Second semester means Spring Break, and it is a time when, for about seven weeks, Emerald Beach turns into a college campus, minus the academics. Every year it gets bigger and bigger, and our local Tourist Development Council spends more and more money on advertising. There is obviously a finite number of beds in tourist accommodations on the beach, but college students on tight budgets think nothing of sleeping eight, ten, or even more people in a condo, say, that is basically designed for four. I'm not exactly sure what kind of impact that has on romantic liaisons, but I assume the kids work out those details. The official Spring Break for our boys is always the last week in March. That's the week after the end of the third nine-weeks grading period of the school year, and that seems to be a constant in the school district. Of course, some of our boys are college students now, and Kyle and Justin tended to party a little more this year during the whole seven weeks of Spring Break than they had before. They always wanted Tim and Brian to party with them, but those two were way too serious about their work to go out on school nights. All four boys did spend the week at Kyle's condo with Philip and Ryan when FSU was off, though. They even had all of us, including the Townhouse Boys, over for dinner one night. Seth and Curt were in town for Break, staying at our house, so, of course, they were invited, too. "This is really nice of you guys," I said, when we first got there. "Wait till you taste what we've cooked," Kyle said. "Kyle, we haven't cooked shit. You cooked it all, and you know it," Philip said. "Well, we'll see if it's fit to eat," Kyle said. Those six boys are remarkably close friends. Our four went to Tallahassee several times for football weekends with Philip and Ryan during the fall, and Philip and Ryan usually come home one weekend a month. When Philip and Ryan are home, they are with our guys almost all the time. Sometimes it's at the Goodsons' house in Destin, sometimes with George and Sonya, but mostly it's at our house. We've grown to love those two almost as much as we love our four. I know their friendship will last a lifetime, and they support one another in their relationships with their chosen mates. They genuinely love one another, and it's very obvious without being mushy or off-putting. Seating for the meal at the condo was casual because of space limitations, but the food was superb. The main course was steak that was so tender you could cut it with a fork and lobsters that Philip and Kyle had caught, all grilled, of course. Kyle made oyster patties, like I have always had in New Orleans, as a first course, and they were every bit as good as Miss Odille, my mother's cook, can make. "When do you all get Break?" Seth asked. "Next week," Brian said. "We're going to San Francisco." "Say what?" Philip asked. "You heard. We're going to San Francisco. We're fixing to get us some," Kyle said. "I don't doubt you're going to get you some, but it ain't going to be no different than right here at home," Philip said. "How do you know?" Kyle asked. "'Cause I know y'all, Kyle. Y'all ain't going to do nothing out there that you don't do here," Philip said. He and Kyle laughed. "Y'all shut up. These young boys don't even know what the hell y'all are talking about, and that's rude," Justin said. "Don't be so sure, Jus," Denny said. "Well, Denny, it ain't going to happen. Kyle is just being Mr. Big Stuff, and he knows it," Justin said. "We'll see," Kyle said. Tim and Brian both slapped him playfully. "Hey, don't slap me. I ain't the one with the roaming eyes," Kyle said. He looked back and forth between Tim and Brian. "What?!!" Tim and Brian said in unison. "What, what? I can't get you guys last?" Kyle asked. "You shithead," Jeff said. "You had me worried." "So I guess I got more than just these two last, huh?" Kyle said. "Guys, you've got a lot of cleaning up to do here. Let us do it, and then we'll go home and swim," Rick said. "Y'all don't have to do that," Kyle said. "Yeah, we do. Now shut up about it. Save everything?" Rick asked. "Yeah, save everything. Unless y'all want to take some home. In fact, why don't we do that. Rick, put everything in those little plastic boxes with the blue lids that are under the counter. We'll take 'em with us. We might want a snack in a little while," Kyle said. Rick and I, and Jeff and Tyler, got it all put away and cleaned up. It took us about fifteen minutes. We went to our house for a naked swim, and we had a great time. We ate a second meal around eleven, and Kyle, Justin, Philip, Ryan, Seth, and Curt went out. Tim and Brian crashed in their beds at home, and the Townhouse Boys went home, too. I heard one of the dogs bark as I was getting up to use the bathroom. I glanced at my clock, and it was 4:00 AM. They