There were only five days between the boat parade and our leaving for New Orleans on Saturday, December 20th. We had seen my family a lot that fall, but there were unusual circumstances involved. The high school boys had their semester finals on Wednesday and Thursday. The schedule their school followed was very different from the one I had been on in high school. My school had gone from 7:30 till 3:30, and there were eight periods in the school day, plus lunch. Every student had one "free" period every day, which really translated into study time, and, with certain rare exceptions, we were expected to be on campus the full eight hours every day. In Emerald Beach, the high school took in at 7:30, but it let out at 2:30. They had four ninety-minute periods a day, so, naturally, they only had four classes. The homework seemed to me to be about the same, though, because they crammed into a half year, a semester, what we did in courses over a full year. They earn a half credit every nine weeks, whereas at my school you got a full credit for a full year. The net effect was they had big exams four times a year instead of only twice a year, like I had had. Their exams in December and May were the equivalent of full-year exams for me. Justin was the only one up with Rick and me on Friday morning of exam week. They were finished until January, and they were sleeping in to celebrate. "This is the happiest I've ever been in my life," Justin announced that morning, out of the blue. "You must have finally gotten laid," Rick said. Justin laughed. "Cut it out, asshole. You know what I mean," Jus said. "Yeah, we do, Bubba," Rick said. "And seeing you this happy makes us happy, too." "This is my last day for a couple of weeks, and when I come back I'll be a desk clerk, you know?" "Yeah, we do," Rick said. "Justin, you're like a miracle boy." "Yeah," he said. "And you and Kevin are the miracle workers." "And a lot more people than that, son," Rick said. "Yeah. I know. Brian, Kyle, Tim. All of y'all." "You're forgetting a whole bunch of people, Justin," Rick said. "It takes a village to raise an ape." Justin laughed, and Rick and I did, too. "It probably took two villages to raise you," Jus said. "Three," Rick said, and we all laughed. That night was the annual Christmas party for the employees who worked in the Goodson Building. The previous year the kids had had to leave at ten o'clock because they had had school the next day, but this year they were going to be able to stay until it was over. The holidays were always a time of reflection for me, and that particular day I had plenty to reflect on. What a difference a year makes! Last year at that time, we were nursing Jeff through his grief over Clay, helping Justin recover from his surgery, watching Brian and Justin become boyfriends. This year we were trying to get used to the fact that Alex and Cody were no longer in our household, watching Justin excel in school for the first time in his life, and incorporating Kyle's new lodging into our routine. In the month or so that Kyle had had the condo, he and Tim and the others had spent two or three nights there, but Kyle hadn't spent a single night there by himself or with just Tim. They still spent time at George's house, of course, but I think they were respectful of George's privacy with Sonya. As a result, Kyle and Tim were at our house a lot more than they had been the year before. The party was at the Laguna, as it usually was, and compared to the previous year, which had born the chill of Clay's passing, it was a truly gala affair. Our boys looked splendid in their navy blue suits. Kyle and Justin no longer looked like boys; they could have been any age, from eighteen to thirty. When they were all dressed up, Tim, Brian, and Denny looked older than sixteen and fifteen, too. Jeff and Tyler, while technically not part of our household anymore, were still very much our sons, and they were stunning in their dress clothes, too. The party started with cocktails and hors d'ouevres, proceeded to dinner, and that was followed by dancing. The bar was open the entire time, of course, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. "Why don't you sing some Christmas carols for us, son," Gene said to Kyle while the dancing was in full swing. "You want to clear this place out?" Justin asked. We all laughed, of course. "He asked me, not you," Kyle said. "You got me last on that one, Bubba," Justin said. The people at our table knew the "got you last" routine, and they laughed. "I'll sing if we can do a sing-along," Kyle said. "Fair enough," Gene said. "Let's go." Gene took the mic and got everybody's attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like