The Boy Who Couldn't Fly Straight (The Broom Closet Stories)

by Jeff Jacobson

  One of the kids, a girl with long blonde hair and a pretty smile, looked up and saw Diego.

  “Honey!” she shouted, and stood up, nearly knocking his plate of food from his hands.

  “Mwa! Mwa!” they said, kissing each other on the cheek.

  Charlie was surprised. Diego hadn’t said anything about having a girlfriend.

  “And you,” said the girl, setting down her glass of soda and walking over to him, “must be Charlie. I’ve already heard so much about you!”

  Diego smiled broadly, and the girl laughed.

  “Charlie, I’d like to meet Tawny Rose. Tawny, this is Charlie Creevey.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Charlie said, taking her hand.

  The three of them sat down together. The other two kids left, and soon Diego and Tawny were talking about everybody at school. Every so often they’d turn to Charlie to say things like, “Wait until you meet her,” and “We have to tell you what happened in chemistry last week.”

  Charlie dug into the nachos, the potato salad, and pieces of summer fruit on his plate. He found it pleasant to be sitting next to the two friends, hearing them talk but not being required to join in. He enjoyed watching some of the other kids come and go from the den where they sat. At one point Mrs. Tanner came in carrying a very large pitcher filled with a cloudy liquid.

  “Coconut juice, anyone? It’s apparently all the rage. Charlie, do they drink it in California?”

  “Um, I dunno,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t single him out with any more questions. He relaxed as she floated out of the room, shouting, “Coconut juice, anyone?”

  “The Tanners,” said Tawny quietly, “ do this party every year. And every year Kayla begs them not to. Charlie, if you haven’t met her yet, she’s easy to spot. She’s the girl with the permanent scowl on her face. Everyone else, including Brandon, has fun. I think she’s just embarrassed because she wants her parents to be more hands-off.”

  A few really tall, older-looking boys walked into the room and called Diego’s name. He looked up, started laughing, and ran over to where they stood. Right away they started doing a complex series of handshakes, part mutual and part competitive.

  “So,” Tawny turned toward him, “like I said, Diego has told me a lot about you. How are you adjusting to PA so far?”

  “It’s pretty good.” Charlie wondered if she were scrutinizing him. She wouldn’t be jealous of her boyfriend spending time with him, would she?

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever met your aunt and uncle before,” she said, biting into a potato chip.

  “Oh, um, they don’t have any kids, so they haven’t really hung out at PA before.

  Silence followed. Charlie realized he should probably ask her a question. It seemed like the polite thing to do.

  “Where do you live?” he said, hoping the question wasn’t too stupid and boring.

  “Not far from here. Head south on California, and I’m near the dead end.”

  “Cool. How long have you and Diego been going out?” he asked, the question sliding from his mouth before he had the chance to wonder if it was rude or not.

  Chapter 32

  Tawny, who had been taking a sip of her soda, coughed and spit some of the liquid onto his arm and her plate of food. She coughed several more times, trying to catch her breath.

  “Sorry! Sorry!” she croaked, patting at his arm with her napkin. It struck him as funny too, and they both giggled while they tried to mop up the mess.

  When Tawny finally recovered enough to talk, she looked directly into his eyes.

  “Oh, um, Charlie? We’re not going out. We’re friends. We are definitely not going out.”

  She seemed to be emphasizing her words, looking at him intently. He knew he was missing something, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

  Diego came over and sat down next to them. “Those guys are nuts!” he said, laughing and shaking his head. He obviously hadn’t seen Tawny choke on her drink.

  They fell back into conversation again, talking about more teachers, classes and school stories that Charlie didn’t know anything about. Tawny didn’t mention Charlie’s dating question, but he found her sneaking glances at him every so often, her eyes guarded.

  “I think I’ll head downstairs to watch the foosball tournament,” she said. “You guys wanna come?”

  “Charlie?” asked Diego.

  “Sure.”

  As they headed downstairs, they could hear kids laughing and shouting. “You cheated! You can’t move the ball like that!”

