The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

I woke up to find Nagi riding my cock, his tail still squeezing my balls. He was sliding up and down the entire length, and this was allowing Lucky to give some attention to Nagi’s prick. Lucky was stretched out on my chest, his little ass delightfully close. I used one hand to pull him closer, and used my tongue on that asshole that had been winking at me impertinently. Paddy’s spit-covered face came up from my armpit.

“Lucky’s getting lucky!” he sang. He watched for a minute and then climbed up over my stomach, planting his ass in front of Nagi. “Come on, Nagi, let’s get you charged up.”

Nagi stilled while he aimed his little prick at Paddy’s ass, and then started up again. Paddy pulled Lucky’s face up to start a deep kiss with him.

“Your beard tickles,” Paddy giggled.

“So does yours,” Lucky grinned at him. “And so does sir’s!” Paddy’s hand went up to his chin, his eyes wide.

“Daddy, you gave me a beard like yours!” he gasped, as Nagi’s stroke hit him again.

“Of course,” I told him, coming up from Lucky’s ass. “I told you I would.” I reached between Lucky’s legs to pull his prick towards my mouth.

“Oh, oh!” Lucky moaned. Paddy shoved his tongue into Lucky’s open mouth.

I alternated between Lucky’s prick and ass (both tasted great, it seemed Lucky had produced some pre-cum during the night). Lucky was moaning, and so was Nagi. My boy Paddy, becoming more like me every day, didn’t bother to moan, he concentrated instead on giving the boys on both of his ends more pleasure. I shifted my clairvoyance to watch from the side, and was even more turned on. It’s an interesting feeling, being a voyeur to a sex act that you’re actually involved in. Now I understood why people liked having a mirror over their beds.

“Are my boys ready to cum?” I asked.

“Oh, sir!” “Yes, Daddy!” “Please?”

“Then cum, boys!” I triggered my own orgasm then, to the accompaniment of three moaning yells.

We laid like that for a while, Paddy holding Lucky up until he was ready to move.

“Let’s start our day, boys,” I said after a while. The boys nodded, tiredly, and scooted off the bed. Paddy looked over at Rut and Pete, and pointed.

“Daddy, look!” he laughed. Streams of cum were running down the side of Pete’s abdomen, from between the two.

“Well, I told you boys to cum,” I shrugged. “Rut must have heard me.” I bent down to give Rut a kiss on the side of the face. It was then I noted that there was also cum leaking out of Rut’s ass, Pete’s cock still stuffed up it. I shook my head and chuckled.

I fetched breakfast and coffee, and discussed with the boys what we would do that day.

“We have some deliveries coming today, and I’d appreciate it if Lucky and Paddy would continue to help the crew,” I told them. “Nagi and I will be busy doing some other things, things only he and I can do. So try to convince the crew not to bother us until we’re done, alright?”

“Sure,” Paddy and Lucky nodded.

“Until they get here, well, let’s see what kind of clean-up we need to do from yesterday’s work, OK?” They nodded again.

Surprising enough, there wasn’t as much to do as I’d thought. The crew had cleaned up after themselves before knocking off the day before.

“Well, shit,” I said, looking around. “That blows that idea.”

“Can we go down and look over the first floor and basement, Daddy?” Paddy asked.

“Sure,” I shrugged. We tromped down the back stairs.

Lucky spent a little time wandering around, studying the intervening walls before tapping on them with one ear to them.

“What have you found, mischief?” I asked him.

“Not yet, but the day’s young,” he quipped. “There’s supporting pillars between the walls. Just figuring out where they are.”

Paddy and Nagi were studying the walls that had divided each store into floor space and storeroom. Paddy motioned Nagi aside, and held up his fist. He jerked it down, and a bunch of the tiles in the suspended ceiling came down in a clatter. I leaned against a wall to watch.

Paddy trotted into the back, and called out to Nagi. “What do you say, Nagi?”

“I make it about twenty feet,” Nagi replied, staring upwards at the ceiling. I nodded, realizing that only Nagi’s glow-in-the-dark eyes would be able to see up into the unlit shadows.

“Then why’s it only twelve in here?” Paddy asked. I stepped forward to lift Nagi by his waist, above the suspended ceiling, so that he could look around.

“Hey, there’s like a loft,” Nagi said, excitedly. “At the back. Sir, if you let me climb up, I can get over there.” I let him back down, shaking my head.

“No, you’re not built for that, Nagi,” I told him. “Let Paddy do it, he can catch himself if he falls.” I looked over at Paddy, who had come out of the back. “But if he takes any stupid risks, I’ll paddle him so hard he won’t stand to look at a chair for a month, much less sit in one.”

