SchoolDays2

Chapter 1

(Kevin's Perspective)
       "I hate for the holidays to end," Rick said as he and I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.
       "I know. They were good ones, though, weren't they?" I said.
       "They keep getting better and better I think," he said. "Kev, do you think the kids are committed to running that marathon?"
       "No. Do you?"
       "No, I don't. They had all said they were going to start training this morning, but every one of them came up with an excuse why they couldn't. If they're not that interested in doing it, I say we scrap the idea, at least for this year," he said.
       "Let's talk about it with them tonight," I said, "but I tend to agree with you. For one thing, they're always so damn busy. For another thing, that would be another day of school they'd have to miss. I mean, I don't mind letting them miss for recreation, occasionally, but this is recreation they don't even care about."
       Kyle and Justin had their English class that night, so they didn't get home until a few minutes before seven.
       "How was the first day as a desk clerk?" I asked Justin.
       "I enjoyed it," he said. "I feel sort of tired right now, but that's just because it was the first day. I think this is going to be an easier job than bellhop."
       "Did you learn anything today?" Rick asked.
       "I learned a ton of stuff, Rick. One thing I learned is that some people can sure enough be assholes. The second guest I dealt with this morning was pissed off about room service charges on his bill. I thought the man wanted to fight me."
       "What did you do?" I asked.
       "I got the supervisor to deal with him, and I just stood there and listened. That's how I learned," he said.
       "What was the complaint?" I asked.
       "Okay. Get this. The man had ordered a pot of coffee and an order of toast this morning off the room service menu. I know something about room service from my old job, right? The charge was $7.19, and the man said the menu said it was only a dollar. There ain't a thing on that menu that's only a dollar, much less a pot of coffee and an order of toast. I pulled out a menu and showed it to him, and he got mad. He said the menu in his room said it was only a dollar," Jus said. "That's when I got the supervisor."
       "You handled that exactly right, Jus. You ought to keep a little notebook of crazy shit like that so you can remember the stories years from now," I said. "I'm sorry I don't have one."
       "Did you work the front desk?" Jus asked.
       "Mostly I was in sales, but I did duty on the desk from time to time," I said. "Everybody in management does. What about school? How were your classes?"
       "Pretty good. I'm going to like 'em, I think. I've got the same lady for English this time as last time. She's really nice. They all are, though," he said. "One thing, though. I didn't register for a biology lab. I didn't know you had to do that, so I had to register for it today. It's only one hour of credit, but the damn thing is three hours long. Only once a week, though. Thursday afternoon."
       "So, you're taking ten hours. That's almost full-time, Bubba," Rick said.
       "I know. I'm going to be a busy little bee around this place," he said.
       "Speaking of being busy, Rick and I were talking this morning about the marathon up in Birmingham," I said.
       "We're thinking you all aren't really committed to it and that we might be better off postponing that till another year. What do you think?" Rick asked.
       I was surprised at the reaction.
       "That would be a load off my back," Justin said. What he said wasn't funny at all, but the way he said it was hilarious to me.
       "Me, too. Y'all just need to know. I'm getting a lot of pressure at school right now," Kyle said. "I think it's a good idea to postpone running the marathon."
       "What kind of pressure you getting?" Justin asked.
       "I had my schedule all set to have two periods of PE and two of Leadership. Piece of cake. Today the drama teacher came to see me during Leadership. She wants me to change my schedule to drop one Leadership and be in drama," he said. "She said she wants me to be in a play. A musical."
       "I thought you liked being in plays," I said.
       "I do. But this is a hard one," he said.
       "What's the play?" I asked.
       "Grease. You ever heard of it?" Kyle asked.
       "Of course I have," I said. "Everybody has, Kyle."
       "I never heard of it," Justin said.
       "Me, either," Kyle said. "She gave me a movie of it to watch. She wants an answer by Wednesday, too."
       "What part does she want you for?" I asked.
       "The part of Danny. I think it might be a pretty big part. She said if I say no, they aren't going to do it and everybody in the drama class is going to be pissed off at me."
       "She said that?" I asked. I thought that was pretty high handed.
       "Well, not in so many words, but that's what she meant," he said.
       "Danny's the lead, Kyle," Rick said. "It's a big singing and dancing role. I think you ought to do it. It might be your once-in-a-lifetime chance to have a leading role in a big musical."
       "There are probably a dozen kids in that school who would kill for a chance to play that role, Kyle," Brian said.
       "See. That's another thing. It's dangerous. I could be setting myself up for assassination."
       We all laughed hard at that one.
       "Why don't we just watch the damn movie and see what it's like," Justin said. "Where is it?"
       "It's in my car," Kyle said.
       "I'll get it," Tim said.
       I had seen the movie version of Grease at least a dozen times, but I was kind of excited at the prospect of seeing it again, especially with them. I knew that Kyle would love it, and I was eager to see his reaction. He got up and went into the kitchen for a jar of Tick Supreme, that peanut-raisin-M & M snack he made.
       Tim popped the cassette into the VCR and it came up. Everybody watched with rapt attention as John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and all the kids at Rydell High danced and sang away their adolescent concerns. It was so much fun.
       We stopped the movie about halfway through for a piss break.
       "Why didn't y'all tell me how cool this thing is?" Kyle demanded.
       "Does that mean you're going to do it?" Rick asked.
       "Hell, yeah, I'm going to do it. I'm starting to grow out my hair as of right now," he said. "I'm going to get me a can of motor oil to put on it, too."
       We all laughed.
       "Go take your piss so we can get back to it," Rick said.
       Kyle laughed.
       "You knew, didn't you?" he said to Rick.
       Rick grinned at him.
       "Yeah, I knew," Rick said. "If anybody was ever born to play Danny Zuko it was you, Kyle."
       We finished the movie, and everybody loved it.
       "When is the play?" I asked.
       "Not till after Spring Break. I don't know the exact date. Sometime in April, though," Kyle said.
       Brian got up and went into the study. He came back about five minutes later.
       "The play's on April 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. That's Thursday through Sunday," he said.
       "How do you know that?" Kyle asked.
       "It's on the school Web site," Brian responded.
       "You didn't know there is a school Web site, did you?" Tim asked Kyle.
       "No, I didn't," Kyle said.
       "Your picture's on it, Kyle," Brian said.
       "No shit?"
       "No shit," Brian said.
       Justin pulled Brian down next to him and hugged him.
       "Listen at you saying those nasty words. What the fuck you think this is? Some kind of damn boot camp or something?" Justin asked, teasing his boy.
       I loved it when Justin showed that kind of affection for Brian, and Brian loved it, too.
       "The next thing you know, you'll be smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey and scratching your balls in public," Justin said.
       We were all laughing at him, and Brian was laughing the hardest.
       "How was your first day back, Denny?" Rick asked.
       "It was good, Rick. I'm taking debate now," he said.
       "I thought you already were," Rick said.
       "I've been on the team, but now I'm in the class. The team is an after-school activity," Denny said.
       "Have you been staying after school every day for debate?" Rick asked.
       "Yes, sir," Denny said.
       "How have you been getting home?" I asked.
       "They wait for me," he said.
       "You guys wait for him every day?" Rick asked, slightly incredulous.
       "Yeah, so what?" Kyle asked. "He needs a ride home. The rest of us always have shit to do after school, anyway. It's no big deal."
       "I'm pretty impressed, guys," Rick said.
       "Don't be, Rick," Tim said. "We're in a lot of clubs and activities, and on days that we don't have meetings, we do our homework. They keep the library open until four o'clock, and that's where we go to wait. That's why we don't do very much homework at home. We do it at school."
       "Brian, you've been working out with the dog man and Trixie every day, though, haven't you?" I asked.
       "Well, not every day. Some days I have to stay after school, but most days. Kyle brings me home, we pick up Trixie, and he takes me to Mr. Mack's place. It works out okay," Brian said.
       "This is pretty incredible. Why didn't Rick and I know this was going on?" I asked.
       "Are you angry at us about this?" Brian asked.
       "No, of course not. I think it's wonderful. I'm just sort of amazed is all," I said.
       "If your brother needs a ride, you give him a damn ride," Kyle said. "Grease is the word."
       We all laughed.
       "Greasy, more like it," Justin said.
       "Lubed up, you mean," Kyle said.
       I didn't know where that was going, and I didn't want to find out.
       "Let's watch the news and then go to bed," I said.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       I couldn't believe that Grease movie. I think my new nickname is going to be Greased Lightning. I didn't know the damn thing was about kids and rock-n-roll and drag races and such. That was going to be fun being Danny, and the music was great. 'And oh-oh, those summer night!' I've had me a few of those. Of course they were with Tim and not some girl, but I knew what that was all about.
       I found the drama teacher, Mrs. Storm, before school the next morning and told her I would do it. She seemed excited that I was willing to take it on, and she marched my ass to the guidance office to change my schedule lickety-split. By then most of my heavy SGA duties were behind me, and I was used to the day-to-day shit of running the ICC, too. Being SGA president was nothing compared to running ICC.
       I decided that morning that I was going to end every single announcement I made on TV with the words, "Grease is the word." That was going to get some attention because nobody was going to know what that meant. Two or three people asked me about that the first day, and I just told them to stay tuned.
       In drama class that day we got a copy of the script, and we started reading it out loud. About half the class called Mrs. Storm by her first name, which was Maggie.
       "Maggie, can Danny sing?" some guy asked. I didn't know him, but I thought he was a senior.
       "Yes, Michael, Danny can sing," she said.
       I didn't know who they were talking about. Turns out, they were talking about me. I was only ever going to be called Danny in that class. That didn't bother me, but I wish they had given me a heads up on that. When people change your name for you, you need to know it. This is typical of what I mean.
       "Danny, can you stay after school today? I want to start you singing," she said.
       Nobody said a word.
       "Hello! Earth to Danny! Can you stay today?"
       Nothing.
       "Danny?"
       "She's talking to you, Goodson, you dumbass," my best friend, Philip Andrews, said out loud for everybody to hear. He was going to be in it, too.
       The class laughed.
       "Sorry. I missed it," I said.
       "Can you stay after school today, Danny?" Mrs. Storm asked.
