THIS WORK IS FULLY PROTECTED BY U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. NO PORTION OF THIS WORK MAY BE COPIED OR REDISTRIBUTED BY ANY MEANS WITHOUT THE EXPRESS CONSENT OF ITS AUTHOR.
THIS WORK DEALS WITH A FICTITIONAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO MEN. IF READING ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS OR SEXUAL CONTACT BETWEEN TWO MEN IS EITHER ILLEGAL IN YOUR AREA OR OFFENDS YOU, PLEASE DO NOT READY ANY FURTHER.
PLEASE HEED THE WARNINGS OF THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY AND USE CONDOMS, THEY MIGHT JUST SAVE YOUR LIFE. RESEARCH SHOWS THAT MORE AND MORE PEOPLE HAVE MADE THE DECISION TO PRACTICE UNSAFE SEX—-PLEASE RECONSIDER THIS DECISION IF YOU HAVE CHOSEN THAT PATH.
ANY SIMILARITIES TO ANY PERSON LIVING OR DEAD ARE PURELY COINCIDENTAL. THIS WORK IS ENTIRELY FICTITIONAL.
Guys, sorry that it's been so long since the last posting. It's been a torturous summer for me with the normal grind and then the breaking up with my significant other. No promises, but I'll try to be more regular in the postings. Again, thanks to all that have been moved by Paul and Daniel's story.
The saga continues...
DANIEL'S LOVE
Michael A. Raburn
Chapter 12
Daniel stepped forward to stand between me and this rude, little woman. "Ma'am, we're not here to make anybody change their sexual orientation. We only want to help prevent these kids being beaten and abused."
"That ain't what my preacher says. He says you're trying to get in these boys' pants and have your way with them. That this group'll turn all the kids in Atlanta into flaming homosexuals." She rebutted.
I stepped around Daniel and extended my hand to the woman. "I'm Paul Jamison and this is my husband, Daniel Scott, ma'am. What's your name?" I asked as she tentatively extended her hand to me.
"Velda Sims. Why do you want to know?" she looked puzzled as she met my gaze.
"Mrs. Sims, I presume you're a parent?" She nodded. "Well, these are our sons and they and their friends here are the organizers of the Gay Student's group. I don't know if you've seen the news a few months ago, but I was shot and can't stand for very long and can't walk without this cane. I still get tired easily and need to sit down. We would like to invite you and your group to come on inside the school so they can get to work. Then we'll find a classroom and Daniel and I will talk to you about your concerns."
Warily she looked back at me, turned to look at the others standing around her, then nodded back in my direction.
"Thank you Mrs. Scott. I'd appreciate the chance to get off this bad leg. Can I ask another favor?"
She raised her eyes skyward, shrugged, then nodded again.
"Would your group mind leaving these placards outside. We don't want the students to find them lying around."
Margaret had been busy ushering the students towards the building and away from whatever might have happened with the protestors. The last of the twenty or so kids were just entering the building when I turned to Mrs. Sims and offered my arm. Amazingly she took it and we walked towards the steps, the little group blindly following behind. When we reached the top of the stairs she hesitated then placed her sign beside the door. I caught a glimpse of Daniel's astonished face out of the corner of my eye. His gaze met mine and he slowly shook his head in disbelief.
"I hope you know what you're doing." I sensed.
"It'll be okay." I thought back at him.
We passed the library just as Margaret and a parent were closing the doors.
"Mrs. Johnson, will you send Kyle down to see us in a few minutes?" I asked.
She nodded in reply. Her grim face relaxed a little when she saw that we were passing by and headed for another room down the hall. I nodded to her when I turned to open the door to the dark classroom and leaned in to turn on the lights. I glanced back to see her shaking her head and giggling to herself.
Mrs. Sims and her little ragtag group seemed to remember what to do when entering a classroom. Before I got fully into the room they were all seated towards the front of the room, settling into the desks that would be filled with children in a few more weeks when classes resumed. Daniel moved the teacher's chair from behind the desk and I eased into it, laying my cane on the floor beside me.
"Now, Mrs. Sims, you said you were a parent?"
"Yeah, got two grown boys." She answered.
"So I'm to understand that your children do not attend this school?" I asked.
"No, we're not from Atlanta, besides, they're already out of school."
"How about the rest of you. Do any of you have children in this school?"
Most of the grim group continued to stare at me; no one nodded or raised his hand to indicate an affirmative answer. Storing the information away if we needed the ammunition, I looked back at Mrs. Sims.
