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.
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.
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.
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.
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 home from the hotel restaurant, and Ed and I went back to Rita and Gene's house in Destin with them. It wasn't until Friday morning that there was any time to talk. "Mom, you seem really stressed. What's up with the appointment and everything? What's going on?" Kevin asked as soon as he and Rick and I had settled in. I had actually called Kevin's secretary to set up an appointment with him at his office. I knew there would be a houseful of people, including Craig and Cherie, not to mention the boys, and I wanted to make sure I got their undivided attention. "I'm sorry if the appointment thing seemed melodramatic, but I need to talk to both of you without fear of interruption. I need your help with a kid," I said. I gave them all the facts. It took me almost a half hour to summarize what had happened and what I thought needed to happen to Ronnie. They listened intently. "Will you take him?" I finally asked. "Mama, how can you ask that? Of course we will," Kevin said. Then, to Rick, "Won't we?" "Beth, I'm a little disappointed that you thought we'd ever say no to something like that," Rick said. "I know, guys, but Ed and I have been so careful not to interfere with you all and with Craig and Cherie. I wanted to scream, 'Get Kevin to donate sperm' when I first learned of their fertility problem, but I held my tongue. Ed wanted to do the same thing. They eventually came to that decision on their own, and things are working out extremely well. I didn't want to presume with you boys any more than I did with them," I said. "When can we get him here," Rick asked. "Next weekend is Mardi Gras. All of you are coming for that, aren't you? I'll get Ronnie from his grandparents on Sunday afternoon when we get home, and he can stay with us until you get there next Saturday. That is when you're coming, right?" I said. "Yeah. God, there's a lot going on," Kevin said. "He can come home with us on Ash Wednesday." "Yes," I said. "I'm going to take him off his medication. It's not what he needs, and it isn't doing him any good. What that boy needs is Foley-Mashburn TLC. Thank you so much, my sons." "You must think he'll fit in here," Kevin said. "He'll fit in brilliantly, son. He's already met Kyle and Justin when he was in the hospital, and he likes them very much. He asks about them every time I see him," I said. "Everybody who's ever met those two likes them," Rick said. "I know, Rick. I was on hand for the transformation of Seth last year, remember? I saw what happened. That's why I know you all will save this kid. You've got a therapeutic community at work here, and Ron will respond to it in no time. That's why I'm taking him off the meds. He won't need them once he gets here," I said. "The kids are going to go crazy with excitement when they find out they're going to have a new brother," Kevin said. "I take it Ron doesn't have any other problems, like academic ones or problems fitting in." "Not that I'm aware of. He seems to me to be very intelligent. He's not effeminate at all, so I doubt that he gets picked on at school. He's really a great kid who happens to be gay and who happens to have an asshole for a father," I said. They both laughed. I knew my little Ronnie would grow and prosper as my newest grandson. |