Great Memories

The day was perfect for autumn. The few clouds in the sky filtered the golden autumn sunlight, which through the trees cast dappled shadows onto the path where Justin and Brian were walking. It was the kind of beautiful fall day that often leads to reminiscing and speculating, but that was not what the guys had in mind. It was just a great Sunday afternoon and they had decided to walk along the river in Clemente Park, right across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, and adjacent to Heinz Field where the Steelers were in the midst of a game. From the crowd sounds, they thought the Steelers might just be winning.

"Remember we went to that playoff game last year?" Justin reminded Brian.

"Yeah," Brian answered, "On your dad's tickets. I can get tickets if they make the playoffs this year. Do you want to go?"

"We should leave the tickets for people who support the team all season," Justin opined. "They're the ones who deserve to go."

"Not too much interested in football, I guess?" Brian surmised.

"Not much," Justin replied.

"Typical little fag attitude," Brian teased, "Afraid to get too close to the real he-man type."

"Why do you think I picked you?" Justin shot back.

"Brat," Brian muttered with a smile on his face as they continued down the river walk, finally plopping themselves onto one of the park benches looking at the Point where the three rivers conjoined.

They just sat there for a while, enjoying the day and each other's company. Presently some barges appeared, coming down the Mon. At the Point they swerved into the Ohio. "They're heading to the Gulf of Mexico," Justin remarked.

"They may be heading to the Gulf of Mexico," Brian replied, "But they're not going to get there. They'll be stopping at Neville Island and that's only a couple of miles down the river - a good bit short of the Gulf of Mexico."

"You know, Brian," Justin pondered, "People don't always get where they're headed either."

"Sweetheart," Brian laughed, "I was just thinking that there was nothing that could make this day gloomy, but I forgot about you. Wait a minute. I could never forget about you. What I should have said was that I forgot about your talent for finding gloomy philosophic truth in the small things of life."

"In other words," Justin laughed, "You want me to shut up."

"You really do understand me," Brian told him, and he bent over and kissed Justin on the cheek.

A roar went up from the stadium crowd at that very moment, and Brian and Justin both dissolved into laughter. "Why aren't those people watching the game instead of us?" Justin asked.

"They're probably not as interested in football as they pretend. I guess it would be OK for us to take their tickets for the playoffs," Brian responded.

"Yeah, and we're entitled to our privacy." Justin agreed.

"I'm afraid, Baby," Brian advised him, "You sacrifice some of your privacy when you make out on a public park bench practically in downtown Pittsburgh.

"Well that's not fair," Justin pretended to pout, "Let's go home." They stood there hand in hand for a few minutes sacrificing more of their privacy, watching the barges disappear down the Ohio River, heading for the Gulf of Mexico but doomed not to make it. Brian knew that Justin was thinking, and Brian also knew that Justin was not big on unspoken thought.

The nights were getting chilly in Pittsburgh so the boys had readjusted the fake fireplace to give off real heat to go with the fake flames. Brian thought he could predict the subject of that evening's conversation, and he was right.

When they got themselves cuddled up in front of the fireplace with the blanket over them, Brian waited for Justin to begin and eventually he did. "What's it going to be like?" he asked Brian.

"You mean when I'm eighty and you're seventy?" Brian asked him back.

"When you're eighty, I'll only be sixty-eight," Justin reminded him.

"It's good to know," Brian smiled at him, "That at the height of your philosophic musing, you are still grounded in absolute reality." "It will be all right, Baby," he went on. "We'll still be together. We'll have all kinds of wonderful memories to look back at. Memories we haven't made yet."

"What if we're like the barges, Brian?" Justin wondered, "Heading for the Gulf of Mexico but cut off at Neville Island."

"That's why we have to make some great memories, Sunshine. The getting there has to part of the fun, and that's what we're going to do," Brian assured him.

"Like what, Bri?" Justin asked.

"I really wish, Sweetheart," Brian smiled at him, "That you were the kind of philosopher who had all the answers instead of the kind who had all the questions. We're going to have your successful career in art. All the successes and awards you'll be getting. All the fame and fortune."

"And you're not going to be jealous, are you?" Justin smiled back at him.

"Not as long as you come home to me every night." Brian assured him.

"OK then," Justin concluded. "I won't mind being a success. And I'll be coming straight home to you every night - at a reasonable time."

"To be negotiated, I presume," Brian concluded.

"No negotiations, Bri," Justin told him, squeezing himself closer to Brian, "Whatever time you say - or earlier."

It was a few minutes before the conversation continued. "Gus will grow up. Your son will grow up. You could be a grandfather," Justin speculated.

"Gus is our son, Baby, and if I have to be a grandfather, you're going to have to be a grandfather too," Brian told him.

"But you'll be the real grandfather, Brian," Justin persisted.

"Lindsay and I are Gus' biological parents, Honey. Mel is his legal parent since you wisely forced me to give up parental rights," Brian replied, "But I have the feeling that you are going to be the best parent of all to him - the real parent."

"Why would you say something like that, Bri?" Justin wanted to know.

"Because you're the best person among the four of us, Baby," Brian told him, "By far."

"You're going to make me cry, Honey," Justin told Brian, a few minutes too late.

"Sorry, Baby," Brian said, "But you brought up this whole subject - and it's kind of a neat subject, but it can get gloomy and if it's going to make you cry, we should quit. Let's start making our great memories now."

"It's too late for that," Justin said to a surprised Brian, "Because we've already started making great memories. We already have a bunch of great memories."

"I can't deny that at all, Sunshine," Brian had to agree, "But it's not too late to make some more great memories, is it?"

"Not at all," Justin agreed, "And it never will be."

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