The People in Rossford

"Okay, so how did you stumble on a dead body on your way to get a pop?”

“How was there a dead body for me to stumble on my way to get a pop?”

“I asked first,” Fenn said.

“Well, I said, is there a pop? And you said in the fridge. At home Mom calls the refrigerator in the kitchen the frigidaire and the fridge in the basement the fridge. So naturally I went to the basement. It’s a common mistake.”

Fenn looked at his niece, incredulous, and then said, “No, it isn’t!”

“And, anyway, Fenn, I think it’s you who has some explaining to do for me. Cause I’m your poor niece, who you should be protecting from all the shit of this world, and I’m already traumatized enough. And then I find a body, covered in…. a mess.”

“It’s quicklime,” Barb supplied. “And by the way, I gotta go.” She rose up from the table, putting her purse over her shoulder. “Thanks for the great meal.”

Fenn replied, “Thanks for… saving out lives.”

“Well, now you have to explain,” Layla said.

“A killer was after me,” Noah said. “Because he thought I stole, we stole, about half a million dollars.”

“And so… you killed him.”

“No,” Noah said, “there was a gun fight and Lee killed him.”

“Cousin Lee?” Layla turned to her uncle.

Fenn nodded.

“He has a gun?” Then, “Of course he has a gun! And why did this man think you all stole half a million dollars?”

Fenn looked at Paul. Paul looked at Noah, and then Noah looked back at Fenn.

“Uh…” said Fenn, scratching his ear rapidly, “because we kinda sorta… did.”

Layla stared blankly at her uncle.

“We didn’t so much steal it as find it,” Fenn continued. “It would have been confiscated by the police anyway, so we decided it should be confiscated by us. And it turned out to belong to this drug dealer who was making a drug deal at the party where… well, it’s a very long story.”

“Tell me.”

“Tell me too,” Claire said.

“It’s the party where me and Paul sort of joined up with Fenn. And Todd,” Noah explained. “But it’s all really complicated. More complicated than I know how to get into right now.”

“You know not to tell this to your mother,” Fenn said to his niece. “Or anyone.”

“I know that,” Layla snapped. “But I want the whole story.”

“And you’ll get it, niece,” Fenn said. “But not at this moment. All you need to know is this guy saw Noah at the party and so he was sure Noah had taken the money.”

“And now he’s dead,” said Noah.

“And now he’s dead.” Layla repeated.

The chicken leg was forgotten in her hand. She said, “And what if there were other people. Like…. What if he had friends?”

“We’re in luck there,” Lee said. “He didn’t have any friends, and from what I get, they’d be glad to see him go.”

Layla shook her head.

After awhile she said, “You know what the problem is with this town? It’s too much going on! Why can’t I move to someplace a little less exciting?”

“Like East Carmel?” Claire said.

“Like Chicago,” Layla declared, flopping down in her chair.

Brendan heard his name called, and turned around to see Dan Malloy.

“Can I have a word with you?”

“Sure, Father.”

“How are you? You’re not busy, are you?”

“No, Father. I’m good.”

“You ready for a new year to start?”

“Not just yet, actually,” Brendan Miller confessed. “But we got a few weeks, right?”

“Yeah. Senior year?”

“Yes?”

“Have you seen any schools you like?”

“Not yet. I thought about Loretto.”

“Well, look,” Dan said, “can we have a seat? I didn’t call you to ask about schools and your future. Let’s just have a seat. All right?”

Brendan nodded and followed Dan Malloy to a pew.

“I… I heard about everything. You and Dena. And…” Dan said in a low voice, “You and Kenneth.”

Brendan’s face went hot and Dan said, “I know. We’re in church. We’re not supposed to discuss things. Not real things. It’s like some things don’t exist. But they do exist, Brendan. And no matter what I can’t say and can’t do publicly, when one of my parishioners, especially one who is a friend and who I have looked after since he was very young has been in trouble, then he deserves the truth. He deserves all the help I can honestly give him.

“I failed you, Brendan.”

“No!” Brendan said. “No, don’t say that.”

“You came to me for real help with real questions, and I failed you. Do you know someone actually told me that? Told me I had failed you and I should have been more honest.”

“Who, Fenn Houghton?”

Dan laughed with surprise.

“I just don’t know who else would say that to a priest. Except maybe, Layla.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter who it was. What matters was he was right. When you came to me and told me you thought you might be gay, that you had all of these feelings you didn’t understand—”

Brendan snickered.

“What?”

“I think,” Brendan said, sadly, “that I understood them a little too well. I hurt two other people and made a jackass of myself because I ignored that understanding.”

“Well, I could have made it less painful, Bren.”

“How?”

“I could have told you I know how you feel.”

“How can you know how—?” Bren started, and then shut up.

“They say,” Dan continued with a half smile, “that three fourths of the priests in the world can tell you how you feel. But none of us admits it. It… It would be too much of a stumbling block, too much reality for too many people. So you just don’t ever bring it up. It’s not hard. That’s how church works. People like to make little jokes about Poor Father… like the one, how’s it go? I saw two priests at a candlelight dinner. I didn’t know to give them a bottle of wine or a Cub Scout.”

“That’s… awful.”

“It’s what everyone says, and jokes about,” Dan said. “But if… you really, really, in your heart believed your priest was a homosexual…” Dan shook his head, “too much reality! And then, some of them, some priests, they don’t know it themselves. They never… had a lover or anything like that.”

“Did you?”

And then Brendan covered his mouth. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t my business.”

“I’m afraid it is,” Dan said. “I’m afraid you would have been a lot happier if I told you the truth.

“I was like you. But when I was a little older I met someone who also wanted to be a priest, and we became very close. In fact that’s exactly what we were. Lovers. And we loved each other for a very, very long time.”

“What happened? “ Brendan said. “I mean, you didn’t do… what I did? Betray him? Pretend it wasn’t real?”

“No,” Dan said. “The love did what it did. Loves are different. It changed. I wanted to be a priest really, really badly. At first I went to just test it. He, the boy I loved, told me I had to. In the end I found out I was a priest, and he found out who he was too. It isn’t always heartbreak. Everything doesn’t end. Sometimes it just changes. We’re still very close.”

Brendan nodded.

“That must be good.”

“It is very good!” Dan discovered. “He’s still the love of my life. Him and the priesthood.”

Brendan didn’t say anything right away. He just thought about this. Then he spoke.

“I treated Kenny so badly. We need to… I need to get back to where we were. I need to figure out things.”

“Is he the love of your life?”

“You think I’d know if he was?” Brendan said. “I’m just seventeen. I know… I know I like him, and enjoy…”

“The sex?”

Brendan looked shocked.

“The sex?” Dan said again.

Brendan nodded his head and said, “I love, love, being with him. But I don’t know if he’s the love of my life. I don’t know if I’ve ruined my chances to be sure. It’s been confusing… since I stopped coming to confession, or really telling people things.”

“But now you know that you cancome to confession. At least when I’m in. I wouldn’t go telling Father O’Donell what you just told me.”

“No… he’s pretty traditional.”

“Well, he’s ninety-four this August.”

Brendan nodded and said, “He might not be able to handle me and Kenny, or me being…”

“Gay?”

“Yes,” Brendan said.

“No,” Dan agreed. “Probably not. He’s still having a difficult time adjusting to the news that the world is round.”