  The basement was a large, carpeted room with board games, a large foosball table, a pool table, and a big-screen TV showing a kung fu movie. Kids were spread out all over the place, talking in groups or playing games.

  “Will you guys shut up?” a girl yelled over her shoulder to the gaggle of students shouting at the foosball game in action. “We’re trying to watch a movie.”

  When the game ended in a loud cheer, Diego asked Charlie if he wanted to be a team. They moved to one side of the table while the winners of the last game got ready on the other.

  The ball dropped, and Charlie, who had been playing foosball nearly his entire life at the community center in Clarkston with his buddy Mike, blocked a shot from the forward, and then spun the handle of his defense line. The ball flew into the goal before anyone could block it.

  “Dude! You scored! Goooooooooooooal!” Diego shouted, imitating a Spanish-speaking soccer announcer.

  The ball was dropped in again. Charlie took a second shot and scored.

  “No fair!” shouted one of the kids on the other team. “You gotta give us a chance.”

  Soon Diego and Charlie won the game and took on a series of players.

  At one point, Tawny stepped in to play with Charlie. She was just as good as Diego, and they maintained their winning streak.

  “What’s this I hear about champions at my foosball table?” bellowed a voice coming down the stairs about fifteen minutes later.

  Mr. Tanner and a much younger facsimile of himself stepped up to where Diego and Charlie stood.

  “Let’s take ‘em, Dad” said Brandon. And with that, a wild game of foosball erupted, father and son on one side of the table, Charlie and Diego on the other. The other kids in the basement gathered around. Charlie remained calm, enjoying the fact that he could keep his focus on the game and not on who was watching him. Maybe parties could actually be fun, he thought to himself as he blocked a shot on the goal.

  In the end, the Tanners emerged the victors.

  “But we’ve never had someone give us such a run for our money,” Mr. Tanner said, patting them both on the back.

  Kids started to head upstairs as Mrs. Tanner announced that it was nearly ten thirty and time to wind things up.

  “It’s a school night, everybody. And besides, we promised your parents we wouldn’t keep you out too late.”

  “Thanks for helping to keep my husband’s ego in check,” Mrs. Tanner said moments later, handing the boys their coats as they stepped out onto the front porch.

  Charlie had been sweating downstairs during the foosball match. The cold night air felt good on his face. He turned around and looked back into the house, drinking in the warmth, the new friends, the evening. He was surprised to find that he didn’t want the party to be over.

  “Come on, Charlie, I told your aunt and uncle I’d have you home before eleven,” said Diego.

  They walked behind several other PA students leaving the party. Out in the street, car doors opened and closed as “goodnight!”s and “see you tomorrow”s echoed up and down the street.

  A boy and a girl holding hands near a small red Honda grabbed Charlie by the arm as he walked by their car. He recognized them from Chinese class.

  “Dude, you rock at foosball! Nobody ever goes head-to-head like that against Team Tanner. Wait until we tell Chen Laoshi tomorrow,” the girl said, smiling at Charlie. “I’m Hannah.”

  “Hen hao, hen hao,” said the boy.


  “Xiexie nimen,” Charlie replied, unable to hold back his smile.

  He walked over to Mrs. Ramirez’s BMW, where Diego was talking to Tawny. They looked up at him. Diego was frowning.

  “Night, boys,” Tawny said as she walked to her car. “Really nice finally meeting you, Mr. Creevey.”

  “You too. Uh, see you at school,” he replied, wondering what they’d been talking about.

  Charlie climbed in and sat on the soft leather seat. Diego followed, but didn’t start the car.

  “Uh…did you have fun tonight?” he asked, his voice quiet. This wasn’t the vivacious, cheerful boy who had just played foosball with him.

  “Yeah, yeah, it was cool. Mr. and Mrs. Tanner are kind of crazy. But nice, too. Oh, and I really like Tawny,” he added, worried that Diego would think he didn’t get along with her.

  “Good, good,” said the boy. He was looking out the windshield like he was counting the cars.

  “Um, is everything okay?” Charlie asked.