"As you probably know, there have been several incidents of violence in school systems across the country in the last few years. The shootings in Colorado, Kentucky and here in Georgia are evidence that there is a problem with children feeling left out and shunned by their peers. Now, I'm not saying that any of the children involved in causing so much havoc were gay, but we do see more gay and ethnic kids being attacked every day. I'm sure that Mrs. Johnson can give you the statistics if any of you are interested."
"All faggots should be beaten till they're dead." A little man in the back of the group stated, hate and violence evident in his voice.
"Why do you think that sir?" Daniel asked.
"Cause you're all an abomination. That's what the Bible says." He retorted.
"If you've read that passage you'll also remember that wearing clothes of mixed fibers is an abomination, that eating some foods is an abomination."
"Yes, but those are different." Velda interrupted me.
"How are they different?" I insisted.
"Well, my preacher says..."
"Mrs. Sims, what do you think?"
"You're just trying to confuse me."
"No, ma'am, I want us all to understand what you're saying."
"You're just trying to get us all to leave you alone so you can take more kids away from their families and make them homersexuals like yourselves." She almost spat at me.
"Mrs. Sims, I have taken no one away from any family that truly cared for them. Jason and Kyle came to live with Daniel and me only after their fathers abused them."
"They was just punishing them. God says we're to punish our children."
"By killing them?" Daniel asked.
"They wasn't trying to kill the boys, from what I heard on the news."
"Well, that may or may not be true, ma'am. Right before he aimed the gun at me he told Kyle that he would be next. If that's not a threat to kill him, I don't know what is."
"Well, he was wrong to try to kill you both. But I'm sure God was telling him the right thing to do. And the boy was wrong to kill his father. The Bible says to honor thy father and mother."
"How was I supposed to honor a man that was about to kill me and my daddy?" Kyle asked, stopping just inside the doorway.
"He ain't your daddy."
"Paul's been more of a father to me in six months than that man ever was in fourteen years of living in the same house. He didn't care for me, he only cared about his reputation."
We spent the next hour arguing back and forth with members of the group, mostly Mrs. Sims and the little man in the back. I could not see that any major progress was being made to come to some sort of agreement. The rhetoric was calmed down a little and nobody quoted any more scripture, but they were not having any part in seeing our side of the matter. Their stance continued to be that they would picket any meeting that the Alliance had and would actively try to recruit students to carry their message.
Daniel sensed that I was hurting badly and called a halt to the meeting so he could get me back home and get some pain medication in me. As we were standing to leave, Margaret Johnson, the school principal and two police officers entered the room.
"I'm going to have to ask you all to leave the premises." the principal stated. "You have no legal reason to be on school property unless you have children that attend this institution."
"You can't do that." Velda stood and shouted.
"Ma'am, I can and I will. If you insist on protesting the meeting of a club sanctioned by the school board then you will have to do it from across the street. You cannot be on campus any more and you cannot harass any students, faculty, or advisors that are here."
The group was ushered towards the doors by the policemen that had entered the classroom. They were grumbling and arguing among themselves on the way out. Margaret Johnson overheard bits and piece of what they were saying and kept repeating to them as they passed that they could take it up with the school board. Daniel and I trailed along behind them down the hallway. Kyle ran ahead to meet his Jason then they joined us as we neared the front doors. We all stood back giggling when Velda and the crowd exited the school and found their placards were gone. It seems that a few of our new activists had decided to clean the front of the school.
"Honey, what are you doing?" I asked after I heard loud banging from the kitchen area.
"Paul, I just dropped a box. I'm trying to make room on the shelves for all these cookbooks that Ralph gave us."
"Need help?"
"Nah, I can handle it. You alright in there?"
"Surprisingly yes, I am. Love you."
"Love you too, Daddy Bear."
Turning back around on the new stool Daniel had bought, I picked up the brush to return to work. Over the past week I had finished the portraits that I was working on before we found Kyle. I had been so weak during my recovery that little had been done on them before my husband had the brainstorm that just because I could not stand for long did not mean that my painting career was over. He remembered that Matisse towards the end of his life worked lying in his bed and searched the home furnishing stores until he found a stool that was adjustable enough and comfortable enough to use for extended periods of time.
