yours ready to get in. Otherwise ol' Granddad here's gonna drag it outside and give it a spanking...where anybody who cares to look can watch."
I figured he was half joking - but only half, as far as I could tell. At any rate, I didn't know him well enough at that point to put such a threat past him, and he was such a tank I'd have been helpless to prevent him from carrying it out if he decided to.
I chose not to test his will.
Barely able to lift my head, I silently lusted after his rolling haunches as he turned and strode away to the bathroom. The fog slowly cleared and, however displeased I was with my rude awakening, I knew deep down how lucky I was to be there with him.
When the bathroom door opened I was waiting to switch places with him. I had my toiletry bag slung over my shoulder and my hard-on was still shamelessly jutting from my loins as his naked form brushed past me.
"Good man!" he said, not giving me a second look, "I knew I could count on you."
By six-fifteen we were at breakfast. I threw caution to the wind and ordered the same thing he did. We chugged coffee like crazy while we waited for our food.
A slight sting from one of his earlier comments still needled me.
"What makes you so sure that was the hardest work I ever did?" I asked in an accusing tone.
"Because nobody on my crew works harder than me, and I'm a good judge of what other people can handle. You want your crew mates to respect you...so I kept you with me...on the hardest jobs...and worked you at what I figured your limit to be. Did I misjudge it?"
The question at the end had a confidently rhetorical ring to it. I raised my mug for another sip while I evaluated what he had said.
"Well, did I?"
"No, I'd say you judged it pretty good. I don't think I had one more step in me by the time we got to your truck last night."
Once I fully grasped the favor he'd done me, and accepted his skill in assessing my capabilities, I shot him a smile.
"Thank you."
He gave me a friendly chuckle, but kept his eyes on me.
"You're welcome. Here comes our food."
Roy engaged our waitress in his typical friendly banter while she loaded up our table. I was too worn out to participate. When she left us he aimed an understanding smile at me.
"I got one last thing for you to chew on while we eat, sport. I'm not gonna let up on you. I was real proud of you grabbing the opportunity I gave you to earn their respect yesterday. Now, if you plan to hold onto it..."
He had a Zen Master's knack for knowing when to let the person he was addressing finish his thought. I nodded.
I was so damn hungry I managed to get about three-quarters of the huge breakfast down before Roy had to jump in and "bat cleanup". When he finished I squeezed into his truck next to him. He grinned at me.
"You keep that up and someday you'll be pretty as me."
I turned my head and feasted my eyes on his rotund yet solid build.
"After seeing you work I understand your diet a lot better," I confessed, then as an afterthought, "and I guess a fellow could do a lot worse than being pretty as you."
He burst out laughing and gave my aching thigh a nearly painful slap.
We were in his office before seven-thirty. He opened the safe and had me count the cash while he quickly caught the books up and labeled envelopes with the crew members' names. He then handed them to me one at a time and told me how much money to put in.
By five till eight we worked our way through the gathering crowd at the big tent. Roy called out names and I handed them their envelopes as they stepped forward. Everyone was paid by eight-thirty and then we went about gearing up to open.
The big man was true to his word and kept me busy, but most of the tasks he assigned me were thoughtfully and skillfully chosen to allow my aching muscles a chance to recuperate from the previous day. After he collected the evening tills we went to dinner and then back to the room.
My muscles were still pretty sore and we were both dead tired. We started stripping out of our clothes as usual. When we got down to our skivvies I looked at him and he at me. It was as if some unspoken agreement to a new normal was reached in those uncertain glances. Off they came.
We stretched out on our beds. Roy was first to roll onto his side and strike up conversation. I remained on my back with my hands behind my head and my legs crossed at my ankles.
"You're shaping up to be a hell of a carny, Eddie."
"Sure didn't seem that way this morning."
"Why? Was I too rough?"
"No, you were fine...I meant me. I'm ashamed of the way I acted."
"Well don't be. You acted like any man would have after being tested as hard as I tested you yesterday."
"How's that?"
"Weary to the bone," he asserted with pinpoint accuracy.
I paused to admire his confidence in his ability to assess the people around him.
"I was that. Still am," I admitted
I reached down and lazily scratched my balls. With the chill in the room my hand felt good on them. I left it there, not really scratching but just tracing my fingers over them while I warmed my chill-shrunken cock in my palm.
"Did I pass?"
"With flying colors!" he assured me.
"Thanks."
I finally rolled onto my side to face him and caught his eyes dart up to mine. I then noticed he was erecting; not fully, but enough that it was starting to lift from the comfort of his plump scrotum.
As naive as it sounds, the thought that it might've had anything to do with me never crossed my mind.
"I think it's important to let people know when they've done a good job."
He was smiling and looked perfectly at ease in his display.
"It doesn't excuse the way I acted with my boss, though."
"My feelings weren't hurt. Yours?"
"No."
He arched an eyebrow. He'd sussed me out again. I smiled.
"Well...not now, anyway."
He scratched his balls.
"Play some cards?"
"You're on!"
We grabbed our shirts to line the seats and moved to the table for another session of poker. He cleaned me out of my matches again and we called it a night.
As our time with the Christiansburg stand neared its end some of Roy's assignments for me grew more challenging. He did, in fact, start me relieving some of the ride operators, which was great fun and appealed to my growing confidence.
Other assignments were challenging too, but not in quite the same way. For example, he also made sure as many crew members as possible had a chance to see me shoveling shit from the pony ride.
"I see business is picking up, Eddie!" they would often taunt as they walked by.
I understood the favor Roy was doing me, so I always gave them a good-natured laugh and responded with something like, "Jealousy will get you nowhere!"
Even some of the hardest of the hard nuts to crack began to weaken and see me as just another carny trying to make a go of it. Roy knew exactly what he was doing and I was quickly learning to admire the size of his brains as much as his huge body.
Wednesday morning he and I were to skip ahead to the next stop up the I81 corridor. I woke up about four-thirty that morning sweating profusely under my covers. I got up and checked the air coming from the window unit. It was outside temperature. Apparently our compressor had given up the ghost.
Roy's snoring sounded fitful. I tiptoed over to get a look at him.
Even in what little light made its way into our room from the street lamps I could see that his arms were above the covers and they, along with his face, were sweating. I rolled his bedspread and the light blanket underneath off the foot of his bed.
Taking great care not to disturb his slumber I folded his sheet back, respectfully leaving him covered from the waist down. I paused to admire the heaving of his chest and belly as he snored away.
Tiptoeing back to my bed, I lay on top of my covers and tried to get some more sleep. I managed maybe another hour before it became so uncomfortable as to wake me again.
It was that gray part of the early morning and, when I looked over at Roy, I could see that he'd kicked his sheet off. He had adjusted onto his back with his legs and arms splayed.