everybody is having a good time, and that's the way it should be," he said. "We work side by side every day, and it's good to let our hair down once in awhile and party together. I've said repeatedly that Goodson Enterprises depends on the people in this room for its very existence, and it all depends on your hard work and dedication. Kevin Foley reminds me often that you can't buy dedication, and he's absolutely right. Dedication comes from character and intelligence and high work standards, and that's what all of you bring to your jobs. I can't thank you enough for what you do for Goodson, and I hope the party tonight and the bonus checks you received today will remind you of how much I appreciate every one of you. "For those of you who don't know him, this young man is my son, Kyle. He worked here at the Laguna last summer as a bellhop, and I expect he'll be doing that for several summers to come. When Kyle isn't camping with the Boy Scouts or driving a ski boat or running the student government at Beachside High School or hustling his friends at the pool table, he likes to sing. I think he's pretty good at it, too. I know you're thinking I'm more than a little prejudiced about that, and you're right. I am. Isn't that what a daddy is supposed to be?" They laughed and applauded. Gene was universally loved by his employees, and that was especially true the day bonus checks were issued. He had them eating out of the palm of his hand. "Kyle has agreed to lead a sing-along of some Christmas carols. Please join in." "What was that you said about bonus checks? I didn't hear anything about that," Kyle said in his most down-home "Emerald Beach" style, and the audience exploded in laughter and applause. "We were sitting at the table a few minutes ago, and my daddy asked me if I would lead some singing, like it was a spur-of-the-moment idea. Then I noticed somebody had printed up the words to some old-favorite Christmas carols and put them at everybody's place. All of a sudden this didn't seem all that spur-of-the-moment. I grabbed me up one of those, though, so let's get to it." Kyle led us through five or six stand-bys, and we finished up with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." There was great applause, and Kyle was ready to sit down. "Low Places," Justin screamed out. He and the kids started a chant, and others joined in. Kyle was loving it, of course, and the DJ scrambled to find the CD that had the karaoke version of that song on it. "Okay, but everybody's got to sing the chorus with me," Kyle said. People applauded and shouted out. The music started, and so did Kyle. A good many people were singing along to the first verse, and I think everybody in the place sang along with the chorus. By the time the music ran out, the place was roaring. Kyle got a standing ovation. Everybody at our table hugged Kyle when he rejoined us, and everybody there was as proud of him as they could be. The ten at our table were, besides Kyle and Tim, Justin and Brian, Gene and Rita, George and Sonya, and Rick and I. Did any boy anywhere have more support in one spot than Kyle did right there? I doubted it. * * * We were all ready to go on Saturday morning. It was our second annual New Orleans Christmas trip, and we were going to be in a caravan. Gene, Rita, George, and Sonya were in Rita's car, a big Lincoln Town Car that year, and Jeff and Ty were in Jeff's car. Everybody else was in Rick's Suburban. They all gathered at our house for breakfast before the trip. If our family did anything well, it was eat. Kyle and Rick cooked breakfast, and it was pretty much the usual. Scrambled eggs, bacon, country ham, sausage, cheese grits, biscuits, toast, sausage gravy, and redeye gravy. All the usual butter, jelly, fig preserves, coffee, juice, and water were out, too. We squeezed all thirteen people around our dining room table, and we dug in. "Are we going to have a theme for this trip?" Kyle asked. "How about 'art,'" Rita said. Nobody said anything, but I knew that was not high on the boys' list of potential themes. "Mama, I don't think they have that much art in New Orleans," Kyle said. "Oh, they do, son. There's the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Edgar Degas museum and home, a million galleries, the Contemporary Arts Center Museum, and all the public art scattered around the city. We could easily spend four days doing that," she said. "Oh, and the art museum at Tulane University." "I'm thinking 'sports' as the theme," Gene said. "We're going to go to the racetrack again, aren't we? And we haven't seen the Super Dome. Oh, I almost forgot." He reached into his inside coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. Inside