Like Son, Like Father
A Chance Encounter
As I stood in my driveway washing my company van, I noticed a cyclist passing by. Looking at me, he blinked and then circled around to approach me. “Sean? Sean Frobisher?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied. “Do I know you?” He looked vaguely familiar, but it was one of those times where you know you could try all week and still not place the guy.
“I’m not surprised you don’t recognize me,” he laughed, “it’s been a while. Cedric…Cedric Price. We were in band together back in high school. I played clarinet, and you played…sax, if I remember correctly, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” I smiled. Now I vaguely remembered him. Seemed to me he’d been a bit of a nerd back then, and not in a good way. As I remembered it, he hadn’t dressed all that well, either—track-pants and sweatshirts, mostly. He’d been great when you needed help in the computer lab, but otherwise not the type of person most people hung around with. Obviously, he’d developed a few social skills since high school, not to mention a better wardrobe. Then again, it had been about 20 years, so changes were bound to happen.
“So what’ve you been up to since high school?” he asked.
“God, where do I start? Let’s see, I got married straight out of high school; moved to London, England so my wife could be with her family; worked various jobs in the construction industry; had a son; then got divorced after 15 years when I caught my wife in bed with some European bastard. She’d never wanted kids anyway and gave me full custody, so I sold the company and moved back here a couple of years ago. Now, as you can see,” I gestured towards the van, “I’ve started my own flooring company, and I’m raising my son, Jared, on my own. What’ve you been up to?” I asked, partly to be polite and return the question, but admittedly at least a bit curious.
“Well, as you can tell, I learned not to be quite such a nerd,” he laughed again. “I graduated from university and went into software engineering—no big surprises there. I work contract for a few months at a time here and there—government work mostly, but a few private contracts as well. Never got married or anything like that.”
As Cedric was speaking, I noticed my son walking down the street, just coming home from school. “Hey, Jared, this is Cedric, an old acquaintance of mine from high school.” As they shook hands, I noticed Jared’s eyes wandering all over poor Cedric. A twitch of Cedric’s eyebrow said he did too, but he politely didn’t say anything.
We chatted for a few more minutes before I sent Jared into the house on some made-up errand just to get him to stop staring at Cedric. “Your son seems…nice,” he said guardedly after Jared left.
“You noticed him noticing you, I take it?” Before he could answer, I continued. “I’m sorry. As you can tell, he turned out gay, and he seems to have this thing for older guys.” I could feel myself turning red as I spoke. “I’ve had words with him more than once about not staring at people, but…well…as much as I might not like his choices, I remember what it was like to be a horny teenager. I try to be open to it for his sake, but I guess the small town just never left me. I know I’m supposed to be okay with it, but I just can’t help disapproving. Hell, at least if it were guys his own age, I might be able to deal with it eventually, but I mean, look at you: no offence, but you’re old enough to be … well, you’re old enough to be me!” I laughed nervously. Which one of us was supposed to be socially awkward again?
“Oh, hey, no worries, Sean”, he told me. “As you say, I remember what it was like to be a teenager, and I guess I have a bit of an advantage here since one of my cousins turned out to be gay as well, and we’ve been good friends since we were kids.”
I smiled at him, grateful that he understood. Back where we’d grown up, having a son who was gay would probably have gotten me dirty—or worse yet, sympathetic—looks all around town. “Thanks. Almost makes me wish I could’ve had a gay friend or family member when I was that young. Maybe if I’d been exposed to it earlier, I would’ve turned out more like you.”
“You know,” he said, “I took a couple of psych electives back in university. If you really want, I might be able to help you out with a little hypnosis. You know, kind of like the stop-smoking programs. I’ll just make it a stop-worrying-about-your-gay-son program,” he smiled ever so slightly.
“I dunno. I don’t think so, but thanks anyway.” I had to admit, the idea actually intrigued me a little, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to just start accepting my son’s homosexuality overnight.
“Well, think about it, and if you change your mind,” he said, fishing inside his cycling jacket, “give me a call.” I heard Jared coming back from the house, no doubt eager to see Cedric again. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta get going. It was nice seeing you again, though. With my current job, I’ll probably be going this way to and from work for the next few months, so maybe we’ll see each other again. It was nice meeting you, as well,” he said, nodding at Jared. Turning to me, he commented, “He looks just like your brother when he was that age.” Nodding to both of us again, he headed off down the street. I looked briefly at his business card and then absent-mindedly shoved it in my pocket.
