by KG MacGregor
Underneath the pavilion, the buffet was being set up on a long picnic table covered with a patchwork of tablecloths—red-checkered, blue-checkered, white and rainbow. After wedging her dish into a spot between the salads and the other vegetables, she peered out into the sun in search of familiar faces.
Carly yelled from atop a ladder, where she was stringing a volleyball net across a sandy court. “Hey, Ninah! Grab me a Sun Drop.”
As she rummaged through one of the coolers, Teri arrived balancing a large bag of ice on each shoulder. “Yo Ninah. Give me a hand with this, will you?”
Remembering Justine’s encouragement to restore some civility to her dealings with Teri, Ninah grabbed one of the bags and propped it by a cooler. Irked by the ever-present MAGA hat—at the Pride picnic, of all days—she just couldn’t bring herself to actually speak.
“You’re looking good, Nines.”
“Thanks,” she managed to mumble. The compliment surprised her, given their acrimonious last encounter. It was true she’d been paying more attention to her appearance since getting involved with Britt, fussing over her face and hair, and choosing clothes that showed off her work at the wellness center. Still, she’d hardly expected Teri to notice.
“Appreciate the help, those were heavy. You know me—too lazy to make two trips.”
No. She would not be drawn into a conversation that might normalize their relationship, not if it meant looking at that symbol of hate.
“Still the silent treatment, huh? Suit yourself.”
“I have no desire to make small talk with anyone who’d wear that hateful hat.”
“That’s a real fetish with you, isn’t it? You really ought to get some help for that.”
“If one of us has a hat fetish, it’s you. You had a choice this morning, Teri. You could have worn a Pride cap, a cowboy hat, even a fucking helicopter beanie. No, you chose to go with a fuck you, because you know the very sight of it makes most people here wanna puke.”
“I don’t dress myself for most people.”
“Oh, I think you do. Maybe you should think about seeing a therapist. They could help you understand why you have a sociopathic need to rub people’s noses in it.”
“I can tell you why. It’s because I’m not gonna give assholes like you the satisfaction of taking it off. The more you bitch about it, the more it makes me wanna wear it. In case you haven’t noticed, people have been treating me like shit for three years. Mostly thanks to you, the way you’ve trashed me to everybody. Why should I care about their feelings?”
“Because you hurt them. You sided with a man who takes sadistic joy from being cruel to people he thinks are beneath him, including our whole community. I didn’t trash you—you trashed yourself. Decent people respect others’ humanity.”
“What about respecting my humanity, Ninah?”
Ninah was sick of having this conversation over and over, as if it ever would end differently. “We all respected you before you sold us out. If you ever want our respect again, you’ll have to earn it.”
By the time she got across the field, Carly had finished with the net and was sitting in a lawn chair beneath a maple tree with Justine. “Come join us. You and Teri fighting again?”
“I’m so tired of her shit.”
“Apparently, shit is contagious,” Justine grumbled, intercepting Carly’s Sun Drop for the precious first swig.
Carly had warned her that Justine was still in a funk over Emmy and Ike…or more precisely, over her reaction to the news they were dating. She was angry with herself, even questioning her own convictions.
“How are things with Emmy? You guys getting it worked out?”
“I don’t think she’s mad at me anymore but I can tell she’s disappointed…which, for the record, is a thousand times worse. Not that I blame her.”
“I’m sure it’ll all work out.” A tepid response was the best Ninah could manage, since she too had been disappointed in Justine’s reaction. “But whatever you said or didn’t say, you can’t possibly compare yourself to Teri Kaufman. You’re not even in the same ballpark.”
“I wish I could believe that. For about three seconds, there wasn’t an inch of daylight between Teri and me. I didn’t think Ike Martin was good enough to date my daughter, and Emmy saw it all over my face.”
“You are nothing like Teri. She embraces all that hate. You’re repulsed by it.”
