Free Taking In Strays by Kracken Page B

do?” Dan said carefully.
    He was still washing dishes, his back to Donny. Donny felt a chill and a mental, Of course! , that sounded like a street wise street punk soured on life. “Is this where I’m handed a bill?” Donny asked, leaning on the table and feeling weak at the knees with his disappointment and anger.
    Dan’s hands paused in their washing for a long moment and then he asked, “What would you be willing to use for payment?”
    “I’m in a good position right now. Why don’t we get it over with?” Donny suggested bitingly.
    Dan dried his hands on a towel and finally turned, frowning. He noted Donny’s stance, sighed, and concentrated on folding the wet towel. Donny watched him finish the task, realizing that Dan wanted the time to consider his next words.
    “We could use that to clean up after you shoot your load,” Donny suggested crudely.
    Dan put the towel aside on the counter with exaggerated care and finally spoke. “What I require from you in payment; is your complete dedication to your therapy, your new job, and removing yourself from my brother’s apartment. I will not now, or ever, require repayment in any other manner. Is that understood?”
    Donny swallowed hard, straightened, and staggered a little with dizziness. His smile was tight and bitter, reflecting inner pain. “I really am just a… opportunistic…. slut. I was almost looking forward to the thought of having some sex.”
    Dan leaned back against the counter, his elbows back and supporting him as he sighed and then said, “People would say that it doesn’t matter how, or with who, you have sex as long as you enjoy yourself. That’s the point, though. It’s not just about enjoying yourself, is it? It’s about punishing yourself, about believing the things that your father and maybe other people have said about you. You’re using sex as payment and as a validation of your own bad self image.”
    Donny felt his face burn hotly with embarrassment as he made his way back to the bedroom and stretched out on the bed. Dan followed him as far as the doorway. “Sorry,” was all that Donny could manage to say.
    Donny stared up at the ceiling and wondered if he had the character to be the person that Dan was asking him to be. He was a self serving son of privilege and power, who had used people on a daily basis to fulfill his smallest whims.
    “If I had seen someone like me,” he told Dan in a harsh voice, “staggering along the sidewalk, in the rain, and looking sick, do you know what I would have done?”
    Dan sounded almost afraid to ask, “What?”
    “Not noticed,” Donny replied and then turned on his side and dug his face into his pillow. “Thanks for the food and everything else.”
    “You’re welcome,” Dan replied softly and then asked, “You won’t do anything rash, like leaving after I go? That’s not what my speech back there was about. I want you to succeed. Sometimes, that can be embarrassing and difficult. Setbacks are part of it.”
    “That was a setback ?” Donny said sarcastically. “More like, true to form .”
    “I’ll set up a group therapy schedule today and give it to Peter,” Dan replied.
    “Group?” Donny turned his aching head in confusion. “You want me to talk to a group of people?”
    “A group can be very supportive,” Dan replied, but then looked apologetic as he added, “and there isn’t much funding for anything else, I’m afraid.”
    Donny couldn’t formulate a reply. Dan seemed to understand his difficulty.
    “Don’t worry, you won’t be required to say anything, if you don’t want to,” Dan informed him. “Sometimes, listening to someone else talk about a problem that you may be dealing with, helps a great deal.”
    “Unless everyone decides not to talk,” Donny grunted.
    “I haven’t seen that happen, yet.”
    When Donny didn’t reply Dan said, as if forcing cheerfulness, “I’ll finish the dishes and lock the door on my way out. Will you be all