An Earlier Heaven

by D. W. Marchwell

  “Cool,” Cory said as he sat back in his chair and rubbed his belly. “I’m stuffed.”

  “I hope you saved room for some blueberry pie and ice cream.” David returned to the table and placed the steaming pie in the center before taking the remaining two plates. Jerry stood himself and helped clear away the remaining pots and pans before returning with the two-liter tub of ice cream.

  “Maybe a little piece,” Cory offered with a lopsided grin.

  “You should try his Sachertorte,” William said as he stood so he could begin scooping ice cream onto the small dessert plates. “It’s almost as good as Frau Zimmerman’s.”

  Jerry noticed the look of confusion pass over Cory’s features. “The cook at the boarding school William attended in Switzerland.”

  “She answered my e-mail the other day,” William announced to no one in particular. “She sent me pictures of her new grandson. She said his name is Heinrich.” William finished filling the fourth bowl with two scoops of ice cream and looked over at Cory. “That’s Henry in English.”

  “Thanks,” Cory said as he accepted the bowl that William held out to him. “And you speak French as well? That must be so great to be able to speak another language.”

  “I can teach you, if you’d like,” William offered as Jerry filled his plate with a big piece of pie.

  Jerry noticed David fight the urge to smile at how caring and mindful William had become of Cory and finished depositing pieces of pie on his and David’s plates. “Great,” Jerry sighed playfully, “that’ll just leave me as the only one who won’t understand what anyone is saying.”

  “I was never very good at languages,” Cory said as he tried to pick up a piece of pie without the little dollop of ice cream on top falling off. “Never very good at math either.”

  “What are you good at?” William asked and then added quickly, “Besides sports, I mean.”

  “Drawing, mainly,” Cory said once he’d swallowed. “And I always got good marks in English.”

  “And gym class.” William added as he looked up at Cory.

  “Sure, and gym class.”

  Jerry ate his pie slowly, wondering why Cory had suddenly begun to refer to his life in the past tense, as if he’d already decided that he would never be going back to the life he’d run away from. And he wanted to ask Cory about it in the worse way, but knew the trust needed for those kinds of questions had not yet been established. “Hey,” Jerry said finally. “I have an idea. Why don’t you and Cory go and look on top of the television in the family room.” Jerry nodded in the direction of the huge family room to the right of the kitchen. “There’s a huge screen in there, and I bought some movies when we were at the mall today.” Jerry looked to William. “And I do believe one of them is the sequel to The Fantastic Four.”

  Chapter 13

  JERRY stretched his long body in the plush leather theatre-style reclining chair and looked over at William. Fast asleep. It was no surprise; William had had another very busy day full of excitement. And the fact that each of them had his own individual reclining seat with console complete with cup holders probably helped to lull both William and Cory to sleep long before the movie ended.

  He stood at the same time as David and headed for William. “I’ll get the boys to bed and meet you in the Jacuzzi in about ten minutes.” Jerry stood close to David so he could whisper, “I’ll bring the suits in case the boys wake up and come down, but I was hoping to get you naked.” Jerry kissed David’s ear and then bent to scoop up his son as David touched Cory gently on the shoulder.

  “Sorry,” Cory said as he shook his head to wake himself up. “I’m awake.”

  “Time for bed, Cory,” David said as he pointed to Jerry, who had William in his arms.

  “’Kay,” Cory murmured as he stood and followed Jerry and William upstairs. Before leaving the kitchen, Cory turned back to David. Jerry stopped to see if there was anything wrong. “I wanted to thank you for being so nice to me. I haven’t had a lot of that lately.”

  “I’ll let you two talk a bit,” Jerry explained as he started for the stairs. “I’m just gonna get this guy to bed.”

  As he walked up the stairs, Jerry could hear Cory’s hushed voice. Perhaps, Jerry hoped, Cory was finally opening up about what he’d been through. And he hoped more than anything that Cory would be able to find some peace of mind, not only for himself, but also because William still seemed so intent on keeping him in their lives.