“She’s right, sweetheart.” Carly pulled her into a hug. “If you were anyone else, you wouldn’t have raised Emmy to be the person she is. Three seconds won’t erase that.”
“I won’t be surprised if she freezes me out of her love life. It’s exactly what I deserve.”
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Ninah said. “Considering they’re planning on stopping by the park this afternoon together to show their support. Don’t forget, Ike’s brother Thaddeus is gay too.”
Justine’s face lit up with a bright smile. “They’re both coming here? Are you sure?”
“Uh-oh, I think I just spoiled their surprise.”
“Oh my God, that’s fantastic! Did you hear that, Carly?”
“I’ll go fetch the extra chairs from the car.”
“Ninah, you have no idea what a relief that is. This means she’s giving me a second chance.” She pressed her hands together and looked skyward. “Lord, please don’t let me screw this up.”
“Just do me a favor and act surprised. Hey, I have an idea. Wednesday’s Pride Night at the ballpark. Vernon’s gonna be up in the VIP suite, and I already asked Carly to help me keep an eye on my GSA kids in the stands. How about you take our tickets and go with Ike and Emmy instead of sitting with the Pride group? Enjoy it together, the three of you. Your own little mini-Pride section. It’ll be a big crowd that night, Boomer McBride’s last game in Leland.”
“You are so sweet, Ninah.” Justine stretched over to squeeze her hand, then nodded toward the parking lot. “Speaking of the Longdogs, isn’t that Britt coming back with Carly?”
“Day-um!”
“I’ll say.”
Britt wore short denim cutoffs that showed off her long, shapely legs, and a dainty white sleeveless top. Her hair cascaded from beneath a floppy straw hat, and half her face was hidden by oversized sunglasses. It was impossible not to notice the heads turning as she and Carly crossed the open field.
Also hard to miss was the sight of Margot bolting from her group of horse lovers as if it were suppertime in the barn.
“Oh shit.” Calculating the distance to intercept, Ninah bitterly accepted there was no point in racing to meet them as she couldn’t get there fast enough. “There goes an hour Britt will never get back.”
Margot headed them off and stopped directly in their path. To Ninah’s delight, Britt and Carly barely broke stride, offering only smiles and a perfunctory greeting as they sidestepped her and continued across the field. Margot got the message apparently and trotted back to her herd.
“Hi, beautiful,” Ninah said, eyeing Britt lasciviously. “I think I’ll stick close to you today. I have a feeling you’re gonna make a lot of new friends. I want them to know you already have a girlfriend.”
“I certainly do.” Britt kissed her on the lips before bending down to plant another on Justine’s cheek. “I can’t get over how many people are here. Who knew there were this many queers in Leland?”
Justine visibly shuddered, prompting Carly to say, “She hates that word.”
“Sorry, I meant lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, nonbinary, pansexual, asexual, questioning people. I probably left out half a dozen. That’s why most of my friends in California just say queer. We’ve taken the word back from the haters. If we reclaim our own language, they can’t hurt us by calling us names.”
“I know, I know,” Justine muttered. “With any luck, I’ll be hard of hearing by the time everyone starts using it.”
“I take it those are the coupons.” Ninah gestured at the small stack of cards in Britt’s
hand. “Britt printed up a bunch of two-dollar coupons for Pride Night at the ballpark.”
“A hundred and fifty of them. I hope that’s enough.”
Justine said, “By the way, I talked to Lawrence Dalton, our minister at Friendship Christian Church. He said he’d be honored to do the invocation on Wednesday. If you still want him to, that is.”
“Absolutely.”
Ninah was surprised to hear that Britt had extended the invitation. “I thought you were only doing the prayer on church nights.”
“I am, but I have a feeling Ned Coppins is going to have his holy rollers out protesting again. I thought it would help to hear from the other side.” Britt gestured with a tip of her head. “Shall we get started on handing these out?”
Ninah located Margot’s group and plotted a course that would make them the last stop. Then taking advantage of their surroundings, she looped her arm through Britt’s. “That was a sweet gesture with Justine’s minister. I’m very impressed.”