Paddy nodded, and screwed up his face. He launched himself upwards, and the ceiling shook as he landed on the frame-work above. We watched the tremors go across the ceiling towards the back, and disappear. Then a ceiling tile fell down, near the edge, and I shuddered. Paddy came down out of the hole light as a feather though, and I shook my finger at him.

“You’re going to put me in an early grave like that,” I growled at him.

“The loft looks like it was used for storage at one time. It goes across the whole building,” Paddy reported. “Those walls between are nothing, lath and plaster. We could clear out this place in an hour.” I nodded, and stiffened as the back of my head started to tingle. It was the first time my danger sense had kicked in, other than that low-level somebody-might-find-out I’d been coping with for two days now.

“Lucky, I want you on lookout, like yesterday, but on the front of the building. Paddy, I want you to keep an eye on the back and the side. Nagi and I have some work to do.” Paddy and Lucky nodded, as they’d begun to feel it too, and ran from the room. I knelt down in front of Nagi. “It’s time for you to really show your stuff, guy. I want spells a foot deep on this place, in case anybody tries anything on us, OK?” I explained further what he needed to do.

“Yeah,” he breathed, licking his lips. “But I’m going to need your help, sir.”

“Hey, anything for my little guy,” I told him, stroking the side of his head.

“Just pull out your cock, sir,” he told me, his eyes beginning to glow brighter. “And just watch.” He leered at me as he pulled off his sweat pants.

I unzipped my pants and let my cock hang out, and rocked back on my heels, watching him intently. I understood what he needed. He needed an audience, a voyeur to perform for, to focus his energy.

He stood in the middle of the room, facing me, and began to run his hands over his body. His tail began to twist into compelling curves, and he started to strut around in a small circle. He was stroking his body in sinuous motions, and then licking his fingers with a naughty look on his face. His steps quickened, and he began to spin and dance in the circle he had defined for himself, his hooves a flicker of ebony steps. The motions of his hands became faster, until it almost looked as if he had four or more of them, and all the while his tail was sliding up and down on his little prick.

I watched, entranced and proud of him, as he continued. There was nothing more I could do, in this Nagi had to be the master of his element: sex and magic.

Nagi slowed down gradually, his chest heaving and his eyes glazed. And then he stopped, and he bent over backwards as his prick erupted in cum, huge streams that disappeared as soon as they began to dip towards the floor. He kept cumming, too, until finally the only thing that was keeping him off the floor was the tripod of his tail and two hooves. He hung there limply, as the last dribble escaped his prick and disappeared in a puff of nothingness.

I stood up, to look down surprised to see I too had cum, and the pool was rapidly evaporating. I walked over to him and gathering him in my arms.

“Perfect job, boy,” I told him, kissing him gently. “Now you need to rest. I’ll send Lucky and Paddy in to recharge you a little later, but now you can just rest, OK?”

“Yes, sir,” he sighed into my shoulder. By the time I got him upstairs, he was sound asleep. I knew this was natural, as the program had warned me of this when I was putting him together.

After I had laid him on the bed and covered him with a blanket, I found Lucky and Paddy waiting for me at the door.

“Smells like sex and brimstone,” Lucky grinned, wrinkling his nose.

“What else would it smell like?” I asked. “But will they hold?” Lucky, as the other metaphysical of the group, was the only one capable of sensing the spell at all.

He snorted. “Right now an earthquake wouldn’t budge those spells. Heck, it’s going to be tough for us to move through those spells, they’re three feet deep, and cover everything.”

“Will it interfere with Paddy’s demolishing plans?” I asked him. He considered, and shook his head.

“The spells are mainly concerned with protecting the people here, and main structure of the building,” Lucky told me. “Little things like that won’t bother them.”

“Little!” Paddy objected. “I’d like to see you do it!”

“Bet I could,” Lucky replied, smugly. “Just a little luck…”

“Enough boys,” I told them, patting them on the butts and shoving them out the door. “Give me a shout when you see the delivery truck.”

I limited the amount of tampering I did to others that morning, as I didn’t want to over-do it, or become dependant on the remote. I made some lists, by hand, of other things we would need, and took a small nap, curled up around Nagi.

Paddy and Lucky came and got me when the first delivery truck arrived, and I went down to help unload it. It was only our computers, but the boys’ eyes lit up when they saw them. There were also other odds and ends, computer parts and cables and software, which I ended up carrying because the boys were greedily examining their new toys.

I’d gotten a handful of laptops, and two towers, with LCD flatscreen monitors. I guessed we might need more later, but for now this would do.

