Should Old Acquaintance
Chapter 12
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"I'll have a look at it, Father
Tom," John said as he headed up the stairs. "See you in your office
in a few minutes."
John climbed to the top of the stairs and
then proceeded up into the nether regions of St. Anthony's. He had been called
by Father Tom to come have a look at why there was a major leak in one section
of the church. John had already been up on the roof outside,
and he suspected he had found the problem. He was doing the inside examination
to be sure that his suspicions were correct. If they were, he would save the
church mega bucks. The problem could be fixed with some new properly installed
flashing, and not with a complete re-roofing as the contractor had informed
Father Tom.
Some minutes later, having decided that he
was right in his evaluation of the situation, John made his way back down to
the main floor of the church. As he came out of the stairwell he bumped into a
woman who leapt back when he touched her.
"Sorry, ma'am," John said in his
best contrite voice.
"You might watch where you're
going," the woman criticized in her most put-upon voice. She smoothed her
dress before looking up at who had bumped her.
"Oh my!" she reacted. "Brian!"
John chuckled recognizing Brian's mother. "No, ma'am. I'm John Anderson, your son's
brother."
"My son's brother," Joan said as
if truly digesting this fact for the first time. "You do look so much like
Brian."
"I'll take that as a
compliment," John smiled.
"It wasn't meant as a compliment …
just as a statement of fact," Joan said coldly.
"I'll still take it as a compliment.
Brian is one good looking man."
"Are you one of them too?"
"One of…? Oh, you mean homosexual.
Why yes, I am."
"You shouldn't sound so proud. It's
disgusting."
"I beg your pardon!" John said
drawing himself up to his full height. "There is nothing disgusting about
my life at all. I lived the first forty years of my life like I was straight. I
was never really happy, and it's only since I've found my true self that I have
a husband and a son and all the happiness that I can handle. I owe an awful lot
of that to Brian."
"Brian? What did he do? Corrupt
you?"
"How can you say such things about
your own son? Brian is a wonderful man, if you would ever open your eyes and
your mind and your heart enough to see what he truly is."
"I know what he is," Joan said
ice dripping from her voice. She turned to walk away.
"Not so fast," John said. He had
been about to grab her arm but thought better of it. "You're going to hear
me out."
Joan stopped and turned back. "I have
nothing further to say to you."
"Well, I have something further to
say to you. You can either listen to me here … quietly. Or, I can shout it
across the church at you."
Joan looked around to see a few people
kneeling or sitting in the pews, praying or meditating. One of them was Ruth
Mitchell, the biggest busybody in the church. That would be all she'd need was
for Ruth to hear what this
"Why do you have such harsh feelings
towards Brian?" John had to ask.
"The Bible says…"
"Bullshit!" John reacted.
"You use the Bible as your scapegoat. Why do you always criticize and
condemn everything Brian does?"
"How dare you!"
"I dare, Mrs. Kinney. Jack may have
married you, but he loved my mother." John had wanted to say that for a
long time. "Jack was my father too, and I'm gay.
My mother loves me and thinks I have made something of myself. Why can't you
love Brian? Why do you always have to run him down?"
"You don't know anything," Joan
spat out. The references to Jack really hit home. She didn't like to think
about Jack being the father of this man.
"Then why don't you enlighten me? I'd
love to know."
Joan looked into John's eyes. They were
Brian's eyes, and Jack's eyes. She had loved Jack at one time, but she had
always known that he didn't truly love her. And now she knew why. He loved this
man's mother. That was part of the reason he had kept a part of himself away
from her. That had always hurt her, so she had done the same thing to him. She
had become more remote and demanding, as if she could force him to love her, or
at least make him suffer the way she did. That's how the "warden" had
come about.
John watched the emotions flash across
Joan's face, and he waited.
"You won't like what you're about to
hear," Joan said with a sigh.
"I'll take my chances."
"Brian was the child I always wanted.
Claire, she was the mistake that bound Jack to me, but Brian, he was to be the
symbol of our love, our commitment to our marriage." Joan stopped and drew
a ragged breath.
"Then why don't you love him?"
"I do, but…" Joan didn't know
what words to use to explain this, but she decided to try. "When I told
Jack I was pregnant with Brian, he was supposed to be happy. He was supposed to
love me. He was supposed to want our marriage. Instead…"
"Instead?"
"He told me to get rid of the
baby," Joan said as a silent tear ran down her cheek.
John flinched. He had never heard this
part of Brian's story. "Did Brian know that?"
"Yes," Joan breathed. "He
knows."
John shook his head. "But you didn't
get rid of the baby."
"No, I thought I could convince Jack
that this was the baby he wanted, and when it turned out to be a boy, his son,
I thought he would be happy."
"But he wasn't?"
"No, he never wanted the baby and he
never let me forget that. His drinking increased and he stayed out late, and I
know he had other women. I grew to resent Brian for putting even a greater
divide between Jack and me."
"How can that be Brian's fault?"
John asked. "He was just a baby."
"I know, but it didn't stop the
resentment, and then I found out that he was gay and…"
"And you condemned him to Hell."
Joan nodded her head.
"Isn't it time to put some of these
demons to rest?" John asked daring to lay his hand on top of Joan's.
She flinched but didn't draw her hand
away. "Jack used to touch my hand like that when we first met. It meant he
had something important to say to me."
"I have something important to say to
you," John said gently. "In a few weeks, Brian and Justin's daughter
is going to be baptized. I think Brian is going to invite you. You should
come."
"He won't invite me," Joan said
shaking her head.
"I think he will. And you should
come."
"I should?" she asked seemingly
bewildered.
"It could be a new start for each of
you."