       "Yes, ma'am," I said.
       "Kyle, do you mind if we call you Danny? That's sort of a theater tradition," she said.
       "No, ma'am, that's fine. I just didn't know you were talking to me," I said. "I'll pay attention."
       I was so fucking embarrassed I wanted to hide my face. I guess it made sense to call me Danny, since that's who I was going to be in the play. But, you know, you've got to tell people stuff like that. You can't expect them to just know it. Especially people like me.
       I had been in a couple of plays before, but I didn't ever have a name in one before. I guess they called the other people by their character's name in drama class. I just had never taken drama before.
       We had ninety minutes every day in class to get that play off the ground, but she helped me to understand that day that I was going to put in a lot more time than that after school. That was cool. We'd have a little bit of a logistics problem with getting Brian to Mr. Mack's place to work with Trixie, but that wasn't going to last long. Tim could take him in the meantime.
       * * *
       Brian's sixteenth birthday was January 13th, which was a Tuesday that year. If a birthday fell in the middle of a week, we had the party the following Saturday. Well, guess what? We couldn't for him that year because we were leaving on Friday, January 16th, for North Carolina to go skiing over the Martin Luther King, Jr., long weekend. So we had to have his party on January 10th.
       He wanted a cookout. Hotdogs, hamburgers, ribs--that kind of stuff. So be it. That was very easy. But no way could I just serve that for my brother Brian. I made up a big pot of really good chili con carne and another pot of chili sauce to put on the hotdogs. I made some of that filé gumbo we had had in New Orleans at Christmas and a big mess of red beans and rice, too. I also made some corn salad, with onions, green peppers, oil and vinegar, and frozen nibblet corn--thawed, of course. That was real good. Justin loved that stuff. Brian wasn't big on raw oysters, so I boiled shrimp to serve in the rough before that meal with cocktail sauce and some of that remoulade sauce I had tasted at the Boardwalk Hotel the night of the Homecoming dance. That damn chef wouldn't give me the recipe for the remoulade, so Tim and I went there one night and ordered five servings each of that stuff. We ate it till we figured out what was in it. What I made was pretty close to it, if not exactly on the money. Tim, Justin, and Denny and I worked pretty hard on that meal, but it was a labor of love for our brother.
       Tim and I gave Brian a really nice dog whistle as his present. He blew into it when he opened it. Nobody heard a thing, but Trixie jumped up on the table in front of him. She didn't ever do stuff like that, ordinarily. Philip was sitting across from Brian. Not only did Philip get a good whiff of dog ass, he got his face slapped by her tail a few times. Everybody was laughing so hard I thought they were going to vomit.
       Justin gave him a bunch of clothes, which he needed. He was still growing. He loved them, too.
       Then there was this stack of envelopes. Everybody knew he wanted money to buy a car, and that's what he got. I gave him the money I owed him for modeling for me. When all was said and done, that boy had gotten six thousand dollars. He was so happy. He knew that with what he already had, he had enough for a car.
       The last envelope was the best, though, and all of us were waiting patiently for him to get to it. It was big, like a manila envelope, only it was white and not tan. He felt it pretty good before he opened it. I was already on pins and needles, but he took his own sweet time about it.
       He finally opened the envelope and pulled out a framed certificate. Kevin's secretary had made up a real nice one that said Brian was the one and only official owner of Trixie Foley Mashburn Mathews. Everybody in the family had signed it. When he read that thing, big, hot, happy tears just gushed out of his eyes. He grabbed Justin up in a hug that I'm sure must have hurt ole Jus, it was so hard, and he hugged the rest of us hard, too. God, he was so happy. And the rest of us were just standing there like fools, crying our eyes out for our little brother. We knew never to ask him who he loved more, Justin or Trixie, for fear of what he might say. Now she was his for the rest of her life.
       "I can't believe you guys," he said through his tears. "Thank you so much."
       "I guess that settles where Trixie will be living in a year-and-a-half," Kevin said. It had been his idea to do that, and we all loved it.
       "Oh, Kevin," he started to say but couldn't get past that for crying.
       "I think we've made my boy happy," Justin said. "Thank all of you." Then he cried some more, too.
       That was about the most emotional thing we had ever had happen at a birthday party, and it was right up there in the top two or three most emotional things ever. I felt so good that we were able to make him so happy. He had a wad of money in front of him, and he was going to be able to get himself a car. What mattered most to him? That he owned Trixie and that our family had given her to him.
       Nothing was going to change, of course. She was still going to run almost every morning with Rick, and she was still going to play with all of us like she always did. She would never know the difference. Who did know the difference was Brian. He'd never have to give her up, for one thing, and he knew how much we loved him, for another thing. Pretty good for one present that didn't cost a dime, I thought.
       "Kyle, what you guys did is something I will remember the rest of my life," Brian said to me later.
       "What? Give you a dog whistle? That's a nice whistle, but that ain't really all that much, Bubba," I said.
       "You know what I'm talking about," he said.
       God, he was cute. Justin would be a total fool to ever leave that boy or ever let him get away.
       "Yeah, I do know what you mean. We love you, though, Brian. Really. I'm not just talking about Justin and Rick and Kevin, and me and Tim. A lot of people love you."
       "This is sort of blowing my mind, you know?" he said. "All that money on top of everything."
       "I'm sure it is, Bri. But you know what?"
       "What?" Brian asked.
       "People wouldn't have done that if they hadn't wanted to," I said.
       He teared up big when I said that, but it was the truth. I think he knew that in the abstract, but he had concrete proof positive that night.
       "I want my first prostate exam as a doctor to be you," he said.
       I laughed hard.
       "Okay. It's a deal, Bubba," I said. "Which finger?"
       He thought that was funny. "You'll never know, but I guarantee you'll never forget it, Kyle," he said.
       God Almighty! What a cutie, I thought.
       * * *
       Brian had enough money to buy a car after the party, and of course he knew just exactly what kind of car he wanted. It surprised the hell out of me, but he wanted a Mazda 626, just like I had.
       "Why do you want that?" I asked.
       "We've already got a truck and a Jeep. I want a regular car. I can't afford anything sporty, and I like your car. It runs good, it's comfortable, it looks good, and I can pick up a year-old rental car for $11,000," he said.
       "You thought this through, didn't you?" I said.
       "Yeah," he said.
       "What color you want? Whatever they got?" I asked.
       I hadn't gotten to chose the color of my car. A guy who works for Goodson just drove it up on my birthday, and that was it. I didn't care, either. I was so excited about having wheels I would have taken anything. The only thing I cared about was having a light-colored cloth-upholstered interior, and that's what I got. Emerald Beach was way too hot for anything else. The car itself was dark green, and that was fine with me. I would have liked to have a University of Florida tag, but I couldn't since it was a lease. I know people who would pitch a fit about such as that, but Mr. Gene don't allow no fit pitching in his house. I've known that all my life, so I don't even get revved up.
       "The color doesn't matter. Justin took me to the dealership the other day just to look around, and they had a really nice dark gray one. It had about 38,000 miles on it, and I'd get the full three-year warrantee. Your dad said I get free insurance through the company, too," he said.
       That ain't for everybody, Little Buddy, I thought. You, me, Kevin, Rick, my mama, Jeff. Maybe Tim. That's about the end of that list. That was the kind of stuff I didn't know much about and didn't care. I wasn't much of a car man, that's for sure. I heard guys talking about changing their own oil and putting on new brake pads and shit like that. Not me. Tyler can do all that stuff for himself, but that's why they have mechanics and oil-change places, as far as I was concerned. The only reason I ever even washed it myself was to get naked in the back yard with my buds and play in the water.
       "So when are you going to go pick it out?" I asked. That day was his real birthday.
       "This afternoon. Rick's going to meet us at the driver's license place at three, and we're going to the dealership from there," he said.
       "Cool. Are you excited?"
       "Yeah, I am, Kyle. I'm very excited," he said. I could tell he was.
       Me, Tim, and Justin took Brian to the driver's license place, and we met up with Rick. Brian only had to take the road test because he had taken the written part to get his permit. He used my car, and he passed it with flying colors, too.
       I looked at the picture on his license, and I was disgusted. This face is hanging on the wall of a fucking museum in Phoenix, Arizona, I thought, and in this license picture he looks like he's twelve years old and sick as a damn dog. I wished there was some way I could touch that thing up.
       When we got to the dealership, Rick had to try to get the man down off the price, of course. And he did, too, by $500. Brian and Tim were there just soaking up everything that was going on between those guys. Me and Justin were roaming around the lot looking at the cars.
       "You still want a Jeep?" Justin asked me.
       "Naw, not no more," I said. "I love driving Tim's, but that's not a very practical vehicle with as many people as we're always hauling around."
       "My pickup's not practical for that, either, but, Kyle, I love that truck," he said.
       "I know, but your truck is practical for a lot of other things. My God, how many times have we hauled shit in your truck? Every family needs a truck, Bubba, and yours is it for us," I said.
       "Well, it's serviceable, that's for sure. Kyle, do you think the four of us are always going to be together?" he asked.
       "Where the hell did that come from, Justin?" I asked.
       "I'm just trying to plan cars for the future, Kyle," he said. "If the two couples are going to be together, then one of us always needs to have a pickup. I reckon that's going to be me."
       "You're working on your thirty-year vehicle acquisition plan, are you?"
       "Shut up, you little fuck, before I have to kick your balls off right here in this parking lot," he said.
       We both started laughing hard. I loved Justin. He was the funniest guy I had ever known, bar none.
       * * *
       I wanted us to leave for North Carolina right after school on Thursday. It would have been hard, but there were six of us who could drive. It was about an eight-hour trip, and if we left right at 2:30, we could have been there right at 10:30, 11:30 Eastern time, which is what North Carolina was in.
       "No, we can't do that," Rick said.
       "Why not?" I asked.
       "Your brother has his biology lab from two to five that afternoon. He can't afford to miss that. It would be 5:30 before we could get away from here, and it'll already be dark. We'd be getting there at 1:30 in the morning, worn slap out," Rick said.
       "I see your point," I said.
       "I see it, too, and it ain't nearly as big as I thought it would be," Justin said.