the envelope was a fistful of tickets. "I couldn't get Saints football tickets for tomorrow, but I got Hornets basketball tickets for Monday night. Tuesday's the big party, right? And then we leave Wednesday morning," he said. "Whoa! Dad! Man!" Kyle was excited, but most of the other ones were, too. Denny didn't seem particularly taken with it, but I knew he'd go along to be with us. "Gene, you've outdone yourself," I said. "Well, y'all wouldn't let me buy a nice Christmas present for the family, so this is what it will have to be," he said. "One time we're going to have art for a theme," Rita said. "And music for another one." "Maybe the ladies can do art and music while the men do sports," Sonya said. "Or shopping," Rita said, her eyes lighting up. "Or shopping," Sonya echoed, equally delighted. "How many tickets did you get, Daddy?" Kyle asked. "Well, I was able to get fifteen," he said. "That'll work out good, Gene," Rick said. "We can invite Seth and Curt to go with us. That'll be fifteen, with Ed and Craig and the eleven of us." "I just took a lucky guess on the number," Gene said. "Besides, I got all I could get my hands on. Craig helped." "I can't wait to get in that new arena," Kyle said. "Sonya, next year you and I are going to get on the Internet early and line up tickets to plays and concerts for us all," Rita said. "Oh, wait a minute. I almost forgot again," Gene said. He was doing classic down-home Emerald Beach, and he and Kyle could have been identical twins when he was in that mode. He pulled out another envelope with more tickets. "These are some tickets I got, too. They're for some play called Rant or Rent or something like that for Monday night at the Saenger. Good seats, too, I think," Gene said. Rita smiled sweetly at Gene, and he smiled back at her. You could almost feel the love of those two for one another across that table. "Did you coordinate this with Beth and Ed," Rita asked. "Every step of the way, Pet," Gene said. "You don't run a big business like I run without knowing how to coordinate." "But you always say Kevin and Rick run the business," Rita said. "They do, but I run them," he said. We all laughed. "Daddy got you last, Mama," Kyle said. "I know, damn it," she said. And that made us laugh even more. "I see the trip is off to another auspicious start," George said. There was a polite chuckle, but I knew the kids didn't know what he was talking about. We all pitched in to clear the table and put away leftovers, the few there were, and we were in the cars and ready to leave at nine o'clock. My secretary, Mary Ann Pennington, had Trixie for the duration of the trip, so she was squared away. Mary Ann was a dog lover of the first order, and she had introduced Trixie to her three dogs like she was introducing a person at a cocktail party. Brian had gone with me to take her to Mary Ann's, and he was satisfied that Trixie was in good hands. Once again the Foley-Mashburn crew were off on Holiday Road.
This was my second trip to New Orleans, and I was excited. I really would have preferred to go to the play with the ladies than to the basketball game with the men. I had never been to a play, and I wanted to. But I knew I would have a good time. Besides, the fact that they thought of me as "one of the guys" made me feel pretty good. School was going really well for me for the first time in my life. Beachside High School had fifteen hundred students, and I found people to be friends with there. I was really glad I had joined the debate team. They were all people like me, who took reading and intellectual pursuits seriously, and I was learning a great deal. I went on my first out-of-town trip to a debate tournament at Florida State University in Tallahassee in early December. It was a "novice" tournament, so it was mostly freshmen like me. My partner and I did well, and we came in third. They gave certificates for that, instead of trophies like they gave at regular tournaments, but I was proud of mine. There were teams there from as far away as Miami and Key West, and I met some incredible people. The best thing, though, was I got to know my partner much better than I had known him before. The tournament started with an opening assembly Thursday night. They welcomed us to the campus, explained how the rounds would work, and went over a map of the campus with us. We were spending two nights at a hotel nearby. It was a round building, and that, in itself, was sort of interesting to me. It was old, but it had been renovated recently. My partner and I were going to be roommates. His name was Joshua Stanton, and he was a freshman like me. Josh was also fifteen, and he was also pretty small for