The Orphanage Boys Chapter 22
by Chadlad

copyright 2009 by Chadlad, all rights reserved
[email protected]

* * * * *
This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY It contains explicit depictions of sexual activity involving minors. If you are not of a legal age in your locality to view such material or if such material does not appeal to you, do not read further, and do not save this story.
* * * * *

Chapter 22: Twenty-second floor: Food Products

The feel of Sam's warm bare skin against him sent Jake's mind back to their halcyon days in the apartment, little boys snuggled together for safety and warmth in footy pajamas under the covers when the apartment heat was lowered for the night, arms around each other, Sam's hot breath in his ear. He almost sobbed then over what he'd lost, but he bit his lip and swallowed down the lump in his throat. Holding his head out of the muck was becoming tiring, and Jake quickly realized that he'd have to prop it on something to sleep. He tried settling his elbow in the muck, disliking the way it oozed around him, but making it possible for him to prop the side of his head on a grimy palm. Sam wiggled, settling even more tightly against him. "I wish we had a pillow," Sam said.

"Yeah," Jake said. "This isn't working."

"I got an idea," Sam responded. He moved away from Jake, moments later settling on his back, with his hands behind his head as protection from the muddy floor. The mud got in his hair anyway, but at least his head was supported. "Now rest your head on me," Sam said. "And I'll kind of turn toward you and you toward me so we can stay warm." Jake thought about it. Then he scootched over to lay his head on Sam's chest, and Sam leaned his body toward Jake so they were touching front to front once again. He wrapped his left arm around Sam's body to hug them closer to each other. Sam pressed his lower body tightly against Jake's "I'm cold," he said in explanation. This did feel much better, Jake decided. Sam was still shifting about, though, trying to find the best position. He forced his leg between Jake's two legs and pulled himself in more tightly, so their legs were intertwined, and Jake was suddenly aware he could feel both their penises between their bodies, their groins pressed together and their penises trapped between their bellies. He almost pulled back, but warmth immediately suffused him and he pulled closer instead. They hugged each other tightly for a moment, both savoring the warmth that they absorbed from each other's bodies, and also the security it gave them that they'd been lacking lately. Jake's penis felt like a lump trapped between them. Gradually, Jake noticed that Sam was shaking, and making soft little mewling noises, and he finally realized that his friend was crying softly in the darkness.

"Sam?" Jake said tentatively. Sam snuffled but said nothing. Jake reached up, tentatively, and touched hot tears. Sam shook him off. "Sam?" Jake said again. Sam snuffled more loudly. Jake was quiet a minute. "It's okay to cry," he finally said. "It's okay."

They lay there for awhile, hugging each other for dear life, Sam continuing to shake and make small, kitten-like noises. Jake felt powerful emotion himself, but his eyes were dry. Instead, he found he was growing angry. How could they do this to his buddy Sam? And to him, to, but mainly, to poor Sam? Sam, who was always there for him, and shared everything with him, including all the punishments they'd suffered over the last few days? Sam, who was basically a good person, a sweet person, the kind-hearted one of the two, indeed, the kindest person Jake knew? He wanted to protect his red-headed friend, but he couldn't—he couldn't even protect himself, could he? But he could hold Sam, and he did. He squeezed Sam more tightly, stroking his grimy chest, and Sam's tears gradually tapered off and his breathing steadied.

"Thanks, Jake," Sam said after awhile, his voice a bit choked. He moved a muddy hand from behind him and swiped at his eyes with the less dirty backside of it. Jake was aware of Sam's heart beating against his own, and he concentrated for awhile on the beats, not quite in synchrony with each other. His heart was beating more slowly than Sam's, and Jake suddenly remembered that this had always been the case over the years, something he'd noticed before when they snuggled together for warmth in bed. Even back when Sam used to routinely pee on him during the night, making them both wet, when even that didn't seem to matter, Sam's heart was always thumping along faster than his. Some things never changed.

Jake was aware of the contrast between his front and his back. His front was warm and comfortable against Sam. His back was somewhat chilly. He was aware of his butt like seldom before, the steady ache in his cheeks a constant companion from the very first spanking onward. His butt felt like it protruded all the time, now, like it was sticking out, visible and vulnerable. He'd never realized how vulnerable his butt was until they'd come here, but now he was aware of it almost all the time.