I all but forgot about Cedric until later that night as I undressed for bed. Emptying my pocket onto the dresser, I saw his card again and remembered his offer. As I lay in bed, I thought about it some more and eventually decided that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. It did seem a little odd him just suggesting it out of the blue, but giving him the benefit of the doubt, I figured maybe he hadn’t entirely lost his social awkwardness, and I needed any help I could get when it came to accepting Jared’s sexuality. I loved my son deeply and the part of me that knew what I should feel really wanted to be able to love Jared for who he was. Resolving to call Cedric the next day, I rolled over and went to sleep.
The next morning, after I got to work, I called Cedric as I’d decided the night before. “Hey, Cedric, it’s Sean.”
“Hi, Sean. Glad to hear from you but I must admit I’m a bit surprised. What’s up?” he asked, though I suspected he already knew what I was going to say.
“Well, you know what you were talking about yesterday with the hypnosis and all? I’ve been thinking about it and I think I’d like to take you up on your offer,” I told him a bit awkwardly.
“Okay,” he replied, “I’d be happy to help. Why don’t we get together some time this week and we can talk about it some more before we get started. It would probably be best if we were alone without any distractions. When’s the best time for you and where?”
“Hmmm…how about tomorrow at my place whenever you get off work? I’ll be home all afternoon and Jared plays one of those new role-playing games on Friday nights—like D&D back when we were in high school, I guess—so he’ll be gone most of the night.” I felt more comfortable doing it at my place, though there was no reason to think it would be any different if we did it at his place or anywhere else, really.
“That’s perfect, Sean,” he replied. “I’ll stop by tomorrow on my way home and if you want, we can grab some beers afterwards or something.”
“Sure, sounds good Cedric. See you then.” Hanging up, I had to admit I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. I mean, I wanted to be more accepting of Jared’s sexuality, but I’d never been hypnotized before, and was both nervous and a little sceptical that it would work at the same time.
My morning job on Friday had taken a little longer than I’d thought, so I only got home about an hour before I figured Cedric would be there. Quickly running through the shower, I put on something a little better than my work clothes and waited for him to arrive. It wasn’t long before the doorbell rang.
After letting him put his bike in my garage, I invited him in and offered him something to drink. When he declined, I took a deep breath and suggested that we should probably get on with it. He smiled and suggested we head for the most comfortable seats in the house.
“So how does this work, anyway?” I asked as I took a seat on the couch. “I assume there’s a bit more to it than you just snapping your fingers and me suddenly accepting my son’s homosexuality.”
“Yes,” he laughed, sitting comfortably in the love-seat perpendicular to the couch, “there’s definitely more to it than that. To be honest, how exactly it’ll work will depend on you. Everybody’s a little different and responds to different stimuli. The question will be what you will respond well to and how well I can pick up on that and work with it. Having said that, there are a couple of common techniques for scenarios like this. The one that usually works best in my experience is positive reinforcement.”
“You’ve been taught all your life that being gay is bad,” he continued. “Especially in a small town like ours, the negative reinforcement was everywhere. In order to help you turn that around, if you respond well to it, I’ll help you use your subconscious to start associating homosexuality with positive things instead. Does that make sense?” he asked.
“So far, yes. But I’m still a bit curious about the details. I mean, I don’t think I’m going to just start associating being gay with ‘sugar and spice and everything nice’. And of course, I don’t want it to go overboard and suddenly find myself thinking it’d really be good if I were gay,” I laughed nervously.
Cedric laughed at that as well, obviously genuinely amused. “Well, that can’t happen. If you could change someone’s sexuality that easily, hypnotists would probably have been using it to ‘cure’ homosexuality all these years. It really comes down to what you’ve been taught versus what you believe to be right or wrong innately. I could make you bark like a dog, for instance, because you know that there’s nothing wrong with that. Even in public, you might be convinced to do it because it’s no more than a little embarrassing. I probably couldn’t get you to steal or to hurt someone, though, because you know that those things are wrong.”
“‘Probably’?” I enquired.
“Well, if you were a career criminal, your innate sense of what’s wrong would have either been overcome over the years or was never there to begin with, so in that case it could probably be done. You’re not a criminal, are you?” Cedric asked as an aside. “Because I could really use the Hope Diamond if you feel up to it,” he grinned. “But seriously, assuming that there are no circumstances under which you would have sex with a man, that’ll never change and there’s nothing I could ever do that would accidentally turn you gay.”