were just coming in. "Come on guys. Let's get to bed," Curt said. He sounded sober. "I'm ready for bed, and I know what I want, too," Seth said, slurring badly. "Shit, Seth, you couldn't get it up to save your life, Bubba, and you know it," Philip slurred. Seth giggled. "Let's all go to bed. I recommend we take some aspirins right now, though. Maybe eat a stick of butter, too. That'll do you good," Kyle said, and they all laughed. "God, just the thought of that makes me want to puke, Goodson," Justin said. More laughter. "I don't give a fuck what y'all do, but I'm taking me four aspirins, and I'm eating me a bowl of ice cream," Kyle said. "I don't have class until eleven o'clock tomorrow, and I'm going to be just fine. Y'all hide and watch." "Let's be quiet in the kitchen, though. Kevin and Rick are asleep," Justin said. I got back in bed, satisfied that my boys were home safe. Only Tim, Brian, and the younger boys were up at the regular time the next day, but some of them looked like they were dragging a little bit, too. I could only imagine what the big boys would have felt like if they had gotten up that early. The high school boys left a little earlier than usual for school so they could get a hot breakfast in the school cafeteria because there wasn't one at home that morning.
It was finally Spring Break for us, and we were finally going on a nice trip. I mean, we had been on many nice trips already, but San Francisco is kind of like the gay city, you know? At least in my mind it is. New Orleans and Washington and New York and Boston are very gay cities, too, but San Francisco is kind of THE place for gay guys. I did an Internet search of places we might like to go, and I could only come up with, like, fifty. Hehe. Fifty or more in six days!? I don't think so. That would take us a month or more. A lot of those places are world famous, though, so we'd have to pick and choose 'cause we damn sure couldn't do it all. I would love to have gone to a Giants' exhibition game, for instance, but I didn't even include that because I knew Tim and Brian would have only gone along with it because Justin and I were interested. But the Giants aren't nothing to me or Jus, Barry Bonds aside, so I skipped that. There were a bunch of things like symphonies, ballets, chorales, and shit like that. Skip. I ordered tickets for Rent, which is a play I had read about. I thought we would all like that, but that was the only play, or thing of that sort, we got tickets for beforehand. We weren't taking our dress-up suits, and I hoped that wasn't required at the play. The first thing we did was take a bus tour of the city. I can't remember who taught me to do that, but that's what you do when you go to a new city for the first time. Take a bus tour. Ours took about four hours, and we were all over the damn place. We saw shit like the Golden Gate Bridge, a Japanese garden in a park, a hill that overlooked the city, and this steep-ass street that looked like a garden. That, and a bunch more, that we wouldn't have seen because it wasn't on any of the printouts of what I had downloaded from the Internet. I mean, that stuff might have been on our printouts, but it wasn't there by name. We passed through the Castro neighborhood, and they had this gigantic rainbow flag flying in the square or something. We'd be going back there, for sure. I think it was near there we saw these Victorian houses painted up like whores on a Saturday night. It was five or six in a row, and they were pretty neat, if you like that kind of stuff. The tour guide said they call them "the painted ladies." We saw Alcatraz Island from the Golden Gate Park or Bridge, maybe, and we were definitely going to go there. They didn't seem to have any forts or stuff like that from the Civil War, like we have on the eastern side of the country, but that was understandable. They had never needed 'em like we had. We spent most of a whole day in Chinatown. We had been to the ones in New York and Boston, but they weren't anything compared to this. There is this huge gate-like thing that lets you know you're going into Chinatown, and everywhere there are a million shops, restaurants, food markets, temples, and museums. "Let's go in this place for lunch," I suggested. "What is Dim Sum?" Justin asked. "You know I ain't crazy about strange stuff to eat, especially if it's still alive." "What have you ever eaten that was still alive?" I asked. "Nothing. And that's why. Nobody eats food that's still alive," I said. "I think raw oysters are still alive when you eat them," Brian said. "Really? Well, I like them. I might not ever eat another one, though," Jus said. "That's stupid," I said. "You know you like 'em. Besides, I think they die as soon as you open the shell." They seated us, and the waiter explained that Dim Sum means you get