       Everybody in the room but Rick laughed. He looked kind of confused.
       "Say it, Babe," Kevin said.
       "Say what?" Rick demanded.
       "Justin got you last, Rick," Kevin said.
       It finally dawned on Rick what had been going on, and he laughed. He told Justin he got him last. We might have to refine that game some, I thought. Did somebody really get you last if you didn't know you had been got last? We'd have to work on that.
       Come Friday morning, we were all up early. We had the car all packed up, and we were ready to go by seven o'clock. We did a drive-thru at a fast-food place for breakfast, and, by my calculations, we could be on the slopes that very afternoon.
       "I've never seen snow," Denny said.
       "It's awesome, dude," I said.
       "Will there be somebody to teach me how to ski?" Denny asked.
       "Yeah, Den. I'll need to take some lessons, too," Brian said. "They give lessons."
       "Is it scary?" Denny asked.
       "No, it ain't scary. It's fun," Justin said. "Brian and I have only been once, but I can't wait."
       "Denny, if you're scared to ski, you don't have to," Brian said. "They have snow tubing, which is riding down in big inner tubes. I'll do that with you if you're scared."
       "Me, too," Tim said. "Recreation is supposed to be fun, Denny, not scary so that it makes you uncomfortable."
       Tim and Brian were way nicer than me. I mean, I'd do that with him a time or two, but I wasn't missing skiing because of him. No way.
       "I want to try skiing, but I've never even seen a mountain," Denny said.
       "Well, let me tell you something, Denny. These mountains ain't much compared to what we saw in Montana. They have some manly mountains out there," Justin said.
       "The pictures of them on the Web site are incredible," Denny said. "I'd love to go there one day."
       "You hang with this family, son, and you'll be all over the damn place," Jus said.
       "I want to say something," Denny said.
       Everybody got quiet. He didn't say that much, so I knew everybody wanted to know what was on his mind.
       "Before I lived here, I didn't laugh. Ever. Now I laugh every day. A lot. You probably don't understand that, but it feels so good," Denny said.
       Everybody was quiet.
       "Denny, I didn't ever laugh, either, before I came here," Justin said.
       "I had some years like that, too, Denny," Kevin said.
       "So did I," I said.
       "Me, too," Brian said.
       "I can't believe I'm not the only one who has had that kind of life," Denny said.
       "You're not, though, Denny. All of us have, in one way or another," Justin said. "That's something we all share, Bubba. You know? Rick and Tim didn't say anything, but it wasn't all peaches and cream for them, either," he said.
       "Denny, I didn't have many problems with being different when I was a kid. I knew it very early, and my mother had always gone out of her way to let me know it was all right if I was different. It wasn't until Kevin and I got together that it started for me. My step-dad, Arnie, the guy who would now defend me and all of us to the death if he had to, was extremely cold toward me, and especially toward Kevin," Rick said. "People change, though, when they see real love."
       "I sort of always knew I was different, too, Denny," Tim said. "I always thought it was because I didn't have a mom. When puberty started, I knew what it really was. My dad loved me as much as anybody could ever love a kid, and I always knew he wouldn't have a problem with me being gay. Until I met Kyle, though, I couldn't accept that about myself. Kyle, I've never even talked to you about this before, but I felt as isolated and cut off as you did before we met."
       "I knew that," I said. "Denny, you've been around us for almost six months. You've seen us every which way. You've seen us happy, like at Thanksgiving and Christmas and Brian's birthday last week, and you've seen us sad, like when Alex and Cody left. We laugh a lot because we love one another and we're having fun."
       Denny was a little moist around the eyes, but I knew those were happys, not sads.
       "Does anybody else have to pee?" Justin asked.
       Brian didn't even wait for an answer. He swung the car into the off ramp that was right there, and we all scurried out to take care of our business.
       "Come here," Rick said to me in the store we had stopped at.
       "What?" I demanded. I knew we were in tease mode.
       "Kyle, he's coming along, isn't he?" Rick asked me.
       "Who you mean? Denny?"
       "Yeah," he said.
       "Rick, he's happier than a pig in slop," I said. "That little boy's going to be fine, you know?"
       "Kyle, I wanted to say this the other night, but I didn't want to say it in front of all of them. Thank you for being so good to them, son."
       That made me feel so good, I was just about to bust.
       "I make 'em mind. They know I'll bust their ass if they don't," I said.
       "Cut the shit, Kyle. You're forgetting who you're talking to," he said.
       I laughed.
       "You do it all because you love them. Thank you, Bubba."
       I about melted into the floor. I was up to drive next, and that gave me time to think. Driving that Chevy Suburban was like driving a cloud, and I was able to make some very good time on that highway. I thought about how lucky we all were and about how much I loved Kevin and Rick.
       * * *
       We got to the cabin about 2:30 Central time. Of course, it was on Eastern time, so it was really 3:30. We threw our stuff in our rooms and hauled ass to the ski slopes. It was too late for lessons, so we went down a beginner's slope because of Justin and Tim. Brian and Denny didn't even try it, and Tim and Justin were both scared. They made it down, but they didn't enjoy it all that much. After the second run, Tim and Jus got their ski legs. They had a much better time going down three or four more runs.
       We didn't stay late. We were all starving, but it was going to be too late to cook when we got home. Plus, we didn't have anything to cook. We went through a pizza drive-thru that we had been to before. We called ahead and told them what we wanted, and it was there waiting for us when we got there.
       After we ate, we all went in the hot tub. It was pretty damn cold out of that water, but, in the tub, it was wonderful. By 10:30 we were all dozing. That was the end of the first day of what was going to be a great trip.

Chapter 2

(Kyle's Perspective)
       The downstairs of the cabin had two bedrooms with queen size beds and a big room they called the game room that had several futons for sleeping and some other stuff, like a TV, a game table, and easy chairs. Tim and I got one of the bedrooms, Justin and Brian got the other one, and Denny got a futon. There was a wood-burning stove in the game room that was supposed to supplement the heat from the central heating system, if necessary. It was really cold down there when we went down, so we made a fire in the stove. We just used the wood that was already inside.
       Sometime during the night Denny woke me up.
       "Kyle, I'm cold," he said.
       He was standing on my side of the bed, naked.
       "Put some more wood in the stove," I said.
       "It's outside, and it's too cold to go out," he said.
       Shit, I thought.
       "Get in, then," I said.
       He was shivering, and his teeth were chattering. That little guy really was cold.
       "Let me warm you up," I said.
       I turned so I was facing his back, and I put my arms around him. His skin was ice cold to the touch, and it made a chill run through me. I put my right leg over his legs to help warm those up, and I got as close to him as I could. I was naked, too, and my dick was right up against his butt crack. I'm flesh and blood, just like the next guy, and doing that made me get hard.
       "I can feel your penis," he said softly.
       "I know. Just ignore it," I whispered.
       "I love you, Kyle," he said.
       He was breathing hard, and I figured he was turned on. I couldn't help that, though.
       "I love you, too. Now let's be quiet so we can get back to sleep. Are you getting warm?"
       "Yeah," he said.
       I could tell he was. He wasn't shivering anymore, and his teeth weren't chattering.
       He took my hand in his and moved it down to his dick. He wanted me to do something.
       "No, Denny. Not that, Bubba," I said.
       "I'm sorry, Kyle. I just . . . ."
       "I know, Bubba. Not that, though. Let's just go to sleep," I said.
       "Are you mad at me?" he asked.
       "No, I'm not mad at you, Denny, but if you keep talking, I'm going to get mad at you," I said. I said it light so he would know everything was okay.
       He giggled.
       "Good night," he said.
       "Good night, Bubba," I said.
       I moved my leg off his, and I backed up a little bit to give my dick some room. I thought about how strong the urge was and how easy I had boned up just then. Eventually I went off to sleep.
       We woke up the next morning with a big dog jumping on the bed. Justin and Brian were standing in the room, and they were both laughing.
       "Get up, sleepies," Justin said. "Let's go for a romp in the snow."
       "Hey, Trixie," Tim was saying, talking to her all sweet. She knew better than to lick, but that cold, wet nose was everywhere.
       "Has this dog been outside?" I asked.
       "Yeah. She had to pee," Justin said.
       "She must have been sniffing the snow or something," I said. "Her nose is like ice. Brian, make her get off the bed so we can get up."
       "Down, Trixie," Brian said, and she got off.
       I leaned over and gave Tim a good morning kiss. He looked cute, all sleepy and everything. We got up, and all three of us had our usual tent poles sticking out front.
       "Oh, hey, Denny," Tim said, like he was noticing him for the first time. "Did you sleep with us?"
       "I got cold, and Kyle let me get in. Nothing happened, though, Tim," Denny said.
       "I know that," Tim replied.
       Not for lack of trying, though, I thought.
       Justin and Brian were already dressed, and the three of us got dressed quick, too. We all put on sweats and went to the bathroom, one by one. I looked at my watch, and it was only seven o'clock, Eastern time. Six o'clock our time. I put on my shoes and socks, but Tim and Denny went upstairs barefoot.
       There was a big fire going in the fireplace in the living room. We huddled around it to get the morning chill off. I looked out the French doors all along one wall, and the valley below us was covered with snow. The Christmas tree farm down there looked like a picture postcard. I got my camera, went out on the deck, and started snapping. I got cold pretty quick, though, so I went back in. Kevin and Rick were just coming out into the living room, also in sweats.
       "Who made the fire?" I asked, after we all said good morning to them.
       "I did," Rick said. "I've been up a while. I ran a little bit."
       "Did Trixie run, too?" Tim asked.
       "Of course," Rick said. "She loved being out in the cold. You should have seen her playing in the snow. You need to get some pictures of that, Kyle. I wish we could take her to the slopes with us."
       That's where that cold nose had come from. It was always cool, but that morning it was really cold.
       Rick had made coffee, so we all got a cup. We sat in the living room.
       "We need to plan what we're going to do," Kevin said. "We need to get some groceries, too."
       "If the guys want to take some lessons, I think we ought to go to the mountain first thing before the classes fill up," Rick said.
       "Okay with me," Kevin said. "Is that okay with you, guys?"
