Summer Lovin'

I traced the wood grain on the table that sat on our neighbors’ porch. 

“Cameron, stop pulling your sister’s hair,” a Mom hissed at her son a couple of seats down.

I never did like these neighborhood get-togethers anyway.  But I was staying at my aunt’s house this summer and she insisted that I get to know the other kids in the neighborhood.  I was 16, and miserable.  There was no one even remotely close to my age here, at least not in high school.

I picked at the bread roll I had thrown onto my plate from the kitchen counter inside.   I wasn’t much for barbecue.

“Kid, you better eat some actual food or you’re gonna wish you had later,” Sam said.

Sam intimidated me.  Not because he was mean or anything, but he was in his early twenties; just old enough to not talk to like another teenager but not old enough to blow off like one of the parents.

I just smiled. “Ya I guess.”

Mrs. Cramms screamed from inside the house. “Jacob, do you want me to fix you some cereal?”  My face went red.

“I thought it was pretty damn good,” Sam yelled out, rubbing his stomach.  He caught me looking and smirked.  These type of guys always made me nervous, especially when they were good looking like he was.

After dinner I wandered over the a grassy spot by the fence and began to draw in the dirt with a stick.  I had to admit that it was beautiful out in the country.  You could see a long ways before the next house was visible.  I heard grass swishing behind me.

Sam stood over me and squinted his eyes, trying to make out my sketch.

“I- I’m not really drawing anything,” I mumbled.

“Kinda looks like a tree,” he chuckled.  I kept my head down.

“Are you bored here?” he asked, crouching down.

“Kind of,” I stole a glance at his blue eyes.

“Well why don’t you come down to my place tomorrow evening after I get off work?” he stood up now.  “Your aunt tells me you like animals, and I’m actually a breeder for the local pet stores around here.

“Really?” I was excited. I did like animals, and had always wondered where the ones at the pet store came from.

“Heck ya!” he sounded more confident now.  “Come on down at like 3 or 4 and I’ll give you a tour, sound good?”

“Ya, great,” I attempted a half smile.

I rode my bike down to Sam’s place the next afternoon.  It was a smaller house in the country like the rest of them in the area.  The next house was a good ½ mile down the road and cows roamed the land in between.  I rang the doorbell and stiffened, hearing footsteps from inside.

He opened the screen door and smiled.

“Hey buddy, glad you could make it.”  I exhaled an inaudible sound and nodded my head.

“Well come on in and I’ll show you the house first.”  The inside had been renovated and the kitchen was done in all stainless, not common in older farm houses like this one.

“I just did the kitchen,” he confirmed my expectations.  “And am in the process of renovating the guest bathroom so you’ll have to come back and see it before ya leave.”  I followed him back to the kitchen.

“I fixed some cheeseburgers if you want some,” he motioned toward the counter.

“Naw, that’s okay I said,” really happy to actually be talking to someone other than my aunt for once.

“Well I’ve got some rolls too,” he winked.  I laughed and sat down at the counter.

Sam went on to tell me how he had inherited the house and property from his Grandfather, and was enjoying the opportunity to fix it up.

He took a giant bite of his second cheeseburger and leaned against the counter.

“So what got you interested in animals,” he asked.

“Uh, I don’t know,” I scratched my head.  “Just always found them interesting I guess.”

He took another bite of the cheeseburger, half of it was gone.

“Cool,” he said with a full mouth, and took a swig of Pepsi.  The rest of the cheeseburger went down in two more bites.

“Wow, you eat fast,” I caught myself saying. 

“Ya,” he laughed.  “I woof ‘em down.”  He ate another while a rooster crowed in the distant background.

“Whatya bet I can eat one of these babies whole,” he raised his eyebrows.

“Wait, what?” I said, not sure how to respond.

“Watch this,” he grabbed another cheeseburger and flattened it down like a thick pancake.  He somehow stuffed the burger inside of his mouth and closed his lips around it.

His eyes did a little dance, waiting for it to soak, and then in one fell swoop he swallowed it with an audible gulp.  It was obviously uncomfortable.

“Holy . . .” my eyes bugged.

Sam punched his chest and cleared his throat. “Pretty cool, huh?” he smiled brightly.

“Do it again?” I joked, completely turned on by what I had just seen.

“Dude, I’m full,” he picked bits out of his teeth.

“Well if you think you can’t do it again…” I trailed off.

“Oh, is that how it is?” he said, having fun with this new game.  Sam did it again, this time using a swig of Pepsi to help things go down easier.

“UGH,” he said, breathing in and out.  “That’s it for right now.” 

“Awesome,” I said, grinning.