a little bit of just about everything on the menu. In a real Chinese restaurant like that one, there must be fifty items on the menu, too. There isn't any way to know how old the stuff is, or when it was cooked originally, but I didn't really care. He suggested we get the "lunch" menu for four, and, since we didn't really know any better, that's what we ordered. They brought out twenty plates with four of each thing on them. I figured that would be like eating five plates of food each. Some of the things weren't that big, but some of 'em were. "Damn. They expect us to eat all this?" Justin asked. "I really think they just expect you to pay for it," Brian said. "I think we were scammed. We should have ordered lunch for two, not four. Half this much would have still been too much. I guess we'll know next time." Each plate had a little tag to tell you what it was. I recognized some of the stuff, like fried egg rolls and spareribs, but some of it was way over my head. I mean, what the hell is Hom Sui Gok? I know what chop suey is, but I didn't know about that stuff we had. "What the fuck is this?" Justin asked. "It says 'steamed octopus balls.' These must have come off some mighty big ones. Eat one, Mikey. Uh, Kyle, I mean." That made everybody laugh. "All right, I will. I think they're supposed to improve your sex life or something," I said, making every bit of it up. They all watched me as I cut into one and put it in my mouth. It wasn't bad. I can't really describe the taste, but it was pretty good. Kind of like squid or deep sea scallops or something like that. "Oh, my God!" I said. "It's already working!" I started slowly lifting up my side of the table, like I was getting a colossal erection. "Don't y'all dare eat any of that," I said. "They'll have us all in jail." Justin was across the table from me. He stood up and pushed down on my side of the table. "Ow!" I said. "Cut it out, man. You're going to break it." "If you do that, I'll kill you, Justin," Tim said. Well, of course, we were all laughing our asses off. I noticed two guys at a table right next to us looking at us and enjoying our fun. They were both so queer that even I could tell. They were both probably forty years old or something. I don't know. One of them came over. "Couples?" he asked. "Yes, sir," I said. "You know?" "Yes, I do know, and you boys are fabulous. Enjoy your visit to our city," he said, and then he left. "He must be from the South," Justin said. "Why? 'Cause he was friendly?" I asked. "Yeah. Yankees ain't friendly like that," Justin said. "These people out here ain't Yankees, dumbass," I said. "He thinks everybody who's from a state other than the eleven states that were part of the Confederacy are Yankees," Brian said. "Yeah, and I ain't all that sure about some of them, either. Virginia? NORTH Carolina? I don't know," Justin said. "You think Texas is a Southern state?" I asked. "I don't know about them, either. They're not impoverished enough to really be Southern," he said. "You think Florida is an impoverished state?" I asked. "Well, maybe not, but it's not Yankee," he said. "We need to get your ass down to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach," I said. "That's all Yankee down there." Then I noticed Tim and Brian were grinning and cutting their eyes at Justin. "Shit! You been making this whole fucking thing up, haven't you?" I asked. "What's the words you're looking for, Kyle?" Jus asked. "None. I ain't lost no words," I said. "Got. Me. What?" Jus said. "Come on. Say it." He was grinning his ass off at me. "I don't know what you're talking about. Who wants one of these octopus balls? They're pretty good," I said. "I ain't believing you," Justin said. "I got you last, and you know it." "Yeah, you got me last. It wasn't the first time, now was it?" I said. "No, and it won't be the last time, either. Eat your balls, Kyle. Nobody else wants that shit," he said. "God, I wish I could," I said. "Wait a minute," Tim said. "I want 'em." The four of us laughed so hard I thought they were going to put us out of the place. That was kind of the way it was throughout the whole trip. We saw some really awesome stuff on that vacation, but the most fun was just us fooling around like we did in that restaurant. We saw part of the AIDS Quilt in the Castro District, and that brought all kinds of feelings to my mind. I couldn't help thinking of Trey Hudson and what he looked like that week at our house. And Andy Callaway. He handled it so good when Trey died, but he isn't going to get over it for years, and we know it. Straight people just don't know how deep the feelings can be between two men who love each other. They just toss it off like it's just a trick or something. But, my God, Tim is my life. I'd be a total basket case if anything happened to him. I'd make Jeff