       It was okay with everybody. I figured we'd stop on the way for something to eat, and that's what we did. We found a little mom-and-pop diner, and we got breakfast.
       When the girl brought the menus to the table, she also brought a platter of biscuits that had country ham on them.
       "This here's a little something to get started on," she said. That mountain accent was hard to understand.
       There were coffee cups already on the table, and she started pouring for those who wanted coffee. I ate a biscuit right away, and it was the fluffiest thing I had ever put in my mouth. The ham was real salty and real good, too. I always soaked country ham in water to get some of that salt out, but they hadn't soaked theirs as much as I soaked mine.
       "These biscuits are enough for a meal," I said.
       That turned out not to be true, though. There were only two for each of us, and I needed more than that for a day in the cold. I scanned the menu. I pretty much knew what I wanted, but I just checked it to see what all they had. I was glad I did.
       "Do y'all see they have plain grits, cheese grits, and garlic grits?" I asked.
       "Garlic grits sound disgusting," Justin said. "Why would anybody mess up perfectly good grits with garlic? And for breakfast? They'll make your breath stink all day long."
       "Well, don't get 'em, then," Rick said.
       "Don't worry," Justin said.
       "It'll keep vampires away," Tim said.
       "I'll take my chances," Justin said. "Besides, I might want to have somebody sucking on my neck."
       Everybody laughed at what he said.
       The girl came back to take our orders.
       "Does anybody ever order the garlic grits?" Justin asked the waitress.
       "Yeah, a bunch of people do. Mostly with fried fish, though, like for lunch. Not too often for breakfast," she said. "They're pretty good."
       "Are y'all bothered by vampires around here?" he asked her.
       She must have been pretty sharp because she laughed right away. She knew he was flirting with her, and she was loving it.
       "Not too much since we put the garlic grits on the menu," she said. "Before that, you'd see people in here with these big ole marks on their necks."
       "I know what causes that, and it ain't no vampire," Justin said.
       She kind of leaned up against his chair.
       "I'll bet you do know," she said, nodding her head.
       She was really cute, but she could have kept an orthodontist busy for months. I could tell she wouldn't mind getting to know ole Justin a little better. Maybe get her one of those neck marks they were talking about.
       "What's going on here?" Brian asked, after the girl had left the table. I could tell he was in a playful mood, and I was getting ready to enjoy that.
       "Nothing's going on," Justin said. "Drink your juice."
       "Justin! I'm not deaf and blind, you know," Brian said.
       Justin got worried all of a sudden.
       "Did that bother you? We were just playing, Little Buddy," he said.
       There was real concern in Justin's voice, and I knew Brian didn't have the balls to make him sweat. I would have taken that to the nth degree. I knew Brian was fixing to cave, though. Sure enough, he did.
       "I know, Buddy. I'm just teasing you," Brian said.
       Shit, I thought.
       "Phew! You had me worried, baby. I thought you were mad at me, or something," Jus said.
       "The whole bunch of y'all are dick-whipped," Rick said with sort of mock disgust.
       "I'll admit it. I am, and so are you and Kevin, asshole," Justin said.
       "Me, too," I said. "She's cute, but none of us want any of that."
       "I don't know about that," Brian said.
       Justin got this look on his face like Brian had just said he was the anti-Christ.
       "I'm just teasing you, Justin. You know that," Brian said.
       "Let's change the subject," Justin said, and everybody laughed.
       * * *
       The skiing was very good that day, fast and smooth. Tim, Brian, and Denny took a lesson, and they joined us. We moved over to a beginner slope for a couple of runs till they were feeling at ease with it, and then we moved back to an intermediate run. We skied till around two o'clock, and we decided to get some lunch. I was glad, too, 'cause my breakfast was long gone.
       "I think my legs are about broke," Justin said. "It feels good to sit down."
       "I know what you mean. I'm thinking about calling it a day," Kevin said.
       "That sounds good to me, too," I said. "We got up at the damn ass-crack of dawn, just about. It was six o'clock Emerald Beach time, remember."
       "I got up even earlier than that," Rick said. "Of course, we could go over to a tube slope. That's not as demanding."
       He was like a damn kid. He never knew when to quit. I never did think he ate enough to have as much energy as he did, but that was none of my business.
       "I want to do some of that again," Tim said. "We had a good time tubing last year."
       "Me, too," Brian said. "Denny, it's really cool. We figured out how to make the tube spin."
       "I wouldn't mind doing some snow-boarding, too," I said.
       "Yeah, me, too," Rick said.
       After we ate, everybody felt a lot better. We ended up tubing for a couple of hours and then knocking off around five o'clock. We went back to the cabin and took showers. I decided not to shave while we were there, so I didn't. That hot water felt so good that it made me sort of sleepy. I didn't catch a nap, though. We had things to do.
       We all sat in the living room in front of the fire. I had on my sweats again, and that soft cloth felt real warm and real good. I had had on thermal underwear and lined blue jeans all day, and those things'll wear you out, all day long like that. I felt really relaxed in my sweats.
       "We need to do some shopping, guys," Kevin said.
       We made a shopping list, all giving input about what we wanted to eat. Kevin and Rick insisted on going shopping without us, so they took off.
       "What the hell is that all about?" Justin asked after they were gone.
       "They probably want some privacy, Buddy," Brian said.
       "For what? They ain't going to do anything in the grocery store," Justin said.
       "I know, but they just enjoy each other's company," Tim said. "We demand a lot of their time, you know?"
       "I think they left us here so we could have a drink," I said. I knew that was bullshit, but why not take advantage of the situation?
       "That's a good idea, Kyle," Justin said. "Make us some."
       "You guys are going to turn into alcoholics," Denny said. "Please don't do that."
       He was serious. I guess it was because his mom was a druggie.
       "Denny, they'd have to drink a whole lot more than they drink, over a very long period of time, for them to be alcoholics," Tim said. "They don't drink as much as most boys their age."
       "I just don't want any of you to ruin your lives," Denny said. "Addiction is a terrible thing. I know."
       "I know it is, Denny, but Justin and I aren't addicted to alcohol, and we're not going to get addicted," I said. "I had two drinks at Brian's party last Saturday, and I had a few during the holidays, but I don't drink every week, much less every day. You've never seen me drunk, have you?"
       "No," he said.
       "I've been drunk a few times in the past, but those were accidents. I've learned how to use alcohol to help celebrate, but I also think I've learned how to keep from abusing it. Using and abusing are two different things," I said.
       "Promise me you won't ever do that, Kyle," Denny said.
       "Do what?"
       "Abuse it," he said.
       "I won't, Denny," I said.
       I didn't feel like having a drink anymore after that. Shit!
       "Let's all have cokes," I said.
       And that's what we did. Later, when Kevin wanted a drink before dinner, Justin and I had one, too. I could feel it relaxing me as it was going down, but I couldn't get Denny's worried voice out of my head. I had been very careful after Tim and I had gotten real sick one night after drinking too much, and I already knew that would never happen again. In fact, Tim hadn't had a drink since that had happened, as far as I knew. I was going to watch it real close from then on, though, especially around Denny.

(Denny's Perspective)
       Charles Dickens started his novel A Tale of Two Cities with the words, "It was the best of times." Those words applied to me since I had moved in with Kevin and Rick and all the boys in Emerald Beach. I felt completely safe, completely taken care of, and completely at home where I was. My juvenile probation officer came to school to see me once a week at the start of the school year, but after about a month she knew I had no business being on probation. She had thugs to look after, not the likes of me, and she recommended to the judge in Blountstown that my probation be dropped. It was. I told Kevin and Rick about that, but I didn't mention it to the others. They knew I wasn't a thug or a criminal, and they didn't care about that.
       I couldn't believe how nice they all were to me. I had been in a foster home the first time my mom was arrested, but it hadn't been for very long. Those people were probably doing the best they knew how, but they had a million rules that didn't make any real sense and were just an inconvenience to me. I mean, they didn't want me to read in bed. They wanted me asleep by eight o'clock. I was in a room with three other boys, and they made us turn off the light at eight. Most nights, the others talked for a couple of hours, usually about which girls they'd like to have sex with. I just listened, thinking the whole time I could get so much more out of reading a book than I could out of listening to the stuff they talked about.
       At the house in Emerald Beach, Kevin and Rick treated me like I was fifteen years old, which, by the way, I was. They didn't put ridiculous restrictions on me. They let me talk on the phone as much as I needed to. They even gave me my own cell phone. I didn't want to talk all that much at first, but eventually I had people to call about class work and, especially, about debate. They let me get a snack anytime I wanted to. That wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things, but it was nice to have that kind of freedom. If I wanted to go out with the other boys, say for ice cream or pizza or just to hang out in the clubhouse at night, that was okay with them. They trusted me, and that was the best part.
       Sure, I had chores to do, just like the rest, but they were things that really had to be done. They weren't make-work chores like at the other place. They had a maid who came once a week, and she put clean sheets on my bed. I had to strip it, though, and put the sheets and pillow cases in the wash before she got there. The towels, too. That was not a big deal.
       "They make us strip our beds so the maid doesn't have to deal with cum," Justin told me.
       I'm sure I blushed when he told me that, but it made sense. The same with towels. Sure, I had to remember to get those downstairs, but that was reasonable. It was a chore, but it was something that made sense to me.
       We took turns putting the garbage can out at the street. I had to do it on Monday nights, and Justin did it on Thursday nights. Justin and I also had to unload the dishwasher when the dishes were done and turn it on when it was full. One of us had to set the coffeepot up and turn the timer on every night. Brian was in charge of looking after Trixie. He had to make sure she had fresh water all the time and that she got fed when she was supposed to. He also had to let her out to do her business when she wanted to. Actually, whoever happened to be around when she went to the door took care of that, but Brian always let her out before he went to bed. He had to wash her once a week, and he, and sometime Justin, too, got in the big tub in Kevin and Rick's room to bathe her. Taking care of Trixie was a labor of love for him, though.