Sam shifted his legs a little, and suddenly Jake became aware that Sam's penis was hard, a hard, throbbing little shaft between them, next to his softer organ. That awareness made his own penis twitch, and harden slightly also over the next minute. He flushed in embarrassment in the darkness, wondering if Sam noticed he was getting hard. He hadn't paid much attention to their genitals when he and Sam had hugged before, and pressed their squishy little penises into each other. He thought back, and realized that Sam had gotten hard in those days, and so had he, but it hadn't seemed important then. Weenies got hard sometimes - that's just what they did. Mostly when you needed to pee, or poop, or both. Whether he or Sam were hard or soft down there, that hadn't seemed important until, suddenly, all these people around here were commenting on it all the time, acting like it meant something. And now Jake was hyperaware of it, and it seemed his dick got hard all the time. But then, Sam seemed to be getting hard all the time these days, too. He wondered why that was.

Sam squirmed, and his penis burrowed into Jake's groin until their balls touched, soft, somewhat cleaner skin brushing his own like velvet, their balls nestling together and warming each other. "Sorry, I'm cold," Sam said.

"'Sall right," Jake said. "I'm cold, too."

They lay there for what seemed like more than an hour, breathing slowly. Despite their fatigue from the day's hard labor, neither of them fell asleep, in part because it wasn't very late, it was just dark. Sam's bony body felt odd against Jake's own. He was aware of the hardness of Sam's hips pressing his, the softness of his stomach, the hardness of his pelvic bone and of the penises trapped between them, and the lumps of dirt trapped between them as well from their day's work.

"Jake, are you awake?" Sam said in a quiet little voice some time later.

"Yeah," Jake said back.

"I don't think I could stand this if you weren't here," Sam said.

"Yeah. Me too," Jake replied.

They were silent awhile longer. "Jake?" Sam said again, his breath hot in Jake's face when he talked.

"I'm here," Jake said. Where else would I be? He thought to himself. Who do you think you're jamming your weenie into, anyway?

"That thing they made me do, for the apples? To you? That was weird," Sam said.

"Yeah," Jake said.

They were quiet awhile longer. "Jake?" Sam said again.

"Yeah?" Jake said patiently. He and Sam had gone though these kinds of conversations for years, as Sam had always had problems formulating his thoughts and getting questions out, especially when something troubled him. It was clear that something was troubling him now. Jake didn't have a clue what it could be - there were so many troubling possibilities. But when Sam was troubled, you had to wait while he worked out the words, and he prefaced every utterance by calling out Jake's name, as if he might vanish into thin air between sentences.

Jake was quiet for a minute. "Jake?" Sam said again.

"I heard you," Jake said. "I was just thinking. No. It was okay. I didn't feel your teeth. And it didn't hurt." He paused a minute, debating disclosing the rest of it. What the heck, Sam was all he had in the world. "It didn't hurt," he said again. "It felt good."

"Oh," Sam said. He paused. "Like snuggling together? Like this?" he asked.

"Better," Jake said. "Like when the priest did the stuff to us. Not the shots, the stuff with the stick and his hand."

 "Yeah?" Jake said.

"I didn't mind," Sam said. "Doing it. I thought I would. You know. With my mouth. When she said I had to do it. 'Cause you'd been dirty. But I didn't mind. It wasn't bad. I got you pretty clean. And it was just you, you know?"

"Yeah," Jake said. "I think I wouldn't have minded, either. If the nun hadn't shown up. I was going to do it, too. To you."

"Oh," Sam said. "That's nice. I was afraid you wouldn't, and they'd hit us... they'd hit us down there - where it feels good. Well, where it feels bad to hit, but it feels good when they touch it. You know. I thought you might not do it and we'd get hit. I wouldn't have blamed you if you didn't do it. I mean, you know. Pee, and all that."

In response, Jake hugged Sam more tightly. He could feel Sam's penis pressing against him, next to his own, the sides of the shafts touching now. Sam shifted, his organ sliding a bit against Jake's and prodding him. Jake felt a thrill of pleasure from his stiff penis at the contact.

"Unless I'd of peed just then," Sam giggled. "But I wouldn't. And I knew you wouldn't, too," he added. He was quiet a minute. "Jake?" he asked again.

"Yeah?" Jake sighed.

"They can make us do anything, can't they? And do anything to us. They can make us," Sam said softly.

"Yeah, I guess," Jake said. "Not much we can do about it, is there?" he sighed.

