aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65

aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65 Page 6

by Arlene Chance

  You have my word.”

  I cried all the harder. I felt the hand leave my back quickly followed by the sound of the window opening.

  Cool air washed over me.

  “Let’s step out for some fresh air, shall we?” he said formally.

  I looked up to find Aidan straddling the window sash with one leg flung out on the fire escape. He held out a hand and smiled. I was so surprised I simply got up and let him help me through the window, sniffling like a little kid the whole time.

  We sat down Indian style next to each other, our knees 61

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  almost but not quite touching. We sat in silence broken only by my continued sniveling. Finally, he said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “I think I’m in love with Joey!” I blurted out and started crying again.

  “Wow—um—that’s not what I expected,” he said in a stunned voice.

  “Does that mean I’m gay? I don’t wanna be gay. I can’t be gay!” I wailed.

  “Shh, shh, shh,” Aidan hissed. He sounded so much like a snake with a lisp that I started giggling through my tears, then I hiccupped. “People are trying to sleep,”

  he said seriously. He was eying me as if he was afraid I was losing it. Maybe I was. He went on, “I don’t know if it means you’re gay or not. Maybe you’re bi. Or maybe you just love Joey, you know like a fluke. But if you are gay then you need to face it and accept it. It’s not that bad you know.”

  “Yes it is! You don’t understand; I’m a Christian.”

  “So? I didn’t realize the two were mutually exclusive.”

  “They are according to my dad.”

  “Well, no offense, I mean I’ve never even met your dad, but I’m pretty sure he’s not God.”

  “But the Bible—”

  “Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus, right?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Show me where Jesus ever once even mentions homosexuality.”

  “It—” I thought for a minute. “He doesn’t.”

  “Exactly. And it doesn’t really say anything about homosexuality as we know it anywhere else either.”

  “But it does, I’ve read it!”

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  “No, you’ve read a modern interpretation of an ancient language; an interpretation that’s been made to say what the religious leaders of the time wanted it to say. The original languages of the Bible didn’t even have a word for homosexual, not as we think of it today. In most cases, wherever you see anything that’s been translated as gay or homosexual, the original texts are talking about male prostitutes or pedophiles.”

  “How do you know so much about the Bible?”

  “Well, when someone takes such pains to condemn you based on the teachings of a book, I thought it would be best if I knew that book as well as they did. So I did some studying on my own. It just seemed that from what I know about myself and everyone else I’ve ever met that was gay, no one chooses to be gay. Either you are or you aren’t. There’s nothing you can do about it except accept it and try to live your life the best way you know how. It didn’t make sense to me that God would create something that he hated. So I studied a lot of books on the subject and even talked to some people who had translated the original Aramaic; you’d be amazed at how different it is from the scriptures we have today. Those are the conclusions that I came to.

  I’m not saying that they are the absolute truth. God knows I’m no expert, but I came to a peace of mind with this and a peace with God.”

  “How how will I know if I’m gay?”

  “I think you’ll know, Will. But like I said before, if you are, you need to face it and deal with it.”

  “Now you sound like Laura. Why does everyone keep trying to be my shrink?”

  “Maybe because we care about you and we want to help you,” Aidan said softly.

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  I looked over at him and saw nothing but sincerity.

  A sudden shiver went through me.

  “Jeez, you’re going to get sick! Here we are sitting out here on this cold metal half-naked.”

  I realized that we were both sitting on the metal grill of the fire escape in nothing but our thin cotton boxers.

  We were experiencing unseasonably cool weather for September and I noticed the goose bumps on my arms.

  “Let’s get back inside,” Aidan said as he stood up and pulled me to my feet. We climbed back into my bedroom and Aidan shut the window while I crawled into bed.

  “Think you can sleep now?” he asked me. I nodded.

  “You’ve got a lot to think about.” I nodded again. “If you need me, I’m right across the hall.” He let himself out, closing the door behind him. For a moment, I felt a sense of panic, afraid to be alone with my thoughts, afraid I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. I shouldn’t have worried though, I was exhausted, and my last thought before falling asleep was that I was very lucky to have moved in with a guy like Aidan.

  ***

  I was rudely awakened the next morning when 160 pounds of Asher landed in the middle of my bed. I came up kicking and flailing, much to his amusement.

  “Time to wake up, Lil’ Cuz!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

  I flopped back down. “Who you callin’ little?” I grumbled sleepily.

  “You, silly-head!”

  “Humph, well haven’t you ever heard that big things come in small packages?”

  Asher peeked under my sheets. “So much for that 64

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  myth,” he teased.

  I laughed and shoved him off the bed. He climbed back on amidst giggles and I finally got up. I started pulling open drawers in my dresser trying to remember where I had put what.

  “So—?” he said from behind me.

  “So what?”

  “So, are you and Aidan an item or what?”

  “I told you last night that we weren’t.”

  “Yeah, but there was that very interesting scene when we got here yesterday and then last night I got up to pee and ran into Aidan in the hallway. He was sneaking out of your room. He just looked embarrassed and hurried into his room.”

