The City of Rossford

THE LIGHTS WERE ON in Fenn’s house, and upstairs he sat beside his son’s bed.

“You can’t hide what’s going on from me,” Dylan told him.

Fenn pushed the covers up around the boy’s neck.

“I wouldn’t try.”

“I think you would,” Dylan said, sagely. “If you could.”

Fenn looked down at him.

“Grown ups are always hiding things,” Dylan said.

“Well, I won’t hide anything from you. How is that?”

Fenn thought, ruefully, that it was a losing battle to keep anything from the boy anyway.

“You know what I think, Papa?”

“What, Little One?”

“I think everyone’s afraid. Grown ups are so afraid. That’s why they hide things. Just like kids.”

“That…” Fenn began. He climbed onto the bed beside Dylan.

“You know what, son?”

Dylan climbed out of the bed and mirrored Fenn, sitting Indian fashion, his chin in his fists.

“What, Father?”

“I think you’re absolutely right.”

“Except for you, Dad,” Dylan said. “You’re not afraid of anything.”

“Oh, son,” Fenn pulled Dylan’s head onto his knee and stroked the little boy’s hair.

“That is not true.”

Brendan was sitting in the kitchen draining a bowl of soup. Across from him were Julian and Claire who said, “Layla told me Sheridan came into the house strange and left stranger.”

“How are you, Kenny?” Julian said to the young man with the thick red hair.

“I think I need to go,” Kenny told them. “I think I just need to go to bed.”

Julian nodded.

“Here I come,” Brendan said, pushing his chair in and going to the sink to rinse out his bowl.

Kenny waited at the back door near the refrigerator.

“And here we go,” Brendan said, opening the door. It was cold outside, and he was only wearing jeans and a tee shirt. But they lived just downstairs, Claire remembered.

Julian looked from Kenny and Brendan to his wife.

“How do you feel?” he asked her, because she was patting her stomach.

“A little sick to tell you the truth. I think it’s time to get one of those little sticks you pee on.”

Julian resisted the urge to smile and said to Kenny. “We’ll be around to check on you.”

“Thanks,” Kenny McGrath said. “But not tonight. I’m just going to sleep tonight.”

When he and Brendan had left and barely made it around the back yard, Kenny turned around and kissed Brendan desperately, pushing his back into the wall. He hung against him that way for a while and, mouth open with concern, Brendan looked at him.

“I need you,” Kenny whispered, threading his fingers into Brendan’s hair. “I need you inside of me tonight.”

Brendan nodded, dumbly, and then his arms around Kenny’s waist, he led him around the house.

The next morning, Meredith Affren stopped when she heard her name called.

Looking through the crowded hall of Rossford High School for whoever was calling, she lurched a little, remembering that she wasn’t half as steady as she thought she was. She’d only slept for an hour, and when she got up, though Nell told her she should stay in bed, she had to go to school.

Coming down the hall, his blue eyes crack fiend wide was Kip Danley.

“Kip?”

“I didn’t expect to see you here today,” he said as a passerby jostled him.

“I couldn’t stay home.”

“It wasn’t an accident, was it?”

“I don’t know,” Meredith said. Then, “No. It wasn’t.”

The bell rang overhead, and Meredith said, “School bells are satanic. I can’t wait for college.”

“I killed her,” Kip said.

Meredith blinked.

“I killed her. Just like anything, I killed her.”

Meredith said nothing.

“I could have stopped it. I could have said something, shouted, hit someone a little harder. Run to get the police.”

“Yeah,” Meredith agreed. “You probably could have.”

“I… I didn’t do much at all. I could have done a little bit more.”

“You did what most people would do,” Meredith said, tiredly.

“People aren’t good. They aren’t heroes. They… do just… enough. And not even enough. If anyone else was in your place they would have done the same thing. Probably less. Robin… She said you were good. She remembered you as a good person.”

“But I’m not a good person.”

“No,” Meredith allowed. “Probably not. But… you’re not a killer, either.”

She didn’t say it in a consoling way. She just said it. She just shrugged when she said it.