  AFTER spending almost ten minutes trying to put an unconscious William into pajamas, he had to stifle the laughter as he imagined the strange picture the two of them must have presented. Every time that Jerry managed to get a limb free of clothing, William would roll onto his side and reach for Jerry and hamper his efforts in freeing the next limb.

  It took him a little longer than he’d anticipated to finally get William into bed, and he’d expected to find David alone—and near or in the Jacuzzi—but Jerry found him and Cory sitting at the table. Jerry could tell, immediately, that Cory had shed some tears or had been fighting hard to keep them inside. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young man. Cory’s home life had been so horrible that he’d felt the need to run away and leave everything he’d known behind. And as he took a seat at the table, Jerry realized that Cory’s home life must have been so bad that running away and starting again—with no one and nothing offering any kind of support—seemed like the best of all possible options.

  “Sorry,” Jerry said when Cory finally noticed him, “should I come back later?”

  “It’s okay,” David began to explain while Cory looked away and took a few quick swipes at his eyes. “Cory was just heading off to bed, but he did give me permission to let you know what we were talking about.” David turned back to look at Cory, his hand coming out to rest gently on Cory’s shoulder in a reassuring way. “I promise, William won’t find out. And I meant what I said about you being welcome here any time.”

  Cory nodded slightly, his eyes darting quickly between the two adults, and then he was heading for the stairs. Both David and Jerry watched Cory ascend the stairs, ready with compassionate smiles if he looked at them, but he didn’t; Cory kept his eyes on the stairs until he reached the top and disappeared into his room.

  “Oh. My. God.” David said as he closed his eyes and leaned into Jerry.

  “That bad?”

  “I need something to drink.” David headed to the fridge, and Jerry began to wonder what Cory could have possibly said to make David drink. It couldn’t be too bad, could it? After all, David had extended an open invitation. He wouldn’t have done that if he’d discovered something too awful. Jerry was sure of that, at least. “Where are the suits?” David asked as he came back to stand in front of Jerry with an unopened bottle of white wine and two glasses. “Did you forget them?”

  Jerry reached into his back pocket and pulled out two pairs of boxer shorts. “Forgot that our suits were already down here and probably still damp.” Jerry put his arm over David’s shoulder and the two of them walked to the Jacuzzi. “Don’t start without me. I’m going to run over to the bathroom and get a couple of towels.” Jerry turned back to look at David, who was already stripping out of his clothes. “Is it something that could hurt William? Or you?” Jerry didn’t feel reassured that David had to think a few moments before shaking his head.

  Even though his trip to retrieve the towels took mere minutes, Jerry found his mind racing to consider all the possible complications that Cory’s confession could mean for him and his family, especially William. He returned to find David already sitting in the warm, bubbling water of the Jacuzzi, his head tilted back and both wine glasses filled almost to the brims with the white wine. It didn’t seem that David had taken even a small sip of his wine yet.

  “You’re not going to fall asleep on me, are you?” Jerry was free of his T-shirt and was stepping out of his pants and boxers at the same time when he noticed David’s eyes come open.

  “Absolutely not,
” David said as he stood and stepped over to where Jerry was entering the Jacuzzi. “And most certainly not when you’re naked.”

  Jerry smiled, sat down in front of one of the jets, and then pulled David onto his lap. “Good answer,” he sighed as he leaned forward a little so that their lips could skim over cheeks and chins and necks and ears. Jerry’s hands roamed over the smooth, slick skin of his lover’s back for what felt like only minutes and finally settled on David’s ass. “What do you want, baby?”

  “This,” David moaned and pulled his head up from Jerry’s shoulder to look at him with those bedroom eyes. He continued to move his hands slowly over Jerry’s chest and shoulders. “I want this. This is good.” Jerry closed his eyes as David’s long, wet, slender fingers came up to caress his cheeks, his forehead and then finally settle themselves on Jerry’s close-cropped hair. “I have to tell you something, and I don’t want you to be worried.”