look normal after he lost my brother. Shit! Tears were streaming down my face. "Let's get out of here," Tim said. "I think this is too close to home for us right now." "We've got to make a piece of this thing for Trey," I said through my tears. "You goddamn right we do. I got the goods right here," Justin said, holding up papers with directions for how to make a part of the quilt. "I never thought I would learn how to sew, but I'm damn sure going to do it. Can't they stop diseases with vaccinations or something like that?" "Yeah, they can, Buddy, and they've done it. Smallpox, polio, measles. It's a long list. But you know what? Nobody gives a fuck about AIDS because it's identified with the gay community," Brian said. "It's like sickle cell anemia, lactose intolerance, and other medical problems that black people have. They don't give a fuck about those, either. The medical politicians don't care about the fucking minorities." Everybody was stunned. That was Brian talking! "Brian, did you just hear the word 'fuck' for the first time?" I asked. They all laughed, including Brian. "I'm sorry. I don't use that word except when something really makes me angry," he said. "You may not say it, but thank God you do it," Justin said. That cracked us all up. "Let's go, guys. I need Starbucks," I said. "When are they going to start selling shots, anyway? That's what I really need." They laughed, but I was more than half serious. * * * We spent pretty much a full day at Fisherman's Wharf. That was really cool, and one of the things we liked the most was the sea lions on those platforms in the water. That place was mostly shopping, and that wasn't as much fun to me as it was to Tim and Brian. They had some cool shops, though, and some good places to eat, too. One thing we did was go to a wax museum. I had been to one of those in London, I think, or someplace like that, but nobody else had ever been to one. All it really was, was statues of people. Some of them I recognized, like Tiger Woods and Leonardo DiCaprio, but most of 'em I didn't know. They had little stories about who they were supposed to be, so I guess you could learn a lot if you took the time to read all that. They had a Chamber of Horrors that was pretty cool, though. We went into the aquarium, and those things are always neat. We also went to a chocolate factory, and that place smelled so good. They had a soda fountain, so we got us each a hot fudge sundae there. That wharf, which really didn't look all that much like a wharf to me, is where we caught the cable car at the turn-around place. We had to stand in line a good while for that, but it was okay. They said that in the summer the line takes a couple of hours or more. It took us about twenty minutes, I guess. The ride itself was okay but nothing to write home about. It was very much like the streetcars we rode on in New Orleans, only the difference was this thing went up and down hills. We were just tourists, but there were people on that thing that were using it to get around town to do their business. One of the best things we did was go on a helicopter tour. They have those in Emerald Beach, but we never go on them. That's the kind of thing you do on a trip but never at home. Anyway, I'd like to learn how to fly one of those bad boys. I might have to look into getting me one of those one day. There was a bunch of stuff to do, but the coolest thing we saw was a guy that I guess you would call a street performer. He had little pieces of shrubbery pasted all over him. He would crouch down, and he looked just like a shrub, or plant, along the walkway. The only thing is, he would jump up and scare the shit out of people as they were walking along, minding their own business. He did it to us, and I almost dropped a load in my drawers right on the spot. "You got us last, that's for damn sure," I said to him, and I gave him five bucks. We were all laughing and shit. "I 'got you last?' I read a blog on the Internet from this guy in Florida, and he's part of a family that plays 'Got You Last,'" he said. "That's amazing that you would have said that. Small world." "Maybe not. We're from Florida. Emerald Beach, Florida, to be exact. Is the blog you read Jeff Martin's?" I asked. "Oh, my God!" he said. "That's where he is, too. And, yeah, it's Jeff Martin's blog. Do you know of him?" "Do we know OF him? No, we know him. I'm Kyle Goodson, and this is Tim Murphy. Justin Davis and Brian Mathews. Jeff's our brother," I said. "Oh, my God! What are you doing here? No. Don't tell me. I know this. You're on Spring Break. Oh, my God!" That guy was a good bit on the Murray side, if you know what I'm saying. "Is this your job?" I asked. "Yeah, more or less. I do lights at a club sometimes. I make a few bucks that way, too. But the tips aren't bad here," he said. "This