The Cherry Breeding Festival

Dad was out in the other room watching TV. I went into the bathroom and took a quick shower. I put some clothes on and I walked into the room and hugged my dad.

"Are you O.K., son."

"I'm much better, dad -- thanks."

"Well, let's go back to the lodge and get some dinner then -- before they close.

* * * * *

The next morning, we joined Blake in the lodge to hear the results of the competition.

The place was packed, but they had reserved seats for us in the front row so that we could get up to the stage easily if our names were called.

The announcer went through a lot of business he needed to do before he got to the results. Finally he got to the winners, announcing the third and second place winners first. Each came up to the stage and received a lot of applause.

"And now Gentlemen," he announced loudly, "the first place winners in this year's Cherry Breeding Festival are ... MARK THOMAS and BLAKE WILLIAMS!!!"

I leaped up onto the stage, proud and happy, while dad and Blake took their time. The crowd went wild as we got on the stage. "Fuck him again, Blake!" someone yelled, but Blake just smiled and waved.

The announcer laughed and held up his hands for quiet. When the audience calmed down he continued, "I have to tell you that in this, our fifth Annual Cherry Breeding Festival, for the first time ever, the results for first place were COMPLETELY UNANIMOUS!!!!"

And with that the audience erupted again.

As we went to the main office to collect our winnings, I got a lot of pats on the back (and quite a few on my butt -- fortunately I had put extra padding back there). Finally we got to the office and were handed a check in an envelope. I immediately opened it and couldn't believe my eyes. The check was for over $20,000 dollars!!! I showed it to dad and his eyes bugged out. He grabbed me and hugged me so hard that I could barely breathe. As I started choking, he finally let go of me.

In short, we got enough money to pay off all of mom's medical bills and more than enough to pay for at least two more years of my college tuition and expenses.

As we drove away from Camp Wilde that afternoon, I turned to my dad.

"Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"The next time you come up here, maybe you would let me come too, please?"

He looked over at me, "Sure, Mark, sure, anything you want, son," he said with a wide grin and patted me on the leg.

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I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I did in writing it. Please feel free to send any feedback to me. Thanks for reading!