his age. He was very good looking, and I felt guilty because I was hoping I would see him naked at some point during the trip. We were supposed to have two beds in our room, but they had made a mistake and put us in a room with one king size bed. I didn't care, and Josh didn't seem to care, either. We had a ten o'clock curfew, which meant we had to be in our rooms by that time. We weren't allowed to leave the hotel at all, but we could visit in other rooms before then. Josh and I hung out with a couple of girls for a while, but we went to our room around eight. We ordered a movie. "I sleep in my underwear," Josh said. "Is that okay with you?" "That's fine," I said. "Have you ever slept in a bed with somebody else?" he asked. "No," I said. I lied. I had slept with two little kids the night I spent at my neighbor's house in Blountstown before they took me to Emerald Beach. They had kicked me all night long, too. "Me, either," he said. "Well, that's not exactly right. I slept with my cousin once." The movie came up, and we were both quiet for a while. "You know Kyle Goodson and Tim Murphy, don't you?" he asked. "Yeah," I said. The movie was boring me, and I wanted to read. I didn't, though, because it seemed like Josh wanted to talk. "I think those are the two coolest guys at school. I heard they're gay and that they're boyfriends," he said. I didn't say anything because I wanted to hear what he was going to say. "Have you heard that?" "Yeah," I said. "Do you think it's true?" "Would it matter to you if it was?" I asked. "Yeah. It would matter a lot," he said. I could tell by his tone of voice that he wasn't hostile to the idea. "Why would it matter?" I asked. "It says a lot for our school that they would elect a gay guy SGA president, and that he and his boyfriend would be two of the coolest guys in the school. Don't you think?" he asked. "You don't have a problem with gay people?" I asked. "Not at all. I've never really known any, besides . . . ." "Besides who? Kyle and Tim?" "No. Besides myself," he whispered. "Yes, you have," I said. "You?" "Yeah, me," I said. We both giggled. I had thought he was gay, or at least curious, and he had evidently thought I was, too. "Is that guy Chip you hang out with gay?" he asked. "No. Chip's straight," I said. But he's not totally comfortable with that yet, I thought. "Oh. He's your best friend, isn't he? Does he know you're gay?" "Yes to both questions," I said. "Cool," he said. "Josh, would it bother you if I read for a while?" I asked. "No. You're not going to tell, are you? I mean, about what we just talked about?" "What am I going to say? 'By the way, when Josh and I were talking in bed last night, we came out to one another.'" He giggled. "I see your point. I'm glad we had this conversation. It's something I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while," he said. "You're my first." "Thanks for trusting me," I said. "Good night, Denny. I really like you a lot," he said. "Good night, Josh," I said, wondering what he meant. "Let's kill them tomorrow." He giggled again. I read two pages and turned off my light to go to sleep. He was still watching the movie. It was still on, at least. I sort of doubted he was really watching it. * * * Everybody was sort of sleepy in the car on the trip to New Orleans until we stopped for coffee in the little town of Defuniak Springs. Brian and I got juice drinks, but the rest of them got coffee. Once we were back on the road, they started talking. "Denny, are you enjoying debate?" Kevin asked. "Yes, sir. That's my favorite thing about school," I said. "I really like my partner." "What's his name?" Kevin asked. "Josh Stanton," I said. "He's real good looking and very smart, too." "Is he a freshman?" Rick asked. "Yes, sir, and he's fifteen, also," I said. "Bring him around sometime, if you want to," Kevin said. "We'd like to meet him." "Okay. I will. He'll fit in. He told me he's gay," I said. "Whoa! Did you guys get it on?" Justin asked. "Justin, . . . ," Kevin said, with a warning tone to his voice. "I was just teasing him, Kevin. Ole Denny is as cherry as a pie, ain't you, Bubba?" I probably blushed, but I knew he was just being playful. It was very hard to get mad at Justin. "How do you know he's cherry," Rick asked. "Everybody knows you can tell when somebody's had sex," Justin said, "and I can tell he hasn't." I wondered if he could really tell that. And if other people could, too. "You can't tell if somebody has had sex," Rick said. He was in the passenger seat next to Kevin, who was driving, and he turned around to talk to us. "You can when they've got dried cum on their chin," Justin said. He dabbed his chin to make Rick think he had something