NOTE: This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this installment, please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Just as Emma and her son planned, Jake skipped going back to the Grimke pew after Holy Communion on Easter Sunday and with Evan discreetly following, they climbed the spiral steps up to the old choir loft where Jake sat himself down on the bench of the Aeolian-Skinner organ and waited for the light to flash three times from the front console to signal that his mom was ready on the Moller instrument in the chancel. Jake had enough time to take off his suit jacket and fold the cuffs of his oxford shirt in reverse so that the fold would be against his arm in order to prevent a wayward unfolding cuff from accidentally striking any of the keys.
Evan liked escaping from the nave with his lacrosse wingman and stood ready to flip the score resting on the music stand of the instrument as Jake double checked the registrations one more time as the choir and celebrants recessed to the final stanza of "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today." Emma didn't know it but Jake did change a few of the stops just to make the old instrument play a little louder and prouder than it had during some of their practice sessions and was ready to engage as many of the 1500 or so pipes he could at once. The opening volley from Eugene Gigout's "Grand Chouer Dialogue" included stops from the Great, Swell and Pedal organs all at once surprising many of the long-time St. Michael's parishoners that the old pipes were even still behind and over their heads let alone that they still operated.
Emma took Jake's registration changes in stride, knowing Jake liked to show off not only what he could do but what he could make the instrument do. A few people rose from their pews and stepped forward to watch Emma play at the chancel console while John and Annie had climbed up the back steps to watch Jake and Evan. As the piece came to its predictable end, Jake had instructed Evan which stops to pull for his last few lines of music before Emma finished at the Moller's console.
There was a nano-second of silence as the last notes of the great piece slipped out the open doors into Mount Vernon Square before the congregation erupted in applause. Emma stood from the console and walked to the top of the chancel steps and acknowledged the applause from the church-goers before pointing up to the loft where Jake stood surrounded by John, Evan and Annie. The applause continued as Jake took a bow and flashed his winning smile to everybody below, relieved that he played perfectly, not unlike so many of his lacrosse games. It was, in fact, another score for Jake with an assist from Evan. After brunch in Baltimore, Jake and Evan rode back on the first warm sunny afternoon with the Saab's top down while the parents all rode back in the Grimke's newer Honda.
"Jackie emailed me some of the songs from our teachers," Evan told the Saab driver.
"Yeah, are we in trouble?" Jake asked wondering what songs they might have to play.
"Only if we think there is going to be any element of surprise left in this," Evan confided, "they all know what we are planning. Might as well tell Will now, he's going to be crushed that it's not a surprise anymore but we got to roll on with this."
"Yeah, crushed is an understatement, Will's taken this whole project to heart. And to be honest Ev, I didn't think the surprise thing was going to work that much; it sounded great in the beginning but it's just too big of an undertaking to make it much of surprise for everybody," Evan's wingman responded.
"So what do we do?" Evan asked.
"Simple," Jake replied, "we take a look at the songs, come up with about ten, maybe a dozen songs and play our hearts out, like we always do."
"This isn't lacrosse," Evan reminded him.
"I know, but doesn't mean we don't give it our all," Jake reminded him, "what's Jackie got for us?"
"A bunch, some of it we can't do, we aren't country enough, I kind of already went through the list once," Evan confessed.
"Okay, so, what's left?" Jake asked.
"Some Van Halen, that should be no problem; we've already covered them, Miss Weiger in English likes Fallout Boy, your history teacher hates the Beatles but loves George Harrison, Coach Dase digs The Boss, Miss Birdsong loves that rendition of "What A Wonderful World" you did at Christmas so we better do that," enumerated Evan before clicking through his smartphone keyboard to pull up Jackie's email as they drove back from Baltimore.
"Maybe we can throw in a song or two we like also. I was thinking of `School's Out' since it's graduation," Jake offered.
"That would be cool, Jackie says Mr. Fromme from Chemistry digs Pink Floyd," Evan continued.
"That old stoner, I think he has sniffed more than his share of chemicals over the years," Jake remarked with a grin.
"Mr. Cooper in Math likes My Chemical Romance," Evan said, closing out the email, "that's all I've got so far. Not sure if Beecher heard anything more or different from Shelia yet."