       Kyle didn't really have a regular chore, but he seemed to be the entertainment coordinator. He took care of organizing parties, and we had quite a few of those. Sometimes some of the friends would bring all the food and drink over, but it was always at our house. We had really nice party facilities, and I guess they had it worked out that sometimes we would entertain all the friends at our house, and sometimes others would entertain all the friends at our house. We always met new people when somebody else hosted it. Kyle wasn't officially in charge when others brought the stuff, but he was always right there in the middle of it. He made sure we had what we needed for a party, though, even if somebody else was bringing the food and drink. Kyle and Jeff kept up the family homepage on the Internet, too, and never a week went by that it wasn't updated, sometimes substantially so.
       I don't think Tim had any regular chores except to bring his and Kyle's sheets and towels downstairs. He and Kyle did a good bit of the grocery shopping, but I think Tim just went along because Kyle wanted him to. Since Tim and Kyle didn't officially live there, they both sort of just pitched in where they were needed.
       "Denny, about last night," Kyle said to me the first time he and I were alone on the slope.
       I was paralyzed with fear when he said that.
       "Kyle, I'm soooooo sorry," I said.
       "For what? For being a guy?" He was grinning.
       "You mean you're not mad at me?" I asked anxiously.
       "Hell, no, I'm not mad at you. I told you that last night. What happened last night was natural and normal. You got hard and I got hard. No shame in that, Bubba. But I want you to know, I'm not going to do anything with you, okay? Tim is my life, and I'm not ready to give up my life," he said.
       "I know. That's why I feel so bad about it," I said.
       "Don't feel bad, man. What happened was normal and natural when two naked gay boys are all over each other. I should have thought about that before it happened. I figured you were probably feeling bad about it, and that's why I wanted to talk to you. Do not feel bad, okay?" he said.
       "That takes a load off me, Kyle," I said.
       "Good. Let's have fun today, okay?" he said.
       And I did have fun. A whole lot more fun than I ever thought I would. I mean, I'm not an athlete at all. But there I was, skiing with the rest of them. I didn't go as fast as they did, and I wasn't real steady on my feet, but I had a great time. I never would have expected that, either.
       * * *
       We skied a lot that weekend, but, of course, that was why we had gone there. We did other things, though, including going to a flower shop in the town of Highlands. The rest of them were friends of the guys who ran the place.
       "Steve and Frank, I want you to meet our newest son. This is Denny Morgan," Kevin said when he introduced me to them.
       "How do you do, Denny," Steve said.
       "Nice to meet you, Denny," Frank said.
       They were both really nice, and I could tell they were probably gay. It was Sunday afternoon, and there wasn't anybody else in the shop but us. They had some unbelievably beautiful flower arrangements around the place. Of course, they were really in the business of selling flowers and the vases you put them in, and the shop was very crowded.
       They made small talk with Kevin and Rick while we looked around the shop.
       "Damn, look how pretty this thing is," Justin said. "This looks like it could be dessert."
       "Don't eat it," Kyle said.
       Kyle was very busy with his camera taking pictures of those flower arrangements and the other stuff in the store, all of which was beautiful. Kevin gathered us up.
       "Steve and Frank were expecting a group this afternoon for a flower-arranging class, but they called about a half hour ago and cancelled. Their van broke down, and they can't get here. They were wondering if we'd like to have a lesson. The flowers will just go to waste if we don't use them," Kevin said.
       "Kevin, I don't know about flower arranging, Bubba," Justin said.
       "You think somebody's going to think you're queer if you do it, don't you?" Kyle said.
       Justin put his hand to his mouth like he was thinking or something, and then he shrugged.
       "Well, guess what, Bubba. Everybody knows where this thing hangs out," Kyle said, grabbing Justin's crotch.
       "Cut it out, Goodson," Justin said.
       I could tell he wasn't the least bit angry at Kyle. That was one of the ways they teased each other, and it was always funny.
       "Cut it out?! I'll cut it off, Davis. You hide and watch, son," Kyle said.
       "Here we are, surrounded by all this gorgeous stuff, getting ready to learn something about the ancient Japanese fine art of Ikebana, and you're talking about cutting his dick off," Rick said. "Kyle and Justin, y'all have risen to a new level of refinement."
       Everybody, including Steve and Frank, laughed hard when Rick said that.
       "We're just playing, Rick," Kyle said. "Plus, I want to learn how to do it."
       "I know you're playing, Kyle," Rick said. "And so am I."
       "What is it you say? Got you last, or something?" Steve said.
       We all laughed when Steve said that.
       The class was actually pretty good. They took a few minutes to tell us about the history and tradition of Ikebana, and they explained the symbolism of what we were going to be making that day. Steve and Frank each made one as they were explaining to us what to do, and somehow theirs were ten times better than ours were.
       Kyle saw the whole thing as a photo opportunity, and he spent most of his time taking pictures of us working. The best ones he got were of Justin and Rick, and, when we looked at those later on the computer that Steve and Frank had in their house above the store, you could really see the intense concentration and utter frustration on both of their faces. The pictures of Steve and Frank were great, too, and there was absolutely no question that they were master teachers. There were three or four pictures of the two of them looking at each other and laughing at some wisecrack, and it was pretty obvious they were in love.
       After the class, they closed the store. We all went up to their residence above the store, and they made tea and drinks for us. In about fifteen minutes they brought out food, too, and it was really good.
       "Does this qualify as a tea party?" I asked.
       "Absolutely," Frank said.
       "I've read so much about tea parties, but this is the first time I've ever been to one. I've wanted to go to a tea party all my life," I said.
       "Well, you're at one now, Denny," Steve said. "I wish we had more to offer. Next time you all come up here, please let us know in advance so we'll be ready."
       "Steve, this is all wonderful," Kevin said. "We stopped by the shop to say hello, not to be entertained like you guys have done. This food is wonderful."
       "It's left over from the holidays, mostly," Steve said. "Frank's son and his wife were here for Christmas, and we made a lot more things than we ended up needing. We had people in several times, though."
       "We've got a grandchild on the way, boys," Frank said. "Steve and I are just beside ourselves over that."
       "Cool. We're getting us a baby in July," Justin said. "Our sister-in-law."
       "It's in June, dumbass," Kyle said.
       "Nope. It's going to be born on my birthday, July 4th," Justin said. "He is, I mean. I just know it's going to be a boy, and I just know he's going to be born on my birthday."
       We all took our little flower arrangements home. They were very delicate and fragile looking, but you could definitely see that there was art involved. I bought a book on Ikebana because I really liked doing it. We lined the flower arrangements up down the middle of the dining table of the cabin, and they really looked good. Maybe I could get good at it, following the directions in the book, and contribute to our parties that way.

(Jeff's Perspective)
       I had been totally in love with Clay Goodson, and I still thought about him every day. But I was totally in love with Tyler Jones, too. I wouldn't let myself compare Tyler to Clay, but they were so incredibly much alike. Of course, they were each their own man, but whatever it was in a man that enabled me to love him, each one had it.
       "I can't believe this house," Ty said, "and that we can afford it."
       "Ty, I've been completely open with you about my past," I said.
       "I know, and I don't have a problem with any of it," he said. "I don't see Clay as my rival, Jeff."
       "Clay's parents are very rich, and they consider me their son," I said.
       "I know, and I also know that's why we're living here for two hundred bucks a month, instead of the thousand it's worth," Ty said. "I know where we stand with each other, Baby. I know you love me."
       "I do love you," I said, "every bit as much as I loved Clay. More, even. I don't see our relationship ever ending, either."
       He got rather thoughtful. Ty was usually very outgoing and lively, and I did the brooding for the two of us. I knew that when he got in the kind of mood he was in just then that something was up. I didn't say anything, waiting for him to tell me what was on his mind. Finally he spoke.
       "I don't see it ever ending either, Jeff," he said. "We've been together since last May, and it's time for my parents to meet you."
       That was a thunder clap, if ever there was one.
       "You're not out to them, are you?" I asked.
       "Not yet," he said. "But I think it's time."
       "Are you sure, Ty?" I asked.
       "I'm sure that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I'm sure you want to spend the rest of your life with me. I'm not dependent on my parents for financial support. There's never going to be a perfect time, but it seems to me that this is as good a time as any," he said.
       "This is pretty overwhelming to me, you know?" I said.
       "Why?"
       "You just said you want to spend the rest of your life with me. I've been hoping that was the case for months, but you just said it," I said.
       He cuddled me in his arms.
       "Did you ever doubt that?" he asked.
       "Well, no, but you never said it. Until tonight. It's like our wedding or something," I said.
       "No. We're going to have a public ceremony, even if it's only with our friends. I'm not ever letting you go, Baby, and I want the immediate world to know about it," he said. "I'd like my parents and my brother to be there, too."
       We kissed and cooed and did all the things lovers do when they get engaged. I was so happy my heart was about to burst. There were so many people I wanted to tell. Kyle and Tim and Gene and Rita, first of all, and Kevin and Rick. And Justin and Brian. And George and Sonya. And Ed, Beth, Craig, and Cherie. And all of our family.
       "Lets call my parents," Ty said.
       "Are you sure?" I asked.
       "I want to tell them about us in person, but I want to call to see if we can visit them," he said.
       "When can we go?" I asked.
       "Aren't you off school for the Martin Luther King holiday?" he asked.
       "Yeah. Kevin and Rick and the guys are going to North Carolina to ski. They started hinting that they wanted us to go, too, but I begged off. One of these times we're going to have to go, I'm afraid," I said.
       "Afraid? Hell, I love to ski," he said.
       I don't know that he had ever actually told me that before, but everything about him let me know it was true.
       "We'll go next time," I said. "I promise."
       He smiled at me in a way that said he'd do whatever I wanted to do. Always.
       He dialed his parents' number and both parents got on the line. We had a speaker phone, but we didn't turn it on. Instead, we balanced the receiver between us so we could both hear what they said.
       After the usual greetings and questions about how everyone was, he got to the point.
       "Mom and Dad, I've got a few days off in a couple of weeks. I was thinking about coming home, if that's okay," he said.
       "Since when do you have to ask us if you can come home, Ty?" his mother asked.
       "Well, I know, but I'd like to bring a friend with me, too," he said.
       "Your friends have always been welcome here. You know that," his dad said.
