The Fête

This is a short in the Jake and Quill universe, more of a vignette than a full story. It takes place after the other stories, but I may write a story that will fall chronologically between this and Betrayal of Faith.

The Fête

“Do you want some ice cream?”

Jake looked at Quill with amazement. They’d already had fried chicken, corn on the cob, coleslaw, and strawberry shortcake. The feast had been to help the local Moose Lodge. “Who’s providing the ice cream?” Jake said with a sigh. Quill had insisted it was important to patronize every local organization. He’d even been bugging Jake to get his face painted since the money went for the summer flowers that cheerfully spilled out of planters all along the streets, including in front of Galaxy Toys.

“The Rainbow Girls.”

“Who?”

“It’s like scouting. They have good ice cream, and some of the girls are my customers.”

“Fine. You have ice cream. I’m going to find some shade and digest.”

“They might have rainbow sherbet,” 

“Get Sam. He’s the one into rainbows.” Sam had regaled Jake with tales of the pride night party and rainbow butt cheeks. While Jake hadn’t wanted to say it and be accused of ganging up against a fellow brat, he secretly agreed with Dan. Rainbows on the facial cheeks were more than enough. 

“He’s with Sam, judging the pet parade. The local organizers wanted a real live vicar for a judge. Someone watched too much BBC America.”

“I heard,” Jake said with a laugh. “Sam was teasing Dan unmercifully about his special talent, judging pet parades and the biscuit baking contest.”

“Hey, there’s Sam now,” Quill said and waved him over.

Sam had eschewed the appropriate attire of a proper spouse to a local religious leader and was dressed in plaid Bermudas, a pink polo shirt, and a necklace of seashells. “Do you like my new neck wear,” he said with a grin, flipping his hand under a shell to accentuate the beauty of the necklace and his long thin neck.

“Behave,” Quill mocked growled.

Sam batted his eyes at Jake’s partner, not impressed by Quill’s attempt at toppiness. “Honey, you have a long way to go if you want to bring us brats into line. That growl wouldn’t frighten a teddy bear.”

“Have you seen Quill’s teddy bear? It’s biker bear on the loose,” Jake said, warming up to the subject.

“Jake,” Quill interrupted, a good natured smile on his face, “not all teddy bears have to be as upstanding as Paddington. Where did you get those shorts?”

“Yard sale. Someone had to liven up the day with Dan in black pants and a collar. It’s a village festival, not a funeral. I’m sure I could get you a pair. The church rummage sale always has a great collection.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll stick to buying old Scrabble sets that are missing the letters z and j.”

“Your loss is my gain.” Sam smiled a broad grin, which could light up an entire village without the help of Thomas Edison.

“Brat.”

“Yep, that’s me.”

Jake looked around, hoping that anyone close enough to hear was either occupied with screaming children or old enough to be in need of an ear trumpet. He preferred incognito status; it was OK to kid around in private but not in public.

“Let’s get our faces painted.” Sam grabbed Jake’s hand and started dragging him toward the tent where two teenage girls were idling, waiting for customers.

“I’m not six,” Jake protested.

“You’re the one who wanted shade. It’s under a tree and a tent,” Quill said, taking Sam’s side.

“Come on. You’re such an old fuddy-duddy.” Sam pulled Jake closer to the tent and the girls with the sparkles on their cheeks.

“Fine,” Jake huffed.

“You want ice cream?” Quill called.

“No, it’s bad enough I’m getting my face painted. I’m not getting stuffed with ice cream also.”

“Yes, old man.” Quill smiled, pulled out a yo-yo, and sent it spinning.

Unfortunately, Jake thought, no gaggle of screaming children were pounding down on the face painting tent. Escape was elusive, and he was soon perched on a stool while a young beauty giggled in his face.

“So what would you like? We can do stars or smiley faces.”

“Can we just skip this?”

“No,” Sam said with a laugh. “It’s the fête; you must participate. I have an idea,” he said conspiratorially and beckoned to the girl with his finger. She giggled and nodded happily, listening attentively.

“Should I be getting worried?” Jake asked.

“No, it will be great.” The girl giggled again.

“You’ll like it,” Sam said, putting his hands on Jake’s shoulders so he couldn’t get up without an unsightly struggle.