"What about Will?" Jake asked, "he hasn't said anything to me."
"He just said he's got something," Evan said before quickly adding, "Erik says Anna has song she wants to do."
"Well, we still have tomorrow off before we go back to class on Tuesday. I say we have a kick ass workout, a good toss and then get back together in the garage and see what we can come up with," Jake planned out loud, "you down with that?"
Evan nodded yes, already holding his phone to his ear to rally the rest of the Mohawks as they pulled up on the Grimke driveway. Annie and Emma and John were all enjoying a glass of wine on the Grimke patio as the boys walked up, Evan asking, "we having dinner here Mom?"
"How'd you guess," Annie asked with a casual swirl of her white wine, nodding to the tiny wisps of smoke coming out of John's Weber grill.
"I'm trying a Cuban-style smoked pork roast," John said proudly as the scent of the mesquite smoke mingled with the slowly vaporizing lime and garlic marinade.
"You boys clean up out here a little bit and get the rest of the patio stuff out of the garage," Emma suggested, "Honey, you want to see if Will and his family want to come over too?"
"How much do we have," Jake asked, pulling his phone out, "got enough for Jackie too?"
Emma joked, "It's Easter, probably make a minor miracle of the loaves and the fishes happen. Your father has half a pig smoking in there."
While Evan was calling Jackie, Jake was hanging up with Will and announced, "Will plus two; Dad, you're going to love the Colonel."
"Jackie is in and bringing Anna too," Evan said.
Evan and Jake were both counting on their fingers like elementary school boys, and then looked at each other and said together, "That's ten."
"Get crackin; then," Emma ordered, "hose off those chairs and the tables. Jake, I think there are some leftover chocolate expresso brownies out in the big freezer in the garage."
Annie watched in amazement as the whole impromptu dinner party fell together in practically minutes. Jake changed into some shorts and a long sleeve tee shirt from a bygone lacrosse camp and shared the same with Evan before tossing him some old Nikes since they were practically the same size in all the clothes they wore. Less than an hour later, the tables and chairs were out of the garage with the cobwebs and dust hosed off of them. As they drip dried in the warm sun, Jake and Evan did what they did naturally and tossed a lacrosse ball in the expanse of the backyard waiting for everybody else to arrive.
Less than two hours later, the Hurleys were there and minutes after that, Jackie and Anna arrived and the jocks put away the lacrosse sticks. After any lingering introductions were made, discussion quickly focused on the concert plans. Jake gave Will the hard news that none of them thought there was much of an element of surprise left to which Will agreed saying, "I know, I think I was just fooling myself that we could really surprise that many people."
"Is this the extra-credit project you were telling us about Will?" the Colonel demanded to know.
"Yes sir," Will answered, sending a shiver down Jake's spine as Will looked to him for an ounce of comfort.
"I'm not sure I follow," the Colonel replied.
Evan backed up Will before Jake could organize his own thoughts, "It's just a domino effect from the concert a bunch of us did at Christmas. We kind of thought we could do a bigger show and Will was really helping us get it organized, that's all."
"Will, do you think this is really a good use of your time?" the Colonel continued the parental interrogation, "is this what you have been doing after school almost every day?"
"Yes it is Colonel," Jake jumped in, "I'd say without Will's help, we'd be nowhere on this project. We just want it to be a chance to give back to our teachers if you know what I mean."
The Colonel sighed, a little flustered and then looked at Jake and Evan, "so, what do you guys think you can play?"
Jackie jumped in to the fray next, "Lot's, they're really good. They have all been practicing this past week while we were on break."
Not a total untruth but truth be told, the Mohawks were just aimlessly jamming in the Grimke garage in between mandatory lacrosse workouts and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each team still left to play this season. With almost an hour left for the roast to finish, John suggested, "why don't you guys show us what you got?"
The boys made a hasty exit to the Grimke garage were most of the equipment had been set up and began connecting power cords and speaker cables together. Evan and Jake tuned up their guitars and Will took to the keyboard. Erik's drums never made the move to the governor's mansion so Jake's dad picked up the drum sticks as Jake and Evan went through some basic chords.