I was quite certain that there weren’t any such circumstances…even thinking about the possibility of a guy fucking me made me shudder. “Okay, so let’s get to work before I change my mind, then.” It occurred to me that we’d gotten sidetracked from how he actually would do it, but I supposed it wasn’t all that important as long as it actually worked. After making sure that I didn’t need to go to the bathroom and asking me to turn off all of the phones, including my cell phone, we got started.
“Now, the first thing I want you to do is to sit back and relax. This is all very easy and in fact, most people find it quite enjoyable. I’m going to start with some simple relaxation exercises. So just close your eyes,” he paused briefly as I did so, “and try to relax. I’d like you to think about somewhere that you find relaxing. It could be a beach or maybe your back yard on a warm day or whatever is most relaxing for you. Do you have something particular in mind?”
“Mm-hmm,” I nodded.
“Okay, tell me where you are.” His voice had changed slightly, taking on an intent tone that said he was focussing entirely on me now, which I found both disconcerting and reassuring at the same time.
“I’m on a beach in the Bahamas,” I answered.
“Good. Now I want you to imagine yourself lying on the nice warm sand. Your eyes are closed and you’re lying back, listening to the ocean lapping at the shore. There’s nobody else in sight and you’re just enjoying the feel of the sun on your body.” Cedric continued describing the beach for some time, repeatedly mentioning how calm, soothing, and relaxing it was. At first, I was convinced it wasn’t working, but after a while, I stopped worrying about it and just went with what he said. There was no point worrying about it if it didn’t work, and if it did, so much the better.
As I lay there on the beach, I noticed the sun was starting to set. It was still comfortably warm though, so I just lay back and relaxed, letting it go down. As it got darker and darker, I found myself relaxing more and more until eventually, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep right there on the beach.
When I awoke, I was—much to my disappointment—back in my living room. It was dark out, so we must have been at it for a couple of hours. Cedric was sitting across from me, looking at me intently. “That was a great start, Sean. You’re a very good subject.”
“Uh…good, I guess. So…well…what happens now?” I asked. “Other than feeling sort of stoned, I don’t feel any different.”
Cedric laughed lightly. “I wouldn’t be doing my job right if you did! The best thing is for you not to think about it. Don’t try to remember what happened; it’ll be more effective if you just ‘go with the flow’. Trust me and trust that everything I’ve done will work out in the end.”
That made sense. Even though I hadn’t seen him in almost 20 years, and I hadn’t really known him that well in high school either, I found that I did trust him and really wanted to like him. I thought we might even become good friends with time.
“It’s not an overnight change by any means,” Cedric said. “We’ll need to have several more sessions. There are also a few conscious things that you can do to help the process along. For example, try doing things with Jared that you both enjoy. Don’t worry about anything specifically gay-positive at first—if all goes well, that type of thing can come later—just get back in the habit of doing things together with him. Come to think of it, have you told him that you’ve asked me for help with this?” he asked.
“No, not yet—I don’t want to get his hopes up in case it doesn’t work.” I didn’t like suggesting that Cedric might not be able to do it, but I felt it was best to be honest with him about it.
“Of course. That makes perfect sense,” he replied. “So let’s give it a few days to start with and see how it goes. Then if things are going well, give me a call and we’ll set up another session.”
“Yeah okay, that sounds good,” I replied. I already knew next Friday would probably be the best time, but I figured it was better to wait a bit and see how it went, like he said.
“Great. In the meantime, as I said, just do whatever comes naturally. Changes will come over time.” Smiling, he got up. “Now, what do you say to some dinner?”
“Yeah,” I replied, “I am getting a little hungry now that you mention it, and I feel like I just wrote a three-hour exam. Who would’ve thought that just sitting there would be such hard work!”
“It’ll get easier each time,” he smiled reassuringly as he led the way to the front door. Leaving his bike in my garage, we wandered down to the pub a few blocks away. When the bill came, I paid for it by way of thanks and then we headed back to my place. We chatted for a couple of minutes in the garage before Cedric said goodbye and took off on his bike.
When Jared got home later on, he was still excited from his game and proceeded to tell me about it, as he always did. I tried to appear interested, but as usual, I’d forgotten most of what he said shortly after he said it. It was late, so I gave him a hug goodnight, which he seemed to find a little awkward for some reason, and we both went off to bed.
As I lay in bed and lubed myself up to masturbate, I realized what it was I’d just done. I hadn’t given Jared a hug goodnight in a couple of years. Maybe this really was going to work after all. Already, I found myself looking forward to the next time, and didn’t doubt that I’d be calling Cedric again early next week.