Nina was pressing me for new work, to get my lazy butt back in gear, as she kept saying. She had presented me with several commission offers during the past month and we evaluated them together and rejected them all. Not that they would not pay well for the paintings, but they did not interest me. If I was ever going to do another large-scale installation it would have to be one that absorbed me totally. How do you continue after something as large and involved as Garland and not feel that you have backtracked? That question bounced around in my head for quite a while until I decided that it was not the scale of the work, it was the content and purpose that was most important.
"Okay, good to talk to you too. I'll get him." I heard Daniel saying as he wandered in from the kitchen.
"Mom's on the phone." He said as he leaned in to kiss me. Handing me the phone he turned to go but I grabbed him around the waist and pulled him to me.
"Cornelia, honey. What's up?"
"I only had a few minutes before Robert is dragging me off to another casino so I thought I'd give my sons a call. How are you all doing?"
"We're fine. They boys are back in school so the house is a little quiet. Classes start next week at the college so I'm trying to tie up a few loose ends before I hobble back. Daniel's unpacking boxes and I'm trying to paint again. How are you both doing?"
"God, this man. Where he gets all the energy? I think he's going to wear me out."
"Not you." I laughed.
Mr. Garland as I predicted had yet to return to the helm of Garland International. When we got back from the islands he appointed one of his lieutenants to oversee everything and he and Cornelia headed out for a world tour. We were always getting phone calls from whatever location they settled in for a few days and Cornelia being herself had no concept of the differences in time zones. Daniel and I were woken up regularly in the middle of the night whenever the spirit moved her to call. It was a regular occurrence around our house to see the package delivery service roll up out front with another big box of goodies from their trip. The kids always got a big kick out of the whimsical items that Cornelia would send them.
"Where are you now?" I asked
"Malaysia, I think. We should be back in a few more days. I'm about ready to hit Atlanta and wind down for a while and spend a few days with my grandkids." She laughed.
"You know you're welcomed any time. It might be a little noisy around here though."
"Why, what's happening?"
"Bob and his bunch started the construction a few days ago. It should be complete in another month or so. And the boys are making lots of noise about their upcoming birthdays."
"Wow, that quick?"
"Yep, that big complex is on hold for a few weeks so he had the time and the crew to get on it now."
"Speaking of birthdays, did Daniel get our birthday gift?"
"Yes, he did. He's not quite sure what to do with it yet, but he did get it." I giggled.
The freight truck that pulled up front the day before Daniel's birthday delivered a large wooden packing crate. I guess Cornelia was feeling a bit Auntie Mame when she found the bronze goddess and sent it our way. Currently it had an honored place in the corner of the studio until we found the right spot for it's final home.
"Can't wait to see you, my love. Give the kids a kiss for me and tell them I'll be home before the celebration."
"I will. You two have fun."
"Any more fun and I'm not sure I'll live through it."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can tell by your voice that you're having a ball. See you soon, mom. I love you."
"Love you too. Bye."
I clicked the phone off then snuggled into Daniel's neck. Intending to just kiss him, I was overwhelmed by the scent of my lover and continued to kiss and lick at this neck, then moved up to nibble his earlobe.
"What time will the kids be home?" I whispered.
"We've got time."
We were awakened from our post-lovemaking snooze by the slamming of the front door and Kyle's crying. I jumped, well actually more like crawled, from the bed and grabbed a robe and my cane. Rushing towards his room, I found my son face down on the bed crying his eyes out.
"Honey, what's wrong." I asked as I sat beside Kyle and pulled him into my lap. His wrapped his arms around my neck and continued to sob on my shoulder. "Where's Jason?" His crying grew worse at my question. Something must have happened to Jason.
"Kyle, baby, where's Jason? What happened?"
It took a few more minutes for him to calm down enough to get the words out.
"I, I don't know. After school I went to meet him out front like we always do and I couldn't find him."
"What do you mean, you couldn't find him?"
"Well, I found him alright, he was behind one of those big trees in the lawn kissing Andy Bonner. He looked up and saw me and I ran here as fast as I could." He croaked out, burying his face back in my shoulder.
"Oh honey, I'm so sorry. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding."
"Daddy, how can I misunderstand what I saw?"
"Baby, I don't know. I just don't know." I realized tears were running down my face in sympathy for my little man. I glanced up to see Daniel's stricken face. His whole body jerked at the sound of the front door opening.
"Mister, get in my office now. We've got some serious talking to do." Daniel yelled.
Kyle stiffened in my arms then went limp as a rag doll as he passed out.