The yacht moved easily along as it cut through the water after leaving the Marina in Santa Barbara. The day was clear with the bow of the Infinity pointed toward a snow white pillow of clouds on the horizon.

Martin stood beside Captain Horst Fredricht and Josh came on the bridge to stand beside Marty.

"Beautiful," I said, enjoying his second trip on the Infinity.

Marty looked my way and leaned to kiss my cheek.

"You ain't seen nothing yet, Kid," Marty said in either Humphrey Bogart's or Pee Wee Herman's voice.

The captain laughed. He wasn't sure which voice it was either.

The day was perfect. The sky was the bluest kind of blue. The distant fluffy clouds were whiter than white. The bow of the boat cut through the ocean waters, leaving a wide wake at the stern. I sat on the bow without benefit of a chair. On the stern, I had benefit of a director's chair, which I suspected became a captain's chair on the Infinity. It didn't matter where I sat of the yacht, the view was spectacular.

Marty was calm cool and collected. He wasn't afraid to touch me in front of the dozen guests who came along for a vacation in Honolulu. For Marty it was a business trip, but one he scheduled with a trip on his yacht in mind. The yacht was a luxurious place to entertain friends.

No matter what time I came on deck, there were always guests walking. The sea air was nothing less than amazing. The night sky was dramatic in mid Pacific Ocean. I am sure I counted at least two billion stars. I might have lost count. I may have counted the same star more than once, but there were plenty of stars to keep counting forever. I didn't start over. I did keep gazing into that incredible night sky.

I still drank ginger ale to Marty's Johnny Walker blue. He drank it straight, saying, "It's the flavor. You really should have one taste."

"And if I like it and I become a drunk because I like it, what then?"

"When you put it that way, ready for another ginger ale."

Marty ordered oysters on the half shell and New England Clam Chowder. I could have survived fine on a diet of those two items. I did like mine a tad hotter than Marty liked his. His dash of horseradish looked tame to my tablespoon of horseradish and dash of katsup. They were amazing and Marty sat holding my hand as I cleaned up the last two of his dozen oysters with my dozen. My mouth was alive with flavor.

"I have something I forgot to put at your place at dinner," he said.

"Martin!" I said.

I got damn few gifts as a child and Marty was constantly giving me gifts. He was a sweet man, but he didn't need to give me things for me to like being with him. He treated me with respect, not like I was his trinket or bought boy. My working at the hotel certainly might give a guy the wrong idea, but even then, it wasn't to get gifts. It was my job.

"Let's walk on deck," he said, after putting a gold band on my wrist.

I had a gold chain around my neck and I didn't wear jewelry. The only watch I had was one gave me, and it was on the nightstand beside my bed. It made me feel funny, because I couldn't give him anything. A guy with a forty million dollar yacht didn't need much I could give him.

He held my hand and stopped every few minutes to greet one of his guests. I don't know how well he knew the people on the trip with us, but they all looked like a deer in the headlights when he stopped to talk.

Marty's guests excelled in formal settings and at cocktail parties. They seemed confident and ready to have an exchange of ideas with Marty. Seeing him walking the deck hand-in-hand with me caught them off guard. They lost their balance, fumbling over their words.

It would take seven days to get to Honolulu. We could make it in five if we hurried. If there was one thing you didn't do on Marty's yacht, it was hurry. The yacht traveled in a different time zone than the rest of the world. Being from another world, the yacht and everything that came with it was right out of the Twilight Zone.

Who knew people lived like this?

Marty made the trip fun. No matter what I had an appetite for, within the hour, it would be put on the table in our state room. The evening meal was held in a dining room that could seat thirty. With Marty and me and a dozen guests, it looked almost empty.

The white coated waiters kept the food and drinks coming. Marty called them by name and he gave compliments to be taken to the kitchen for the cook. Everyone was all smiles, including the waiters. A steady flow of conversation went with each meal.

The dinner music was piped in and the only live musician on the cruise was a guest who played his guitar and sang respectably well. No one asked him to stop. He sang in clubs in Baltimore, Maryland. Marty liked him and he asked him to be his guest on the trip to Hawaii.

No one didn't like the Infinity. I felt funny sitting around the pool with the entire Pacific Ocean surrounding us. It was a popular place to visit in the afternoon on a long voyage. The drinks flowed as people chatted and got some sun. The woman were mostly in bathing suits and the men were in expensive slacks and shirts. The woman were mostly young and not their companion's wives. The men were older and would never appear in public in a bathing suit.

There were waiters taking orders for drinks and for snacks you could get at the pool. I was working on my tan when Marty came up from another one of his many phone calls. Even in mid Pacific, Marty had to conduct business when something unexpected came up.