  “Okay,” Jerry said cautiously.

  “Cory’s father has been beating him for almost six years now.” Jerry opened his mouth, furrowed his brow, ready to offer a comment. But David placed a finger across his lips to silence him. “His father is a big man, like you.” David’s caresses grew even more gentle, and Jerry couldn’t help but wonder what he had to be worried about; all of this information had very little to do with him. “Cory is a little intimidated by you… your size.”

  “Okay,” Jerry repeated.

  “It’s why he’s kind of standoffish with you and not me.”

  “Cory thinks I’d hit him?”

  Jerry heard his own voice, heard the disbelief and disappointment. It was no surprise to him then when David’s voice became hushed, as if he were speaking to William after a particularly bad day. “He knows on some level you never would, but he’s been… trained, I guess, to be very guarded around men your size and what they’ve represented in his life up until now.”

  “Okay,” Jerry said for a third time, not really sure how he was supposed to react, what he was supposed to say to all that.

  “He wanted me to tell you that.” David dipped his hands into the warm water and brought them back to Jerry’s shoulders, soothing and pacifying. “He wanted me to thank you for all you’ve done for him this weekend.”

  “Guess I should have realized that,” Jerry admitted after a few moments. “When we were in the art supply store, I told him he could pick out anything he wanted. After a few minutes of him looking on his own throughout the store, I went to find him. I came up behind him and touched him on the shoulder as I called his name. And… he flinched. I mean, he brought up his right arm. I thought it was just that I’d scared him, but now I understand.”

  “There’s more.”

  Jerry wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest of it, but he pulled David’s body closer to him as he listened.

  “His mother passed away about six years ago, and his father came back to be closer to his own mother, so that she could help take care of them.” David’s hands moved to the back of Jerry’s neck. “And Cory said that everything was great, but then his grandma passed away, and his father started to spiral out of control. Alcohol, drugs, yelling, screaming… or crying. Eventually, he lost his job, and that’s when he turned to growing and making and selling drugs.”

  “Jesus,” Jerry murmured, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “Cory ran away to Edmonton this past Wednesday.”

  “I guess that explains why he wasn’t there to help William’s soccer team.”

  “He told me that his father was drunk, drunker than usual. When Cory got home from that last soccer practice a little late, his father showed his disapproval with his fists. So, Cory called the police to report his own father and then ran away before they arrived; he was afraid they’d arrest him too.”

  “I’ll have to call Sara first thing tomorrow.”

  “He says he won’t go back. Says that he’ll run away if we try to make him go back.”

  “You believe him?”

  “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll take off if he sees us as betraying him.”

  “So,” Jerry said as he brought his own hand to rub at the thick hairs of his beard, “I shouldn’t call Sara?”

  “I don’t think we have a choice.” David shrugged and smoothed some more water over Jerry’s chest and shoulders. “I can check with Lenore about protocol, but I think I already know that she’ll tell me it has to be reported to the police.”

  “Is there any other family?”

  “He mentioned something about an aunt, his father’s eldest sister. She apparently lives in the south end of Calgary.”

  “Should we call her? I mean, did he say anything about calling her or going to live with her?”

  David shrugged. “He’s still pretty reluctant to share too much information. I would watch his face when he was telling me all this, and I could almost see his brain working really hard to sort out what he should tell me and what he shouldn’t. I think he’s more spooked than anything else, like the horses during thunderstorms.”

  “Was he crying?”

  David nodded and then got off of Jerry’s lap so that he could drape his long legs over his instead. “He was crying because he said that his dad used to sell to some of the students at his school, said that everyone knows what his dad does for a living.” David shrugged, a sign of frustration Jerry assumed. “He’s been harassed, ridiculed, bullied, and even suspended once because he smelled like pot. Apparently, the principal didn’t believe him when he tried to explain about his home life.”