       "Yes, sir," he said.
       They worked out the details of when the visit would occur. After the phone call, we got on the Internet and bought some plane tickets, and we were all set to leave on Friday, January 16th. We'd come home the following Tuesday. If our news wasn't well received, we'd get in our rental car and haul ass for Minneapolis. That wasn't on my short list of places for a winter vacation, but we'd see what happened. Besides, that's where our return flight would leave from.
       * * *
       "How do you think they're going to take the news?" I asked one evening a couple of days before we left.
       We were holding one another on the sofa in the living room, a fire burning in the hearth. We broke apart long enough for Ty to put a rather substantial oak log on the fire. It would keep us warm all night. And then we resumed cuddling.
       "Well, you always like to think your parents are going to accept you, no matter what, you know?" he said.
       "I thought mine would," I said.
       "Ouch, Baby. I'm sorry," he said.
       "No, that's all right. I honestly never thought they'd disown me. I mean, I knew they had done that to my brother, or at least had forced him out of their lives, but two for two? What are the odds?" I asked.
       "My brother might have a problem with it," he said. "I don't think he's very big on gay guys. He used to refer to a guy he knew as 'Nelly.'"
       "That might not be a good sign, but neither one of us is a Nelly," I said.
       "I know. Give me a kiss," he said.
       That started the ball rolling, as it were. In no time, we were both naked on the floor in front of the fireplace. We made some serious love, but, romantic novels aside, that setting really isn't all that great for love-making. I was the top that night, and my ass was not more than a couple of feet from the flames. In the throes of passion, Tyler grabbed both of my butt cheeks to pull me deeper into him.
       "God, your ass is hot," he said.
       "Ohhh," I said, wanting to respond but not really knowing what to say to that.
       "Seriously, Jeff," he said.
       We were both very close to climax, and I wasn't interested in conversation right then. In another couple of minutes, it was all over for both of us. I rolled off him, and my butt hit the carpet.
       "God!" I screamed.
       My ass was hot, and it hurt like hell rubbing on that carpet. He started laughing hysterically.
       "It hurts, doesn't it?" he asked between guffaws.
       "Yes, it hurts. Jesus!" I said.
       I got up on my hands and knees over him, and I leaned in to kiss him. I saw the humor of what had happened and laughed, too. I got up right after that.
       "I think this was a bad idea," he said, still laughing.
       "When you said my ass was hot, I thought you meant . . . "
       "I know," he said. "I meant that, but I meant hot to the touch, too." He was still laughing.
       We got up off the floor, and he got some lotion to soothe the pain. He did a number on me rubbing it in, and Mister Happy came back to life. What followed was so good that I didn't care about the pain anymore. I made a mental note to be careful in the future, though. Hot love is only a metaphor, after all.

Chapter 3

(Tyler's Perspective)
       I won't deny being nervous and apprehensive about taking Jeff home to meet my parents. I kept going over and over everything I could remember about any negative attitudes they might have toward gay people, and, for the life of me, nothing came to mind. I vaguely remembered my dad saying one time that one of the guys he worked with was probably gay, but I don't recall any distaste in his voice.
       My older brother was a wildcard. I really had no way of knowing how he'd feel about it. He was ten years older than me, and he wasn't married. He had dated a girl very seriously through college, but they had gone their separate ways when they graduated. I didn't think there was much chance he was also gay, but I suppose that was a possibility. Anyway, we'd have to wait and see about him. He lived in St. Paul, where he worked as a reporter on the daily newspaper, but I knew he'd come home to see me.
       My parents didn't meet us at the airport. Instead, Jeff and I rented a car and drove out to their place. It was about thirty minutes out of St. Paul, and it was pretty rural. There was a little town about five minutes from our house, and that's where my parents worked. My mom was a teacher in the elementary school there, and my dad worked for an insurance company taking care of the farmers all around there.
       "My God, it's cold," Jeff said.
       "I wish you had been able to buy a good coat," I said.
       "I tried, remember? They just don't sell coats heavy enough for this kind of weather in Emerald Beach. Maybe I can pick up something here," he said.
       "Or wear one of mine. I've got two or three in my closet," I said.
       "Your soon-to-be-empty closet," he said. We both laughed.
       My parents were waiting eagerly for us when we got there. It was a Friday afternoon around four o'clock, and it was already almost dark. It was cloudy, so that probably contributed as much to the lack of light as the time of day did.
       After all the kissing and hugging and hand shaking, they took us into the kitchen for something hot to drink. My mom had been busy in there, and the aroma of pot roast, my favorite dish, filled the room.
       "Are you in the Coast Guard also, Jeff," my mom asked to start things off.
       "No, ma'am. I'm in college, and I work part-time at a hotel," he said.
       "Hotel? How interesting," she said. "What do you do there?"
       "I'm a desk clerk," he said.
       "You're actually in management training, though," I said.
       "Well, true," he said.
       "I'll bet that's interesting work," Dad said. "Ty, that might be a field for you to consider when your hitch is up. By the way, that's only in a couple of months, isn't it?"
       "May 31st is my last day, Dad. I've got leave built up, so I'm planning to start college in the first summer session at the beginning of May," I said.
       "In Florida?" he asked.
       "Yes," I said softly.
       I could tell that went over like a load of elephant shit.
       "Dad, I've tried to talk to you and Mom about that, but you never wanted to discuss it," I said. Keep calm, I thought.
       "Well, we miss you terribly, son, but your father and I know that you're a grown man now. Besides, I watch the temperatures down there, and I really can't say that I blame you for not wanting to come back here to live," Mom said.
       "It's that, Mom, but it's more than that, too." Here goes, I thought. The moment of truth.
       "Is there a girl?" she asked, all smiles.
       "No," I said. "Mom and Dad, there's not really an easy way to say this." I took a deep breath. "I'm gay, and Jeff and I are in love." There, I had said it.
       I don't really know what I expected, but what I got was dead silence. In a few seconds, my mom put her hands on mine on the kitchen table. That was reassuring.
       "You'll always be our son, Ty," she said.
       "And we'll always love you," my dad said. "Thank you for having the courage to tell us face-to-face, son. It would have been so much easier to write us a letter or to even tell us on the phone. Thank you for respecting us enough to want to tell us in person. Now you'll have to leave."
       I was stunned. I couldn't believe I had just heard that.
       "Dad?"
       "Henry?" my mom said, shocked.
       "Oh, I'm just kidding. Lighten up, for God's sake. Let's have a drink to celebrate," he said.
       Relief flooded over me. I looked at Jeff, and he mouthed, "Got you last!"
       "I'll say," I said.
       "You'll say what?" Dad asked. He was already busy putting ice in glasses.
       I explained the game of Got You Last, and he thought that was hilarious. Once he laughed, we all relaxed, and I laughed at the whole situation.
       We picked up our coffee cups for the dishwasher and took our drinks into the den. Mom must have planned for us to have drinks because she brought out a tray with cheese and crackers, mixed nuts, and summer sausage slices.
       They had a million questions, of course. They both seemed to like Jeff, and I knew they liked the fact that he managed to get a "ma'am" or a "sir" in virtually every utterance. I was so proud of him.
       My dad asked me to join him in the kitchen to make a second round of drinks.
       "Son, I want to apologize for saying what I said earlier. That was very insensitive, but it was well intentioned, at least."
       "You don't have to apologize, Dad. I should have figured you for something like that. I was so intense, though, I wasn't thinking right," I said.
       "Well, he seems like a really nice guy, son, and it's pretty obvious just from looking at the two of you that you're very much in love. You have our full support, now and forever," he said.
       I had promised myself that come hell or high water I wasn't going to cry. When he said that, though, I couldn't hold back. He grabbed me in a huge hug.
       "These are happy tears, Dad," I said.
       When I looked at his face, he had moist eyes, as well.
       When we calmed down, we both splashed a little fridged water from the tap on our faces and took the fresh drinks in to the others.
       "Have you fellows been crying?" my mom asked, rather alarmed.
       "Happy tears, dear," Dad said. "Happy tears."
       * * *
       The rest of the visit with my parents was a delight. It was cold, of course, but otherwise the weather was almost perfect. We had a couple of inches of snow on Sunday to add to the foot or so that was already on the ground, and Jeff enjoyed watching it from inside the house.
       My brother came over on Saturday night. After dinner, Jeff and I went out with him to see a movie and to have a few beers. We told him about us while sitting at a table in the bar, and his reaction was total acceptance. He said he figured we were lovers by our body language and by the way we reacted to what the other one said.
       After my second beer, I worked up the courage to ask him if he were gay.
       "No. At least not fully," he said.
       He didn't volunteer any more information, and I didn't probe, although I was dying to. Because of the difference in our ages, he and I had never been close. I liked him well enough, and I suppose I even loved him in some vague way, but I basically didn't know the man.
       We flew out on Monday afternoon. The next night the guys were back from North Carolina, so we went to Kevin and Rick's house to fill them all in on what had happened and to hear stories about their trip. I had always felt perfectly at home there, but that night I felt even more at ease with them than usual. I guess coming out to my family had had that effect.

(Kevin's Perspective)
       We only had a little over a week after we got home from the ski trip before George and Sonya's wedding. In addition to my family from New Orleans, the out-of-town guests were going to include George's parents, Sonya's siblings and a few cousins and old friends, and a mob of cousins from Boston. George and Sonya had made a quick trip up there right after Christmas so his family could meet her, and I knew it would be quite festive with everybody there.
       The Bostonians were all staying at the Laguna, and Gene insisted we comp the whole crowd. That didn't seem unreasonable, given that George was his best friend. Rita again wanted my parents to stay at their house. I think she felt beholden to them for their hospitality while we were in New Orleans. Not only that, she had that magnificent new house she most definitely wanted to show off. Rick's parents had wanted to come, but they couldn't get away. Craig and Cherie were invited to stay at the Goodsons', but they really wanted to be where the boys were. They were going to stay with us, too.
       "Do we need to put anybody up at the condo?" Kyle asked.
       "I had forgotten about that, Kyle," I said. "I don't think we're going to need it, though."
       "Maybe all the boys can have a sleepover there one night," he said.