on his. Rick wiped at his chin. Then he turned around and pulled down the sun visor to check himself in the mirror. Everybody burst out laughing when he did that. "Got you last, Big Boy," Justin said. "You little shit," Rick said, and he laughed, too. "Do you think you and Josh might become boyfriends," Brian asked. I loved all of my brothers to death, but somehow Brian was the one I liked the best. He was very kind and gentle, and he was a little on the quiet side, like me. He and I had talked about books several times, and a couple of times he gave me books of his to read. I had thoroughly enjoyed both of them. "I don't know, Bri. How can you tell when somebody wants to be your boyfriend?" I asked. "They'll usually come up to you and grab your dick," Kyle said. They all laughed, and I knew he was joking. "The best way to know is if the other guy obviously likes you," Kevin said. "If there's chemistry between you. Help me out here, guys." "I knew I wanted Justin to be my boyfriend because I thought about him all the time. I wanted to touch him and kiss him and hold him. I got aroused every time I looked at him, and if he happened to touch me, I got sort of watery inside. Does that make any sense?" Brian said. "That's a pretty good description of how I felt about Tim," Kyle said. "I wanted him so bad I hurt, almost." "Are we helping you, Denny?" Tim asked. "Sort of. I'd love to kiss Josh. I think about him all the time, too. He's what I think about when I, er, you know," I said. I'm sure I blushed. "Bubba, don't ever be embarrassed around us, okay?" Justin said. "We're your family, we're all guys, and we're all gay. We know what you're feeling because we feel the same way. I'm sorry I teased you before. I didn't hurt your feelings, did I?" "Oh, no, Jus. I knew you were teasing," I said. "It's just that I've never talked about this kind of stuff before." "None of us had either, before the first time," Kyle said. "Have you read anything on the Internet about being gay? Like stories and such?" "A couple," I said. "A lot of those stories are bullshit, where the guys go to one of them's bedroom and start kissing and fucking in twenty minutes. Those are just for when you want to get off," Kyle said. "But there are some good ones, too, that talk about the guys being scared and unsure and nervous. That's the way it really is. Don't you think, Kevin?" "Absolutely, Kyle. Being boyfriends is a relationship, and that takes time and a lot of trust. Sex is fun, Denny, and it's important, but for it to be the best, the guys have to care about each other, too," Kevin said. "Being friends never hurts, either," Tim said. "I think I fell in love with Kyle the first time I met him, but we got to be friends first, before anything happened." "This is going to sound like a dumb question, but what makes us gay? I mean, why are we gay?" I asked. "That's not a dumb question at all," Kevin said. "Tell him about Craig, Kyle," Justin said. "When me and you talked to him, I mean." "Denny, Justin and I were sort of wondering the same thing when they were here for Thanksgiving. The thing we wanted to know was, how are we different from straight guys. Craig is the only straight guy we feel comfortable talking to about stuff like that. He told us we were over analyzing it. He said he could get turned on by either one of us but that he didn't want to. He said not to try to figure out why we're gay. We just are. Just like he doesn't know why he's straight," Kyle said. "He just is." "Yeah, but y'all need to know something about the theories different people have," Kevin said. "Like what?" Justin asked. "Some people think we made a choice. We woke up one morning and said, 'Hey, I think I'll be gay.'" We all laughed. "Exactly," Kevin said. "That's totally laughable. Other's think it had something to do with the way we were raised. They think our fathers were weak and distant and our mothers were dominating. Supposedly, we never identified with our fathers." Kyle and Tim both laughed hard at that. "If that was the case, then why did you turn out gay and Craig turn out straight?" Brian asked. "Exactly, Bri," Kevin said. "Of course, in my case, me and my brother both turned out gay. But I'll fight anybody who says my daddy is weak and distant," Kyle said. "Well, that's obviously bullshit," Rick said. "Some scientists have said it's genetic, which would account for Kyle, Clay, and Rick, I think," Kevin said. "If environment can't be blamed, then it must be genetic, they say. Somebody got the bright idea to study twins who were separated at birth." "Siamese twins?" Justin asked. "No, Bubba. Identical twins who were adopted out or otherwise raised in different environments. Identical