  “Didn’t you tell me once that if a school employee—like a principal—even suspects abuse, he or she has to report it?”

  “Maybe it was easier for him to believe that Cory was just making it all up.”

  “Asshole,” Jerry muttered.

  “That may not be fair,” David said as he continued to stroke his hand over Jerry’s shoulders and neck. “We don’t know what kind of information he had, so he may have made the decision he felt best at the time.”

  “That doesn’t mean he’s not an asshole.” Jerry took hold of David’s hands and pulled him so that he was once again sitting on his lap. “Now,” Jerry said as David settled against him, “what would you say to forgetting about everyone else until tomorrow.” He covered David’s lips with his own and let his hands find their way back to the sensitive flesh of his husband’s back.

  IT TOOK David a few minutes to realize that he wasn’t hearing—or feeling—Jerry; he must already be out of bed, David realized as he turned over on his side again to look at the amber digital numbers of the clock. It wasn’t even seven in the morning, and he was alone in bed. It wasn’t that he was alone in bed that seemed to bother David, but rather that he had managed to sleep through the departure. He wasn’t what anyone would call a light sleeper, but any movement from Jerry had usually woken him, even out of the deepest of sleeps. As he stretched, David remembered that they hadn’t made it to bed until just after midnight.

  The boys had gone to bed just after ten, and then David and Jerry had found themselves in the Jacuzzi until their skin began to wrinkle, at which point they’d made their way to the bedroom but had been far too busy continuing their romantic evening to realize they’d stayed up far too late. He didn’t know what shape Jerry was in, but David was already planning his afternoon nap.

  He allowed himself to doze for another few minutes before he heard William giggling in the hallway just outside the bedroom doors. As if by force of habit, David found himself smiling at the sound of William being William and swung his legs over the side of the bed. It took him a few moments to splash some water on his face, drag a brush through his unruly hair, and then he was on his way to the kitchen.

  Before heading into the kitchen, David decided to see what Jerry and the boys were up to in the pool house; there seemed to be an awful lot of laughing and carrying-on happening for so early in the morning. “What does everyone want… for breakfast?” David had thought he would ge
t everyone’s order, but Jerry’s absence from even the pool area made him a little nervous. Where is he? Where did he have to be so early? And why didn’t he tell me about it? Why didn’t he wake me?

  “Chocolate waffles, please,” William was already in the water, toys bobbing in the wake of his energy. “With blueberries and syrup.” David felt his pancreas protest in sympathy of William’s.

  “Sounds good to me,” Cory said as he smiled over at David.

  David hadn’t realized until that moment that Cory was shirtless and in the water beside William. Nor had he noticed the death grip that Cory seemed to have on the inflatable killer whale that was bigger than William. “William, where’s your father?”

  “I think he’s in the study. At least he was there a couple of minutes ago.”

  “Okay, thanks.” David moved closer to the edge of the pool and picked up the long buoy line and tossed one end to William. “Remember, you don’t take Cory in the deep end until Jerry and I are here to make sure nothing goes wrong. Okay?”

  “’Kay.” William swam back to where Cory stood.

  As he left to find Jerry, David stifled a laugh when he heard William explaining how they would start with getting Cory to put his head under the water for a count of three.

  He stood next to the office door but didn’t immediately hear Jerry’s voice, only the tapping sound. That sound, David would always—forevermore—associate with his husband. Not being a terribly patient person, Jerry was far too often found bouncing his left leg and tapping a pencil—or pen or ruler or paintbrush—on the closest horizontal surface.

  David knocked and then pushed the heavy mahogany door; it opened quite easily and revealed Jerry sitting on top of the ornate desk tapping a letter opener against the well-worn leather insert. Jerry smiled at him, and David took a seat on one of the two love seats covered with dark green raw silk upholstery, waiting for Jerry to finish his phone call. It wasn’t difficult for David, after a few minutes, to figure out that Jerry was speaking with Sara. Nor was it difficult for David to figure out the topic of conversation.