       "That would be fun," Tim said. "I want you to get to know my cousins better. That would be a good time to do it."
       * * *
       The people arrived during the day on Thursday, and we helped get everybody squared away. Rita and Gene were hosting a cocktail party that night, and then the adults were going out to eat. Gene had commandeered the entire dining room at the Boardwalk for the evening. It was our best restaurant, and the room wasn't so large that a single party would feel overwhelmed. The kids weren't invited to dinner. Instead, our crew would entertain all of them at our house.
       I had been around rich people all my life, and I had been to some pretty amazing entertainments, especially connected with functions for debutants. But I had never been to anything quite like the party Rita and Gene gave.
       There were probably 200 people there. It seemed that every doctor and dentist in Emerald Beach showed up. Mix in the twenty or so guys George and Gene played golf with, and their wives, George's family, our family and our extended family of close friends, Sonya's family and friends, their mutual friends, and all of us, and that made for quite a crowd.
       The house was exquisite. Rita had been a slave driver with her decorator, and the place was furnished with perfect taste. There were two bars, one inside and one on the patio, with two bartenders at each. The food was fabulous, of course, and there were uniformed waiters passing trays of canapés all evening. The buffet table in the dining room looked like it could have fed a small army, and everything I ate was scrumptious.
       Kyle had both cameras at the ready. I walked over to talk to him and the other three boys.
       "Ole Flash is learning how to give a party," Justin said. "Ain't you, Flash?"
       Justin was being about as playful as he ever got, and he rubbed Kyle's cheek with the back of the fingers on his right hand.
       "Get off me! What are you? Queer, or something?"
       Kyle was using his mock angry tone.
       "Something like that," Justin said. "You sure are mighty handsome tonight, Kylie."
       Tim and Brian were almost choking with laughter.
       "If you touch me again, you're going to pull back a nub," Kyle said.
       "Oh, yeah?"
       He rubbed his face again.
       "Justin, you have exactly thirty minutes to cut that shit out, and I mean it," Kyle said.
       That made everybody laugh, of course.
       "I'm just playing, but you do look good, Bubba," Jus said.
       "Thanks. So do you," he said.
       "Thanks," Jus said.
       The fact of the matter was, they all looked good. They all had fresh haircuts, and for once nobody had any experimental facial hair. I never knew people who grew as many beards, mustaches, sideburns, goatees, and random patches of hair on their faces as they did. Some were simple, like a little patch immediately below their bottom lips, but some were very elaborate and required quite a bit of maintenance, like the thin ribbons of beard they sometimes wore. They'd let them grow for a week or two, and then they'd shave them off. Their friends did the same thing, and it was never possible to predict what any of them would look like. Some of the friends experimented with hair color, too, but our boys pretty much stuck with their natural shades, with the odd highlighting job thrown in from time to time.
       Tim introduced Rick and me to his Boston cousins. There were twelve of them in all, including the adults, and in that setting the four boy cousins seemed to look enough alike to be quadruplets. Keeping straight who was who was impossible. I noticed Denny talking quite a bit with the oldest one, whose name was Paddy. They seemed to be hitting it off quite nicely. They separated from the rest and went outside.
       "Denny homed in on the only gay one right away," Tim said.
       "Is Paddy gay?" I asked.
       "Yeah. And he's extremely nice, Kevin. Don't worry about Denny," Tim said.
       "I'm not worried," I said.
       I really wasn't worried, but I was dying to know what they were talking about.
       "His brother, Tony, is the one I punched out," Tim said. "I was talking to him a little while ago, and he and I are the best of friends now. They're all really nice, Kevin."
       Brian was paired up with cousin Anne Ryan. She was gorgeous, and she appeared to be around Brian's age.
       "You better watch your boy there," Kyle said to Justin.
       There was a wonderful string quartet, and Brian and Anne had started dancing.
       "Kyle, you don't give me a minute's peace, now do you?" Justin asked.
       "Nope," Kyle said, grinning his face off.
       "Let's get a drink," Justin said.
       The two of them walked outside to the patio bar. Even though it was January 29th, the temperature was in the high sixties or low seventies, balmy, to say the least. The Bostonians couldn't stop commenting on the gorgeous weather, but to us it was nothing special.
       Justin and Kyle drifted over toward Paddy and Denny, and everybody but Denny lit up cigarettes. I knew Justin was still smoking every day, but Kyle had pretty much become a non-smoker. I thought about how Rick and I had characterized Kyle as The Smoker before we really got to know him, and I smiled.
       "What are you smiling at?" Rick asked.
       "Kyle is outside smoking," I said.
       "Really? I thought he didn't smoke anymore," Rick said.
       "I don't think he does very often. I was remembering what you and I used to call him when we first met him," I said.
       "The Smoker?"
       "Yeah," and Rick and I both laughed.
       "God, how stupid was that?" Rick asked.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       After that cocktail party, I took everybody back to Kevin and Rick's house. The grown-ups had to go eat dinner, and the kids were on their own. I knew my parents wanted the Foley-Mashburn boys to go to dinner with them, but the place really wasn't big enough for the five of us, the four Cooks, and the four Ryans. Jeff and Tyler went to the restaurant, though. They were more in the grown-up league than Justin and I were. Plus, we had to entertain the Boston people.
       Believe it or not, they were all hungry when we got home. I had eaten me a damn ton of food at the party, and I knew Justin, Tim, and Brian had, too. I don't think the rest of them really liked that kind of food, though, so they didn't eat too much, including Denny. I ordered pizza.
       Tim was taking the next day off school to entertain his cousins, and I volunteered to do the same thing. Justin had two classes he didn't feel like he could miss the next morning, but he was taking the day off work to be with us. That was pretty easy for him to do in January, when the hotel just had business guests and no tourists, except for the wedding people. In another month it would be packed with Spring Breakers, but they had some slack time just then. Brian and Denny were going to school as usual, though.
       Trixie was a hit with the girls. Trixie and Brian.
       "You're not leading my cousins on, are you, Bubba?" Tim asked Brian.
       Brian laughed at his best friend. "No. They know I'm gay and that Justin's my boyfriend," Brian said.
       "Just checking," Tim said. "I don't want to see Justin's heart broken."
       I loved it when Tim and Brian teased each other. They were as close as me and Justin were, and you really saw it at times like that. They weren't as physical with each other as me and Jus, but that worked for them. Those were two damn cute boys, though, and don't think those girls didn't notice that fact.
       After we ate the pizza, the girls settled into the den with a movie. The boys all went out to the clubhouse. We got pool, ping pong, and darts going pretty quick. Kevin and Rick didn't lock up the booze out there, and I made drinks for everybody but Tim, Brian, and Denny. There had been some birthdays since we had first met them in Boston. Paddy, Justin, and I were eighteen. Tony Ryan and Steve Cook were seventeen. Tim, Brian, and Billy Cook were sixteen. Denny was the only fifteen-year-old out there. But Denny's age didn't matter one bit.
       "I can't get over how warm it is," Tony said. "Is it always like this here?"
       "It gets down into the thirties sometimes, but just at night, and only for a day or two in a row," Tim said.
       "So, do you guys swim year round?" Tony asked.
       "Sometimes it's too cool, but the pool's heated," Tim said. "Are you interested in swimming?"
       They all perked up with that question.
       "I would love to be able to go home and tell my friends we swam outdoors at the end of January," Billy said.
       "Kyle, do you think we could turn on the heat?" Tim asked me.
       "I'm way ahead of you, Babe," I said. "It's been on since before we left for the party tonight."
       "We didn't bring our suits," Steve said.
       "We never wear 'em," Justin said.
       "But our sisters are right inside," Paddy said.
       "Tim, let's go talk to the girls," I said.
       He and I went inside. We told them we wanted to swim and they were welcome to join us.
       "But we'll be swimming naked," I said.
       "Oh, gross," Anne said.
       The rest of them agreed with Anne.
       "You have two choices. You can stay in here and finish watching your movie, or you can come outside, get naked, and swim with us," I said.
       No, no, no. They didn't want to swim with us.
       "I'm going to close these curtains," I said. "If we see you peeking, we're coming to get you, and you're getting naked."
       They all said, "Ewwwww," and "Gross," and shit like that, but they also giggled quite a bit.
       "Kyle's just teasing, but the guys are going skinny dipping," Tim said.
       "Tim, you know what? We don't care," Anne said.
       We all laughed.
       "I really didn't think you did," Tim said.
       "Besides, we've all seen them before. We all have brothers, and it really is no big deal to us," Laurie said.
       "I just wish Brian wasn't gay," Anne said.
       "Yeah, but he is, Anne," Tim said. "Do you like him? He's my best friend."
       "I like him very much. I think he might be the best looking boy I've ever seen," she said.
       Tim and I both laughed.
       "Do you know his photograph is in a museum in Arizona?" Tim asked.
       "No! I can see why it would be, though," she said. "He is mad gorgeous."
       "Well, we need to go swim," Kyle said. "Help yourselves to whatever you want in the kitchen. Or anywhere, for that matter."
       Tim and I went back to the clubhouse.
       "They're all cool with us swimming," I said.
       "Brian, Anne wishes you weren't gay," Tim said.
       "I know. She told me that," Bri said.
       "Gay, schmay, let's get in the pool," Tony said.
       We all got naked and dove in. The water was a little warmer than I liked it, but I couldn't do anything about that. Those Boston boys were mighty skinny, and there wasn't even a trace of a tan anywhere. In the wee-wee department, they were all circumcised, just like all of us but Tim. There was one grower, one shower, and two in-betweens.
       Trixie was in the pool with us, of course. I think that dog was part otter or part seal or something. She was up and down, in and out, under the water and on top of it all the time. She was really fun to play with in the pool.
       The Boston boys were having a great time, and I was having a good time, too. We were diving and dunking and playing around. I felt sorry for ole Tony one time. He did a canon ball and didn't know to hold his nuts. He came up screaming in pain. We were all laughing at him, but every one of the Florida boys knew what that was all about because we had all done it at one time or another. Water in a pool looks pretty soft, but if you come running across the deck and canon ball in without protecting yourself, you're going to feel it.