Before I let the boys start setting up their laptops, I sent them into care for Nagi. I’d also reminded them that his skin needed to be oiled at least once a day, or the scales would start flaking off. They happily went to get the mineral oil from the storeroom.

Shortly after this, the crew started arriving, and they made a big deal about how much work Paddy had already done in clearing out the old ceiling and the unwanted walls. I’m sure that Lucky had helped too.

The next delivery truck rolled up as a representative from one of the kitchen supply houses pulled up to hand-deliver a catalog (I’d requested it the day before). I was still unloading when the boys came down with a couple guys borrowed from Jack.

“Uh, sir, these are stoves?” Paddy asked, examining one of the eight-inch thick packages.

“Stove tops,” I told him. “Glass-covered. They’ll be installed into the cabinets. I couldn’t find stoves short enough.” I kicked a larger package. “That’s an oven there, self-contained. It can go between the two stove-tops.”

“He’s going to have us slaving over hot stoves all day, and then expect us to tend bar?” Lucky asked Paddy. “What a tyrant.”

“Ha ha,” I told him. “While I slave away making sure we have enough money to keep five growing boys fed, clothed, and out of trouble.”

“Five?” Jack echoed, walking up. “You got another one?”

“Oh, yeah,” I replied, as he helped me carry in a counter-top. “My nephew, he’ll be staying with us until he graduates from college. I’m his guardian now, since his parents died. He finally got in late last night, had to finish up some things back home.”

“The Irish are taking over!” Jack joked. “Reno won’t be safe now!”

“Yeah, Fitzgerald’s is our mother-ship.”

Jack laughed, and was about to say something when he looked behind me and closed his mouth with a snap. His face fell. I looked, and saw two men standing there, wearing sun-glasses and dark suits.

“Can I help you guys?” I asked. “I’m kind of busy here.” I’d felt them coming; the danger-sense had been getting stronger.

“We are the representatives of a company that is interested in knowing what kind of business you are starting here,” one of the men noted.

“A bar,” I told them. “Have a good day.”

The two men followed me in through the door, and looked around with interest. Now that they didn’t have the morning sun behind them, I could see they were both muscular and my danger sense kicked up when I saw the bulges beneath their armpits. Both of them had dark hair and tan complexions.

“Then we’re glad to meet you, Mr….” one of the men said, taking off his sunglasses.

“I’m called Big Red,” I told them. “But you already knew my name.”

“Well, Mr. O’Duine,” the man shrugged. “We have certain interests in common. We provide a service, to business owners like yourself.”

“Like what?” I asked skeptically.

“In return for allowing us to place our machines here, we make sure nothing happens to your establishment,” the other man growled. He was much larger than the other guy, and hadn’t the wit to realize he was smaller than me.

“No,” I told them. “We won’t be having ‘machines’ here. No slots, no video poker, nada. This is a bar. Not a casino.”

“You’re new to Reno,” the smaller man said, amused.

“No,” I shook my head. “I’ve been here awhile. And I’ve seen your machines. In grocery stores, in gas stations, in rest rooms even. You’d be putting your machines in child-care centers, if you could decide what perfume to sprinkle on the contract so it didn’t stink.” I shook my head. “You’re mobsters, pure and simple. And I don’t do business with mobsters.”

“Really, Mr. O’Duine,” the smaller man smirked. “The Mafia? Please. A fairy tale. There is no Mafia in Reno.”

“I didn’t say Mafia,” I told him. “I said mobsters. People who think they can take what they like and force others to like it. It doesn’t matter what corporate logo or letterhead you use, you’re just mobsters. You’ll never be anything more, because you don’t have enough intelligence to do anything else.” I snorted. “And you need new material. That crap you’re spouting is old as DeNiro.”

“This ain’t,” the bigger one sneered, pulling out a gun and pointing it at me. The tension was relieved as the clip fell out of the gun. Lucky picked it up and handed it back to the goon.

“Is this something important?” he asked. The goon grabbed it and tried to put it back in the gun, and then stared in disbelief when he ‘accidentally’ bent it in his hand.

“That’s not possible,” the smaller man whispered faintly. Paddy appeared next to him.

“Would you like yours back?” Paddy offered, holding up a crumpled pistol. The man stared at the gun like it was a poisonous snake.

“That’s enough,” I nodded. “You two, kneel.” I pressed them down with the force of my mind, and their knees buckled. “When you’re strong enough to get up on your own, you can leave.”

They gaped at me and tried to get to their feet. However, Nagi’s spells were keeping them down, just as his spells had clouded their minds enough to let me guide them away from everyone else.