Cedric had mentioned over dinner that he had Monday off, so I called him that morning at home and told him what a great weekend Jared and I had had together. While I had him on the phone anyway, I also set up another session for Friday. Both of my employees were out at a job, and I wasn’t particularly busy, so we continued talking for quite some time. It was a very enjoyable conversation, though it almost made me late for my appointment later that morning.
That night, Jared and I were just about to sit down for dinner when Cedric dropped by the house unexpectedly. He suggested that it would be good if he could take Jared out to dinner and talk to him privately for a couple of hours. Even though I hadn’t told Jared anything yet, I agreed. For his part, Jared was curious, but certainly not complaining. I waved at them briefly as they headed out the door, Jared following Cedric like an excited puppy, chatting animatedly as they got into what was obviously Cedric’s car parked in the driveway.
After watching them go, I returned to my meal and put Jared’s untouched dinner in the fridge. I worried a bit about his behaviour, but it would probably be good for Cedric to talk with him and get an idea of where he was at and what I could do to make things work better. At least I assumed that’s what it was about; I hadn’t even thought to ask. They were gone for several hours, and I was just beginning to get worried when I heard them come in the front door.
“Hey, you two have been gone a while. You must have had a really good conversation,” I said.
“Well, at first I could hardly get a word in edgewise, but as you can see, Jared has calmed down a bit now,” Cedric replied, patting Jared amiably on the shoulder. Jared did look much more sedate than when they’d left. It almost seemed like he’d just woken up, actually.
“If you don’t mind, Jared, I’d like to speak with your father alone for a few minutes. Why don’t you head on upstairs. I’m sure you must have homework to do or something,” Cedric said, looking down at him almost fondly.
Once Jared was out of earshot, I looked inquisitively at Cedric. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he looked directly into my eyes. “Just relax, Sean. I can tell you’re feeling very comfortable right now. Just close your eyes for a minute and imagine yourself on that beach.” Even as he said it, I found myself relaxing and did as he asked. It was very peaceful to just stand there and listen to Cedric’s voice, although much like Jared talking about his game, it was forgotten only moments after I opened my eyes again.
“I hope you don’t mind that we were gone so long,” Cedric said. “He’s a wonderful young man and he really seems to like me. In fact, I’d like to take him out again at some point, if that’s alright with you.”
“Yeah, sure, that’s fine. And no worries about being out so long, I trust you.” I wasn’t sure why he wanted to talk to Jared again, but it wasn’t important. Cedric was quickly becoming a friend of the family and there was no reason he and Jared couldn’t do things together on their own.
I called Cedric again on Thursday, just to confirm, and by Friday, I found myself almost eager for him to arrive. Knowing the drill from the week before, I showered, put on some clean clothes, turned off the phones, and made sure to go to the washroom before he got there.
I was peering out the window when I saw Cedric pull into the driveway—once again in his car rather than on his bike. Once he was in the door, we went into the living room, just as we had last week, and before I knew it, it was dark out and we were heading back out to the pub. As before, I paid and then we headed back to my place.
It was a bit later this time, so I changed into my bathrobe shortly after we got there, getting ready for bed. Cedric and I just kept talking the whole time and we were still chatting a few minutes later when Jared got home.
“Oh, hi Jared, glad you’re home,” Cedric said. “I thought maybe you’d like to hang out for a while.”
I hadn’t realized that Cedric had meant he wanted to spend time with Jared tonight, but it didn’t bother me. Not surprisingly, Cedric agreed readily. I smiled as Cedric put his hands on Jared’s shoulders to lead him out to the car.
Realizing that with Jared gone I could jerk off anywhere in the house for a change, I wandered into the living room, my penis already making its way out of my robe even before I opened it and took a seat on the couch. I was normally very traditional when it came to masturbating, reserving it for the bedroom or bathroom only, but I was incredibly horny tonight, and it made me bolder than usual. Come to think of it, I’d been horny a lot lately. My anger over the divorce had indirectly gotten me out of the habit of jerking off, and I’d only done it rarely since then, but as I thought about it, I realized that in the last week, I’d jerked off every single night, sometimes more than once. I hadn’t masturbated that often since I was a teenager!
