(by Edward Zeusgany and Alex Anders, © copyright 2001, all rights reserved)

Sophomore year at RMHS meant Biology with Nuzzy. Nuzzy was not her real name, but a nickname the kids had given her. During his freshman year, Matt knew her only by sight. With an oversized head, dark complexion, and a body both short and squat, she was not an attractive woman. He was already frightened of her from appearances alone. Meeker even than usual, he sat quietly in his seat on the first day of class.

By the end of the second day, he knew that she was, in fact, one of the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful teachers he had ever had. Even so, no one acted up in her class. Of course, the upper division was made up of students who expected to go on to college and whose parents, in turn, expected them to earn the good grades necessary to do so. Real misbehavior was rare in any case.

The class met five times a week plus a double period lab. In lab, they were to work in teams of three. Matt was stunned when the Spofford twins, Bryce and Shane, asked him to be their third. Matt wasn’t generally among the chosen.

The identical boys were themselves not more than moderately popular. They had better than average athletic ability, but only went out for the golf team. Shorter and smaller, Matt went out for nothing. The Spoffords were slender and good looking, with wiry bodies and sandy hair. Matt’s was medium brown, cut and combed in an unstylish way that matched his clothes. Except for that and a few teenage blemishes he would have been reasonably attractive.

But Matt’s parents were lower middle class and the Spoffords were, quite obviously, upper middle. So he didn’t know why they wanted him for their lab partner. Rather than dwell on what their reasons might be, he put his energy into not showing outwardly how glad he was that they had asked him.

The twins soon proposed forming a study group. “What’s that?” Matt inquired.

“We get together after school and on weekends to study together,” Shane explained.

“If there’s something one of us doesn’t get, someone else probably will,” Bryce added.

“We quiz each other, prepare for tests.”

“Three heads are better than two.”

“Oh,” Matt said.

It was well known that the Spofford twins were serious students, that they planned to undertake the pre-med program in college and wanted to become doctors.

They settled on a schedule of Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. The study group met at the boys’ house, even though it was out of the way for Matt. Their house was bigger, nicer and there was no one there to bother them.

Like Matt’s, the twins’ parents both worked, though they owned businesses and Matt’s folks were employees. Even on the weekend, the adult Spoffords were seldom present. But there was a housekeeper at Matt’s house, so that someone would be there when he came home from school. The Spoffords did not think that their boys needed such close supervision.

They took over the living room for their sessions. Being on the north side of the house and shaded by tall trees, it was a dark room. Further producing a feeling of gloom, the various pieces of upholstered furniture were in tones of gray; the rug, dark red. But it brightened nicely once the lamps were lit.

They sat all three together on the oversized sofa and spread their books and papers over an extra long coffee table. Some of these were drawings they were making of the internal organs of the near term, embryonic piglet they were dissecting in lab. The function of the drawings was to increase their powers of observation, the twins explained to Matt.

Being entirely earnest about their career plans, they had done and were doing a lot of extra reading. Merely getting A’s in this present subject was not anywhere good enough for them. Not that they were in an inordinate hurry, knowing that it took many years of study and effort to reach their goal. They wanted to assure themselves of a firm foundation to build upon.

A controlled enthusiasm flowed though and about them. They considered Sophomore biology to be the real beginning of their quest. It almost seemed like a sacred duty to Matt to be of what little help he could.

Inevitably the class and textbook turned to a study of the human body. Bones were taken up first. Bryce asked to examine Matt’s hand, to touch and name each bone as he did so, to feel them through the skin. It will help us to memorize their names, locations and functions, Shane speculated.

From there it was a relatively short step for Matt to remove his shirt. Well, they were going to be real doctors some day. Studying the human body was probably the most important thing they could be doing. Why shouldn’t they examine the bones of his arms, his rib cage, his sternum, his clavicle, his vertebrae and so on.

The exercises also helped Matt to remember and apply the correct name to the correct bone. And he had to admit to himself, once the first occasion was behind him, that there was something exciting, even stimulating about having their hands on his body. Being kids, they kidded around a lot anyway. So the activity proceeded with much joviality. Sometimes they had to restrain themselves and get back to the serious business of acquiring knowledge.

“OK, lets get serious now,” Shane would admonish everyone, including himself. Even if this resulted in a further episode of laughter, it did the trick and they promptly got back to real study.

There was no problem with the experimental subject removing his shoes and socks. Getting his pants off took some persuasion. In the end, removing them gave themselves away, though only to each other. They each pretended not to notice just how stimulating Matt found the proceedings to be.

His briefs stayed on through the circulatory system, pulmonary system, the lymphatic system and the digestive system. Each of these consumed a week of exploration. But eventually they came to the reproductive system. Matt blushed, almost automatically, when the book was opened to that chapter. They all knew that the day had arrived, that anticipation was about to give way to realization.

Bryce’s suggestion that they should take a look at some actual semen had led them away from the sofa and the living room to the twin’s bedroom. That day, Matt was later than usual in returning to his own home, and every day thereafter. After all, they still had their studying to do, before and/or after this expanded set of activities.

*****

Winter turned into spring, and the twins intended to include Matt in other aspects of their lives. It was the season for golf. They wanted their friend to learn to play the game, and put together a set of clubs from those that had been among their first and then set aside when they had been given new ones. He could play at the country club as their guest, they said.

Matt, however, had his own ideas about this and declined. He told the boys that liked the idea of going around the course with them, but did not want to get caught up the intricacies of equipment and technique. What he really didn’t want was to acquire desires that he would have a hard time satisfying when the twins went away to the Ivy Leagues and he matriculated at the nearest state college.

So he proposed to go along with them as caddy, carrying Bryce’s bag on one hole and Shane’s on the next. They laughed at him and said that a competent caddy could carry two bags. Matt countered that he wasn’t a real caddy, just out having a good time and he might as well have something to do while he strolled around. It would make him more interested in the contest, he asserted.

Having no real choice in the matter, the twins accepted this arrangement. Thus their lives became more entwined for the rest of their high school days. Matt spent a lot of time at the Spofford home and, of course met the boys’ mother and father. They were glad to see that the twins finally had a close friend. Until then the parents had been concerned about their children keeping to themselves so much.

Being made love to by two healthy boys was a thrill beyond anything Matt had ever hoped for. Although he was the bottom for both, they did not ignore their friend’s satisfaction, as some males are prone to do. Had they, the relationship would not have lasted for more than the one school year.

*****

They could not have sustained the liaison into college anyway, because all three turned out to be boy lovers. Some years later, between lovers, Matt took a winter vacation on the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. Chatting with some fellows he met on the gay beach, he heard talk about twin doctors who stayed for a month each year, always with an entourage of boys. The one or two, who would arrive with them, would be augmented by some local youths and, perhaps, a youthful tourist who just happened to be vacationing.

So Matt was prepared when he saw the group in promenade a few days later. Otherwise he would not have recognized Shane and Bryce, who had gotten much heavier. He enjoyed seeing them from a distance but did not reintroduce himself. The whole thing was too flamboyant for him, and he had no wish to become part of such a gathering. Matt thought it an unnecessary risk to call attention to yourself in so obvious a way.

He had enjoyed a series of good relationships with a few boys, one at a time, over a period of many years. These associations had developed slowly, and meaningfully, as he saw it. True, there had been periods of loneliness as well. With some youths matters never took a sexual turn, but that was all right too. At least, looking back it was all right. The frustrations of the moment were worth the memories of a fine friendship. And if the next encounter, whenever that might begin, turned out to be that way; he would be satisfied, if not quite fully so.

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