I walked away, with my boys beside me. That was when I noticed the other guys had cleared out.

I found them upstairs, sitting around glumly.

“What’s with the long faces?” I asked. “I’m sure not paying you to sit around like this.”

“Oh, you’re going to pay them?” one of the guys asked.

“Fuck no,” I replied. “My bar, my rules, not theirs. Right now they’re sitting in the dust downstairs, trying to figure out how I beat them. Trust me, they’re not a problem. And won’t be, ever.”

“You’ve got more balls than I do,” Jack told me. Then he explained why a contracting job on a bar was so much more expensive: most owners either gave in or gave up, and the contractors suffered as a result.

Just then I herd a crash from the hallway, and I cam barreling out, to find Nagi in a rage, holding up his sweatpants, while one of the construction workers was bent double on the floor.

“He tried to take my pants!” Nagi told me, outraged.

“Fuckin’ hey, Deke!” Jack swore. “He’s been trying to get the guys to lay bets on how big the little guys’ dicks were. I’m sorry, Nagi, Red. I’ll take care of this.”

“Well, hey, if you’re so fucking interested, then take a good look,” Paddy announced, walking up to Deke. He stopped scant inches from Deke’s face, and unbuttoned the fly of his cutoffs. He reached in and scooped out his balls and prick, and let them hang directly in Deke’s face. “Thanks, it’s more comfortable this way.” He walked away, strutting.

“Shit,” Jack muttered. Deke was still not breathing, and turning blue. “Maybe I’d better call an ambulance.”

“Don’t bother,” I told him. “Either he’ll start breathing again, or he’ll pass out. Once he passes out, he’ll start breathing normally. Although there’s a 50-50 chance that he won’t, and die,” I added heartlessly. Deke’s breath returned with a whoosh and he lay on his side, wheezing.

Lucky came running up. “There’s a guy downstairs looking for you,” he reported.

“No matter what Jack does to you, you’d better be back here tonight, after dark, to apologize to Nagi,” I told Deke. “You don’t want me coming after you.” I turned and followed Lucky downstairs.

I found the skinhead waiting for me. “Well, hello,” I told him, grinning. He smiled back at me sheepishly. “How’d you get here?”

“Took a plane to Vegas, and a bus here,” he told me. “I figured nobody would ask to see my passport on a bus.”

“Not bad,” I nodded. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Melvin, sir,” he said quietly, hanging his head.

“And what do people call you?” I asked him.

“Useless, mainly,” he muttered.

“Nah, neither of those work,” I told him, considering. I looked at his arms, bare beneath the cuff of his Fred Perry polo shirt. They were covered in what were supposed to be vines with thorns. “Yeah, that’ll work,” I nodded. “We’ll call you Thorn, how’s that?”

He stared at me, his mouth gaping, and I gave him a hug. “Thorn, this can be your new start,” I told him quietly, stroking his bare scalp. “Be who you want to be, and don’t worry about impressing anybody, or proving anything.”

“Ah, shit, it’s a Limey,” Lucky said, popping up beside us.

“Fuck, it’s a Mick that hasn’t grown up yet,” Thorn shot back, grinning.

“Now boys, play nice,” I warned, knowing full well it was good-natured. “Lucky, how about you show Thorn around, give him the lay of the land.” I looked up as the crew came down for more supplies, and I noted that Paddy had put his prick back in his pants. “Hey, guys, look who showed up to give me a hand. This is my friend Thorn from England. Heard what I was doing and came all the way here to help out.”

“Well, anything for a bud,” Thorn shrugged sheepishly, as the guys greeted him. He got introduced around, and Lucky pulled him away to give him the tour.

I helped carry the flooring upstairs, and even joined in on laying some of it. Most of the rooms were done quickly, when Thorn showed up next to me.

“I need to talk to you,” he said tensely, looking a bit angry. I followed him out of the room into the hallway.

“Those two guys downstairs,” he started, “Lucky told me about it. We had them around where I used to live too. Let me have them.”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked him, crossing my arms.

“They can get out, but they have to get past me first,” he told me.

“Let me think on it,” I suggested. “Give me just a half hour, OK?”

I went back into the bedroom, and found Rut sitting on the floor, looking half-drunk. Nagi was sitting next to him, holding him up.

“He was trying to get out,” Nagi told me. “He heard Jack yelling at Deke, and was trying to see what was going on.”

“Yelling,” Rut added helpfully. I rolled my eyes.

“Give me a bit,” I told them. I picked up the remote interface and selected Thorn.

“Target Acquired.”