"I guess not," Sam said softly. Jake wondered if he'd start crying again. He hoped not. Sam crying always made a big lump in his throat, even when he didn't cry himself. He remembered, suddenly, several years ago, when Sam had dropped the ball out the window and the man on the sidewalk had knocked on the door and complained, and Sam's mom had stalked into their room, yanked Sam's pants down, and spanked his bare butt until it was bright red and Sam was hiccupping, he was crying so hard. He'd felt that lump in his throat then, as they lay on the bed side by side afterward, face down, of course, and Sam gingerly rubbed his butt and cried, and Jake patted his back and felt bad. He wanted to take Sam's fear and pain away, but he couldn't, and he felt more helpless than he'd ever felt before.

"Don't leave me, Jake," Sam whispered. "Please don't leave me." He shifted, his penis sliding by Jake's once again. Jake following an instinct he didn't know he had, shifted his own body, triggering another wave of sensation. In moments, without exchanging words or planning it, both boys were moving in a primal rhythm, bucking their pelvises together in rhythm, pig shit lubricated penises sliding by each other, fueling sensations that their humping motions seemed to intensify. Sam's breathing was hot in Jake's ear, and Jake's equally hot in Sam's. Their bodies warmed as they humped into each other, panting building up to irregular gasps. Sam shuddered and bucked against Jake as hard as Jake was bumping against him, his penis pulsing against Jake's body. Gripping his buddy hard, Jake ground his own penis back against Sam's, moving faster and faster, kind of sliding up and down Sam's body as well as wiggling sideways at the same time, forcing Sam's buttocks against the ground until he was straddling Sam, sliding his crotch against Sam's, enjoying the unique sensation of his hard penis rubbing past Sam's, and rubbing against Sam's soft, hairless crotch. The muck on their genitals squelched pleasurably. Sam was gasping, moaning, arching his back, and finally thrusting until he'd lifted his hips and Jake's off the ground, panting in Jake's ear, then collapsing back into the mud, his penis a hard, pulsing rod against Jake's own hardness. His body went limp, and he seemed to be gasping, but Jake was someone else now, someone far away, and he moved his hips in a frenzy, sensation overwhelming him, for another 30 seconds or so, until the wonderful feeling overtook him as well, and his back arched until they were just joined at the groin while he grunted and waves of pleasure shot through his crotch and up his spine. Then Jake collapsed against Sam, spent and panting, too limp to support himself. He slid down as he did, so that his crotch was straddling Sam's thigh, and his head was just under Sam's chin, resting on his oldest friend's chest. He was aware of Sam's heart fluttering, and his chest rising and falling, moving more slowly than Jake's own chest as both of their breathing gradually slowed.

"Could you shift yourself a little?" Sam muttered above his head. "Your—your—you know—it's poking my leg."

"No, don't," Sam said, pulling Jake back down on him. "Don't get off. I like you there. You're warm. Just make it stop poking me."

Jake lifted his hips and let his penis free itself from between them. He moved a bit, so his penis was between Sam's slightly spread legs rather than against his thigh.

"That's good," Sam said. "Mine isn't bothering you, is it?" he asked quietly.

"'s okay," Jake said. Sam's penis had softened immediately and was a not-unpleasant squishy mass pressing on his upper groin. Sam wiggled his body a bit from side to side, as if burrowing more deeply into the mud. His hands were warm on Jake's back. Jake, unsure of what to do with his own arms, suddenly had an inspiration.

"Lift your head and shoulders" he said. "I'll put my arms under you like a pillow," he said. Sam's upper body raised in response, and Jake slid his right arm under Sam's head cradling his matted, mud caked hair on one arm. Sam's weight settled pressing his arm deep into the soft mud under it. The net result was surprisingly comfortable for both boys.

"That's nice," Sam muttered. His voice sounded far away. Jake himself realized that he was suddenly more tired than he'd ever been in his life. The backs of his legs were cold, and so was his bare, maltreated butt, actually unmarred for the entire day for a change and actually getting a chance to heal. His back was cold, too except where Sam was touching him. But he felt languid, and fulfilled, somehow. A sense of calm and satiation was radiating from his still half hard penis. Far away, deep in his brain, a part of him wondered if it was safe for two naked boys to fall asleep among huge sows and partly grown piglets on the muddy floor of a pigpen. He momentarily had a mental picture of a sow waddling up between his legs and putting her huge snout against his crotch, then opening her mouth and biting his genitals right off. But he was too tired to care (although he did bring his left leg in tight against the right, closing access to his crotch). Sam's privates should be safe - he was covering them with his own body. Sam was already asleep, snoring softly in the gloom, despite the unfamiliar weight of Jake's body on his. Faintly, far away, Jake was aware at some level that hogs were drifting into the building from outside, snuffling the ground nearby and settling down for the night, still too wary of the humans in their midst to move too close to them. But then consciousness disappeared, and he knew no more that day.