Sam lifted up his shirt and I nearly lost my balance on the stool.

“Shit, man,” Sam stared at his protruding stomach.  “I just ate 4 quarter pounders with cheese.”  Sam again caught me staring and walked toward me. 

Sam stood in front of me rubbing his stomach, breathing heavily in an out.  We locked eyes for a moment and then he lowered his shirt. 

“Let’s go have a look outside,” he walked past me.

Outside was an old barn made of giant river stones held together by concrete.  Sam opened the old, sliding wooden doors and inside there were dozens of cages against the wall and in the middle of the room. 

“I breed all kinds of animals,” Sam bragged.  “Rabbits, parakeets, mice, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters; you name it, I’ve probably got it in here.”

“So neat,” I said, walking over to a giant metal stock tank with mice running around. 

“It’s great they have so many things to keep them entertained,” I said, admiring the maze of tunnels, ladders, and slides Sam had constructed inside the enclosure.

“Ya, these are feeder mice so I try to give them the good life at least for a while,” he folded his arms and watched them run around.

“Is it hard to let them go?” I asked, wondering if he grew attached.

“Sometimes,” nodded.

“I wish they didn’t have to be alive for the snakes,” I shook my head.

“Eh, it’s not all that bad,” he chuckled.

Sam paused for a moment and then leaned over and grabbed one of the fawn colored mice by the tail.

“Watch, it’s not even as terrible of a process as you think,” Sam did the unthinkable. He lifted the mouse above his head and put it in his mouth, gulping it instantly.  I was petrified.

“Dude, it’s totally okay,” he walked toward me and lifted up his shirt.  “See, no harm done.”

Ugh, his stomach again.  It was still bloated from the cheeseburger gorge before, and toned with a small amount of hair. 

“Feel,” he gently grabbed my hand and placed it on his belly.  I grew faint.  His stomach was warm, and inside there was a mouse trying desperately to escape.  It made me a bit nauseous. 

“Is that a trick?” I asked confused.  “Did you really swallow it?”

“Ya,” he said looking away.  “Does that bother you?”

“I don’t know…” I didn’t know how to respond. 

“Maybe I showed you too soon,” he shuffled his feet.

“Do you do it often?” I was curious.

“Every now and then.  I know it’s probably scary to you.”

“Does it- does it move?” I asked.

“Ya,” he said flatly.

“Do you swallow other things?”

“Sometimes,” his eyes narrowed.

“Well, I guess it’s not all that terrible,” I shrugged.  “I mean, as long as you don’t get sick.”  Sam smiled.

“No way! it’s totally safe.  I’ve been doing it since I was a teenager.”

“Oh wow,” I was shocked that he had done that at my age.  What else had he swallowed in that time?

“What else have you swallowed?” I looked around.

“Lemme show you something,” he walked toward the left side of the barn.  Sam pulled a rather large hamster out of the cage.

“You swallowed on of those?” I asked in disbelief.

“Ya,” he said confidently.  “Wanna see?”

“What?! No! No way! One is enough.”

“Oh, ok,” he sulked back.

“Hold on,” I said, Sam turned around.  “How do you do it?”

“I’ll just demonstrate,” he walked toward the house.

Inside the house it was cooler, and less dusty.  Sam placed the hamster in a bowl on the kitchen counter and pulled up a stool on the other side across from me.

“Ok, this is the way it works,” he explained.  “Every now and then I get a…” he struggled for the word.  “Craving.  I get a craving and this is what I do.”

“Now basically all I do is get him used to me, and then I put him in my mouth, usually face first, and swallow him whole.  He goes down my esophagus and into my stomach where I digest him.”

“Alive?” I interjected.

“Yes, alive,” he nodded.

“But doesn’t that hurt?” I wondered.

“No, it feels amazing,” he whispered loudly.

“I meant the hamster…”

“Ah, well I can’t speak for that,” he looked away.

“Do you mind?” he looked at me and then at the bowl.

“Um, I guess not,” I was really intrigued by this whole idea. 

Sam lifted the hamster by one leg and it squealed in fright.

“Shhh,” Sam attempted to calm it.  The hamster continued to struggle in his muscular fingers as he brought it above his head.

“Have a good time, buddy,” Sam looked it in the eye.  He seemed almost like another person.

The hamster again fought to free itself as he brought it to his mouth, now gaping wide open, his teeth and tongue sticking out to make room. 

Once partway inside the hamster again let out a squeal and he used his tongue to keep it from getting away.  He faced me so that I could see the process.  The hamster looked like it knew exactly what was going on. 

He moved his tongue and cheeks ever so slightly to push it a little ways back toward his throat, until it slowly began to disappear, its head catching one last glimpse of light. 