I fed him with a bunch of knowledge of fighting, and increased his strength and agility without making it too obvious. He was in such a fury over the thugs that I doubt he’d notice when it hit him.

“Program Thorn_1 Activated.”

Feeling mildly regretful, I snatched some salad from one of the lunch buffets at a casino, as well as a thermos carafe of coffee and some sugar. I handed the food and drink to Rut, who stared at it. Nagi started feeding it to him a little at a bit, and letting him sip from the mug I’d dug out of my stuff.

There was a knock on the door, and Thorn stuck his head in. “You done thinking?” he asked, glowering.

“Yeah, you can do it, but I want everybody there,” I told him. “Including Nagi here. But we need to take care of Rut first, he’s a bit out of it.”

“I can help Rut,” a voice came from the couch, and the teenaged boy there sat up, rubbing his eyes. “It’s not like I can sleep with all that noise anyway.”

“Morning Ian,” I greeted him, and he grinned sleepily at me. “Sure you don’t want to watch the fight too?”

“No offense to the boyo,” he nodded to Thorn, who nodded back, “but I’ve seen fights before. Besides, this means the little guys can describe it to me later, and they seem to enjoy doing things like that.”

I shrugged, and picked up Nagi, tucking him under one arm.

“I can walk,” he pointed out, not actually sounding unhappy.

“Yeah, I know, I’ve seen you do it,” I told him. “Have you met Thorn?”

“We’ve met,” he grinned, and Thorn colored.

“Once Thorn is in position, you can release the two men downstairs,” I told him. “Understood?”

“Got it,” he replied.

I called to the crew to come on down (Deke was nowhere in evidence, Jack had sacked him, I guess). I figured the more, the merrier.

The guys all spread out around the periphery of the area, leaving an exit towards the doors. Standing in the middle of that opening was Thorn.

I looked at the two mobsters, still struggling to get out of the dust. “You can leave now, I’m tired of sharing air with you two,” I told them. “However, Thorn has some parting gifts for you.” I nodded to Nagi, and the two men jumped to their feet. They turned and looked, and the larger guy grunted.

“That?” he asked, laughing. “You’re dead meat.” He started moving towards me, but Thorn was suddenly in the way (I’d told Lucky and Paddy to stay out of it). “Take a hike pansy-ass.” He tried to shove Thorn out of the way.

Thorn broke his nose. Repeatedly. His fists were a blur, but I thought I heard at least five different cracking sounds. Then he started jabbing the guy in the jaw, on each side, and the big guy began making this high-pitched sound. Thorn, on the other hand was inventing new swear-words, already having used up all the ones he knew.

The shorter, leaner guy had been staring at what was happening, and suddenly turned to run. But Thorn was in the way again, and tripped him. I winced at the sound of the guy’s face hitting the floor.

“You don’t like getting your hands dirty, do ya?” Thorn demanded. “Or getting your pretty face messed up? Ya Poncey bastid, let’s see how you like this.” Thorn deliberately stomped on the man’s hands with his Rangers, and the man began to scream, kicking his heels. Then Thorn started to use the man’s face as sandpaper on the floor. It didn’t look like it was working very well.

By this time the big guy was lumbering towards Thorn, and I had to reach out to restrain Lucky. Thorn didn’t even look, he just snap-kicked right behind him, and caught the man square in the balls. The man stopped stock-still, making only a high “uh” sound. Thorn kicked back with the other foot, and the man went over like a redwood.

Thorn turned around, and I was concerned with the look on his face. He appeared to be in the midst of a berserker rage.

“Like to play with guns, do ya?” he demanded. “Maybe because they’re bigger than your dick!”

He jumped up and landed on the small of the man’s back, full force. He then rolled off the man, and began kicking him in the ribs.

“Thorn.” I said it clearly without raising my voice. He stopped and looked at me. I raised an eyebrow, and he nodded, breathing out in long breaths, struggling to regain control. I walked up to him and put my arm around his shoulder. “Good job. I really expected them to fight back more.”

Thorn sneered at the two men, and turned his back on them.

“You two can go, get out,” I told them. “Let your boss know that he’ll get a message from me at eight o’clock.” The two crawled out into the sunlight. I didn’t care how they got home, neither was in any shape to drive. “C’mon, Thorn, let’s get you calmed down, OK?”

As we walked past the guys from the crew, they all patted Thorn on the shoulder or gave him a thumb’s up.

I let him swear and kick things around down in the basement for a while, until he finally cooled down.

“You done?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said glumly. “I need a pint.”

“Let me see what I can scare up for you,” I told him. I searched with my mind, and found an unattended glass in a pub not far from where he used to live. I handed it to him. He downed it easily, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I liked that,” he said, grinning at me.