is the best thing I've ever seen to scare people," I said. "Well, I'm derivative. The original guy is about two blocks down. He probably didn't think it up, either, but he was the first guy doing it on Fisherman's Wharf. I was the second. Now there's somebody in just about every block," he said. "Have you read all of Jeff's blog?" Brian asked. "Every word," he said. "I want to move in with you guys." "How old are you?" Brian asked. "Too old, I'm afraid. I'm twenty-two." "Are you gay?" Tim asked. "Oh, yes. Very. Can't you tell?" he said. "Well, I don't like to judge," Tim said. "I know. None of you do," he said. "By the way, my name is Chad." We shook hands with him all around, repeating our names. "Would you guys like to get some Starbucks? On me?" he asked. "Sure," we pretty much all said at the same time, but we didn't let him pay for it. Chad turned out to be a great guy. He was smart and funny. Yeah, he was effeminate, but so what? None of us gave a shit. He was just a good guy. "Did you ever have anything bad happen to you while you were doing this?" Justin asked. "Like what?" Chad wanted to know. "Well, like somebody punching your lights out for scaring them," Jus said. "That hasn't happened to me, but it happened to one of the other guys who does this," Chad said. "Yet," Justin said. "Yeah. Yet," Chad said. "I thought one man had a heart attack, though. It turned out he didn't. It was a panic attack, but he keeled over like he was having a heart attack. I thought, Oh, shit! Now what?" "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, this lady was with him. His wife, I guess. She took over. He evidently had some kind of anxiety disorder or something, and he did that pretty much on a regular basis. It scared me to death, though," he said. "That would have been the ultimate 'Got you last,' for sure," Tim said. "Yeah, sort of like 'Got you dead last,'" I said. We all laughed. "For sure. Guys, this is fun, but I need to get back to work," he said. "Thanks for the coffee and the company. Please make sure you tell Jeff about meeting me. I'm going to send him some email about this. I still can't believe it." We all shook hands and said goodbye. "What is this? Like the third or fourth time something good has happened to us because of Jeff's blog?" Tim asked. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Well, the guys from Kentucky, Sean, this," Tim said. "If you consider Sean something good," Justin said. "What happened to him wasn't good, but getting to know him was, I think," Brian said. "It was, Little Buddy," Jus said. "I'm sorry I don't feel different about him, but I just didn't understand that guy." "Changing the subject, but did y'all see that the ticket booth for Alcatraz is on the wharf?" I asked. "Yeah," Tim said. "Are you thinking we ought to get our tickets today for tomorrow?" "That's exactly what I'm thinking. We can get a taxi down here tomorrow morning and not have to stand in line, or anything," I said. "Hell. Get a taxi? We walked here from the hotel today, didn't we?" Jus asked. "True," I said. When we got up to the place where you buy the tickets, we found out that there are really two islands--Alcatraz and Angel--and that you can get one tour of both islands. "Let's do the two," I said. "Y'all want to? It says it takes five and a half hours." "We know about Alcatraz. What's on Angel Island?" Brian asked. Tim picked up a brochure and scanned over it. "It says it's a California state park. It's got a quarantine station, a Civil War post, Fort McDowell, the immigration station, a place where they kept POW's in World War II. Evidently the tour is a five-mile hike. It says it's the Ellis Island of the West. It sounds like it has a lot of stuff on it," Tim said. "How'd you miss this place, Babe?" "I dunno," I said. "It sounds really cool, though." * * * After we bought our tickets for the next day, we walked back to the hotel to take a break. We had bought quite a few souvenirs for all the different ones we needed to buy for, and we needed to take that shit back to the room. I had been lugging around my camera all day, too, and I was ready to get rid of that thing for a while. "Do you want a drink, Kyle?" Justin asked. "Yes, please, if you're having one," I said. "Yeah, I am. This is a pretty incredible place, isn't it?" he asked. "It's a little different from what I expected," Brian said. "There are a lot more Asian people here than I thought, and I really haven't seen very many African Americans. Have y'all?" "Not really," Tim said. "But we've been in real touristy places. Maybe they don't hang out in those places. I have seen a whole lot of people that have set off my gaydar, though. Like everybody who works in this hotel, for instance." "Does that creep you out? You afraid the fags are going to come after your sweet little