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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 10

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 10: So Long!

That was on a Friday, so maybe that’s why I didn’t hear from SLPOUTREACH until Monday.  Which is when I read:

“SLP Participant Barlow:  You have completed Step 4.  Permission to proceed to Step 5 will be transmitted within the next three weeks.”

I was all serious serious serious when I opened the email, cuz I expected to see some big heavy statement, and then I felt like, “Oh.  OK.  What do I do now?”  I didn’t really have anything to do except to keep going to school, which at least got me out of seeing my parents.  I read in a book about some guy that was gonna be executed, and they gave him X amount of time to “put his affairs in order.”  But I didn’t have any affairs; I just went back to school.

I knew that the SLP would come through with my orders, and I would do what they told me.  Maybe you’re wondering, hey, you’re an American, how could they, like, enforce this commitment you signed?  I mean, how could they come and get you, if you changed your mind?   You’re right—they couldn’t.  I had time on my hands, so I looked it up.  Under “extradition.”  The only way they could get me was if I actually went to St. B.  But that’s what I’d agreed to do.

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 09

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 9: Someone Up There Likes Me

The answer was obvious: I’d keep up with my classes and try my best to keep up with my fantasies– same as always, because I was never gonna wind up on St. Bevons as a slappie anyhow.  If I got rejected, big fuckin deal.  But of course that’s not the way I felt.  I wanted them to accept me!  Cmon, after all those Steps, isn’t that what you’d want?

So the next few days were pretty miserable and anxious.  Finally I had to make a rule that I’d check my mail only twice a day, instead of jumping into my phone every minute.  That’s why it took me about eight hours to find the new message from SLPOUTREACH: “Joel Barlow:  We are pleased to inform you that on review of your Application, Documents, and Interview, you have been accepted for admission to the State Labour Program.  You are now permitted to proceed to Step 4.  THIS STEP MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE OF THIS MESSAGE, OR YOUR ACCEPTANCE WILL BE CANCELED.  Use the following password.”

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 08

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 8:  The Audition Is the Most Important Thing

I waited two fuckin weeks at Step 2!  I couldn’t explain why I was so anxious, but every day that went by, I was thinking how come? and getting depressed and not being able to jerk and then jerkin like crazy just for relief . . . .  Like I didn’t have enough to worry about before!  Then I started thinking, yeah, they’ve definitely rejected me—they must not like my looks.  And why should they?  But why don’t they let me know?  Will they send me a message or will they just ignore me?  That’s probably what they’re doing now.  So that was shit!  I didn’t even know when to stop waiting!

Then, whoa!  Another “Personal” from SLPOUTREACH: “Joel Barlow: Your Documents have been accepted.”

Fuck, man!

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 07

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 7: Carefully Review Your Vocational Options

Next morning, I dunno, I actually felt better about goin to class.  You know when somebody says you should “get a life”?  But now it was like, yeah, I do have a life.  You can’t see it, cuz it’s outside of all this annoying shit I’m doin around here, but I do have it.  And my life could actually end up in a different place.  It probably won’t, but it could!  Just reading that SLP stuff—that was so hot!  In high school the English teacher talked about “escape literature,” which was supposed to be bad, but I didn’t think so.  Would I like to escape?  Hell yes!  Give me more of that stuff to read.

So that night I started reading through the Volunteering thing again, and doing it real slow this time, just to enjoy all the fantasies.  I noticed a lotta shit that I didn’t see before.  Like in the INTERVIEW step, when you read over what they said, they didn’t say they’d be asking what was your opinion about anything.  They didn’t say they were gonna “counsel” you or “advise” you or make some “suggestions” to you, the way people always did with me.  Especially my dad.  Have I told you I wished he’d been more of a man?  But anyways, they were inviting you to the interview so they could find out whether you would fit in, and then they would TELL you.  Also, when you got to the end of a Step where you were supposed to click the button to submit whatever kind of stuff they wanted from you, there was something like, “You will be notified whether you have permission to advance to the next Step.”  In other words, you weren’t in charge, they were.