“Meredith,” Kip said, as she headed toward class.

She turned around and looked at him.

“Yes?”

“Could I…? Would it be possible for us to talk sometime?”

Meredith sighed.

“I think…” Meredith held up a finger,“I think I need to get back to you on that one.”

Exhausted, she shook her head.

And then she left.

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Sheridan showed up at Casey’s house. Sheridan was unwashed, pale and tired and Casey, arms folded in the darkness of his west facing work room, said, “Let me tell him.”

“No!” Sheridan almost shouted. “No, I’ll tell him. She was our friend.”

“Alright,” Casey said in the tone of someone who really didn’t feel like fighting.

“Well, then at least I’ll be there when you tell him.”

Sheridan nodded. Sheridan realized that he didn’t really have much choice but to nod.

“We should tell him now. We should wake him up.”

Casey nodded, unfolded his hands and pushed himself up from the stool. Again Sheridan noted that Casey was only deceptively small. As he followed his new employer, he tried to get out of his head what he had seen last night. Chay and Casey fucking, what had filled him with lust and confusion and made him go for Shelley. But it was too late and his dick was already fully hard as Casey came into the room and shook Chay awake.

Sheridan sat down, closing his thighs over the stiffness of his penis and Chay said: Wha?” still half asleep, and then, looking at Sheridan, he frowned in confusion.

“Just get dressed,” Casey said. “Sheridan has something to tell you.”

Sheridan turned around, but no one left the room while Chay pulled on clothes, and then Sheridan said: “It’s about Robin?”

“Whaddo you mean?”

Chay’s tee shirt was half on, he was buttoning his jeans.

Sheridan opened his mouth. It had seemed like it would be so much easier to say it. But he couldn’t get the words out. It was as if someone had put a curse on him. He opened his mouth. Nothing came out. He opened his mouth again. It was as if someone had stuffed it with cotton. He looked to Casey, as if Casey were the source of the curse. Casey looked confused.

Then Chay looked at Casey too, and Casey told him: “Your friend… Robin. She died last night.”

The light that fell into their basement apartment was grey white, and when Brendan woke up the furnace was whirring and then it began to roar. He turned to his side and Kenny was still asleep, splayed more like someone who had been knocked out than someone who had fallen asleep. It disturbed Brendan, and he climbed out of the covers and tried to move the other naked young man to a better position.

As he did, Kenny lunged out a little, before waking, then shaking his head he moaned: “Bren?”

“It’s just me, Ken,” Brendan told him.

Kenny nodded.

They were quiet, and then Kenny said, “I need the bathroom.”

He was gone a while, and Brendan climbed out of bed, pulled on a pair of trunks and went into the kitchenette to turn on the coffee pot. He leaned against the counters, crossing his legs and folding his bare arms over his chest, looking at the pot in the darkness of the kitchenette, waiting for it to begin percolating. He had to get in the bathroom. He hoped Kenny wouldn’t take a long time. He hoped Kenny wasn’t doing anything that would make the bathroom unpleasant to follow him into.

The toilet flushed and Brendan made for it.

When he came out, whistling, his hands washed, Kenny was standing there, in tee shirts and sleep pants and he handed Brendan clothes as well. They got dressed and went into the kitchen. Kenny flipped on the light and put down a yogurt. Brendan took out cups and coffee creamer. Sugar.

They did everything in silence and Kenny flipped open the yogurt top. He stuck in his spoon.

They both sighed.

Brendan put a hand to his mouth and breathed.

“My breath.”

“Smells like coffee. Coffee covers everything.”

Kenny dug his spoon around a little and then sighed, shaking his head.

Brendan turned from the contemplation of his yogurt, to his boyfriend.

“I wanna die right now,” Kenny said.

Upstairs, in the living room, Todd explained: “Brendan was supposed to go to the store with Fenn, but he might not because Kenny’s torn up.”

“About?” Milo sat down on the old sofa.

“The girl who died. Didn’t your sister know her?”

“Robin? Yeah,” Dena said.

“She was Kenny’s cousin.”