Jake woke up stiff, sore, and cold. At least his back was cold, his back, his legs, and his butt. His front was comfortably warm, principally because, as he quickly realized, he was lying on top of Sam, who was stretched out on his back on the muddy floor. His arms were around Jake, but merely lying there loosely, one hand on the small of Jake's back, the other higher up, across Jake's shoulders. Jake's arms were at Sam's sides, against the mud floor, and Jake suddenly remembered that he had gone to sleep hugging Sam, but must have moved sometime in the night. He lifted an arm and saw that it was disgustingly filthy where it had been resting on the floor. His penis was jabbing Sam's thigh, and in an instant a picture of what the two of them had done the night before flashed before Jake's eyes and he felt ashamed. Moving slowly, he eased himself off of Sam gently, sliding down him, and onto his haunches. There was a grunt and a flurry of movement behind him, as a startled sow heaved herself up and trotted away from his suddenly moving body, her piglets disturbed and bouncing after her as she retreated. Other pigs all around them eyed him suspiciously, ready to flee if he looked dangerous. Jake stayed on his haunches, hands resting on the ground, remembering that he and Sam were enjoined from rising off of all fours. His nose itched, but one glance at his grimy hands made him put aside all desire to scratch himself. He had to pee in a major way, but that wasn't what had awakened him—he always had to pee in a major way when he woke—he and Sam were both, as their mothers used to say in their diaper and potty training days, "big wetters." No, what woke him up was ominous gurgling in his lower intestines, and wet pressure threatening to overcome his anal sphincter.

Scrambling backwards farther, away from Sam, he managed to move maybe three feet before he couldn't fight it anymore and, settling back until he was squatting over his feet and still supporting his front on his finger tips, he hunched uncontrollably while his bowel emptied itself in a gooey, malodorous mess. Cramp after cramp went through him and he evacuated more and more material, until he finally was able to settle back, panting, his anus burning with his efforts. He could feel watery shit dripping from his anus, down his butt crack and off his balls. Another cramp overtook him, a final hurrah of a cramp, and he hunched again, liquid dribbling off his balls. Looking at the disgusting mess that had come out of him, he shuffled forward and then hunched again, wondering what to do about the mess he'd made of his behind and his ball sack.

A trio of half grown piglets snuffled over to the malodorous pile he'd made, sniffed at it, then began rooting at it, gobbling it up like the choicest of hog food. More piglets waddled over and joined the fray, one following the dripping trail his ass had left to where he was sitting. Jake, still with an aching gut and feeling worn out after his attack, just watched dully as the piglet snuffled up the trail, his head hanging down, viewing its approach between his widely spaced legs. In a move so fast it surprised him, the piglet lifted its nose and began lapping the material dripping off his scrotum, his cold nose snuffling against Jake's butt hole. Jake almost jumped away, but stopped himself when he realized that the pig was being surprisingly gentle, not biting, merely running a rough snout and tongue over Jake's anal regions and the back of his scrotum. He gently crouched down on his hands, opening his butt crack more to the cleansing tongue. A second pig approached and jockeyed for position near the first one, the two finally working it out so that the first pig moved up higher and began licking Jake's butt hole, which he appeared to find delightful if his snuffling, grunting sounds meant anything. The second pig continued snuffling Jake's scrotum, which tickled enough that the boy giggled a bit despite his surroundings.

Behind him, another piglet came snuffling up between Sam's spread legs, prodding his cold nose against Sam's inner thigh, right near his scrotum. Sam groaned and shifted, and the pig took a cautious step back, but when Sam didn't move any more, it turned its attention to the boy's cold-tightened scrotum, nudging it. Sam came awake in an instant, sitting up and clapping hands over his genitals with a little shriek that sent piglets scattering in every direction, including the two that had been tending to Jake. Jake turned on all fours until he was facing Sam and laughed at his friend's terrified, gaping expression.

"Relax, they won't hurt you," Jake said. Sam swallowed, then looked down at his abdomen. He was sitting on the muddy floor, muck oozing up between his thighs.

