Hobbled

by John Inman

  “His name is Jeff. Jeff Jamison,” his father said. “Jeff, this is my son, Danny. You met Mr. Jamison last night, Danny, but maybe you don’t remember, what with all the excitement and everything.”

  “Hello, Danny,” Luke’s dad said. “Call me Jeff.” His voice was as soft as butter. He had an easy smile Danny suspected rarely left his face. Danny liked the man immediately. And he was thrilled for his dad too. He really was. They looked happy together, and Danny was glad his father had found someone.

  Was Danny shocked to have learned his father was gay? No, he decided. Not at all. It was just the way some people are. What they did in their bedrooms didn’t matter. What mattered was what they felt in their hearts. How they treated the people around them. How they lived the lives that were given them. That’s what mattered.

  Danny’s father was a good man. Gay or straight, he would always be a good man.

  Luke tilted his head at Danny’s dad, but he spoke to his own father. “I take it this is the gay neighbor you said we would be living next to when we moved to San Diego.”

  “That’s the one,” his dad said proudly. “But I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans. We aren’t going to be neighbors after all.”

  Luke and Danny both tensed up. Worried looks shot across their faces. It was Luke who spoke first. “You mean we’re not buying the house?” His voice was two octaves higher than usual.

  Danny watched as the two older men’s hands just sort of found each other and their fingers intertwined. Neither his dad nor Luke’s dad seemed to have made an effort to seek the other out. It just happened.

  Luke’s dad said, “Don’t worry. We’re still buying the house. I transferred money for a down payment this morning. It’s a done deal.”

  Luke looked confused. “Then why do you say we won’t be neighbors? If you move somewhere else, I’m not going. I want to be with Danny.”

  Danny laid his hand over Luke’s, but he didn’t say anything. He still looked worried, though. His eyes were burning holes in his father, waiting to hear what the hell the two men were beating around the bush about.

  It was Danny’s father who tried to explain. “We’re not going to be neighbors, boys, because Jeff and I want to live together. We’re assuming you guys want to live together too.”

  “Well, duh!” Danny snapped. And just as quickly, he said, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to say that, Pop. I just don’t understand what’s going on. Just give it to us in plain English, okay? You’re scaring the heck out of us.”

  Both men grinned.

  “Don’t be afraid, Danny. Dan and I have a proposition for you both.” It was Luke’s father speaking. He still held Danny’s father’s hand. If anything, he seemed to have scooted a little closer to the man he was in love with. “We’ve decided to help you boys get started. We know what it’s like to be gay, and we know what it’s like to be in love. We also, believe it or not, remember what it’s like to be young and broke. We don’t want you guys to struggle like we did when we were your age.”

  A little line formed between Danny’s eyebrows. He was confused. “I wish one of you would just spit it out. What are you trying to say exactly?”

  Luke’s dad took a deep breath and laid things out in the open. “We want you boys to take the new house. I mean, not legally, but just to live in. Rent free. For as long as you need it.”

  Luke and Danny sprang to attention, grins creeping across their faces. Luke’s face snuggled up to Danny’s foot, the one without the cast, and stayed there. Occasionally he planted a kiss on Danny’s newly monitor-free ankle.

  “With a few caveats,” Danny’s dad interjected. “We’ll expect you to both either start working or start some sort of schooling as soon as you can. We would prefer schooling, but we’ll leave it up to you. We just want you to find something to do that you can be happy doing for the rest of your life. And that doesn’t mean flipping burgers and destroying ice machines for the next forty years.”

  Danny laughed. His father didn’t.

  It was Jeff’s turn. “As soon as you’re on your feet, moneywise, Dan and I expect the two of you to pay the utilities on the house. Lights, water, the works. We expect you to keep the property in good shape and we expect you to say good morning when you see either one of us across the hedge.”

  “What if it’s afternoon?” Luke asked.

  “Don’t be a wiseass,” his father said.

  Danny’s dad leaned forward and stared more closely at Danny’s face. He waited until his son was staring back and paying full attention.

  “Danny, I kind of think you boys are too young to be lovers. But Jeff feels differently. What do you think, Son? Are you honestly ready to commit to one person? To always be there with them when they want you there, and maybe take a hike now and then when they need to be alone? Are you ready for that kind of commitment? It isn’t always easy being gay, Son. And it really isn’t easy being lovers. It takes work.”

  Danny didn’t hesitate. He held Luke’s hand while he spoke. “Being gay is something I have no control over. I am what I am. Just like you are. Just like all four of us are. But I do know I want to be with Luke. I’ll do whatever it takes to make him happy. And I don’t doubt for a minute that he’ll do the same for me. We have to be lovers, Pop. It isn’t even a matter of choice. We need to be together.”

  Danny’s dad smiled at the earnestness on his son’s face. He turned to Luke. “And you?” he asked softly. “What do you think of all this?”

  Even while he spoke, Luke did not lift his cheek from Danny’s foot. “I think I loved your son the first minute I saw him. Tell me, sir. Do you believe in love at first sight?”

  Danny’s father dragged his eyes to the man beside him. “Yes,” he said. “I’ve believed in it ever since I met your dad. It’s like—it’s like—”

  Luke finished the thought for him. “It’s like a bolt of lightning. A bolt of lightning that crashes right into your heart. Don’t you think? Don’t you think that’s what it’s like?”

  Danny’s father nodded. There was a sparkle in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. A new huskiness in his voice. “That’s exactly what it’s like,” he said. “Lightning. Right to the heart.”

  “I’m crazy nuts about your son, sir. I’ll be good to him. I will.” Luke’s eyes were open, honest, sincere.

