Oliver!, the Boy with Soft Hands, and "Cocks, Glorious Cocks"

 

When I was growing up in Rock Island, Huey (not his real name) was one of my brother Kenny's friends.  Short, brown-skinned, a rarity among the pale Swedes and Germans of Rock Island, chubby, with black hair and soft black eyes, soft all over.  I especially remember his square soft hands with stubby fingers.

My brother was 2 1/2 years younger than me, and three grades below (so in 9th grade when I was in 12th).  His best friend was Todd, a sports nut with sandy brown hair and blue eyes.

Huey was in a grade below them, so three or four years younger than me, a kid who they tolerated because he was funny.

He told knock-knock jokes.

While eating orange sherbet, he stuck out his tongue to demonstrate that it had turned orange.

He made his belly talk, long before Jerry Seinfeld did it.

On cool autumn afternoons they played baseball in the school yard, and then burst into the house for snacks and sodas, sweating, laughing, gossiping.

At least once, maybe more, Huey exclaimed "Feel how cold I am!", and lifted my shirt to press an icy hand against my belly.  I jumped back, and he laughed. 

Once I tried to retaliate by tickling him.  He grabbed my hands with his hands, and we did a sort of struggling dance.   Suddenly we were rolling on the living room floor.  But the dog started barking, thinking that I was being attacked, so we had to stop.

I remember them pretending to do kung fu moves. Huey was shirtless, his belly bouncing as he jumped around yelling "Hai-ya!"   It must have been during a sleepover, but I don't remember the rest.

One spring when Kenny was in high school but Huey was still at Washington Junior High, the whole family went to see him in Oliver!  He was in the chorus of orphanage boys.  During "Food, Glorious Food," his comedic mugs and pratfalls stole the show.

Food, glorious food!  Hot sausage and mustard!

While we're in the mood, cold jelly and custard!

Peas, pudding and saveloys!

What next is the question?

Rich gentlemen have it, boys:  Indigestion!

The whole family went to see Kenny's friend, who was just in the chorus, not even one of the stars? Why?

Was he closer to Kenny than I thought?

More after the break.  Caution: Explicit

I don't remember seeing Huey after that.  My brother moved on to other friends, I moved on to college, and the years passed.  Recently, after dating a chubby guy with soft hands (over age 18, of course), I remembered Huey and wondered if he was gay.  Kenny's gay friend, soft and warm and vulnerable, using jokes and pratfalls to closet himself.

There's nothing to stop us from getting a thrill
When we all close our eyes and imagine...
Food, glorious food....

Cocks, glorious cocks....

Time to call my brother.

"Sure, I remember Huey.  He was a little goofball, wasn't he?  Always cutting up and making jokes."

"Do you know what happened to him?"

"After junior high we sort of lost touch.  He went to Alleman, the Catholic High School, not Rocky (Rock Island High School).  Funny -- he just lived like three blocks away from us, but I don't remember seeing him at all."

"We went to see him in Oliver!"

"Oh,yeah.  I remember that.  It was a big deal, like his acting debut.  Hey, maybe he became an actor, and moved to L.A., like you did?  Maybe he's been on tv all this time, and we never noticed."

If Huey moved right after college, we would have lived in L.A. at the same time.

Did we drive down the same streets?  Was he in the crowd of bears at the Sunday afternoon beer busts at the Faultline? At a table near me at the French Quarter?  Maybe he came to the bear parties in the Hollywood Hills.  Maybe I encountered him as an adult, without knowing who he was -- felt his soft warm belly, squeezed his nipples, moved my hand down...

Cocks, glorious cocks -- what is there more handsome?
Gulped, swallowed, or chewed, still worth a king's ransom.
What is it we dream about?
What brings on a sigh?

Cocks, magical cocks, wonderful cocks... 

Huey is not in the Internet Movie Database or the Internet Broadway Database.  He didn't become an actor, at least not a professional.

Alleman High School has an alumni page.  No Huey.

His name is relatively common, so googling him was useless.  But I found someone named Robert with his last name, in his 40s, living in Moline, the next town over.  It was a long shot, but I DMed him on Instagram.

"Huey's my cousin.  He was a lot older than me, so we were never close.  We actually only met once, at my aunt's funeral -- his mother -- in I think 2003."

"Did you remember where he was living?"

"I think Florida somewhere.  Maybe near Disney World...I can ask my dad.  He would know."

Dad didn't know for sure, but he thinks Fort Lauderdale.

No Huey in Fort Lauderdale, but I found someone with his last name.  It was a long shot, but I checked the guy's Facebook friends.

There he is!

Four years younger than me, a hot bear daddy with tattoed biceps and probably a pierced penis.  Is he gay?  Did I get a gay hint from the soft, sweet jokester of my childhood?

Is it worth waiting for? If we live to be 84.  

Every day we say a prayer for cocks, glorious cocks...

Over half of Huey's Facebook friends are women.  Three have his last name.  Not a good sign.

There are photos of him with kids, and with a graduating woman. Not a good sign.

He likes country-western singer Keith Urban.  Not a good sign.

He lives in Wapello, Iowa, a small town on the Mississippi about an hour's drive south of Rock Island.  Not L.A.  Not Fort Lauderdale.  Not gay.

I'm not going to call or visit.  I'm going to stay in that cool autumn day a thousand years ago, when a brown chubby boy with soft hands and big eyes grabbed my belly.

See also: The boy on the Prospect List

Kayden Koshelev: Alkaio's Other Half plays a zombie, a drag boy, and a nonbinary firefighter. With Dornan and twinks

Lenny Rush: Doctor Who's buddy, the Artful Dodger's boyfriend. a gay-vague vampire. With a lot of acting awards and co-star d*cks

Mark Lester after Oliver