WOOING SESSION ONE CONTINUED

I felt it time to start edging into an area that pertained to who I really was without spilling the beans.  Bob needed to talk about alot of things that he kept hidden and if I let him know he was not alone in certain matters, it might disarm him. Before I started on this track, I excused myself and went in the house and fixed a double scotch and soda  and gulped it right down.  When I returned, I asked Bob if he liked me.  He replied:  "Yes, very much,  you are different..like a boy in a man's body....I liked it when you bought a model plane and motor."   I asked:  "Do you think I have made and do make many mistakes?"   This seemed to puzzle him as he was quiet for a little time.  Then he said:  "I think adults are always right....they act that way...they seem to have arrived somewhere ...a place where I am not."  I wanted to work myself into a place where he could feel like a counsellor to me and so I said:  "Bob, you are the only person I can trust....please don't tell your parents this..."When I was a little boy, I used to steal alot of things.  The first thing I ever stole was a kerosene lantern off of a construction site.  As a teen like you, I was a little thief...I stole Brody Knobs to put on my bicycle,  I even stole a pretty glass vase and gave it to my Mother for Christmas.  I used to siphon gasolene for my car....I even siphoned gas from a fellow student's car in the school parking lot.  I felt so ...dirty and ashamed until I realized some things.  I was a human being and humans can do the strangest things.  I now realize that it was not something for free that I was looking for. I was looking to express what I felt about things....it was beating the system...it was a laughing at something..a thumbing of the nose at a world of only right adults and all of their laws.  As I grew and matured, I realized all of this and realized that in times of turmoil run through immaturity...it was using the wrong machine to accomplish a task....like putting bread into a washing machine to toast it. I am now sorry in a way, but I understand and foregive myself....realizing that all adults are are older and more sophisticated little boys and girls."   Bob was really absorbing all of this and I sensed he was having a mental and emotional earthquake where the tectonic plates of exhistance were moving around to relieve the stress.  He suddenly opened up  " I steal too,  it is fun to see if I can fool the adults..just like you.  I steal all the time." he said.  I thought this was a huge step foreward and instead of saying you must stop this, I extended my hand and said  "I will shake on that"  He not only shook my hand, he hugged me tight and...sobbed.  (to be continued)