God's Country appeared to be a sort of conversion chamber for the converted. We were expected to sit around campfires and sing songs and tell scary stories at night, then get a good nights sleep so we could go out in the morning and identify what was left of the plants and animals in the mountain range. Needless to say, any malcontents were clearly visible among the cheery, singing horde.
My cursing counterpart was a smallish boy of about 14, blond haired and red skinned from the sun, with a lecherous grin almost permanently affixed to his face, shifting to a grimace only when he had to adjust his backpack or look towards the sun. He started out talking with a few model gentlemen ahead of me, but when they fled, he fell back to me.
"Hey faggot." He smiled loosely at me. I blinked, not recognizing the word.
"I'm sorry?" He must have misspoke, or perhaps this was some sort of code, or maybe a trap? I decided to play dumb, which wasn't hard, considering my ignorance. "What was that?"
"I said: Hey. Faggot." He seemed to be fishing for some sort of response. This was obviously some piece of ritual that I had missed earlier. We had a lot of silly names for things and people in God's Country, perhaps this was one? I kept my face as clear as I could as I struggled through all this, but I was never much of a liar. He smirked at me, and took my confusion as my concession in our little battle of wits.
"It means," he said, taking on the role and manners of a wise mentor, "that you like putting your dick up other guys asses. You do like that, don't you?"
This was a bit much for me. I could guess what a dick was, but the act he described was so feral, so crude and blatantly sinful and wrong that he had to be joking in some sick way. I stammered. "No, no, no...I don't want that at all! That's horrible!" Thinking as quickly as I could, feeling that this was surely a trap of some kind, that I must be being tested, I added, "where did you ever even hear about that kind of thing? Really, that's just too far from decency to be allowed!"
He looked at me again, looking incredulous, but as amused as before. "Well, my fine faggoty friend, I learned about it in a wonderful place, known only as the internet. Or the interwebs. Or the intertubes. Or pretty much anything starting with 'inter'. Point is, you're gay."
It was at this point that I realized just how dehydrated the poor boy must be. A four-mile hike in the hot sun was a trial on the best ground, and this was rough
My cursing counterpart was a smallish boy of about 14, blond haired and red skinned from the sun, with a lecherous grin almost permanently affixed to his face, shifting to a grimace only when he had to adjust his backpack or look towards the sun. He started out talking with a few model gentlemen ahead of me, but when they fled, he fell back to me.
"Hey faggot." He smiled loosely at me. I blinked, not recognizing the word.
"I'm sorry?" He must have misspoke, or perhaps this was some sort of code, or maybe a trap? I decided to play dumb, which wasn't hard, considering my ignorance. "What was that?"
"I said: Hey. Faggot." He seemed to be fishing for some sort of response. This was obviously some piece of ritual that I had missed earlier. We had a lot of silly names for things and people in God's Country, perhaps this was one? I kept my face as clear as I could as I struggled through all this, but I was never much of a liar. He smirked at me, and took my confusion as my concession in our little battle of wits.
"It means," he said, taking on the role and manners of a wise mentor, "that you like putting your dick up other guys asses. You do like that, don't you?"
This was a bit much for me. I could guess what a dick was, but the act he described was so feral, so crude and blatantly sinful and wrong that he had to be joking in some sick way. I stammered. "No, no, no...I don't want that at all! That's horrible!" Thinking as quickly as I could, feeling that this was surely a trap of some kind, that I must be being tested, I added, "where did you ever even hear about that kind of thing? Really, that's just too far from decency to be allowed!"
He looked at me again, looking incredulous, but as amused as before. "Well, my fine faggoty friend, I learned about it in a wonderful place, known only as the internet. Or the interwebs. Or the intertubes. Or pretty much anything starting with 'inter'. Point is, you're gay."
It was at this point that I realized just how dehydrated the poor boy must be. A four-mile hike in the hot sun was a trial on the best ground, and this was rough
