The Woodburning Set

By Arye

It was time to go to bed, but Andrew wanted to go to the basement to look at his woodburning set. No, Andrew didn't want to make any woodburning designs. In fact, he didn't even like woodburning. Andrew wanted to look at the photograph of the boy on the cover of the box that held the woodburning kit. The boy on the cover wore a nice dress shirt and had his hair brushed perfectly to a beautiful shine. Andrew was attracted to men with very shiny, pomaded hair. He didn't know why, but this kind of hair excited Andrew.

Andrew hoped that he could retain the image in his mind of the boy and his hair and masturbate while thinking about it that nigh.

"Where are you going?" Andrew's mother asked. "It's time for you to go to bed."

"I just need to look for something," Andrew answered, "It'll only take a minute." Andrew descended the steps into the basement and looked into the beatup doorless china cabinet. He looked at one of the game boxes stacked on top of the other game sets on the bottom shelf. He saw the boy, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old. Andrew himself was thirteen. The boy in the photograph had a woodburning iron and was diligently working on a project. Andrew's attention was drawn to the boy's neat hair, brushed to a shine and easily seen as the boy's head was bent down toward his project. The boy's hair was so shiny that it reflected.

"Andrew, come up! It's time to go to bed!" His mother called from the top of the basement stairs. Andrew put the woodburning kit away and dutifully climbed the stairs.

The next day the woodburning kit was missing. Andrew suspected that his mother took the set away. Did his mother understand that Andrew had an attraction for the boy with the gleaming hair on the cover?

For many years Andrew missed the photo on the woodburning kit. When he [fantasized] he tried to imagine the boy with his shiny hair. He tried to imagine how the boy's hair would feel if he touched it -- along the grain, the way it was combed. Andrew imagined it would feel like silk, a little of the hair oil would be left on Andrew's hand.

But Andrew would never be able to see the actual image of the boy.

Once, when Andrew was grown, his sister asked, "Why is Mother asking about a woodburning set? Does she think *I* have it?"

Andrew actually came across an old woodburning set sold at a street fair. The picture of the boy on its cover was not the same boy with the shiny hair. The set was manufactured in 1972 when men were growing their hair longer, shaggier and teased. The boy Andrew remembered was photographed in the 1950s and reflected the style of those years. His straight hair was parted on one side, carefully combed and fronted with a pompadour. The hair behind the boy's pompadour was combed flat and glossy.

Andrew copied the address of the manufacturer from the box and wrote to the company, asking for a copy of the cover of the box he once had. He never received a reply.

Andrew often wondered what had happened to the model who posed for the cover of the woodburning set. He estimated that the boy with the shiny hair would now be in his fifties. Where would he be? What would he look like? Would he be, horror forbid, bald? Often, when Andrew saw a young man with beautiful shiny hair -- shiny was now "i" again, it was now maintained with the aid of "mousse" or "gel" -- he wondered if the glazed-locked man was the son of the dear model of his fantasy.

One day Andrew was traveling in a city far from home and he saw a man who looked exactly like "his" model. The man's hair was of a dark blond hue. His face was exactly like the boy on the cover of Andrew's long-lost woodburning set. He even wore a neat long-sleeved white dress shirt.

Andrew was startled and stared at the young man.

"Why are you staring at me?" the young man inquired.

Andrew was embarrassed, "Oh, it's because you look like a friend of mine who I haven't seen in many years."

"Oh," replied the woodburning set model's look-alike, "Do you know my father? When he was a teenager he modeled for the package of a woodburning kit. A lot of people ask me if I was the model. My dad says I look exactly like him, even the way I comb my hair. What's your name? Would you like to have a drink with me?..."

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