Curious George

When I was around ten or eleven, my “best friend” was a “fat boy” named David. I met David in the boyscouts, and since he and I were the only boys in Troup 462 who had non-commissioned fathers (sergeants' sons), we naturally became friends (464 was the regular NCO troup).

David had an older brother named George. George wasn't fat like David, but he was just as much a “geek”. He was several years older than David and I, and ended up earning his “Eagle” patch (the highest rank in boyscouts) while David and I were still friends. George was also a “child molester”, by most people's definition, or at least a perversely curious teen, according to my own understanding of such behavior.

George once tried to convince me to pump air into my ass in order to make “farts” using a bicycle pump. He happily demonstrated the technique while I was visiting David at their house on Davis Hill (a base housing area for NCO families). I declined, and that was the only time George tried to get me to drop my pants. He was more interested, it seems, in my younger brother, who was around 8 years old, while George was 15 or 16.

Because of our age disparity, George and I didn't interact (a.k.a. “play” together) very often. But, once there was a new dental clinic being built near David Hill, and after all the new equipment had been installed there was a “mountain” of large (refrigerator-sized) cardboard boxes left out in the parking lot to await disposal.

This mountain of cardboard was, of course, a magnet for all the kids who lived nearby, far more fun than any playground, and David, George, me, and my brother were all there with several other kids; some we knew and some we didn't.

The cardboard boxes were perferct for making “forts”, and this, of course, lead to the familiar game of forming rival “clubs”. Everyone wantd to be in George's club because he was by far the oldest boy there, and had built the best “fort”. But, for some reason (guess), George only let a select few younger children into his “club” and into his “fort”. My brother was one of the “lucky” ones.

I remember it seeming strange to me that George would take one of the kids in his club into a separately closed off box in his fort while he told the other kids in his club to “keep guard” and not let anyone in (i.e. the other kids who weren't in his “club”, like me and David). I also noticed that my brother, Bruce, was one of the kids invited into George's box.

Afterwards, on the walk home, I asked Bruce what they did in George's box, but my brother said he didn't know. But, he “didn't know” only meant that he didn't know what to call it. So I asked him to describe what happened, and Bruce told me that George pulled down his pants and made my brother touch his “weener”. I again remember thinking how strange this was, but dismissed it because it didn't make much sense, to me or my brother.

My brother and I both instinctively steered clear of George after that. But, we never told anyone about George's “strange” behavior because that's all it was to us: just strange. And, like I mentioned, George ended up becoming an Eagle scout, and the last I heard (from the defense team investigators on my death penalty case), he had joined the Navy and was a commissioned officer stationed in Hawaii. It is unlikely that George went on to become a “pedophile”, since he never got “caught”, and hence never got labelled. Also, I know from personal experience (I) that it is extremely common for teenage boys to take advantage of younger children to explore their sexual feelings as they develop. In most cases, this exploration is harmless and soon forgotten by botth teen and child. So, I wouldn't be too surprised if George today adamently denied anything like this ever happened, and he might even actually believe that it never did. But, I remember, and I know that it did happen. And, more importantly, I know what it means.

It means that the only difference between a “pedophile sex offender” and a “commissioned Navy officer” is in the label, not the person. I wish George all the best on his Navy career, and only hope he remembers me, and my brother, Bruce.

[J.D. August 26, 2015]

Notes:

(I) Many men, some in very “highly respectable” positions in their communities, have confessed to me various degrees and forms of such youthful sexual curiousity; and none of them ever consider themselves “sex offenders” or even “sexually deviant”. I have also been the “target” of such curiosity on numerous occassions as a young child, from several different older children, not just a rare one or two. (As an adult, I have come to attribute this high frequency of being a “target” to the fact that I was both beautiful and submissive as a child - an “easy target”, as they say.)