twins have exactly the same genes, so if it's genetic, they should both be gay, right?" Kevin said. "Yeah," Tim said. "Unless the gene just gives you a strong tendency toward being gay and other factors enter into it. Or unless one of the guys lied about not being gay." "Or unless they were both really bisexual, and one guy took the gay route and the other one took the straight route," Brian said. "What exactly do you mean by genes and genetics?" Justin asked. "I think I missed out on that." "What color eyes do you have, Justin?" Kevin asked. "Blue." "A gene caused those blue eyes. The reason people in the same family look like one another is they share the same genes for certain features, like hair color, height, weight, looks, and all of that. Identical twins look the same because they have exactly the same genes. They're the only people who do," Kevin said. "So what'd they find out from the twins?" Kyle asked. "They found out that of the twins separated at birth who said they were gay, 52% of them had identical twin brothers who also said they were gay," Kevin said. "That's pretty high," Kyle said. "Yeah, but not high enough to convince some people," Kevin said. "The religious conservatives say if it's not 100%, the genetics argument doesn't hold water." "What about what Tim and Brian said?" Kyle asked. "What if one guy lied? Or they were both bi? Or if one guy hadn't accepted that about himself yet? Wouldn't that matter?" "Of course it would matter, and that's the criticism of the twin study," Kevin said. "I can just see it," Justin said. "Some guy comes over to talk to you. He says we're doing a twin study, and your identical twin, that you don't even know about, is gay. We think you probably are, too. Are you? The guy looks at his wife or girlfriend, and she wants to know, too. 'Er, no,' he says. That is too damn bogus." "They probably didn't do the research quite like that, Jus, but you raise a very good point," Kevin said. "You been talking to Brian?" Justin asked. It took us all a second to get what he said, but when we did, everybody laughed. "Seriously, guys. If you don't already know this, you need to. There are millions of men out there who are gay and who have been married for years. Many, maybe most, have children. That's how they live out their lives. Think of sexuality this way, like a number line. The '1' is totally straight, and the '10' is totally gay. There's a lot of room in between. If you're on '5,' are you gay or straight?" Kevin said. "If you're on '5,' you're bi," Kyle said. "So, if you fall in love with a woman, get married, and have kids, are you still bi?" Kevin asked. "You're still bi, but everybody thinks you're straight," Justin said. "What about a guy on '7?'" "This is pretty complicated," I said. "I'm sorry I opened this can of worms." "Don't be sorry, Denny. This is important stuff for y'all to know about," Rick said. "I'm learning, too." "Guys, I think my big brother gave Justin and Kyle some good advice. You're gay. You just are. Deal with it," Kevin said. "I don't think I could ever marry a woman," Kyle said. "Kyle, son, you of all of us probably would have been the most likely to do that," Kevin said. Kyle got mad. "What the fuck do you mean by that, Kevin? Are you saying I'm not gay? That I don't love Tim? Huh?" "Calm down, Kyle. No, I didn't say any of that, and I didn't mean any of that, either. Look at yourself, though, Bubba. You come from one of the most, if not the most, prominent families in Emerald Beach. If your parents hadn't accepted you as a gay man when you were . . . How old were you?" "Fourteen," Kyle said. "If your parents had said to you, 'No son of ours is going to embarrass us by being gay,' don't you think you would have felt enormous pressure to get married? I feel sure you would have, Kyle, and that's not to put you down, Bubba. You know I'd never do that," Kevin said. Everybody was quiet for a little while. "Yeah, I guess you're right," Kyle said. "I think that's what happened to Sherman Henry. He was married for a while, you know?" "Yeah, I had heard that," Kevin said. "And he's a good example. He's a pillar of the community, a great businessman, and out to everybody. He's also from a very prominent family. I'm sure his parents put a lot of pressure on him to get married. He and Gil have been partners since they were juniors in high school, thirty-five years ago--before, during, and after the marriage. Sherman and Gil have both told me that independently." "My dad and Sherman are good friends. Did you know that? Sherman and Gil have been at our house a hundred times," Kyle said. "They're good people, Kyle. I'm not surprised they would be friends of your