"God, I gotta—I gotta—" he staggered to his feet, turning his back to Jake as he rose but still hunched as with a gross gurgling noise, watery brown liquid gushed from between his muddy buns and ran down either side of his inner thighs, puddling on the ground. He doubled over, his butt opening slightly, and Jake was treated to the sight of his buddy's muddy butt hole erupting like a chocolate fountain, gushing watery shit that joined his previous emissions in running down his thighs to the ground. He wanted to turn away from the sight but couldn't, morbid fascination gluing his eyes to his friend's erupting anus. Emboldened pigs rushed to Sam's location, lapping off the ground and snuffling his ankles and lower legs. Sam cramped several more times, emitting less each time, and finally ended up crouched over, resting his body with his hands on his knees, panting and looking miserable when Jake padded around to his front, carefully giving the feasting piglets a wide berth. Sam, belatedly noticing the pigs by his legs, tried to shoo them weakly by waving his right hand at them weakly.

"I had it, too," Jake said. "Don't worry about them. Let them clean you up! Look what they did to me!" He turned to wave his almost clean butt at Sam, a stark contrast to the dirt covering the rest of him. "Just move away from where you went and get on all fours and they'll lick it all up. Pretty disgusting, huh?"

Sam remained in position, staring at Jake in amazement. "I gotta pee," Jake said. "I wonder if they eat that?" He padded to the wall and considered his options, finally lifting his leg like a dog and resting the knee against the wall, so his hard penis was pointing out away from him and toward the base of the wall. Sighing in satisfaction, he peed noisily against the wood, ignoring the little spatters that flew back onto his muddy body, fascinated by the way little flecks of dirt were dislodged by the strength of his stream. He wiggled his butt to shake the last drops off, making his still hard penis waggle. Sam was still standing, hunched over looking at the pigs licking his legs in stupefaction. "Better get down," Jake advised. "And we'd better stop talking, too. Remember what Sister Mary fat-butt said would happen if we talked or walked."

Sam seemed to come to his senses. He dropped to all fours and shuffled away from where he'd lost control of his bowels and settled distastefully into the mud. Piglets immediately crowded his butt and began snuffling between his buns, licking his anus and his balls. He tolerated it for awhile, then, apparently finding the cold, snuffling noses too disconcerting, scrambled over by Jake.

"I gotta pee bad," he whispered when he was a foot away.

"Just do what I did," Jake said. "Go against the wall."

Sam looked under his belly. "I can't," he whispered, a note of desperation in his voice. "It points at my face, remember?"

Jake looked at his buddy's stomach. The tip of his curved penis was indeed pointing right at Jake's face. He considered a minute, then looked at his own foot. "Here," he whispered back. "I'll put my foot up in the air behind me, and you move until your—your weenie is pushing on the soul of my foot and that way we can push it down and you can pee."

"But--but—I'll pee on your foot!" Sam said.

Jake gave him a wry smile. "The condition my foot is in now," he said, "having you pee on it would be an improvement."

Actually, Sam's hot, powerful stream of pee felt pleasant, and knocked most of the dirt off Jake's left foot. When Sam had finished, the two separated, settling back on hands and haunches. The piglets were still fighting over where they'd pooped. Sam looked at them.

"Yeah, I had it too," Jake said. "I think it was the apples—the girls said you can't eat many of them."

"I'm thirsty," Sam said. "Really thirsty."

"They took the water bottle with them," Jake said quietly. "But I think there's some sort of water trough outside. I don't think it looked very clean."

"Let's see what it looks like," Sam said. They padded out to the outer pen on all fours, wary of punishment, and over to the side wall, where a long, low trough was filled with water. A pig was standing in the water at one end, drinking from the same trough where his muddy feet were placed. As Jake watched, the pig peed from his belly into the same water as he drank.

"I'm not that thirsty," Sam whispered.

"Yeah," Jake said. Off in the distance, the boys suddenly could hear voices of boys and girls calling to each other, and the clunk of food buckets. The sows in their pen made a rush for the door.

"Breakfast time, I think," Jake whispered. "You hungry?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "But not for apples."

"How about pig slop?" Jake said.

"Maybe," Sam said. "Maybe they'll have something that some kid just tossed out. You know, without eating it?" The two of them took a spot by the end of the trough, far enough away from the jostling sows so as not to be threatening.

"Here, pig pig pig!" a voice suddenly called from the other side of their fence. A bucket appeared at the top, above them, then a female head popped over the side, a new girl with brunet braids tied off with rubber bands. She spied them and grinned. "I thought they were joshing me!" she said. "But I guess not—there really are two honest-to-goodness naked little boy piggies in my pen!" She dumped the bucket up and down the trough, emptying an assortment of food remnants into it. Jake, ravenous, spied some pieces of bread that didn't look too bad, and Sam saw some carrots, and both boys reached for them with their right hands.