“Well, it came a long way,” I laughed.

“No, watching you do that,” he said. “When you disappeared like that, and just made that pint appear. That was… Really something.” He looked up at me shyly. “Can I stay?”

“I thought that was the idea,” I told him.

“Even after all that?”

“I knew what you had in mind, Thorn, and, in my own small way, helped you do it,” I told him. “I only reined you in when I thought you might actually kill them. I want you to stay, if you want to. You can’t if you’re in prison.”

“I- I like your boys,” Thorn told me, sitting down on a wooden box to stare at his hands. “They’re.. damn, perfect.”

“Thanks, and they seem to like you,” I replied. “The crew doesn’t know what Rut and Nagi look like under their clothes, though. Don’t spoil that, they may not be quite ready for that yet. And yes,” I chuckled at his blush, “I know you had sex with Nagi. Relax, he needs a lot of it, and you helped him quite a bit. He’s had a rough day.”

He shuddered slightly. “I wouldn’t mind being one of them,” he said quietly, with some effort. “Even if I couldn’t stay, I wouldn’t mind looking like that, being like that.”

I tilted his head up toward me with one finger on his chin. “How do you picture yourself looking?”

“Pretty much the same,” he admitted. “Shorter, though. Still be a skinhead, though. Like to be here, to help you, even protect you and them if something happened.”

“What would you say if I told you that might be possible?” I asked him. His eyes got wide.

“You- you’d do that for me, keep me here?” he asked. “Fuck, you could have anybody. But you’d take me?”

I picked him up and hugged him, hard. “You stupid fuck,” I told him. “Do you know how valuable you are, wanting to be here with me?” I asked.

“If it were possible,” he said, into my chest, “I’d say fuck yeah, right now, right here.”

I chuckled. “That might be a little hard to explain,” I told him. “Give me a week, OK? Then we can act like you’re heading off again, and do it then. Hell, we’ll have the crew out from under foot upstairs then, so it won’t look strange.”

“Who are you?” he asked. “You’re, what, some fuckin’ wizard or something?”

“Well, play your cards right, and I could be your Daddy,” I told him, before kissing him. He moaned, and sucked on my tongue, while humping at my crotch with his. I shucked him out of his bleachers quickly, and he was eager to take my cock in his ass. I let him ride it for a while, supported only by my arms, before cumming up his ass.

As his ass filled with cum, his eyes rolled up into his head, and he came on my stomach, long thick ropy stream of cum.

When we went back upstairs, there was somebody waiting to talk to me. It seemed like the day for visitors, but this one was friendly.

The elderly man introduced himself as the owner of the vacant lot across the way. He also leased out the rest of the block to various stores and such.

“Mr. Van Somme, glad to meet you,” I told him, shaking his hand.

“I’ll get right to the point,” he told me, in a faded European accent. “I’m getting old, and I want to spend more time with my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. All of the stores, the restaurant, they are on lease-to-buy. But I haven’t found anyone I’d want to sell the vacant lot to. You are building something here, yes?”

“Yes, my apartment on the third floor, offices on the second, and a bar downstairs,” I told him.

“You will need parking?” he asked.

“Definitely,” I told him. “All the storefronts, they will be combined into one bar.”

“If you agree with my conditions, I will sell the lot to you,” he told me. “You can have your parking lot.”

We went over the conditions he hand in mind, and I appreciated his concern. He wanted the area to stay people-friendly, and didn’t want to see plain expanses of ugly black top. I assured him that I would have a landscaping expert draw up a plan, subject to his approval, before we closed on the escrow. I also told him that my telephone number was about to change, so he gave me his card.

We finished our informal agreement just as the guys were knocking off. The boys and I bid them and Mr. Van Somme goodnight, and we tripped up the stairs.

Rut was more coherent when we found him and Ian/Pete in the bedroom, looking over all the catalogs that had been dropped off during the day. We had office supplies, computer equipment, business machines, office furniture, home furnishings, kitchen appliances and equipment, the whole nine yards. The boys had been dropping them off upstairs as they arrived all day. When Rut pointed at a computer catalog, that reminded Paddy and Lucky of their new toys. I stopped them when they wanted to bring all the computers into the bedroom.

“The flooring’s done in the other rooms,” I told them. “Let’s pick a room and unpack them there.”

We picked one of the front rooms, and unrolled a rug onto the floor. Then the laptops were brought in, and unpacked. Ian and Thorn were both surprised when Paddy and Lucky, acting as impromptu “Santa’s helpers”, handed them laptops of their own.