  “Yeah, yeah. No, it’s fine. I just…Charlie, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “Today, when I told you I was president of the GSA, you said you knew what that was, right?”

  Charlie felt his stomach tighten. All thoughts of the party vanished. Diego had caught him in a lie, and now was probably going to chide him for pretending to know something that he didn’t.

  “I’m uh, sorry,” he said quickly. ” I don’t know why I did that. I was just trying to sound cool, I guess.”

  “Oh. Okay…” Diego sighed. He looked down at his hands, then ran his fingers along the base of the steering wheel.

  Charlie heard another car engine start up, saw its headlights turn on, then watched as it pulled away from the curb, drove to the next block, and turned left. The street was quiet now. White clouds raced across the cold night sky.

  For some reason, he was holding his breath. He looked up at Diego, who turned his head and looked back at him.

  “Charlie, the GSA is the Gay/Straight Alliance that we have at school. It’s, uh, set up so queer kids and straight kids can talk together. Can be friends, instead of bullying each other.”

  “Oh,” said Charlie. He was glad Diego was involved with something like that. Bullying could be a big problem. “That’s cool,” he added.

  “Charlie, you don’t get it, do you? I’m gay, Charlie. And I thought…well, I thought you knew.”

  Chapter 33

  The boys sat in the car without saying anything while the cold began to seep in through the doors.

  Charlie felt his mind go blank. He could hear someone calling to a dog somewhere off in the distance. Then a low, deep rumble from the direction of the water, which Randall had told him was the horn from one of the ferry boats traversing Puget Sound.

  Charlie’s small voice broke the silence. “I, uh, I didn’t know that.” He thought about getting out of the car and walking home. It wasn’t that far. He figured he would walk in the opposite direction from where they’d come and find it eventually. Didn’t his cell phone have GPS?

  “Yeah, I can tell that now. I feel kinda stupid. I thought that since you knew about the GSA thing, you knew about me, too.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair, so dark now that it blended in with the interior of the car, making it look like the top of his head was part of the shadows. Only his forehead and teeth were visible.

  “Are you okay with that? With me, I mean? Jesus, I thought I was through with all of this worrying,” he added, more to himself than to Charlie.

  “What? With you? Being gay? Oh sure, it’s, uh, it’s f..it’s fine.” God, he was stammering like people did in bad movies. He saw the image of Ted Jones lying face down on a road somewhere. Soon Ted’s face changed to Diego’s, with blood running down his cheeks, while several large guys stood around him, taking turns kicking his side, his legs, his head.

  “No, you’re not. You aren’t. I can tell. Damn it. I don’t want it to be awkward, you know? I hate that part. Everyone rushing around telling me how great it is that I’m out and how proud I should be, while all the time I can tell they don’t want to talk to me about it.

  “It’s not like people hate me. Most people. There are some at PA who do. But really. My mom talked to so many faculty members, and even Principal Wang, to make sure it would be a safe place. I didn’t have such a great experience in middle school, you know? She’d wanted me to go to PA anyway, but made sure that the school would do a good job of making it okay for me to be there and be out.

  “Anyway, like I said, it’s not like people walk up to me and call me ‘faggot’ to my face or anything like they did in eighth grade. But everyone sort of smiles too much. Even Mr. and Mrs. Tanner. They are totally nice and all, but…”

  Charlie sat in the passenger seat, tapping his feet on the floor mat. He wasn’t sure why Diego was telling him so much. He wasn’t really listening to him. Maybe I could just ask him to take me home. I could tell him I was tired, and could we talk about it later?

  There was a pause in Diego’s chatter. “Well, is it true?”

  “Is what true?” Charlie asked, realizing that he hadn’t heard Diego’s question.

  “About you? I thought, I thought maybe you were gay too. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be so in-your-face about it, Charlie. If not, that’s cool too, I just…”

  “No. No I’m not gay,” he said, scooting closer to the car door at his right. At least I don’t think so. How do you know if you are?

  Diego exhaled, then sat back against his seat. “Oh, okay. Look, no hard feelings, right? I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I just…”

  “No, no, it’s cool.”

