Thank goodness I'd only said 'hell' - I was in enough trouble with mom as it was. If I'd said 'fuck' and she'd heard, then my list of chores to be done as punishment would probably have doubled. Plus, I'd probably get grounded like forever!

Jase, who was standing next to me, giggled as I spoke. I still hadn't entirely forgiven him as I reckoned it was mainly his fault that we'd got caught. But he hadn't left me to face the music on my own and that was why he was now stood beside me holding the spade. I also knew there was another reason he'd pleaded with my mom not to tell his pa what we'd been doing. If I did something wrong my mom would give me extra chores to do or ground me. But I knew if Jase did anything wrong his pa was highly likely to whip his butt – I'd seen the evidence on more than one occasion. Guess that is one of the few advantages of not having a father!

Jase and I have lived on the same street for all our lives. We're almost the same age - we're both fourteen now and our birthdays are only a few weeks apart. We share a lot of the same interests; we both like sports a lot and aren't too bad at school, getting mainly 'B' grades on most subjects. We're also pretty much the same height and build, being just under five and a half foot tall and definitely not overweight. The big difference between us is that Jase's hair is a sort of dark blond and cut reasonably short while mine is a pale blond and quite a bit longer. I know he'd like to grow his longer, but his pa won't let him.

At the start of this school year we both decided to take up wrestling. We soon discovered we rather like it and it has helped us both to build up some muscles. Today's a Saturday and Jase had slept over on Friday night like he often does. Mom said she was going into town to do some shopping and agreed we could stay here provided we cut the grass in the yard. That meant not just mowing, but also trimming all the edges. But it was a nice day and she was going to be gone like forever so we decided we'd leave the grass until later and got out my wrestling mat instead. Now if you're gonna wrestle you've gotta be properly dressed for it, so we also put on our singlets. Jase's is a burgundy color with white edging while mine is jade green, also with white edging. Of course they are made from this material that clings to your skin and makes certain features really stand out. I know they stand out more than when you are dressed normally or just in boxer briefs. Indeed, I reckon they stand out more than when you're stood naked in the changing room.

With having sleepovers so often from when we were really young, we'd got used to seeing each other naked as well as sharing a bed. But, we only shared a bed when the sleepovers were at my house as I had a queen size one. Jase had two singles in his room and most times we did sleep separately there. I guess that was part of the reason why most sleepovers were at mine. That and the fact that I'm an only kid whereas Jase has two younger sisters. They do sleep in another room, but it is next door and his pa insists that bedroom doors aren't locked. My mom's much more relaxed about that which does give us the opportunity to.....

That's not to say we spend our time in bed doing sex with each other. But we are teens and the hormones are raging and a boy's gotta jerk off at least once a day. At first we were both unsure what to do or say about such things. We'd both been sleeping naked since we became teens – no pajama bottoms or briefs in bed for us from then on. It was inevitable that bodies would touch while we were in bed and that would lead to a certain appendage growing. They had to be admired and compared which led to them being touched, initially by the owner, to see how long they were. I was the one who finally plucked up the courage one night to touch Jase's dick. I was scared of how he'd react; frightened he'd think I was gay, or some sort of pervert; worried that he'd pull away in horror and that would be the end of our friendship. Instead he let out a little moan and whispered to me.

"Alex, that feels great! I've so wanted to touch yours for ages now but I've been too scared to do so. Can I now?"

A wave of relief swept over me. I reached for his hand and placed it where it was almost, but not quite, touching mine.

"Go for it." I said, and he did, and it felt amazing. It was so unlike feeling my own hand on my dick and my already hard dick responded and, I swear, grew another inch! Now it was my turn to moan.

So he did, which felt even better than just having him touch it, so I stroked his and by the little noises he made I guessed he liked it as much as I did. It wasn't long before we were both shooting onto our respective stomachs. Once you've discovered something you like it soon becomes a habit and from that night on, we jerked each other off every time Jase had a sleepover with me. But that was all we ever did. Like I said we weren't gay – we didn't mince around or talk with a high pitched voice, or look like emos. And we were heavily into sports - gay boys didn't do sports did they?

This particular Saturday we were wrestling as usual, practising our holds. We were evenly matched so it was always good fun to practice with each other. After a while Jase got me pinned with my back on the mat; he's got his legs either side of my chest and his butt is virtually on my groin. He raised both his arms as a sort of combination of flexing his muscles and a victory sign while I extended mine above my head in a similar fashion.

A big grin lit up is face and he lent forward until his lips just touched mine. I got the same sort of feeling that I'd had the first time he'd touched my dick. I started to go hard which he had to feel because of where his butt was. The touch became the gentlest of kisses and I was kissing him back. But then I opened my lips and he started to insert his tongue. I responded and wrapped my hands round his back to pull him closer. He was lying right on top of me now. Our tongues were getting to know each other and his hard dick was rubbing into mine as mine was into his. It became frantic; simultaneously we both jerked and I felt myself come into my singlet as Jase did the same. We were both still on a high wondering what had happened when I heard a voice that even in that state I recognized as my mom's.

She didn't need to say more. We both knew we'd been caught. We rolled apart, me onto my stomach, Jase onto his back. He quickly realized that displayed the evidence of our activities and went to roll onto his stomach.

We did so, attempting as we did to place our hands in a position where they'd hide the wetness evident in our singlets.