Each of the boys started setting up their laptops the way they wanted to, and Thorn, being unused to using one, got lots of helpful advice.

I took the truck and went to get food. Burgers and fries (and three salads for Rut), with shakes, seemed the order of the day, and food Thorn would be more used to. I also stopped at a liquor store and got a case of imported beer.

When I got back, I found the boys had divided up the catalogs, and were making lists. They were sharing the catalogs as well, and soliciting advice from each other on choices.

I barely noticed the sound of the downstairs door opening and closing as I agreed on, or over-ruled, the choices the boys were making. Lucky had already sketched out a floorplan of the first floor, and was fitting things into the plan as the others made their decisions.

I looked up when the boys stopped talking. Deke was standing in the doorway.

“Alright, now what?” he asked defiantly.

I looked at Nagi. He stood up, and looked at Deke.

“Normally, I couldn’t care less if my pants were off or not,” Nagi told him. Lucky helped him untie his boots, and he kicked off his sweatpants. “But I didn’t think you could handle seeing this.” He stood proudly before Deke, his hoofed feet spread wide. Rut grinned and took his off as well, standing next to Nagi with his arm over his brother’s shoulder.

Deke looked wide-eyed, and glanced at Lucky and Paddy.

“Oh, don’t be stupid,” Paddy told him. “You can see our legs.” He turned away, back to his computer.

The rest of us ignored Deke, as Nagi and Rut continued to challenge him with their presence. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see he couldn’t look away.

“I’m sorry,” he finally admitted. “It wasn’t right to treat you like that. It was dumb.”

“Thank you,” Nagi replied with dignity. He and Rut sat back down, and went back to their computers.

I looked up at Deke. “You can leave now,” I told him.

“You’re not worried I’ll tell anybody?” he asked, slowly.

“Who’d believe you?” I replied, not looking up.

“Uh—“ he thought for a few minutes. “Could I stay, please?” he asked.

Ian looked over at me and shook his head. “You know, Red, if you keep this up, the whole town is going to be fetish-crazed midgets,” he told me.

“And we can rename the town Little Amsterdam,” Lucky put in absently.

“Yes!” I shouted, pointing at Lucky. He looked up wide-eyed.

“We’re going to rename the town Little Amsterdam?” he asked. His face brightened. “’Cause I can make that happen.”

“That’s what we’re going to name the bar,” I told them. “‘Little Amsterdam’. It’s perfect.”

“Big Red’s Little Amsterdam,” Paddy clarified. “That’s perfect.”

“Well, OK,” I shrugged.

“It’s a cool name,” Deke said quietly. I looked up at him, and back at my boys.

“How do you guys feel about Deke hanging out for a couple hours?” I asked them.

Paddy shrugged, intent on his screen. Rut nodded, and Lucky wiggled his hand from side to side. I looked at Nagi, and he gave Deke a dark look, but then he shrugged. I looked at Ian, who glanced over at Nagi, and nodded. I looked at Thorn.

“Only if he sits down,” Thorn asked, between long gulps of beer. “He’s giving me a pain in the neck.”

“Grab me a beer while you’re getting yours,” I told Deke. He passed me a beer and got one for himself, before sitting down between Paddy and Thorn.

“How’s this?” Paddy asked, turning his laptop around. On the screen was a graphic. “Big Red” was spelled out, in red, in the curvy letters popular with 60’s and 70’s style restaurants, and “Little Amsterdam” was spelled out in electric blue Gothic lettering. He’d even managed to get it to blink and shimmer like real neon.

“OK, I’ll get a sign company to start working on it,” I gave in. “But I think my name should be in smaller letters.”

“Yeah, right, Dad,” he snorted, and went back to his computer. He kept hunching his shoulders as he worked, and Deke noticed as well. The construction worker turned a little, and began to massage Paddy’s shoulders. Paddy froze for a moment, and then looked back at him.

“That feels good,” he grinned. “Thanks.”

I gave Deke a long look-over as he concentrated on what he was doing. Deke was probably about 23 (I later learned I was a year off). His dirty-blonde hair was on the long side, and was cut shaggy. He stood a little less than six feet, and had a decent body for a carpenter. He filled out his t-shirt nicely, and his legs looked solid, although not extremely developed. I saw some possibilities in him, but he’d have to ask for it.

“By the way, Deke, this is Thorn, and my nephew Ian,” I introduced him. He gave a nod to each of the guys as he went back to work on Paddy. Nagi watched for a few minutes, and then picked up his laptop to come over and sit on my lap. Deke glanced up at him, and quickly looked away, but not before I saw the look on his face.