"Whatcha got for us Will?" Jake asked with a glance over to his friend as the guitars went silent for a minute.
"You guys recognize this at all?" Will asked as he went through the opening bars of Coldplay's "Clocks."
"Coldplay, 'Clocks,' great song," Evan said, "you with me Jake?"
Jake just nodded and found the same chords as Evan did on his guitar and John stepped in with a gentle rhythm on the drums behind the boys.
"Who knows all the words?" Evan asked.
"I do, at least most of them," Jake said with confidence, "once more from the top; take it away Will."
Upon hearing the music go from random riffs while tuning and basic chord playing to an actual organized and recognizable melody, Jackie and Anna came into the garage followed by the rest of the parents just as Will replayed the opening notes again on the newer Yamaha electric keyboard in front of him. After the first solo bars by the keyboardist, Jake, Evan and John joined in together before Jake sang out the opening lyrics.
Emma beamed as her men played together comfortably, smiling back and forth at each other like they didn't have a care in the world while Jackie and Anna were practically screaming and jumping up and down like any teenage girl would standing in front of their favorite rock band. Annie smiled at Evan before she noticed the Colonel trying to fight back a tear as Will's mom Angela put her left hand on the back of her husband's left shoulder and gave him a big kiss on his right cheek.
It was gratifying for Will's parents to see their son transform from last year's social outcast to being welcomed and accepted by some of the more popular seniors at Severn. As the unpracticed song struggled to cross the finish line, the Colonel whistled and clapped the loudest making Will blush a little until he smiled as broadly as Jake.
"So, are these the people you've been hanging out with Will?" the Colonel asked.
"Yes sir," Will replied, "well, in all fairness, it's only about half of them, we're still missing Aaron Beecher and Erik Syms on bass and drums respectively."
"Well, you did fine subbing son, just fine," the Colonel beamed making Will try to remember the last time his father smiled at him like that.
"You guys keep playing, Annie and I are going to finish getting dinner ready," Emma announced grabbing Evan's mom and heading into the kitchen.
After dinner and dessert, everybody but the Hurley's went home. Jake's parents talked with Will's parents in the den while Will and Jake talked out in the garage. Tempted as they were to rid themselves of any pent up sexual stress, there were twice as many sets of eyes that might catch them doing something together that neither young man looked forward to getting caught doing.
"You never told me," Jake started.
"What, that I can play piano too?" Will tried to answer the question before it was finished.
"No, I mean you never told me how I could tell a guy is gay or wants to you know, hang out with another guy," Jake said.
"I'll let you in on a little secret," Will said like he was going to give a way the combination to the gold reserves held at Fort Knox.
"Oh yeah," Jake responded with a hungry anticipation in his voice like he was about to receive the combination to the gold reserves held at Fort Knox.
"Yeah Jake," Will said, "you just say, `we should hang out sometime'."
"Really, that's it?" Jake seemed surprised.
"Worked on you didn't it?" Will forced Jake to remember.
"Yeah, I guess it did," Jake said realizing that's all it took.
"So Jake Grimke, repeat after me," Will started, "Hey, Jose, you want to hang out sometime?"
"Hey, Jose, you want to hang out sometime?" Jake repeated matching the inflections that Will used exactly, then changed his tone, "hey, how'd you know?"
"I remember from the Christmas concert at Children's, as I recall, you were both checking each other out," Will said.
"Man, I just close my eyes and picture him; he just makes my knees sweat." Jake said with a long lustful sigh.
Jake heard the kitchen door open and their parent's voices getting louder as Emma and John escorted the Hurley's to their car. Will gave Jake a quick hug and kiss in the garage before they emerged and Will got in the back seat for the short ride home. "I"ll call you tomorrow, we begin practicing the playlist tomorrow night," Jake said with a wave to the Hurleys as the car began backing down the driveway.
"We're going to bed son," John said embracing him, "I work tomorrow and you got a full day planned so don't stay up too late."
"I won't, I'm pretty tired myself, it's been a long day," Jake replied first hugging his dad and then his mom, "l love you guys. Thanks for everything; I think we made all the Hurleys just a little happier tonight.