  “I told you, we were just wrestling when you got here and he wasn’t sneaking anywhere. He was probably just trying not to wake you guys up.” Asher arched an eyebrow. “Neat trick. Really, we were just talking. He’s my friend. That’s it.”

  “Okay, if you say so. So I guess that means you’re still straight?”

  I sat down on the bed and tried to decide how to answer that. I wasn’t even sure myself.

  “Earth to Will,” Asher said after a minute. “Are you okay?”

  “Huh?” I said stupidly. I had almost forgotten he was there.

  “I asked if you were straight and you spaced out.”

  I stood up and walked a few feet away. “Am I straight?”

  “That’s what I’m asking you.”

  “As opposed to what? Crooked?”

  “You know perfectly well what I mean; straight as 65

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  opposed to gay, queer, homosexual. It’s a simple yes or no question.” He eyed me critically.

  “Maybe it’s not so simple for me.”

  His eyes widened. “You mean—”

  “I don’t know what I mean.” I sighed. “It used to be so clear cut—then Laura had to go and get me all confused.”

  “Laura? How did she confuse you?”

  “It’s a long story. How did you know you were gay?”

  “I guess I’ve always known on some level, but I was afraid to tell anyone. I mean as soon as I was old enough to understand that only girls were supposed to have crushes on guys I knew I was different. I’ve been in love with Killian almost as long as I can remember, even back when he was a shy, awkward kid. We’ve been best friends since we were little.”

  “Oh great!” I moaned. I sat down on a box that was still in the room and to my surprise found myself going right through the top. With my feet in the air, I struggled to pull myself out of the empty box while Asher laughed hysterically. I
finally succeeded only in splitting it open but at least I was out.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster and grabbing my clothes, I made my exit. I left Asher rolling on the bed in tears, gasping for breath in between uncontrolled fits of laughter.When I got out, we had cold cereal for breakfast, the extent of our culinary talents that early in the morning.

  After eating, we set to unpacking the rest of the boxes.

  With extra sets of hands, the work went quickly and by lunchtime, the apartment looked like we’d always lived here.

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  We were making a large pizza with everything disappear when someone knocked on our door. Aidan and I raced the short distance to the door, but he got there first and pulled the door open with one hand while holding a slice of pizza in the other. A woman I didn’t know stood in the doorway, guessed her to be in her early to mid-twenties. She had short, spiky dark hair with the tips bleached white-blonde and wore black horn-rimmed glasses, a white halter under faded bib overalls and funky faux leopard-skin fuzzy sandals.

  These last items caught and held my attention.

  “Hiya! I’m Nikki Avanti. I live right across the hall. I just thought I’d stick my head in and say welcome to the neighborhood. I was going to bring a fruit basket but then I thought who the hell brings fruit these days?”

  We stood blinking at her for a moment; neither of us knew quite what to say. Aidan recovered first. “Uh, thanks. I’m Aidan Scott and this is my roommate, Will Keegan,” Aidan said. My attention wandered back to her feet, or actually her sandals, which she now waggled in greeting. I quickly looked up and held out my hand as my face turned red.

  She took my proffered hand in a firm grasp with an amused smile on her not-quite-attractive face. “Like my shoes?” she said. “I kinda have my own style. I like to dress with flair! I think certain other residents of the building have betting pools on just how bizarre I can get. I’m always trying to top myself. You know, do my part to keep their lives interesting.”

  I grinned back. I liked her already. She had an easy manner that put me at ease. “This is Killian and Asher, they’re our cousins,” I told her as they came into the hall to see who we were talking to, each carrying his 67

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  own slice of pizza. “Would you like a slice of pizza?” I offered.

  “No thanks, I’m a health food freak. You know, or-ganic foods only, lots of herbs, almost a vegetarian.”

  She looked around the apartment while she talked. Her eyes lit up when she spotted my drawing table. “Oh wow! Who’s the artist?”

  “That would be me,” I said, making an effort not to blush.

  “Nifty! Can I?” She made a motion toward the table.

  “Help yourself.”

  She looked over my supplies for a few minutes.

  “Quite a professional set up you got here, Will. Nice quality, no junk. You must be a serious artist.”

  I lost my battle against the blush. “No, it’s just a hobby.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Aidan said as he walked over.

  “He’s really good. Look at this.” He pulled out the frog painting with a dramatic flourish.

  Nikki’s eyebrows shot up above her glasses. “You did this?” she said leaning in for a closer look.

  “Yeah,” I said. I wondered how much blood could rush to my face before it exploded. I was actually starting to feel a little lightheaded.

  “Nice, very dramatic. I like the symbolism here. Are you represented?” she asked.

  “I guess you could say the frog.”

  She gave me a blank look. “Come again?”

  I blushed. “Well, the frog kind of represents me because I’ve been feeling like I’m caught in a storm—” I stopped abruptly as she began to laugh.

  “That’s not quite what I meant. I meant are you represented by a gallery? Do you show anywhere?”

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  “Oh God, no!”