During the last few seconds I saw it make one last ditch effort to climb forward before it disappeared down his throat in a smooth motion.  Sam swallowed and it was all over.

“Well, that’s that,” he said.

“Uh huh,” I was scared.

Sam walked out onto the back porch and sat in one of the lawn chairs facing the sun.

I pulled one up next to him and stared at his stomach.

“So it’s in there?” I asked, unsure what to say.

“Ya, they both are,” he chuckled.  “Wanna hear?”

“Uh…sure.” I wondered if this was even happening.

Sam lifted up his shirt and again showed his beautiful belly, still bloated, hanging over his shorts toward the front of the lawn chair.

I scooted myself onto the deck until I was between his legs and put my ear up to his belly.  Inside I couldn’t hear much more than his heartbeat.

“Give me just a sec,” Sam reached for the bottle of Pepsi and began to chug.  It did the trick. 

After a few moments an audible gurgle could be heard along with the faint sounds of the hamster and maybe even the mouse squirming around inside.  Sam shifted his weight and his belly tensed slightly, before again falling forward upon exhale. 

A loud belch came from above and Sam patted his belly, setting off the noise again inside. 

That night I lay in bed thinking about how Sam had swallowed those animals and was torn between how I felt.  Sam and I seemed to really have something cool, but at the same time, he had just swallowed two animals alive in front of me.  The very idea of being swallowed alive by a giant was terrifying, yet the whole process was natural in a way.  I then remembered Sam sitting there at the picnic table, rubbing his stomach, obviously knowing that I was watching.

I wondered what it would be like to be one of the mice.  One moment playing in a semi serene environment, the next in a guy’s belly, digesting.  Sam was unique for sure.

The next day I sat around my aunt’s house, bored.

“Why don’t you go meet up with some of your buddies you met at the potluck this weekend,” my aunt whined.  I kept spinning the nickel I had found on the hardwood floor.

“Did you have a good time at Samuel’s house yesterday?  I heard he has all kinds of critters running around that place.”  I stopped with nickel with my hand.

“Ya, it was cool I guess.”

“An odd one he is,” my aunt went on.  “You should see if he has some extra work you can do while you’re here.  It might keep you busy.”

“Ya, maybe,” I mumbled.

The next afternoon I got on my bike and headed down the road toward Sam’s place again.  When I pulled into the driveway I stopped and stared at the house for a good long while.  I could hear the TV from the outside.  News network of some kind. 

I braved myself and knocked on the door.

“Jake, buddy!  Glad you came by.” Sam was grinning.  “I was worried I’d scared you off the other day.”

What? From swallowing live pets before my eyes? Never.

“Naw, it’s okay,” I assured him.

Sam and I sat down on the couch and he turned off the TV. 

“So, do you have any questions?”

“What makes you do it?” I had wondered this since Sunday.

“Because it’s awesome.  Next question.” Sam laughed.  “Okay, so really, actually I do it because it makes me feel amazing.  There’s nothing more satisfying than swallowing your meal whole.  I can’t explain it, but it works for me.”

We sat in silence for a moment, staring at the coffee table.

“Let me show you something,” he turned toward me.  “Look inside my mouth.”

Sam scooted closer to my and brought his face closer to mine.  He opened his mouth wider than I thought anyone could ever come close to.  He stuck out his tongue and swallowed open mouthed.  The opening was huge.  He closed his mouth.

“That’s the last thing my meals see before they, well, you know,” Sam patted his belly.

“Do you ever think about what’s going on in their head?” I questioned.

“Ya, all the time,” he conceded.  “I mean, I can’t imagine any creature wants to be swallowed, at least not without being spit back up, but even then…” Sam shook his head.

“It is what it is.” I didn’t know what was going on here, and I didn’t know what the right answer was, but I knew that not talking to Sam anymore was the wrong answer.

“I’ve got something I wanna show you,” he walked toward the laundry room.

In the laundry room was a bunch of old pet supplies, toys, accessories, etc.  In the middle of the room on a card table sat a multi level plastic cage with what looked like gerbils running around inside.

“What are those doing in here?” I asked.

“That’s what I wanted to show you,” he smiled.  “A pet store that I do work with had them on display to promote a new line of upscale small animal cages they’re promoting.”

“Why’d they give them to you?”

“Well, the gerbils have been together for several months now, and when they’re together that long they can’t be separated.  The owner had to either sell them all at once, or, what he did in this case, give the whole lot to a breeder to use.”

“Are you going to breed them?” I knelt down and looked inside the enclosure.

“Been thinking about it,” he watched as I admired the tunnels the gerbils had created in the bedding of wood shavings.