“What kind of printer are we going to need, sir?” Rut asked, lying on his stomach and idly kicking his feet.

“My little laser printer is a piece of crap,” I replied. “I figure we can get a laser printer for the bar, a photo printer and transfer printer for Paddy, a second laser for our own use… Anything else, we’ll have a printing company do.”

“Well..” Paddy considered, and shrugged. “I guess on some stuff I can use a transfer for. Most of the stuff I’ll do by hand, though.”

“What’s a transfer printer?” Thorn asked.

“It’s a printer for putting tattoo designs on transfer paper,” I explained. “Paddy does tattooing.”

“Fuckin’ ey,” Thorn muttered, impressed.

“Want to take a look at this?” Lucky asked, bringing over his laptop. Nagi vacated my lap, and Lucky nestled in to show me the lists he had made, and we looked over his selections from the catalog. Nagi laid down next to me, next to Paddy, and idly leafed through a catalog of office supplies.

Rut was next, showing me what he had come up with. I noted his choices in linens and such for the bar and restaurant, and agreed with him.

I poked Nagi in the side. “C’mon, what do you have?” He turned his laptop to face me, and I saw he’d been working on detailed designs for the bar itself. He’d kept the down-the-middle design, and the shelves for liquor were built around mirrored columns with glass brick between the columns, but only about two feet high. He’d also put in a bar of dark wood that went around the entire thing.

“Nice,” I congratulated him. “What’s this for?” I tapped the end of the bar, where there was a circular platform of about six feet in diameter at the end.

“So we can get up and dance when we feel like it,” he told me. “We’d be in trouble out on the dance floor.”

“Cool!” Rut exclaimed, punching Nagi softly in the shoulder.

“You want a back-rub?” Deke asked Nagi hesitantly.

“Sure,” Nagi replied quietly.

Paddy moved out of the way, to slide closer to Thorn.

“Dad, I can I have a beer?” he asked.

“Sure,” I told him. “You boys can all have one.” Paddy quickly passed out the beers, although Nagi declined. He was starting to smile again, under Deke’s ministrations.

We kept discussing plans for some time, and I noticed the boys were taking turns sitting in Thorn’s lap. I gave him a wink, and he gave me a broad grin.

“You know,” Paddy said clinically as he examined Thorn’s arm. “This has got to be the worst ink I’ve ever seen. What did the guy use, a ballpoint pen and a hammer?”

“It’s what I could afford,” Thorn admitted.

“I’m going to have to retouch this all for you,” Paddy accused, shaking his head. “What do you have under this, anyway?” He twisted around and started pulling at Thorn’s shirt. Rut and Lucky immediately jumped to help. “Oh, Thorn, do you have any idea how much time this is going to take me?” Paddy demanded, sadly. “Man, my fingers hurt already!”

“Well, you don’t have to,” Thorn started.

“Oh, yes, I do,” Paddy declared. “No way any brother of mine is going to go around like this!”

Thorn began to laugh at that.

“Rut, you and Ian are going to need to work on a design for a parking lot across the way,” I announced. I filled them in on what Mr. Van Somme had requested. All of them winked at Lucky, who was grinning like a fool.

I looked at the time, and decided it was time for us to head for bed.

“Deke, you’re welcome to come back tomorrow night if you want,” I told him, as the boys shut down their computers and trooped off to the bedroom. “After dark. I don’t think you want to have to face Jack anytime soon.” Deke nodded and left, somewhat reluctantly.

Ian declined the company of any of the boys on the couch, claiming that he was still exhausted from Rut the night (and day) before.

“So when does Thorn get to change?” Paddy asked, snuggling up between the two of us. Rut was lying over Thorn, and Nagi was laying on my stomach. Lucky had his head on Paddy’s stomach.

“After the crew is done up here,” I told him. “That way ‘Thorn’ can head out again, and a new boy can appear a few days later.”

“Good, that gives me time to get some equipment,” Paddy nodded.

“Fuck, you’re single-minded, ain’t ya?” Thorn asked, sleepily.

“Good night boys,” I said pointedly.

“Good night sir.” “Good night Daddy.” “Goodnight Thorn.”

There was a pregnant pause.

“Good night Ian!” The four boys yelled.

“Oh, shut up already,” came the mumbled response.

“Sir,” Lucky whispered. I rolled my eyes.

“What, Lucky?”

“You were supposed to give those guys’ boss a message at eight,” he reminded me. “I just remembered.”

“It’s OK, I remembered,” I told him, grinning in the dark. I wondered how the men’s employer would take to having his entire staff start talking like mobsters in bad movies, a lot of ‘dese’ and ‘youse’, from now on.