As in other cities, the local Police Athletic League was created to provide an acceptable alternative for boys who might otherwise get into trouble. Because it exhausts excess energy and has been found to appeal to this sort of youngster, boxing has been a staple of the program. For many years, Elton had been employed as a trainer.

A former boxer himself and a friendly fellow, he was well liked by his youthful charges. Besides teaching the rules and skills of the sport, Elton looked after the athletes’ bodies. Boxing is one of those sports where the participants develop a keen interest in their physical development. Much of the training involves strength building and injuries develop both from this and from the practice of the sport itself.

Elton taped their hands before putting on their gloves. He treated their bloody noses, cuts and bruises, and massaged their strained, cramped or aching muscles. There was endless talk with the teenagers about their physiques. Competing in weight classes, only muscle mass was useful and fat was to be minimized. Of course, some of the kids were less concerned about such things, boxing mainly for the fun of it.

A good deal of camaraderie developed among the youngsters and between them and the adults who supervised. So it seemed a good idea to Elton to invite several of the youths to his home for a weekend barbecue. And he included two of his friends, men who contributed time at the gym as volunteers.

*****

Five boys arrived on the appointed Saturday afternoon. Swigging from soft drinks, they stood around the back yard watching the men cook chicken and ribs. Soon they were digging in to all of that with potato salad, black eyed peas and other fixings, sitting at an old, round, oak table in the kitchen. Since it was a party, each boy was allowed one beer to help wash the food down. There was lots of it.

Well stuffed, they struggled into the living room to flop on easy chairs and the sofa only to be faced with sheet cake and ice cream. It took a mighty effort but youngsters and oldsters consumed heaping portions. They groaned with a mixture of satisfaction and distress.

Elton put on some disco music. “You boys better start working those extra calories off,” he advised. Further encouragement being unnecessary, the five youths were soon showing off their best moves and competing with each other, as they always did, with mock bravado and insults not meant.

The men unscrewed the cap from a jug of red wine. They sipped and watched and gave praise and wisecracks alike, egging the kids on and exacerbating rivalries among the boys. Once in a while, a man would call a youth over for special commendation and offer a sip, or perhaps a gulp, from his plastic “wineglass” as a prize for outstanding performance.

The food, liquor and exercise made for sweat. Elton laughed at one dripping boy and helped him out of his shirt. Soon all the youngsters were shirtless and not long after that, dancing only in their briefs or boxers. Well, why not? They were hot, happy and having a good time. It was all guys, or was it, or did it matter?

Elton had played a game with the boys before, though one at a time, when they got stimulated this way. He would tell a youngster that a mysterious woman would give him a blow job, but only if he wore a blindfold, so that she could remain anonymous. She knew how boys liked to brag and wouldn’t keep her secret otherwise. If the teenagers were not deceived, they did not let on.

So when Elton suggested the blindfold game, the youths were willing. But this time, they all had to be made sightless and remain so until the mysterious woman was through with each of them. This only made sense, of course.

How much more satisfying it would have been to proceed without this transparent trickery, one of the men thought. After the boy was spent, to hold him in his arms, tenderly, to caress his body gently while the teenager slowly recovered from his joy, to kiss his lips and then to smile at each other. But he knew the ruse was necessary to preserve the macho image that they had of themselves, that being so very important to the youths. This way, what they did was OK.

*****

Or it might have been if it had not been for the one they called Junior. Junior was gay. For years he had quietly resented references the others made to “fags” and “queers.” Before the party he couldn’t be sure that they had also participated in the Mysterious Woman game. But now he knew and they weren’t going to get away with it.

After leaving the party, the youths were still in a group for a few hundred yards. “Ya’know there ain’t no mystery woman,” Junior said.

There was no response, so he pursued it. “It was those guys who sucked us off.”

“Shut up, Junior,” one muttered.

“That makes us queer,” Junior continued.

“Nah, the cocksucker is the fag,” another insisted.

“You knew it would be a guy doing it,” Junior accused them.

“Shut up, Junior,” two ordered jointly, this time in a warning tone.

Junior dropped it but the damage had been done. Two of the boys were not much bothered by this discussion, but the other two were. What they hated was that others knew what had happened. One of these realized that he could reconcile this problem by claiming that he hadn’t known, and knowing now, must condemn the illegal act committed upon him. The other saw the wisdom of this scheme.

So Elton and his friends went off to prison. The two who reported the crimes had to live with their repressed bisexuality. Years later, one of them tended to beat up his wife whenever he was frustrated. When the other became middle aged, he played the Mysterious Woman game and got caught just like Elton. He tried to get off by telling how he, himself, had been abused as a boy. The authorities shook their heads sadly in understanding, but it didn’t work and didn’t lesson his penalty. The untroubled two accepted their bisexuality calmly and enjoyed it. One of these won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Junior and his life companion were both in retail sales. They moved to Vermont in order to benefit from the first state to provide for civil unions and full legal benefits to gay couples. He was oblivious to having been the cause of so much havoc with his few simple words.