“I liked him. He stood up to Coppins that day at the Faith Luncheon. And it was an olive branch to Dad. I think he was starting to worry that I might be the Antichrist.”
“I take it you smoothed things over.”
“We understand each other better, I think. Dad’s always been nice to everyone, no matter their differences, so it makes him uncomfortable when I rock the boat. Even if I don’t share their beliefs, I should respect them. Or so he says, live and let live, all that.”
“Begging your dad’s pardon, that’s a lot easier when you’re in a position of privilege. He has status and probably holds beliefs that don’t violate the norm.”
“Exactly. If you’re a straight, white, Christian man, you aren’t used to being on the outside of an issue, so going along with the crowd isn’t hard at all.”
Ninah slowed their pace as they neared the parking area, where a group of gay men had set up their own tailgate party. She recognized Rob, the B&B owner, and his husband David. “Surely he doesn’t expect you to listen respectfully while folks like Ned Coppins spew their trash.”
“I asked him that specifically. Who gets to define which beliefs are worthy of respect? My mom? She’s a brainwashed lunatic and Coppins is a hate monger. If religious beliefs are arbitrary, respect should be arbitrary too.”
Rob rose to greet them, wearing a tank top that showed off his muscular shoulders. Even in his late fifties, his buff physique held up well to those of the younger shirtless men. “Ninah, good to see you.”
She greeted the faces that seemed familiar and reminded them she was the faculty sponsor for the GSA, who’d organized the second annual Pride Night at the ballpark. Then she introduced Britt so she could make her pitch.
“There were some protests by a local church group at last year’s event,” she explained. “Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do to restrict them since the city owns the park. What we can do is come out in numbers to show our support. We all remember what it was like—”
The sound of a car alarm pierced the air, bringing picnickers to their feet. Seconds later, the dark gray Dodge that had stalked Ninah and Thaddeus in front of the high school slung gravel as it fishtailed out of the lot.
One of Rob’s young friends sprinted to the parking lot to investigate, and yelled back, “Bad news, guys. We’ve got a bunch of flat tires out here.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ninah had hoped to avoid the limelight, but incoming president Abby McFarland insisted she accompany them onto the field for the presentation of their check to the library. For the occasion, she’d worn a T-shirt with rainbow lettering that spelled out PRIDE.
“Also representing the Gay-Straight Alliance, faculty sponsor—and longtime fan of our Longdogs—Ninah Faust.”
Hoots and hollers erupted from her various pockets of support. Loudest was the cluster of friends sitting in the club seats behind home plate. Tonight, that bunch included Justine, Ike and Emmy.
“…would like to present this check for three hundred dollars to the Leland County Public Library so they can add to their collection of books of special interest to the LGBTQ community. The GSA wishes to thank all those in attendance for coming out tonight to help celebrate Pride Night with the Longdogs.”
The ensuing applause was at least polite, if not particularly enthusiastic. More troubling was the scattered murmur of boos. Not as many as last year, Ninah noted as they returned to their seats in the right field bleachers, which had been roped off for their group. Tonight’s turnout was at least double what she’d expected. Saturday’s vandalism had galvanized support within the LGBT community.
More frustrating than slashed tires was the tepid response of Leland’s police department. Two officers came and took statements, but only Ninah had gotten a good look at the car. Despite her near certainty of who the villain was, she admittedly hadn’t seen the vehicle’s occupants. Officers already had the pair on their radar, they said. Seth Causwell and his brother Kevin, who’d recently moved from Little Rock, Arkansas. They were staying with relatives at a house on Barnard Road, and both claimed to have been at home all afternoon on Sunday. Case closed.
“How about this crowd, huh?” she asked Carly.
“A full house and then some.” She waved over toward the club seats, catching Justine’s eye. “That was a great idea having Justine use our tickets. She thought about asking Emmy and Ike to sit over here with us, but this being their first night out together, she wanted to make it about them instead.”