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 06

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 6: That’s Five Small Steps for a Man

So wow, and it only took me half the night.  If this is what “research” is like, forget it.  But here I was in the SLP arm of the Bureau of Such and Such, and I started dissecting it (clever medical image, right?):  Home, Mission Statement, Goals, Officials, Statistics, Invest in the SLP . . . .  Finally, there it was: Volunteer for the SLP.

So what did I see when I clicked on that?  Big headline, brown letters (natch!):

COMMIT TO SERVE

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

 

Yes, that’s the question, isn’t it!  Patrick thought I didn’t.  Even I thought I didn’t.  But how would I find out?

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 05

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 5: The Benefits of a College Education

So that was my last night at the Explorers Bay Resort.  I was sorta sad that I wouldn’t see Patrick and Dobie again, but I was sorta glad too.  Well, not “glad,” but I knew they didn’t really care about me, and actually why should they?  I was a new guy to have sex with and get money from, and that was OK, but there would always be another one.  They were living in their own world, and I was just somebody that showed up for a while.  And as far as missing them when I was gone–after all that sex, I felt like I’d never need to have sex again.

Ha! That was funny!

But fuck! I’d learned a lot.  Next morning, I was watching my dad arguing with the guy at the desk about the vodka that was charged to my brother’s room and watching my brother lookin all dark and, like, resentful about the lie he’d told when he said he never saw it and watching my mom going, “Come on, the limo’s waiting, come on now,” and everybody looking all dorky and stupid in their St. B tees and their high-priced sandals, and the slappies standing in their places lookin totally chill in their browns and their boots and their not-my-problem tude, and you could see their dicks under their shorts just lurking and lolling around after whatever went on last night and looking forward to whatever was gonna go on tonight.

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 04

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 4: What I Saw from the Coffee Deck

The Coffee Deck was a place where you could sit in a chair and look out to sea.  Coffee was served from a cart at the entrance.  At the other end of the resort, the beach came right up to the “facilities,” but this end was on a hill, and the hill was all rustic with brush and shit.  If there was a trail down to the beach, nobody’d put up a sign for it.  But anyway, Patrick said to get there early, so I did.

When I arrived—at 7 a.m.!—there was nobody around except me and an old waiter manning the cart.  When he brought me my coffee he said, “It is unfortunate, sir.  They are working down there—underneath us.  Making the trail.  They do it every day. Often there is noise.  If so, you may wish to return in the afternoon.”  Then I heard it—the noise of men cutting and whacking and shoveling and hauling, somewhere beyond the polished rail that ran around the Coffee Deck.

I leaned over the rail, and I saw them—slappies, a whole crew of them.  They were dressed like Dobie and Patrick, but they were working at stuff that had nothing to do with queer boys from North America who did housework in the morning and sex in the afternoon.

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Island Paradise – Part 2: Chapter 03

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By Joshua Ryan

Chapter 3: Sentimental Education

So I’d got up in the morning so bored I could hardy drag myself to the shower, and by fuckin five in the afternoon I was lying on the bed, thinking how easy it turned out to be to get a cock into your hole, and how easy and AWESOME it was to get your cock into some other dude’s hole, which is something I NEVER could picture that I would EVER do!  Ever!!!  Well, I could picture it, but . . . .

Dinner that night was . . . different.  I used to be kind of ashamed of my parents, who were, like, about 20 years older than they really were, and that’s why they went to resorts like that, so they could be around the other old people.  I don’t think I knew exactly how I felt before, but now I did, and when I looked at them, it wasn’t like they were even my parents, you know?  I’d just got misplaced somehow, and ended up with them.  But mainly I was looking at all the dudes in brown uniforms running back and forth, taking out the plates and filling the water glasses.  Fuck they were hot!  I wondered who they were screwing, out behind the kitchen or wherever.

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