It took only a few minutes, but with the giggling and smirking, Jake was seriously concerned for his appearance. Sam had probably suggested pink unicorns or something equally awful. 

The girl was placing the final strokes when Jake spotted Quill weaving through the crowd. He had six scoops of ice cream balanced precariously on a waffle cone in the most lurid colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  

“My own rainbow sherbet,” he said. His tongue and lips were a matching shade of rainbow goodness. “Red raspberry, orange, lemon yellow, lime green, blueberry, and purple grapes. Are you sure you don’t want some?”

Jake shook his head; his stomach flip-flopped at the mere idea.

“I do,” Sam said, bouncing up and down on his toes. “I love rainbow ice cream.”

“You like rainbows of any type,” Jake said dryly.

“Well, it seems like you do too, hon,” Quill said with a laugh. “Have you seen your face?”

“What did you do?” Jake said, springing from the chair and making a grab for Sam.

Sam danced out of the way, laughing. “I just added some color to your cheeks.”

“What did you do?” Jake repeated.

“It’s OK,” Quill said, grabbing Jake and pulling him close. “It’s a lovely rainbow on one side and two beautiful, purple male symbols on the other.” Jake reached for his cheek, but Quill grabbed Jake’s wrist. “Don’t rub it. It goes with my ice cream and just think what a lovely color Sam’s cheeks are going to be when Dan finds out.”

“You can’t tell him,” Sam spluttered.

“I think payback is only fair,” Jake said with glee. “And here he comes now.”

Dan joined their little group, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a towel. “How do you judge a goldfish compared to a red eared slider? I thought the pet parade would be dogs. Some boy even had a snake.” Dan paused and studied Jake’s face. “You’re being daring today.”

“It wasn’t my idea. Your partner set me up.”

“Sam.”

“No, really, Jake begged the girl to do the rainbow.”

“Why don’t I believe that? Now Quill -- maybe -- considering the ice cream he’s eating, but Jake never. Hmm. So what did you have to do with this?” Dan caught Sam by the back of the neck and gave him a friendly shake. “Well, boy?” Dan’s eyebrows rose into his hairline. 

Sam shrugged, a small smile on his lips. “Jake needed a little fun.”

“Boy, we’ll talk about this at home,” Dan said sternly before smiling and tousling Sam’s hair. “I think you’ll need some color in those cheeks.” He gave Sam a quick pat on the rump. “We can’t leave poor Jake here being the odd man out. I’m sure I can do as good of job as those girls. Red might be a bit more prominent. I do like red.”

***********

“You can’t be serious,” Sam whined as Dan pointed to the corner. “It was only a bit of fun.”

“You embarrassed your friend in public. You know how I feel about that.”

“Jake acts like an old man, and Quill didn’t mind.”

“But Jake did. They left about thirty minutes later.”

“Are you going to spank me?”

“What do you think?”

“Yeah, you don’t tease people in public. I know.”

“Corner.” Dan kissed Sam’s hair and gave him a gentle push toward the corner.

The corner was boring as always -- bright white of the kitchen blended into the marigold of the dining room. The paint never changed, not even a stray ant scurrying for cover to liven up the process.

“Sam, come here,” Dan called after what seemed like hours. The kitchen clock had only moved ten minutes; it must need a new battery.

The chair wasn’t in the middle of the room. Dan was standing, not sitting. He’d changed into jeans and looked less severe out of his clerical garb.

“Do you understand what you did wrong?”

“Yes, sir. I embarrassed Jake in public.”

“He’s not as out as we are. You need to respect that.”

“I just wanted to loosen him up a little. He can be so correct it’s painful.”

“I know.” Dan caught Sam’s hip, turned him, and swatted six times in rapid succession. “Are we square now?”

“Yes, sir,” Sam gulped. The spanks hadn’t been soft, and Dan had landed them all exactly in the same spot. That man got way too much practice, but it could have been so much worse. “We’re square.”

“Good. Sit down. I’ll get you some rainbow sherbet.”

“Dan.”

“Sam,” Dan whined back. “You’re the one keen on rainbows. I could do rainbow chard instead.”

“No, the sherbet will be great.” Sam dipped his spoon into the bowl. He expected he’d be seeing rainbow sherbet in his sleep if he knew his partner. Well, at least it wasn’t chard.