       "Is this what they call male bonding?" Steve asked.
       "I think it is, cousin," Tim said.
       "I think so, too, Tim, and I like it," Steve said, grinning.
       "Do you like it, or do you like us?" Tim asked.
       "What do you think?"
       "I think you like us, Steve," Tim said.
       "No argument here," Steve said. "You guys are cool."
       Those were very nice guys, and I was glad we knew them. It just goes to show you. You can get people together from all over the damn place, New England, the South. Gay? Straight? It didn't matter, as long as they had one goal in mind: FUN. Those guys proved to me that it didn't matter where you were from, who you liked to sleep with, or anything else. There were sports fans and sports haters in that crowd. That didn't matter. Religion didn't matter. Dick size didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was we were willing to risk liking one another and to have fun. And we damn sure did.

(Justin's Perspective)
       This whole wedding thing was new to me. Before I came to Emerald Beach, I didn't really know anybody who was married. I mean, I knew some guys who said they were married, like some of them that tore up my butt in Alabama, but I didn't really know them.
       I really didn't know what being a couple was all about, either, until I met Kevin and Rick. I learned fast from them, though. I just naturally assumed that me and Brian were married, sort of, and one day I wanted us to go through a ceremony and everything like that. I didn't think that would really change anything for us, but it would sort of make it official. I wanted him to say in front of God and everybody that he was mine forever, and I was his. I really wanted that.
       I went to class on Friday morning. I had biology and math, and I didn't want to get behind in either one of them. Besides, I knew we were going to have to miss a couple of classes when we went to Mardi Gras. After class I went home and caught up with Kyle, Tim, and the others.
       "Who wants to ski," Kyle asked.
       "Ski?" one Boston boy asked, like Kyle had asked the strangest question in the world.
       "Water ski," Tim said.
       "Oh. I'd like to try," Steve or Billy or one of them said.
       "We'll have to use wet suits," Kyle said, "but we've got enough."
       There wasn't a soul out on that lagoon that morning, and the day was beautiful. We decided not to take Trixie with us. She still wanted to dive in every time somebody fell so she could retrieve them or something, and that was a real pain. She'd get back in that boat and start shaking off water all over the place. That was one thing in the hot summertime, but it was the dead of winter.
       Kyle told the Boston boys how to do it.
       "Keep on your underwear. They'll get wet, but that's better than having that wetsuit rub you raw down there," he said. "And don't get embarrassed if something pops up. It happens to somebody every time we use the wetsuits. It's nothing you can help, and it's nothing to be ashamed of."
       It happened to me every damn time, that's for sure, and I figured it would happen again that day. More than once I had come in the damn thing, too. I mean, I didn't mind doing that, but it made me feel a little self-conscious. Kyle, of course, teased the shit out of me about it every damn time it happened, but that was just him and me, and how we did. I knew he wouldn't tease them or me in front of them.
       The skiing was fun. We had to show the Boston boys how to do it, but it isn't hard to learn. Me, Kyle, and Tim just use a slalom ski, but we taught the others on two skis at first. After a while, they got the hang of it, and a couple of them wanted to slalom. Only one of them could get up on that, though.
       We broke for lunch around one o'clock, and I think everybody on the boat had a hard-on. Kyle pulled off his wet underwear, and he was rock hard and standing tall. Tim and I didn't think anything about it, but those other four had eyes popping out over that thing. I figured there was no way they hadn't seen each other like that, being brothers and cousins and all, but I guess they always take you by surprise when you see a new one. Kyle got dressed as fast as he could, but I knew everybody had gotten a nice eyeful.
       After lunch we took the boat out to the island so they could see it. We kept our clothes on, though, because there was a pretty brisk wind coming off that Gulf.
       "This is the prettiest beach I've ever seen," Paddy said. "Do you guys come out here often?"
       "Pretty often," Tim said. "We camp out here sometimes, too."
       "That would be awesome," Tony said.
       "It is. You all need to come during the summer, and we'll do that," Tim said.
       "We could do it tonight, if we didn't have the rehearsal," Kyle said.
       We stayed out there a few hours, poking around and what not, and then we went back in.
       Tim and Kyle were going to be the best men in the wedding, so they had to go to the rehearsal at the church on Friday night. Brian and I were going to be ushers, so we had to go, too. Jerry was going to be the priest, and there was some lady there who was called the director. I reckon they were doing it like it was a movie or a play or something. She organized everybody and told us where to stand and what to do. I had to practice walking ladies down the aisle a time or two because I hadn't ever even seen that, much less done it before. We had to wear tuxes for it, and I was sort of excited about getting to wear one of those things. I had seen Kyle in one a few times, and it really looked good on him. We had all tried ours on when we had gotten them from the rental place, and I thought I was going to look just fine.
       After the rehearsal, we went to the rehearsal dinner at the Laguna. That was real nice, and Mr. Rooney was there to personally supervise it. I didn't know if the Food and Beverage Director really appreciated his help, but she got it whether she liked it or not. There were a lot more people at the dinner than there had been at the church, including all the Boston people. After the dinner, the nine boys, plus Jeff and Tyler, went to the condo for a sleepover.

(Beth's Perspective)
       When the boys were home in October, I got called out in the middle of the night because one of my patients, Ronnie Grisham, had been struck in the head with a whiskey bottle by his father and had thereby been rendered unconscious. His father had found out that Ronnie is gay, and the father had lost it in the middle of the night. He was drunk at the time.
       Ronnie recovered physically very quickly, but I had continued to monitor the case. He came in to see me for a follow-up visit right after Thanksgiving.
       "How are things at home, Ron?" I asked after my examination.
       He seemed fairly depressed, and he had lost weight. It was only ten pounds, which I would cheerfully drop tomorrow if I could, but, for a fifteen-year-old boy who wasn't obese, that was unacceptable. I had known Ron all his life, and he had always been a cheerful child. That day he didn't smile once, and he barely spoke to answer my questions. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he appeared listless. Those were classic symptoms of depression.
       "Okay, I guess," he said.
       "Are you sleeping enough, baby? How much sleep do you get every night?"
       "I sleep a lot. Too much," he said.
       "Are you and Aaron still boyfriends?" I asked.
       "No, ma'am. His parents won't let him come over to my house, and I can't go to his."
       "Why won't his parents let him come to your house?"
       "They found out about what my dad did to me, and they're afraid he might get Aaron, too," he said.
       He started crying. I grabbed him up in my arms in a heartbeat, and I held that precious child for all I was worth.
       "Why can't you go to Aaron's house?" I asked.
       "I'm punished. Forever, I think, or until I stop being gay," he said.
       Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus, help this child, I prayed silently.
       "Was that your mom's idea or your dad's?" I asked.
       "Him," he said. "He hates me, Doc. He calls me a faggot all the time, and he's never nice to me. I hate him, too. I wish my mom would get a divorce."
       "Has she talked to you about divorce?" I asked.
       "She's mentioned it, but she said she doesn't know if we can survive without him," he said. "I overheard her talking to my aunt. We don't have very much money, and he won't let my mom work."
       "Would you mind if I talked to your mom?" I asked.
       "No, ma'am. Please don't get mad at me, okay?"
       "Get mad at you? Why would I, sweetie?"
       "Because I've thought about killing myself. I could do it real easy, too. He doesn't lock up his gun at home, and I know how to take the safety off," he said. "I know how I'd do it."
       I called my office manager right then to see how many appointments I had that afternoon. Fortunately, there were only three more, and all of them were for inoculations. My nurse practitioner could handle those easily. I had a significant emergency on my hands with Ronnie, and that was going to take time.
       "Let me go talk to Mom," I said. "I see you have a book. You stay in here and read while we talk, okay, baby?"
       "Yes, ma'am," he said.
       The mother and I talked for over an hour that day. She was as depressed as Ronnie was, and the poor woman saw herself and her three children as basically captives of that man. I told her I wanted both of them to see a psychiatrist, but she said her husband would never allow that. I wasn't totally ignorant about how to treat depression on a short-term basis, so I gave her prescriptions for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication for both her and Ronnie.
       "I want to see both of you every week, and there won't be any charge for office visits," I told her. "Frankly, I'm very worried about both of you. Do you still have my cell phone number?"
       She didn't, so I gave it to her again, with instructions to get me on the phone anytime she needed to talk.
       "I have a gay son, and he and his partner have given my husband and me a houseful of wonderful gay foster grandsons. You won't find a more sympathetic pediatrician in New Orleans than I am," I said.
       I ordinarily closed the office at noon on Wednesdays, but I decided to schedule the two of them to see me every Wednesday afternoon into the foreseeable future. She kept the appointments, and I saw steady improvement in her, and steady decline in Ronnie, over the next several weeks. I increased his medication, but I was beginning to believe that his depression was the result of his environment and that it wouldn't respond well to drugs. I made sure there was no more suicidal ideation, too.
       As a result of her improvement, she had been able to leave her husband. After several weeks, she and the two younger children were living with her sister, and Ronnie was living with her parents. Her parents were both sick and disabled, and it just wasn't working out. They needed relief, and there was no way the sister and her husband could take Ronnie in.
       "I'm going to Florida tomorrow for a friend's wedding, and I'll be seeing my son and son-in-law," I said. "They're the ones I told you about who take in foster children, gay male foster children. How would you feel if I asked them if they have room for Ronnie for a while?"
       "I can't pay them anything," she said immediately.
       "I know. That won't be an issue, believe me," I said.
       I knew Kevin and Rick probably would accept it only reluctantly, if at all, but I intended to be Ronnie's fairy godmother in Florida. I would never ask my sons to do that kind of favor for me without at least offering to support Ronnie.
       "That might solve some problems, Dr. Foley," she said. "My husband wants nothing to do with Ronnie, that's for sure." Then, after thinking about it for a few minutes, she said, "That might be an answer to my prayer."
       "I think it might be," I said. And I know it'll be an answer to Ronnie's prayer.
       * * *
       Things were a whirl of activity when we got to Emerald Beach Thursday afternoon, and I barely had time to kiss Kevin and Rick hello, much less to talk to them about Ronnie. There was the cocktail party Thursday night, and then dinner. Kevin and Rick went