ass? Huh?" I loved to tease him. They were all laughing. "No. I'm disappointed they haven't," he said. "Ouch! He got you last bad on that one, Goodson," Jus said. "He better watch out some fag from Florida don't get his ass," I said. "Speaking of that, I want to ask y'all something." That was a serious tone of voice, so I knew to listen. "I know there's never going to be a foursome with us or partner swapping or anything like that, and I don't want that anymore than y'all do. But would it really be a problem for anybody if me and Brian were in that bed, and Kyle and Tim were in that other bed, all doing something at the same time? And I'm not talking about watching each other or any of that kind of shit. I'm talking about two couples making love at the same time in the same room," Jus said. "Tell you the truth, Bubba, I've never thought that would be a problem. What about you, Babe?" "We used to make out in the same room, and more than once that turned into love making, didn't it? I never had a problem with that," Tim said. "I feel the same way Tim does," Brian said. "We haven't done that in a long time, and I've sort of missed it. It's more difficult now, though, with so many in the house. I don't want to do it with anybody else around, though. The only two people I feel close enough to for that are Kyle and Tim." "Lights on or off?" I asked. "We like the lights on," Bri said. "So do we," Tim replied. "So nobody's going to be embarrassed or scared or anything if we make love tonight?" Justin asked. "You know, if we're serious about the four of us making a life together as friends, the sheer practicality of it makes sense. When we were in Virginia for Sean's funeral, I really could have used the emotional support of making love to Kyle, but the four of us were in the same room. If we had had this talk before then, we could have done it," Tim said. "And I love staying in the same room with y'all," Justin said. "I hated it the times we were in separate rooms." "What do you think Kevin and Rick would think about it?" Brian asked. "I don't give a shit what they think about it. It's none of their business. It's the business of the four people in this room," Justin said. I agreed with him completely. Later that night, after our night out on the town, we put our agreement into practice. The next morning, we put our agreement into practice a second time, and Tim and I used our oral skills on each other. I have no idea how Jus and Bri did it, but I know they did it both times. "Do you feel any different after last night and this morning?" Justin asked at breakfast. "I do," Tim said. "I feel like our friendship has entered a whole deeper level of intimacy. Thanks, guys. All three of you." "Me, too," Brian said. * * * The night before we had sampled some of the famous San Francisco gay nightlife. It was fun and all, but I didn't see a damn thing there in the Castro district that I hadn't seen in New Orleans, Boston, New York, or Washington, D.C. I will say this, though. It wasn't cheap. It's not cheap anywhere to go to bars and clubs, but I thought the prices were very high compared to other places. But I thought the prices in San Francisco in general were high. But we had the money, and we were on vacation, so I didn't complain. But still, twenty bucks for a club sandwich, potato chips, and a coke is high. That lunch in the Dim Sum place had come to right at $200, with the tip and all. We didn't even eat half of it, either, and we couldn't even take it with us because we didn't have anything we could do with it. I felt sort of bad and stupid even thinking about that because of how much I have, but, by God, Justin and Brian work to earn their money, and they were just being taken advantage of. And if they can put world-class food on the table in New Orleans for half of what the same damn thing costs in San Francisco, then they ought to be able to do it in San Francisco, too. We're getting smarter about that, though, don't think we aren't. We were supposed to catch the boat for Alcatraz and Angel Island at 9:30, and we got there in plenty of time, even with the morning blowjobs and breakfast. I was damn sure glad we bought those tickets the day before, too, because there was quite a line. I didn't know if they would hold the boat or not. As it turned out, they didn't have to, but the last one was scurrying on as the boat was leaving. It took us about twenty minutes to get over to Alcatraz Island, and the ride over was almost worth the cost of the tickets. (Bear in mind, that place is run by the National Park Service, which is the only reason it doesn't cost a testicle to get in.) It was just about a perfect day weather-wise, and I was excited. Alcatraz used to be just a rock, with no plants or land animals on it, jutting out of San Francisco Bay. Thanks to the