"Uh, uh, uh!" the girl said. The hog slapper was in her hand in moments. "You're supposed to be pigs, and eat like pigs. Pigs bury their snouts in the trough," she said. "Sister Mary Catherine and Sister Magdalene both said I should watch out for you not acting like pigs, and smack you if you don't. But I'll let it go this once."

Sam and Jake both stopped dead and looked at each other. Then, slowly, they settled onto their hands and edged up to the trough, Sam eyeing the grunting, squealing sow next to him cautiously. He lowered his head and managed to draw a carrot into his mouth with his lips, then another. He was hungry enough that it wasn't all that bad, really. Next to him, Jake was using his tongue to draw bread into his mouth. The girl watched them eating from the trough with an amused grin. She disappeared from the top of the fence. Jake looked for something else that appeared remotely edible, his stomach growling in hunger. He spotted a discarded biscuit that looked completely untouched and lunged for it, closing his teeth over an edge to lift it to the trough edge where he could attack it away from snuffling pig snouts. It was hard and chewy, but still had his salivary glands doing a dance of ecstasy as he chewed. The girl's voice appeared behind them. Her head had popped up over by the pen's outer gate, where she was looking at them from directly behind. Jake and Sam's heads snapped around, and saw she was hoisting a bucket over the water trough. She upended it slowly, letting the water pour into the trough and replenish it.

Jake tried to ignore her, turning back to his biscuit and taking another bit. The girl went on talking. "Nice little bags, between your legs, too. Reminds me of the baby calves. Not all dangly like the bulls. Theirs are positively obscene, you know? I kinda like your pointy little dingies, too, even if they are kinda small."

Jake flushed a bit at her words and at having his naked body studied by a girl, but not as much as he might have a few days ago. He was getting used to being told that he had a small penis, and was almost starting to believe it himself. He spotted a carrot and snatched it from the top of a pile of slop with his teeth, only getting a little slop with it. It was surprisingly good.

"Enjoy," the girl said. "Wouldn't want Sister Magdalene catching me looking at you too close. Besides, I've got other piggies to feed. Gotta get a move on - the boys are cutting pigs today as soon as the feeding is done, so we have to do their work as well as ours. And I want to go poke my head into Sissy's pen and see how she liked her night with the pigs, too. Can't say as it doesn't serve her right - she wouldn't work hard enough here, that's why they moved her to laundry. Thought they could keep a closer eye on her. But I hear she hasn't done a lick of work since she was moved to laundry, either." She disappeared. Jake and Sam looked for other, more or less edible food, consuming what they found on the spot. In short order, though, the sows had cleaned up everything, including garbage Jake and Sam weren't yet hungry enough to even consider eating.

After their rather iffy meal, Sam and Jake were even hungrier. Jake padded to the trough, trying to avoid as much random pig manure as possible but still managing to pick some up on hands and feet, and looked at the water doubtfully. It looked muddy, and he decided to pass on it for the moment. Sam also seemed disinclined. He and Sam padded to a sunny spot in the yard and let the rising sun warm their backs. "I'm still hungry," Sam whispered. "And I'm thirsty now, too. +When do you think we get fed again? You think they'd let us drink from the bucket before they poured it."

"I dunno," Jake whispered back. "Maybe we could get our faces under it and try to catch it in our mouths as they pour. But I don't suppose they'll be back until night."

"I don't think I can wait until night," Sam said. They were quiet awhile, each contemplating their thirst and the quality of water available to them. "What are we supposed to do all day?" Sam whispered after the passage of some time.

"What they do, I guess," Jake said, looking at the pigs. "Lie in the mud in the sun. Wish we had some decent food and water. Be glad no one's hitting us right now, or making fun of our boy parts."

"Yeah," Sam said.

"Oh, and pee once in a while," Jake added.

Sam giggled, and Jake felt lighter when he did. He loved making Sam giggle. "Maybe even take a poop," he said.

"Oh, no," Sam said. "I don't want to poop any more. Not like this morning. That hurt."

"Yeah," Jake said. "So maybe we won't take a poop."
They lay in the sun awhile, their bare skin heating up, but the dirt keeping them from contracting what would otherwise have been serious sunburn.

"What did she mean, they're cutting pigs?" Sam whispered later. "Like with a knife? Like butchering them? Making meat out of them?"

"Darned if I know," Jake said honestly. Why did Sam ask questions like this, anyway? What could the big boys' assignment for that day possibly have to do with them, anyway?