  “I hate this stuff. It never goes well. It always gets so weird,” Diego said, and then slammed his fist against the dashboard. The loud thud made Charlie jump.

  “Um, could you just take me home? I’m sorry, I’m just tired is all. Could we maybe…”

  “Oh sure. Sure.”

  “…talk about it tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, of course,” said Diego, starting up the car, not looking at him. None of the normal aliveness was in his voice, and Charlie had something to do with that. It felt awful.

  “Really, I mean it, it’s just been a long day, and…”

  “No prob. No prob. Meiyou wenti,” he said, then flashed a wide grin at Charlie, a grin that failed to touch the boy’s eyes.

  He pulled the car away from the curb and turned into a driveway. He backed the car up, then drove down the street and out of the neighborhood. “Meiyou wenti.”

  When the car pulled in front of the house on Washington Street, Charlie turned to Diego to apologize. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was apologizing for, but he knew it was something important.

  But Diego spoke first. “Look, can we just drop this? It was totally my fault. My mistake. I kind of blunder into these things. I didn’t mean to drop so much heavy stuff on you,” he said, and this time his smile filled his whole face. He was talking loudly.

  Diego reached across Charlie and opened the passenger-side door. “We’re both a little tired. I’ll, you know, I’ll see you at school tomorrow. In our boring old uniforms, but oh well, same shit on a new day, right?” he said, winking.

  The amount of things Charlie wanted to say and do in that moment overwhelmed him. He wanted to pull the door closed, tell Diego to turn up the heat, and just drive around the city for a while.

  He wanted to get Tawny in the car with them. Maybe she’d sit in the front passenger seat while Diego drove, and Charlie would sit in the back. He’d listen to them as they talked about school. He’d learn to talk just like they did. They wouldn’t expect anything more from him than to just sit there.

  He wanted to scream at the boy, ‘What do you want from me? What does everybody want? Why do people always want stuff?’

  He wanted to whisper in the boy’s ear that his aunt could jump over a stream bed, could make things float, and that pretty soon he’d
be able to do these things. He wanted to whisper, ‘I’ll show you when I learn, okay?’

  And a deeper part, a part that scared him almost as much as talking dogs, wanted to take the boy’s face in his hands, to smell the gel in his hair, the hot breath in his mouth, the way the scent of the soap he used still lingered on his skin. He wanted to run his finger over the freckle on the boy’s right temple, the one that looked like a small comma, and press on it. He wanted to open his own mouth, and see if there was a way he could taste the words that Diego said, all of them, the vast variety of them, the ease with which he said them.

  He wanted to be this boy’s friend. And he was pretty sure that that wasn’t going to happen now. He felt flashes of fear and sadness. How had he managed to screw everything up so fast?

  But he didn’t say any of this to Diego. He didn’t know how to say it all without more words coming out, words that might be like Words, for they could do things, they could set things in motion, they could have a witchcraft of their own. Charlie had never felt more afraid of what might come spilling out of his mouth than in that moment, and so he kept it closed.

  He climbed out of the car and stood on the wet grass near the curb.

  “Thanks for the…”

  “Sure, Charlie, we’ll see ya,” Diego said, already turning his head away, already making decisions that might not include him anymore.

  The red taillights of the BMW looked like a pair of angry, disgusted eyes glaring back at him. He made himself stand there and watch until they turned right a block away and disappeared around the corner. Then he fished for the keys in his pocket, unlocked the door, and walked inside the house.

  Chapter 34

  There were no sounds in the neighborhood except for its habitual night noises: tree boughs blowing, late-night television playing, the groan of a refrigerator door opening and closing. Somewhere a child’s voice, stuffy with sleep, asked for a drink of water.

  Two figures stood listening on a rooftop a block away from their target, the house on Washington Street. Once they were sure that their presence was undetected, they nodded to each other, and, holding their broomsticks aloft, jumped to the ground below. Quieter than moonbeams on water, they slipped across the street and approached the house, letting their broomsticks shrink to small twigs and placing them in their pockets as they moved.