“So you don’t eat these then, the gerbils I mean,” I confirmed.

“Oh I’ve swallowed gerbils before,” he laughed.  “Not a whole lot I haven’t.”

“Interesting…” I again watched the gerbils nibbling on pieces of dried corn.

“Well, you better go on home before it gets dark,” Sam interrupted the silence.

“Why don’t you swallow these now?” I asked offhandedly. 

“What?” Sam looked confused.

“Why don’t you swallow them?  Are you not hungry?”  I suddenly realized I may have been overstepping my stay.

“Uh, ya! I’m hungry all the time!” Sam laughed a little loudly.  The gerbils scattered back into their holes.

“Do- Do you wanna watch?” He lowered his voice.

“Why not?” I stood up and brought the cage into the living room.

Sam went into the kitchen and brought back a pitcher of water and a glass.

“Helps when one gets stuck,” he explained.  I was learning a lot.

I reached in the cage and pulled the first one out, handing it to Sam.  He gently surrounded it with his lips and sucked if off his fingers, maneuvering it inside his mouth and gently swallowing it back.

Sam unbuttoned his shirt and then lifted up his white T, his belly protruded slightly.

“Big dinner,” he mumbled.

He placed the next one on his belly and pushed in on the side of his abdomen.  The poor thing had no idea.  The next one went down with a struggled and the one remaining on top of his bellybutton froze.

“That one was a fighter,” Sam massaged his neck.

“You put the next one in,” Sam nodded toward his stomach.

I picked up the stiff gerbil and it seemed relieved to be leaving the area.

“Just a minute,” Sam said.  He adjusted himself so his stomach stuck out over his pants as he leaned back. 

“Go ahead.”

I brought the shaking gerbil down closer to his face and he opened his mouth.  It screeched and I didn’t know what to do so I plopped it in his mouth.  It hit the back of his throat and Sam immediately secured it with the base of his tongue.  It slowly slid backward, eyes bulging until it disappeared into a lump of Sam’s throat.

“Wow,” I exhaled.

“One more,” Sam pointed. 

The remaining gerbil had wedged itself in a plastic tunnel and was not about to come out. 

“Use the water,” Sam directed.

I removed the elbow shaped tube from the enclosure and placed on end on his mouth.  The gerbil scrambled to the top but not before I poured the water from the pitcher down into it, sending the last one sliding into Sam’s belly like a beer bong from a college party.

Sam wiped his lips with his white T-shirt.

“Damn that was good,” he closed his eyes and smiled.  “You’re awesome, dude.”

“How, um…how are they?” I managed to get out.

“They’re trying to figure out what the fuck is going on,” Sam snickered.  “Boys, boys, boys,” Sam addressed his meal.  “You will never escape from my gut, unfortunately for you.  Just sit back and relax, because it’s about over.”

Sam let out a long, satisfied belch and smacked his stomach.

He pulled down his pants and underwear so that his entire stomach stuck out like a beach ball.  His skin was squirming and audible squeals and squirts came muffled from within.

“Put your ear up and have a listen” he offered.

I cautiously brought my cheek up to the lower portion of his belly and he put both hands behind my head to guide me in the right direction.  Inside his stomach the noises of many gerbils could be heard clearly.  His stomach growled and grumbled as the meal churned underneath his skin. 

“It’s a amazing, isn’t it?” he spoke down to me.  I looked up at him and just nodded, unable to speak.

“Does it hurt at all to have them moving like that?” I wondered.

“Feels amazing, dude,” he squeezed the side of his stomach and massaged his growling stomach.  “They’ll come to rest soon.”

A few days later I rode to Sam’s house again, hoping that my aunt wouldn’t grow too suspicious and come to see what Sam and I had been up to.  She didn’t seem terribly worried though, glad that I had at least found someone to pal around with this summer.

Sam didn’t answer the door this time.  I heard him call out for me to come on in, a sign that our friendship had grown during our visits the past few weeks.  That wasn’t the only thing that had grown.  Sam sat on the couch, belly gorged from two days worth of eating, his belly larger than I had seen it since we began hanging out.

“Big meal?” I asked with a half cracked smile.

“Several,” he said, smirking and continuing to watch the TV.  Baseball was on.

“This week has been slow, you know,” he sighed.  “Not much business right now.”

“Oh,” I said, not at all familiar with pet trade economics. 

“Well, guess you better go outside and pick out whatever it is you wanna see me down,” he grunted, still watching the TV.

“Well, um, you don’t have to…” I fumbled my words.  “I mean, that’s not the only reason I come over here.”