Just sitting there—where I normally sat when Cedric hypnotized me—felt very comforting and stimulating at the same time. As I started to play with myself, I thought again of Cedric leaving with Jared. It had felt good to see the two of them together—I really wanted them to get along. Thinking about them and generally letting my mind wander over the last week and a half since running into Cedric, I was shocked when I came without ever fantasizing about anything specific at all. It wasn’t the most mind-blowing orgasm I’d ever had, but it took me completely by surprise, especially since I hadn’t even bothered to go upstairs to lube up. Once it was over, though, I went straight to bed, not even bothering to wipe the cum off my stomach and chest…something else I hadn’t done since I was a teenager.
I was woken a couple of hours later by the phone. When I answered, it was Cedric’s voice on the other end. While I was annoyed at being woken up by the phone, it was a real pleasure to hear his voice on the other end telling me to just relax and let myself drift back to sleep, which I was surprisingly able to do even while holding the phone against my ear. At some point, I hung up the phone, vaguely aware that Cedric had told me Jared would be spending the night at his place. Instead of going back to sleep right away, though, I reached for the bottle of lube. It took a little longer and my cock was a bit tired and sore from doing it twice in so short a time, but as I started stroking, I found myself thinking of Jared spending the night out at Cedric’s. Any concerns I had were washed away, even replaced, by the feelings coming from my cock. Eventually, I dumped a second watery load onto my stomach and almost immediately fell back to sleep.
When I awoke Saturday morning, it took me a minute to remember that Jared was at Cedric’s place. It brought a strange pleasure when I remembered, but being the protective father that I was, I figured I should check on them and make sure that Jared would be home soon, especially since it was already almost noon.
Cedric answered almost immediately when I called, and I noticed right away that his voice was a bit different…lower, as if he wanted to growl and purr at the same time, but was trying not to. As he spoke longer, it came through more and more, but I was just so calm and content by that point that I didn’t pay any attention to the difference at all anymore.
After I hung up, it occurred to me that I’d never spoken to Jared or even asked about him, but that was okay, I knew where he was and that he and Cedric were having a great time together. Cedric had even decided to keep Jared there longer instead of bringing him back right away. I certainly wasn’t about to object since it gave me time to go jerk off in the living room after I hung up…and yet again after lunch! My dick was getting quite sore by then, but I did it anyway, fantasizing about having a woman over while Jared was out with Cedric.
When Cedric showed up later that afternoon, Jared was heeling him and grinning like a Cheshire cat. Obviously, they’d had a great time together and looking at the two of them together made me feel good as well. It surprised me more than a little when Cedric put his arm around Jared’s shoulders and Jared all but melted into him, but before I could really think about what that meant, Cedric just looked at me and told me to relax, which I did. I noticed as I stood there, somewhat zoned out, that Cedric had a slight bulge in his pants, and he was scratching Jared’s stomach almost affectionately. None of it really fazed me, though—it was all good.
I wanted to get back to the football game anyway, so I turned and left them to say goodbye. It must’ve been at least 15 minutes before I heard Jared head upstairs, but I was too focussed on the game to wonder why it had taken so long. The funny thing was that despite how much attention I was paying to the game, I hardly remembered any of it later.
Over the next couple of weeks, Cedric called the house almost every day. Sometimes he spoke with me but other times he asked to speak to Jared. I always made a point of leaving Jared alone and closing the door to whatever room he was in whenever Cedric called so that they wouldn’t be disturbed, and I noticed that Jared did the same for me. Friday became Cedric’s guaranteed day to come over, though he came over other days as well, sometimes for an extra session with me, but often spending time alone with Jared instead. I didn’t want to intrude, so I found other things to do whenever Cedric stayed home with Jared, though they went out more often than not.
Noticeably during those weeks, I stopped worrying so much about whether Jared was gay or not. Twice we went to the mall together, which we hadn’t done in a long time unless it was absolutely necessary—the first time, to see a movie together; the second, to buy him some clothes. Unusually for him, I noticed both times that he wasn’t checking out any older guys at all. I wasn’t sure whether that was a change on his part or if I was just relaxed enough about it now that it was no longer something I noticed. Either way, I realized that it was the first time in a long time that I felt completely relaxed and comfortable around my own son.
Cedric had really done a great job getting rid of my insecurities around the whole issue of Jared being gay, and I was more grateful to him for that than I could ever have expressed. A part of me knew that at some point the sessions would have to stop, though, which made me feel strangely anxious. I liked Cedric and I didn’t want him to stop coming over—the way the hypnosis made me feel was positively addictive. I knew he wasn’t going to stop just yet, though, so it was a concern for another time.