Marty sat holding my hand and few of his guests came over to interrupt his relaxation. He didn't spend a lot of time at the pool, but he knew it was the place most people went in the afternoon.

"Dinner at eight," he told me. "Prime rib or salmon, or both."

When we came into the dining room, Marty pulled out my chair for me to sit down. It was the only time each day where all his guests were asked to be in the same place. Since people got out of bed at different times, breakfast was served in the cabin, and lunch was served at any time someone wanted it.

We all met for dinner, and the conversations were lively. By dinner time everyone had enough free liquor to have them loose as a goose.

When Marty came to the pool, he sat with me for a time, and he updated me on what was going on before he went around to sit and chat with each of the guests there. He looked comfortable with the people he invited to go along.

"I'll make the rounds and get it over with. Anything I can get you before I touch base with my guests?"

"That veggie plate with the olives and anchovies. I don't know what to call it. That would get me through to dinner."

"Oh that. It's called the veggie plate with the olives and anchovies," Marty said.

I laughed.

"That's the one," I said.

The vegetable plate came with pumpernickel bread and butter. I don't know what it was about that bread, but I was hooked. The black olives had big old pits in the middle, but those suckers rocked. I'd never been a chow hound, but I had to keep walking the decks so I didn't gain a ton on the way to Honolulu. The food was good and the ginger ale was definitely not watered down.

I watched Marty lean to address each man, and then the woman he was with, and sometimes the couple next to that couple got into the act. Most of them seemed to know each other, but I can't be sure how well Marty knew them. He did a lot of business, and I heard most of it, and it wasn't unusual for him to invite people he did business with to join him on his yacht for some relaxing time away from their lives..

He asked me to sit in on many meetings. At first it was once or twice a week, but before we left for Hawaii, I went to work with him and was in his office the last two days before we left. He asked me questions on the way to the hotel for dinner. He wanted me to tell him what I'd heard in each meeting. He frequently asked for my opinion.

I didn't know what that was about. I wasn't stupid, but this wasn't like that, he often asked, "And why do you think I asked him that."

Then, he'd tell me. It wasn't to make fun of how little I know or to tout how much he knew. He'd explain what he was after and what he learned by asking the questions he asked. I was sure he was teaching me something about his work, but I didn't know enough to be sure.

When Marty was off work, we were together. He might leave for a phone call, or he might meet with someone in the restaurant where we ate, but we were together and he paid attention to me. I wasn't a bauble he had added to his collection.

I couldn't be sure what I was. I'd never been with anyone like Marty. He had a full life. He combined business and social events while taking me with him most of the time. There were the two man meetings he took. Those I didn't sit in on and he didn't talk about them.

I never had the feeling Martin was anything but exactly what he said he was. He was a successful businessman and he'd spent thirty years working his ass off, and now, as he had more money than God, he intended to have fun, and Marty had fun with me. Yes, it did make me feel funny, but some times good things happen to you. I felt like Marty was a good thing that happened to me. I enjoyed his style.

The trip to Honolulu was uneventful, if you didn't count most of what we did as an event, and I did. It was all new to me, but we eventually had to get somewhere, and that was Honolulu.

I'd taken a swim and when I got out of the shower Marty told me,

"Wear your Armani for dinner tonight, Joshua. The Mayor of Honolulu is coming on a copter. I want you to look your best when I introduce you. He may invite us to stay at his mansion for a night or two. He'll know right away you're with me, and he knows I keep a penthouse for when I'm in Honolulu. He's a politician, so he needs to glad hand everyone. He's a nice man but he's a bit talkative. I'll give you a sign if I'm bored to tears, and I'll do the same for you. Politicians bore me."

I laughed. That's how it was done in the jet set.

The mayor was a hoot. He was talkative but not about anything. He liked to talk, tell stories, and offer his opinion of men he met that a lot of people knew. There were movie stars, men and women, and stories of their lovers and mistresses. People stood in a circle around him, and he talked and talked. He had nothing to say I wanted to hear.

I smiled a lot and Marty took me by the arm and we went up on deck while the mayor was telling a story about Brad Pitt.

It was all fascinating for about five minutes. I really had no interest in Hollywood stars or about their affairs. I was young and inexperienced. Listening to gossip never interested me. I didn't know enough about love to know anything about Hollywood's affairs. My own affairs had been complicated enough to not want to deal with other people's affairs.

I was in love with Kerry Kane, and I probably always would be. Marty knew that before he took me out the first time. He was a smart hard working man and he liked me. We got along and there was nothing he asked me to do that I didn't willingly do. I actually wanted to do more, but I knew the age difference. We'd go at Marty's speed.