“You know what I like about sitting in these bleachers? Last night these very seats belonged to Ned Coppins and the Church of the Holy Word. Now our queer butts are scrubbing them clean.”
Britt hadn’t scheduled an official church congregation tonight but a handful of Ned’s flock were outside the stadium holding signs that condemned not only the queer community but their supporters too. While they certainly were obnoxious, their group was pitifully small and largely ignored.
On the field, the teams were lining up shoulder to shoulder along the baselines for the pregame ritual.
“Would you get a load of that!” Carly said, tugging Ninah’s arm excitedly.
“What? I don’t see anything.” She’d been busy firing up the scorekeeping app on her tablet.
“Look what the players are wearing. Boomer, Cory, Troy, DeVon. All of them, even Hank.”
White pants…black jerseys. “Oh my God! Abby, look. All the Longdogs are wearing our Pride bracelets.” That must have been Britt’s doing.
Ninah looked up to the owner’s suite for Britt, who was standing with her father alongside a group of VIPs, probably advertisers. After a few wild waves, Britt finally spotted her and grinned as they pointed to their wrists.
“That is so freaking cool,” she told Carly. “Can you imagine how much it means to these kids to get that kind of support from a bunch of jocks?” Lowering her voice, she added, “My girlfriend is gonna get so laid tonight.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you stand and remove your caps. Tonight’s invocation is given by Reverend Lawrence Dalton of Friendship Christian Church.”
Carly elbowed her. “Better get your mind out of the gutter. God’s listening.”
The brief prayer focused on sportsmanship and safety, and closed with a message of acceptance of all. Perfect pitch for a Pride event.
“…and we ask these in the name of Christ our lord. Amen.”
Before anyone could sit, a quartet from the Friendship choir harmonized on a nice rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The crowd cheered loudly at the close, but not enough to obscure a cry of “Faggots!” from the section adjacent to the Pride group.
Carly whipped around. “Where did that come from?”
Several fans cast scolding looks in the general direction of two young men who sat across the aisle from Thaddeus and his mother. Ninah at once recognized Seth Causwell and assumed the other guy had to be his brother Kevin.
“Carly, it’s those guys who s
lashed our tires.” She craned her neck in a futile effort to locate one of the uniformed police officers hired to provide security. “You think we should report them?”
“Poof!” Kevin appeared to be trying to get Thaddeus’s attention. He dangled his wrist as he said it again, sending his brother into fits of laughter.
“I’m not sure what the police can do about it. But I’m not gonna let him keep bothering Thaddeus.”
“Leading off for the Paducah Dukes, shortstop Emilio Reyes.”
Ninah stepped into the aisle to get a better look at the situation four rows up. Thaddeus wasn’t their only easy prey. Several others from the GSA were clustered nearby. She was most concerned about Jordan and Trina, since they’d both gotten into trouble at school for fighting with bullies. It was only a matter of time before one of them blew their cool.
She put her tablet in Carly’s hands. “Here, keep score while I deal with this. And go sit up there on the end by Thaddeus before something happens.”
“Okay, but hurry back. I don’t have a clue how this works.”
At the opposite end of Thaddeus’s row were some of the picnickers who’d come tonight to give moral support, both lesbians and gay men. Ninah climbed over several sets of knees to reach their aisle. “Hey guys, we’ve got a couple of rednecks over there bothering my GSA kids. I hate to put you in the line of fire, but I can’t let anything happen to them. Could I get a few of you to move down to that end?”
“I’ll go.” The first volunteer was none other than Teri…who for once wasn’t wearing her MAGA hat. Gesturing at her friends Robbi and Liv, she added, “All three of us will go.”
“Great, I’ll meet you over there. Just tell the kids on the aisle to slide in toward the middle.” She rubbed her hands together. “Okay, who else? We need two or three cool-headed adults to be a buffer at the end of each row.”