  She looked at me over the top of her glasses. “You should be.”

  “I’m not good enough—”

  “Bullshit. Pardon my French. I’m an artist; I know what I’m talking about here. Actually, I own my own gallery and I’m always looking for new talent. Are you from around here?”

  “Yeah,” I said with my head spinning.

  “I’d like to see some of your other work. Do you have it here?”

  “No, it’s at home I mean my parents’ home.”

  “Can you get it for me to see? If I like it as much as what I see here, I might be interested in exhibiting a few of your pieces. We could see what kind of reaction we get, maybe do a show. You know, after we see what kind of vibes we get.”

  I had to sit down. So I did. Without checking to see if there was a chair there first. There wasn’t. Aidan snorted and I heard laughter from the kitchen where Killian and Asher had quickly ducked.

  “Am I going too fast for you?” Nikki asked.

  I nodded mutely.

  “You have your own gallery?” Killian asked as he came back out of the kitchen.

  “Yes, well, my brother and I own it. My father started it and he left it to us when he died. It’s called Avant Guard and it’s on the old downtown plaza.”

  “Cool. You look pretty young to have your own gallery.”

  “I didn’t know there was an age limit and actually I’m thirty.”

  “The health food must work,” Aidan quipped.

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  Nikki laughed and turned her attention back to me.

  “So what do you say, Will? Can I see your work? You interested in maybe taking a shot at being a professional artiste?”

  “I don’t know,” I said slowly.

  “Come on, Will,” Asher said. “How often do you get an offer like that?”

  “Why don’t you think about it for a while?” Nikki suggested.

  “I don’t mean to sound rude, but can I ask you a question?” I said hesitantly.

  “Hey, you can ask me anything you want. I don’t insult easily. You have to have pretty thick skin to dress like I do.”

  “Well, what do you get out of this?”

  She threw her head back and laughed loudly. “A shrewd business man! I love it! Okay, let’s see, what do I get out of it? Well, I’m assuming you mean besides the altruistic pleasure of helping out a fellow artist?”

  I heard Asher mutter to Killian, “Quick, get a dictio-nary.” Nikki winked at me.

  “Yeah, besides that,” I agreed.

  “Well, it’s standard procedure for the gallery to get a commission on anything we sell, usually between thirty and fifty percent. I’d only ask thirty from you since you’re just getting started. More importantly, though, I get the pleasure and credit, keyword “credit,” of discovering an up-and-coming artist. If you make a splash then Avant Guard gets exposure and publicity and I can really start building a reputation of my own instead of riding on Daddy’s coattails.”

  I nodded. “I need to think about it.”

  “Sure. Why don’t you and Aidan come over to my 70

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  apartment for dinner tomorrow night? You can meet my new boyfriend and see some of my work.”

  I looked over to Aidan, who nodded encouragingly.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Great! It’s a date! Toodles.” And with that she let herself out, leaving behind the slightest hint of incense.

  “Wow! Will, a real live artist!” Asher exclaimed.

  “I dunno, it seems too good to be true,” I said.

  “Don’t be so negative,” Aidan scolded. “She’s like a force of nature, isn’t she? I bet if anyone can make this work she can.”

  “She seemed cool to me,” Killian added helpfully.

  “I have an idea,” Aidan said. “How ‘bout the four of us drive downtown to the plaza and check out the gallery for ourselves. That way we’ll know what we’re looking at.”

  “What if it’s not open on Sunday?” Asher asked.

  “Oh shit!” I gasped.

/>   “What?”

  “Today is Sunday!”

  “And—”

  “I missed church!”

  “Too late to worry about it now,” Aidan said philosophically. “Let’s go see if this gallery is open right now and you can worry about that later.”

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  CHAPTER FIVE

  We piled into Killian’s black Volkswagen Bug and drove to the downtown area. The Plaza, as it is known, is a brick courtyard in the middle of the city with tall Victorian era brick buildings lining it and fountains, sculptures, and flowerbeds scattered about the middle.

  The buildings mostly house up-scale boutiques, lawyer’s offices, and antique stores. It didn’t take long to find Avant Guard once we were there. It stood out a bit since it was the only place with a life-sized statue in the window of a man and a woman caught in the act of making love. The people depicted in this particular sculpture actually had wings, and something that looked like horns coming out of their heads. Not your typical couple. It looked like it was made of bronze and must have weighed a ton. We all stood in a kind of silent awe for several minutes before anyone spoke.

  “Well—isn’t that—amazingly accurate?” Aidan said.

  “I wouldn’t know. I’m still a virgin,” Asher said with a giggle.

  “You two might have to wait outside,” I said, only half joking.

  “Why?” Killian asked.

  “It might be over 21 only!”

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  “That eliminates you guys too,” Killian pointed out reasonably.

  We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the amorous couple and entered the gallery, which was indeed open.

  There were no other pornographic statues in view, but everything I did see looked terribly expensive and elegant. I felt very out of place in my cargo-pocket shorts and surf t-shirt. I was having some trouble picturing Nikki here as well.

 

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