My life was an open book. I hadn't done much to write about. I was young. There was plenty of time. Once I did do something to get me noticed, I'd have more experience to know how to deal with it. I had no idea where I was heading when I left home, and as we approached Hawaii, my life had taken a strange turn into a world I did not know.

I left home to find myself, and I found myself on the way to Honolulu.

As strange as I find life to be. I found Marty to be a gentlemen who enjoys my company and treats me like I'm royalty. If anyone told me that this was what I would find, once I left home, I'd have left sooner.

Casting my fate to the wind has been enlightening to say the least.

I did go up on deck when the captain announced we were approaching Honolulu. I went up on deck to see what I could see. It was beautiful, and if I thought the Infinity was a big yacht, I hadn't seen nothing yet. There were gigantic yachts that made the Infinity look like a runabout. We went down the side of one that looked like a cruise ship.

*****

"Hey, Kid, a penny for your thoughts," Marty said as I lay beside him in the bed in his room. Marty tossed and turned in his sleep and he advised it would be easier on both of us if we slept in different beds, but before I went to my bed to sleep, I went to his bed to play.

"The people all seem nice enough, but I don't know them. I don't know what to think. I'm with you. They're nice to me because I'm with you. None would give me the time of day if I met them in a restaurant."

"You are correct, Kid. These are mostly hangers on. They want to be near the money and fame. Sincerity is not in their genes. Don't get me wrong, they're harmless, and I like showing them a good time. If I don't like someone, he won't see the Infinity. If someone is a snake, he won't see the Infinity. If they are fun and harmless, I'll invite them to go on the Infinity because they're fun. Some are business people who aren't fun, but it doesn't hurt to be nice to people I may need to deal with."

"I've never been around money. I'm from a town small enough that everyone knew my name. That limits how far I was willing to go. At least it limits how far I want to go where I could be easily seen."

"Yes, but you know a snow job from the real deal. You don't think I took to you because you were nobody from nowhere, do you?"

"I don't know why you took to me. I'm glad you did, and not because of all this," I said, meaning the Infinity, the service, the gifts.

"I like you, Joshua, and you can take that as a compliment. You are naïve, curious, and exceptionally bright. You haven't been anywhere to make you jaded. Your kind of innocence is refreshing and hard to find. I found you easy to like. As I told you, it's easier for me to buy a boy, but when I'm buying, I'm always hoping to find someone like you at my door when the boy I've arranged for arrives."

"The only reason I'm here is because of you, Martin."

"How do you feel about me?"

He dropped the question on me like a two ton bomb.

"I don't know. I've known you a few weeks. I like being with you. I wouldn't have come along if I didn't like you. It takes time to know someone, it takes even longer to know someone who is richer than god."

Marty laughed.

"The answer is, you love me more than life itself, if you were a gold digger. You aren't, Joshua. You are an unchallenged intellect and a boy who is emotionally sixteen or seventeen. I know you're twenty-one and mature enough to know what you like, but you haven't lived, and that's not a cut down. That's your biggest asset. We like each other. We get along. You're funny, smart, totally aware of what goes on around you."

Martin was direct and to the point too. I never thought I'd tell him I loved him in a romantic way. He was nice to me. He was nicer to me than anyone had ever been. He was older but not ancient. His body wasn't anything like the bodies the Kane boys had, but his body wasn't gross.

Marty dressed nice. He did not wear suits worth more than my mother's car. He dressed nice but not luxurious. He was polite and treated everyone like they were his good friends, when few were.

I watched Marty. I watched him with his guests. I watched him with the captain and with the stewards, and the people who saw to it that our every wish came true. That's a bit ostentatious because the help seemed relaxed and capable of making my every wish come true. As far as good goes, I merely needed to mention something I wanted, and I got it. I lamented that I'd really like a burger, fries, and chocolate shake. Twenty minutes later, I had a burger, fries, and shake that would make any fast-food restaurant jealous.

I remembered how difficult it was to be around the Kanes. I wanted them and while I could have them, it didn't satisfy me. As a boy, things were temporary. I dreamed they were permanent, but they weren't.

My feelings for Marty were somewhere in between the two. I knew the Kanes for years. I'd known Marty a month. There was nothing about him that turned me off. He didn't act temporary. He let things come easy. A man who had more money than god didn't rush to go anywhere or to do anything. He seemed to be teaching me all along the way. I never felt pressure. His kind of encouragement made me feel smarter.

He didn't speak down to me. He explained things he had no need to explain, but he explained his business to me before I knew why. I had no interest in the business side of his life, but that didn't stop him. It was clear that he wanted me to know how he conducted his business.


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"Hall House"

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"Marty"

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