backbreaking labor of convicts and such, now it's full of trees, plants, and all kinds of birds and other animals. In fact, part of it is a bird sanctuary, and the name "Alcatraz" comes from a Spanish word that means "pelican." It has the first lighthouse on the West Coast, too. Somebody had made the comment that there aren't any Civil War forts and shit in California like there are all over the East. Wrong! Alcatraz started as a military fortress, and some of its most important military history happened during the Civil War. It turns out, California was a Union state during the Civil War (which I didn't know, so I guess they were Yankees, after all), but there were a bunch of Confederate sympathizers living there. The Union army fortified Alcatraz in the early 1860's to protect San Francisco, and especially the harbor, from Confederate attack, which did happen. "Did you see this shit about the Confederates trying to get San Francisco during the Civil War? Who knew?" Justin said. "It seems like everyplace we go, the Civil War turns up." "'Travel and learn' is my motto, Justin," I said. "Yeah, your motto this week," Jus said, and he and I laughed. "No, it's just today's motto. I'll have another one for you tomorrow," I said. After the Civil War, they started using Alcatraz for military prisoners. Not Prisoners of War, but guys in the military who needed to be in prison. That was the bunch who really sculpted that island into what it is today. "Have y'all ever seen cartoons that have prisoners busting up rocks?" I asked. "Yeah. Evidently, that's what they did here," Tim said. "I know. Working on a chain gang," I said. "Did you see this? It says that the military decided Alcatraz as a military prison was bad for its image because it made it seem that the military was full of criminals. That was in 1933, and that's when they gave it to the Bureau of Federal Prisons," Brian said. "It became a federal penitentiary in 1934 for the really bad guys. Al Capone, Machine-Gun Kelley, the Birdman of Alcatraz were all here, but it wasn't really all that big. How many guys did Jared say are in that work camp back home?" "I think he said 750," Tim said. "This thing says the average number here was only 260, and they only had 1,560 prisoners the whole time it was a penitentiary. I sure thought it was bigger than that," Bri said. It might not have been that big, but it was sure grim as hell. That big ole cell block scared me to death, just touring it, never mind being sentenced there. The outside was sort of pretty, but the inside was shitty, at best. They didn't execute anybody there, either. I mean, they killed a few when they were trying to escape and whatnot, but executions were done by the State of California at San Quentin, even of federal prisoners. They closed the place as a penitentiary in 1963. My daddy was born in 1959, so he was just a baby when they closed it. The next big thing, though, was it was taken over by the Indians of All Tribes in 1969. They wanted the deed to the island, and they wanted to put an Indian university and cultural center on it. About a hundred of 'em, mostly students at UCLA, took over the place. Reading between the lines? It sounded to me like it was a bunch of hippies. They kept it for nineteen months from November 1969 to January 1971, but they say it made a big difference in how Indians are thought of and treated nowadays because of it. We watched a video about that, and we bought a copy of it to give to Doc as his souvenir. That is just the kind of thing he loves, too. "What about this for your dad?" I asked Tim when I showed it to him. "Oh, yeah. This'll keep him hard for a week," Tim said. I died laughing. "I was thinking the same thing, but I thought it would be disrespectful to say it," I said, laughing. "Let's don't say it to him, but it will," Tim said. Again, more laughing. "What the hell's so funny?" Justin said, as he and Brian walked up to us. "You really had to be here, Bubba," I said. "Oh, so you're back to that shit, huh?" "Man, we've been talking for ten minutes. You really did have to be here for it to be funny. We're not trying to cut you out of our lives. Goddamn, Justin, if you don't know that after last night and this morning, you're hopeless," I said. "Kyle, I'm teasing you, you dumb fuck. Besides, it's okay to have little things between you that nobody else needs to know about. We do," he said. "Kyle showed me this video as a souvenir for my dad. I said it'll keep him hard for a week. Kyle said he was thinking the same thing, but he thought it would be disrespectful to say it," Tim said. "Oh," Justin said. "You're right. I guess you did have to be here 'cause that ain't funny." But the way he said that was, and we all laughed. We spent about two and a half hours at Alcatraz, and we saw the whole thing. No question