"I … I'll think about it," Joan
said. She stood and looked down at this man who was so much like Jack, maybe
even more than Brian. "I will think about it," she repeated as she
disappeared from the chapel.
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"And just where do you think you're
going, Sunshine?" Brian bellowed at Justin as he neared the construction
site.
"Fuck, Brian! You nearly gave me a
heart attack! I was just looking." Justin jumped back from the newly
poured foundation.
"Justin, you and construction, not a
safe combination." Brian glared at his spouse, the memories of his and
John's mishap at the theater flooded Brian.
"Oh, can it, Kinney. Nothing's going
to happen. And why aren't you worried about Bree and Patrick. They're out here
all the time."
"Not alone, they're not, and they
have more sense to stay away."
"Asshole," Justin groused but he
backed away from the edge of the foundation. "I'm not a baby," Justin
mumbled under his breath as he drew closer to Brian.
"I know you're not." Brian
smiled as Justin instinctively went to Brian's side as he raised his arm and
placed it protectively over Justin's shoulder. Justin's arm snaked around
Brian's waist as always. "But you know how I worry," Brian said to
soothe Justin's ruffled feathers as they strolled back to the house. Changing
the subject, Brian wanted to know how the Kinney research was going.
"Make any new discoveries in the
journal? I haven't seen your nose out from within those big binders for
weeks."
"Yes, I think I did," Justin
answered enthusiastically.
"Happy
discoveries?" Brian
asked hopefully. For the most part, the Kinney journal was a sad testament to
the pain and suffering those two men had to endure over their life together. It
had taken a lot of restraint of Brian's part not to take the whole damn thing
and burn it. He was tired of seeing Justin looking sad or with tears in his
eyes. Life was stressful enough without that added burden.
"Want to see?"
"Sure," Brian answered with a
small sigh. He hoped for some good news. They headed inside to sit in the sun
porch and look at the journal.
The war is over and Patrick and I will
be able to return to
"Martha Kinney was cool for lack of a
better term. She must have really loved Kinney," Brian stated after he
read the entry.
"Wait, there's more." Justin was
almost bouncing as he shoved another page into Brian's hand.
My dear Martha has decided to take
Katherine home to
"Fuck me!"
"You see? Maybe there is another
Kinney running around in the state of
"You're wrong, Justin, not another
Kinney, another
"Fuck me!"
"My pleasure, where's the
Squirt?" Brian leered suggestively at his husband.
"Um, spending time
with Patrick at Grandma Claire's."
"How convenient. And us with a big brass bed right over there just
waiting for us to fuck on." Brian waggled his eyebrows at Justin who was
still a little shell shocked.
"You're incorrigible."
"Your point?"
"Race ya!" Justin scrambled from
his chair, throwing off his clothes as he dove onto the brass bed. Brian was
fast on his heels.
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The July 4th weekend was closing in on the
Kinney-Taylor tribe and everything was in the ready for the combining of the
cottages. As simple as John said the process was, it really wasn't. The
leveling of the land behind the sun porch went well as did the pouring of the
new foundation and the laying of the new pipes and cables. It was the actual
moving of the house itself that had John and Gordon concerned. You don't move a
one hundred year old house without any trepidation. But John and Gordon decided
it was best to keep those facts from Bobby and the rest of the family.
As the first crew was preparing the land,
the second crew was preparing the house.
Each day Bobby and Claire boxed up all the
breakables. Anything that could fall was laid down onto the floor. Gordon, John
and the crew inspected every brick and stone. Anything that remotely looked
loose was reinforced. The plan was to jack up the house, hoist it en masse onto
a flat bed, then truck it to the cottage. The drive
itself would take the better part of a day. The next day the house would then
be placed onto its new foundation and then reconnected to the new pipes and
cables. For most of July, the plan was to raise the roof to give John and Bobby
a working attic, attach the home to the sun porch, make an opposing balcony,
complete with spiral staircase and rewire the home. No more fuses.
Claire and Debbie decided to have an old
fashioned 'barn raising' party to celebrate the house
moving and July 4th. The difficult part of that plan would be convincing Brian.
Claire and Debbie decided to call in their secret weapon, Justin.
Up in the attic aka Brian's office, Justin
was having a 'conference call' with Claire and Debbie.
"Justin, you know Brian will listen
to you. You're the only one who can do this."
"Sunshine, Claire's right. The
asshole would never say no to you."
"Claire, Deb, I..."
"Justin, the weather is going to be
perfect. We'll all help to cook and clean up. You two won't have to lift a
finger. And we can call Emmett."
"That's a wonderful idea, Claire. Emm
would jump at the chance. He's been working on some new creations; he'd love to
test them out on the family."
"Oh, Debbie, I hope he's not planning
to do that shrimp dip thing. It's too hot out. It might become fatal."
"No, no, I didn't like that one
either. He was thinking more along the lines of fruit salads and hummus."
"I love hummus." Justin sat back
and listened to Claire and Debbie go on and on about the menu, what they were
each going to bring, the decorations and how big all the children have gotten.
They seemed to have forgotten that Justin was there.
"Justin? Justin, sweetie, are you there?" Debbie's voice broke through his
thoughts.
"Um, yeah, Deb, I'm here."
"So how do you like our plan?"
"Sounds okay to me but..."
"Fan-fucking-tastic! We'll see you Friday the 4th at ten in the
morning!"
"But..."
"Wonderful, see you then, Debbie.
I'll speak with you later tonight."
"Okay, Claire! Bye, honey."
"Goodbye, Debbie. Bye, Justin."
"Bye, Sunshine."
"Bye, I think." Justin cut the
connection with the two ladies then sat back in Brian's big leather chair.
"FUCK! What have I done?!"
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