parents," Rick said. I didn't know who they were talking about, but I got the gist of it. "Adults really don't care, do they?" Kyle asked. "Not educated adults. At least not most of them," Kevin said. "They judge people by their competence and their character and their social graces, I think. Being gay doesn't matter to the people you're going to want to associate with." "I don't think it matters to kids, either," Kyle said. "I read something on the Internet about that, Kyle," Brian said. "They surveyed last year's seniors, and 85% said being gay doesn't matter to them." "It's that 15% you gotta watch out for," Justin said. "That's why we need to have each other's backs, at all times." "You got that right," Kyle said. My head was spinning. They knew so much about being gay, and I knew next to nothing, except that I was. I realized right then that I had sold my brothers short in the smarts department.
It never ceased to amaze me how much parenting Rick and I got done on those car trips. We spent time together back at home, but there were so many distractions. The TV was almost always on, somebody was almost always on the phone, Trixie was wanting to be played with, and two or three were trying to do homework, watch TV, and talk with us, all at the same time. I remembered from my literature courses in college that a ship was like a world unto itself, cut off from everything. A car on the Interstate was like that, too, for us. We had five or six hours just to talk, and it was wonderful. We got to New Orleans around two o'clock, and we experienced the traffic of the Saturday before Christmas. It was ferocious. Kyle was driving, and cars were passing us on both sides doing way more than the speed limit. He had to get over to the right to get on I-610 at Franklin Avenue, and cars kept speeding past him on the right. "What the fuck is going on here? Are these people crazy?" he shouted. "You've got to be bold, Bubba," Rick said. "This is a test, Kyle." "Fucking tell me about it," he said, again shouting. He got in the right lane seconds before we would have been destined to go way out of our way. "Jesus Christ! These people are crazy," Kyle said. "Calm down, Babe," Tim said. "Sorry," Kyle said. My mother was home when we got there, but Dad was at work. Craig and Cherie would get there later. We were the first there, and the Goodson's car and Jeff's car pulled in within a few minutes. "I've driven all over Los Angeles, and I've never seen traffic like this in my life," Gene said. "It's murderous, Gene," my mom said. "Our infrastructure is very bad. Our schools are deteriorating, the streets are too small and riddled with pot holes, the freeway system is totally inadequate. But we eat well. And we party well. And the music is great." The adults laughed. The kids probably didn't know what we were talking about. "With that in mind, let's have coffee," she said. She and Odille brought out a meal in the form of finger sandwiches, petit fours, hot crab dip, smoked oysters, stuffed artichokes, and macaroni with marinara meat sauce. "Dig in," she said. The kids went after the food like vultures. We had eaten lunch on the road, but it hadn't been all that substantial. They made up for it with those snacks, and my mother absolutely beamed to see them eat. She had raised two boys, so she knew how boys could eat. They didn't burst her bubble about that, for sure. "Grandma, are there going to be lights this year?" Brian asked. "Absolutely, Brian. They'll be on in about three hours. This year the people on the block are paying for it, though, and people on several blocks around here are doing the same thing," she said. "You must have started a tradition last year," Brian said. "I think we started a couple of traditions last year, not the least of which is a Christmas trip by our Emerald Beach folks," she said. "Grandma, we've been talking about coming here for college. Will you let us come over to visit?" Justin asked. "No," she said. I saw the twinkle in my mother's eyes, but the boys took what she said literally. "You won't let us come see you?" Justin asked plaintively. "I hope we'll see one another every day, Justin. You'll be living over our garage, won't you?" "Whoa!" Kyle said. "Well, that's your space, isn't it?" she asked. "Do you think we'd have our grandchildren in the city and not living here?" "That's awesome, Grandma. Mom and Dad, wait till you see how they've fixed it up," Kyle said. "I can't wait," Rita said. "It was fun decorating it, Rita. The boys will be together, Ed and I will be able to enjoy them, and they'll have a nice place to live," Mom said. "But they'll still be on their own." "I think there's magic in my life," Justin said. |