  “I’m not worried about that, Luke.”

  “And I’ll be good to your son,” Danny said to the ginger-haired man in love with his father.

  Jeff smiled another gentle smile when Danny spoke the words that so clearly came from the boy’s heart. “And I’m not worried about that, Danny.”

  Without realizing he was even doing it, Danny’s father lifted Jeff’s hand to his face and held it to his cheek while he spoke. “So this is definitely what you both want.”

  “Yes, sir,” Luke said. His blue eyes were crystal clear. Filled with love. Filled with determination.

  “We’ll never be happy any other way,” Danny said. “Just like the two of you, I think.”

  “Yes,” Jeff said. “Just like the two of us.”

  Luke’s father laid his head on his new lover’s shoulder. Together, the two men simply sat there and stared at the two boys they had raised half a country apart from each other. But somehow their boys had come together. Just like they had. A happiness lit up both men’s eyes and Danny felt his own eyes tear up to see it there.

  Danny’s dad cleared his throat. “Danny. Luke. If you’re sure this is who you are, and if you’re sure this is what you want, then you have our full blessing. All we ask is that you give us your blessing in return.”

  “Gladly,” Danny said.

  “Happily,” Luke said, at the very same moment.

  “Meow,” Frederick said from the bookcase, and all four laughed.

  “On that note,” Jeff announced, pulling himself to his feet and tightening the belt on his bathrobe, “I’m going to go start breakfast. Breakfast for everybody. You boys come down when you’re
ready. Or when you smell the house burning down around you. I’m not much of a cook.”

  “Don’t worry.” Danny’s father grinned. “I am. I’ll give you a hand.”

  They headed for the door. They both seemed a little relieved that the conversation was over. Danny supposed this was a bit like the gay version of the “birds and the bees” speech. Every parent is always glad to see that end, too, or so Danny had heard. He couldn’t imagine why.

  Well, maybe he could.

  Danny’s father turned back at the door. With a wink to both Luke and his son, he said, “You boys come on downstairs, okay? You had a hell of a night. You need some food in you.” With a grin threatening to turn up the corners of his mouth, he added, “I don’t imagine we’ll see you again for the rest of the day after breakfast is over. Right? You’ll be sleeping in, I guess. Spending the day in bed, what with your being so exhausted from your adventures, and then your stint in the emergency room getting a new cast put on and all.”

  Danny laughed, clutching Luke’s hand just a little bit tighter. “Right as rain, Pop. Really exhausted. Worn out completely. Both of us. We’ll probably sleep for maybe a couple of days.”

  At his feet, Luke merely smiled, although he blushed when he did it. Inside his head, he was agreeing all over the place. He had all kinds of things he wanted to do with Danny after breakfast, and it might indeed take two full days to get them all done. Sleeping in wasn’t exactly involved, but the bed certainly was. And Danny’s strong arms and long lean legs and everything to be found between those arms and legs was most certainly involved.

  With a shake of their heads, as if maybe they knew exactly what their sons were thinking, and they probably did, the two fathers closed the door quietly behind them, leaving the boys alone.

  Danny gazed at Luke’s face. In Luke’s perfect cornflower-blue eyes, he saw not a glimmer of doubt that Danny was everything Luke wanted. Danny hoped Luke could see the same truth, the same certainty, in his own eyes. Because it was there. He knew it was. This was just the way Danny always dreamed love would be. There was not a doubt between the two of them. They both knew exactly what they wanted.

  They wanted each other. Period.

  But first, a little breakfast.

  Danny grunted his way to his feet. He pulled Luke up from the floor. Then he couldn’t hold it in another minute.

  “We’ve got a house!” Danny screamed.

  “All to ourselves!” Luke screamed right back.

  Still grinning and jumping around, stunned by their good fortune, they headed through the door.

  Halfway down the stairs a tornado flew past. It was Frederick, and Granger was hot on his heels. They were both madder than hell. Between the two of them, they sounded like forty dogs and cats and a couple of Tasmanian devils.

  “Aw, pets,” Luke sighed happily.

  Danny pulled Luke close to use him as a crutch, and Luke was more than happy to be used. Together they headed for the kitchen and the smell of bacon frying in a skillet. It smelled heavenly. Danny suddenly realized how hungry he was.

  Somebody dropped a pot lid on the kitchen floor, and his father’s laughter rang out. Luke’s dad joined in. They sounded like a couple of kids.

  Danny smiled, listening to them.

  “You love me,” Luke whispered in his ear.

  “You love me too,” Danny said, opening his eyes and savoring the sound of Luke’s voice, savoring the sight of Luke’s perfect face. Savoring the warmth of Luke’s arms holding him tight.

  Then they laughed, because they simply had to. And, still laughing, they joined their dads in the kitchen.

  About the Author

  JOHN INMAN has been writing fiction since he was old enough to hold a pencil. He and his partner live in beautiful San Diego, California. Together, they share a passion for theater, books, hiking and biking along the trails and canyons of San Diego or, if the mood strikes, simply kicking back with a beer and a movie. John’s advice for anyone who wishes to be a writer? “Set time aside to write every day and do it. Don’t be afraid to share what you’ve written. Feedback is important. When a rejection slip comes in, just tear it up and try again. Keep mailing stuff out. Keep writing and rewriting and then rewrite one more time. Every minute of the struggle is worth it in the end, so don’t give up. Ever. Remember that publishers are a lot like lovers. Sometimes you have to look a long time to find the one that’s right for you.”

  You can contact John at john492@att.net, on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/john.inman.79, or on his website: http:// www.johninmanauthor.com/

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