about that. The next stop was Angel Island. Angel Island is the biggest island in the bay, and it has an honest-to-God mountain on it. It's called Mt. Livermore. Anyway, that island is beautiful, and the island is heavily wooded. We took the History Tour, which was a hike, just like the brochure said. We saw all the stuff Tim had told us about the day before. A five-mile hike ain't that much, frankly, and I was pretty sure we had walked more than that the night before in the Castro. We got back to Fisherman's Wharf about three o'clock, but it was 3:30 by the time we got off the boat because of all the people. "Do y'all want to see if we can find Chad and buy him some coffee?" I asked. "Yeah, I like that guy," Justin said. We couldn't find Chad, though, so we went to Starbucks, had coffee and a snack, and crashed for a nap back at the hotel. That was the night we were going to the play, and we didn't want to be sleepy in the theater. The play was great, and they even got a standing ovation at the end. Our scout troop gave a standing ovation for everything, but I knew grown-ups didn't. In fact, that was the first time I had ever seen that, and I had been to a bunch of plays over the years. All four of us were crying hard. Happy tears? Yeah, to a point, but not totally. That play was too hard for us. It is about a group of homeless people who are HIV Positive or who have AIDS. How much more could that fucking thing be about our family? It isn't really a "gay play" because most of them aren't gay, but where was there a family more like those people than in Emerald Beach, Florida? We had a homeless man die of AIDS in our house in January, for God's sake, and so many of us were homeless. Hopeless, too. "I'm sorry, guys. I chose the wrong play," I said. I was sobbing so hard, I'm sure they couldn't understand me. "Kyle, this is the best thing you've ever done for us on a vacation," Justin said, and he was crying as bad as I was. "Don't you see? They were a family at the end, and they loved one another. How can you say this was a bad choice, Kyle? How can you say this was a mistake? It's our family. I'm not crying sad tears. I'm crying happy tears because we're going to be like them. We're going to make it, too. Kyle, you really don't know what it's like to be where Brian and I have been. To have no hope. To have no future. To have nothing. I know you love us, Kyle, but you really, truly don't have any idea what you and Tim did for me. You've given me life. You've given me love. You've given me hope. That play says it all, man. Hooh! I'm exhausted after that." "Yeah. Let's go home and get drunk," I said, mainly to have something to say after that. Whoa! "Not yet, Kyle," Brian said. Brian is usually the meekest one of the four of us, but he wasn't meek when he said that. We were walking back to the hotel. "Justin's right. You guys really don't know how you saved me. Saved me, Kyle. Saved me, Tim. Salvation. Are you starting to get the point?" "Yes," Tim whispered. "It was love that saved me, just like it was love that saved the people in that play. You all know I'm not any more religious than you are, but what is love? I believe love is God. People who were supposed to love me made me broken. I've never told anybody this before, but when that cop found me in the dugout at that park, I was trying to figure out how to kill myself. I didn't have a knife. I didn't have a razorblade. I didn't have pills. I didn't have a gun. I figured I could jump off a tall building and do it, but I didn't know how I was going to get into a tall building. And then he found me. He took me to Mr. Tyrone's house, and Mr. Tyrone took me to Kevin and Rick's house. Y'all had just come home from North Carolina. Tim, you and Kyle were at your parents' houses, and it was just Justin there. Kevin and Rick had to talk to Mr. Tyrone, and Justin took me to show me the room I would have. That's when I fell in love with him. He made me laugh for the first time in months. That's when I knew things could be okay. That's when love entered my life," Brian said. "I'm like him. I'm exhausted, too, now." And he chuckled. Nobody said anything for a long time as we walked along. I saw a liquor store up ahead. "I'm going to stop in here. I only brought one bottle, but I think we might need another one tonight. Of course it'll probably be seventy-five bucks for a fifth of Early fucking Times," I said. "Don't do that," Tim said. "You still have some whiskey, don't you?" "Yeah. Hell, we've only had two drinks out of the bottle," I said. "Don't waste your money. Let's go back to the room, rent a good movie, have a few drinks, and just be friends," Tim said. "Brian, you said love is God. Well, Bubba, if God ain't in this crowd here, walking down this street right now, there ain't no God. And I mean that," I said. |