"Don't bother boys." Was she almost trying to hide a grin as she said that I wondered? "Get indoors, get out of those singlets, put them in the washing machine and then go and have a shower. When you've done that come back downstairs and we'll talk."

Two very subdued and worried boys went indoors and did as instructed. In the shower we briefly discussed what we thought might happen next while trying to delay the process of showering, drying and dressing in order to put off 'the talk' for as long as possible. When we did arrive mom offered us a drink and some cookies before ushering us into the family room. She started by explaining she'd come home early because she'd decided to take the pair of us out to lunch as a reward for doing the grass. Then she landed the big question on us, no holding back.

Jase started to cry. We were sitting next to each other on the settee and I instinctively put my arm round his shoulder..

"Alex, I've thought for a while that you might be and I don't mind if you are. You're still my son and I'll love you as I always have whether or not you're gay. Who knows you could be bisexual or just having fun and got carried away. It wouldn't be that surprising when you're wrestling each other in those outfits."

"Please don't tell my pa Mrs Hayes. He'll either kill me or kick me out of the house. He hates queers!"

"Jason, I doubt he'd do either but I don't intend to tell him what I saw. It's for you to decide what you say to him and when. Mind you, if you are gay then he's going to find out at some point so perhaps it would be best if you told him. However, if you ever did get kicked out then you'll always have a room here."

"What you both have to do is to keep those activities in Alex's bedroom. The neighbors can easily see into our garden and if they had seen what you two were doing the news would soon flash round the block. In next to no time it would be the talk of the school I expect."

Jeeze, the last thing we needed was for news of us kissing to get out at school. Life there for anyone known to be gay could be pretty unpleasant – despite the school's non-discrimination policy.

"I believe you Alex, you're not stupid I know. Now, I've changed my mind about taking you two out for lunch." We both groaned. "Instead, I'll take you out for a meal this evening." We both cheered. "But there's a catch."

"No, I'll mow the lawn and you two can dig over that patch of ground I've been intending for ages to use to grow vegetables."

"There's two of you Alex so it won't be that bad, but it has to be dug down to at least a foot. Now, go and put some old clothes on. Jason, you're more or less the same size as Alex, so I'm sure he can find some shorts and a t-shirt you can wear as well as an old pair of sneakers. Do a good job and I'll talk to Mrs Wilson and see if Jason can stay the night."

I'm sure there was a little twinkle in her eye when she spoke the last sentence. I really didn't know if I was gay or not, but I did know I wanted to kiss Jase again like we had earlier. And if that meant I was gay........

That was how we came to be spending the afternoon digging over this piece of ground in our back yard. It hadn't seemed that big a piece when we'd started, but having to dig down a foot made it quite a task. Mind you there were compensations, or one at least. Having Jase next to me wearing a pair of my old soccer shorts that were really a bit too small for him both in length and round the waist was definitely the main one. It was specially good when he had to bend over to pick up a stone. I know he soon knew I was enjoying the view, but that only seemed to make him bend over more often, although he did claim it was a very stony patch of soil we were digging!

And now my fork had hit something solid, something that sounded almost like metal, which caused me to say those few words. I got Jase to use his spade and shovel some earth away and after a little while we could indeed see what looked like a metal container. We dug around it and finally managed to pull out a metal box that was about twelve inches long, six inches wide and four inches deep.

By this time mom had noticed what we were doing and had come over to find out the cause of our excitement. At first she was bothered we'd dug up some sort of bomb or shell, but when she saw it was a box she relaxed and when it was finally free from the earth, suggested we take it indoors, have a break and decide what we were going to do.

We brushed as much dirt off it as we could before we went inside. We put it on the table while mom got us all a drink. It looked to be in quite good condition – a bit rusty but no real damage. There wasn't a lock so it seemed the lid would just lift off. We were all wondering what was inside. Mom said it was probably empty. Jase said it had to be full of money or jewels from a robbery that someone had buried and forgotten to come back for. I didn't think that was likely, but nor could I see why anyone would have buried it if it was empty. I did give it a shake though and while it wasn't heavy it did seem that there was something inside.

Mom said I should open it and after a bit of a struggle I managed to get the lid off. There were some folded sheets of paper on the top and when I lifted those out......wow! There were about a dozen toy soldiers, painted in civil war uniform, and you could see they weren't made of plastic. In one corner was a little package wrapped in a piece of material and when I took that off there were about fifty baseball cards – but these were old baseball cards as the men were dressed like I'd seen in pictures of when they'd played fifty or more years ago.

I picked up the sheets of paper and unfolded them. In the middle I found a little note which I could just about read.

These were my little brother Amos' favorite toys. They wouldn't let me put them in his coffin, but if I bury them here I hope he can find them.

Gee – I started crying as I read it before I passed it to mom who read it and also started crying before she handed it to Jase. Then we were all sat round the table crying for several minutes.

"I've no idea Alex. These look to be from around the 1930s I guess. The house would have been here then, but it's had a lot of owners since and I doubt you could trace back that far."

"I think we probably have three options. The first is to put everything back in the box, seal it up and bury it again. The second would be to offer the contents to the city museum. The third would be to get some idea of how much the contents might be worth. I think those cards especially could be valuable as they are in excellent condition. I know people collect them and not many of those really old ones still exist. If they are valuable then the money would go towards paying for your college education – both of you seeing that you found the box together."

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What the hell is that?

by Ivor Slipper