“Oh,” Sam’s eyes remained glued to the screen.  “Well, if you don’t want to, that’s fine too.”

I began to wonder if Sam was growing bored with our visits.  Maybe he’d shown me all there was to see?  I was still curious though.  I didn’t want to just leave.

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” I blurted out, a delayed response.

“Oh?” he said, turning to me.

“I just, well, you know, don’t want you to think that it’s something you have to do.”

“Well I do it because it’s fun,” he chuckled.  “And because it feels good,” he gave his belly a firm pat on the side.

“What do you feel like?” I stood up.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sam scratched his belly, like this was a completely normal conversation.

“Just grab half a dozen of those feeder mice out there.  They’re goin’ slow right now anyway.”

I grabbed 5 from the enclosure indiscriminately, not wanting to make things more complicated than they needed to be.  They were feeder mice after all.  They were just feeding Sam instead of a snake or something.

I walked in the room and Sam muted the TV, still slouching back into the couch but with a bag of pretzels at his side.

“So what lucky ones get to be the new tenants in Chez Belly d’Sam?” he joked.

“Hope they’re the right size.”  I showed him the ones in the box.

“Look fine,” he said.  “Now, I’m not going to do any of the work here.  I want you to do just feed me and I’ll do the rest,” he winked.

“Ohhh no I don’t think I can put them in your mouth,” I looked away shyly.

“Well why not? It’s not hard,” he shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, maybe if I just hand them to you,” I suggested.

“How about I just sit here with my eyes closed and my mouth open, and when you’re ready, you just slide it right on in?” he smiled now.

“Umm…” I wasn’t sure this is what I wanted.  But Sam closed his eyes and opened his mouth, his tongue laying out over his lower lip, waiting.

I grabbed one of the light colored brown mice and held it by its tail.  It crawled up on my finger and sniffed around.  I looked back at Sam’s mouth, which lay open, patiently waiting.  I  inched closer to him and looked down in his mouth.  It was large, larger than mine anyway, wet, and a beautiful pink color.  His teeth were unusually white and straight, and his tongue looked soft.  Warm air flowed in and out of his throat as he waited for his meal to enter.

I lifted the mouse above his mouth and he sensed that it was close, pushing his tongue out farther and exposing the back of his throat.  As I lowered the mouse it began to panic and attempted to free itself before I released it into Sam’s mouth where it fluttered down until it was engulfed, disappearing into the pink, dark tunnel. 

Sam opened his eyes and scratched his throat.  “Nice job, man,” he pounded his chest and let out a small burp.  “Let’s speed up the process though, shall we?”

He reached for his glass of milk on the coffee table and drank until it was ¾ full. 

“I prefer a more streamlined method myself,” he explained as he plopped the remaining 4 mice into the glass.  The mice swam inside clawing at the slippery glass, fighting for a space at the surface.  Sam tipped the glass toward his mouth and began to gulp.  The mice squeaked and fought toward the top of the glass to get away from Sam’s swallows.  Eventually all of them slipped downward and met the same fate as the first, into Sam’s unusually large, bloated belly.

*Burrrrp*.  Sam let out a giant belch.

“Wow,” I exclaimed.  Sam smiled.

“Come here, I have to show you something,” he got up and walked toward the garage.

Sam’s garage held all sorts of random things.  Old juke boxes, wooden wheelbarrows, antique garden equipment, dated electronics and stereos, and an unfamiliar device kept under a white sheet.

“Keeps the dust off,” he explained.

Under the sheet was what appeared to be a screen attached to an electrical box. 

“It’s an x-ray screen!” he exclaimed.  “Isn’t it cool?”

“Wow, ya, it is,” I nodded.  “But where did you get it?”

“At an auction,” he said while plugging the unit in.  “An old hospital was shutting down a rural location and I got it dirt cheap.”

Sam turned on the unit and the screen glowed a faint white.  The electrical box buzzed a low hum. 

“Stand here,” he directed me in front of the screen.

Sam walked around behind the screen and began to strip to his underwear.  But I could already see.  Inside of his firm belly were several distinct shapes that were squirming around inside his abdomen, obviously separate from his other bone structure.  After all but his boxers were off Sam faced me from behind the screen.

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” he exhaled, his belly cascaded outward.

“Ya…” was all I could say.

Sam turned to the side and used his abdominal muscles to shake the contents of his stomach.  The mice struggled to move inside the mass of food.  Sam slapped his belly and let out another belch. 

“Anyway, thought you would like this,” he continued to rub his belly, digesting the animals inside.

“I… I did…” I mumbled.

Sam had just swallowed 5 live animals, and I was watching the process happen in real time.  It was weird, twisted, and really cool.