The Prayers in Rossford
Prom
“Well, neither one of us did so hot on the getting Will a date thing,” Milo said.
“Layla took care of it.”
“Why should Layla have to take care of anything?” said Dena. “I don’t understand why Will couldn’t find his own date. He’s not crippled. He’s not retarded. He’s not ugly.”
“But he is painfully, painfully shy,” Brendan said. “And he doesn’t know how to go about getting someone.”
“As I remember, because I was there,” Dena said, “he wasn’t shy about Layla, and she turned him down repeatedly.”
Layla asked: “Is there a reason you all want to talk about me like I’m not in the room?
“And by the way,” Layla added, “no one got him anything. He got Annalise himself—”
“You and Aidan threw her at him.”
“Yes, maybe, but his supernaturally frightening knowledge of soap operas is what won her. Besides,” Layla added, “ff he doesn’t get on the stick and ask, there won’t be any date no matter how much she likes him.”
“She could always ask him,” Milo suggested.
Layla gave him such a look that he instantly knew this wasn’t an option.
“Annalise is a beautiful girl, and a sophomore at that,” Dena said. “It would be completely inappropriate for her to ask Will to prom.”
“And the point is,” Layla added, “that he’s the one who needs the date.”
“So,” Dena continued, “the two of you had better get on the stick about… getting him on the stick.”
On their way down the brick steps from the large white house, Brendan said, “Milo, I am a little curious about something.”
“Yeah?”
“About you and Will. Was there something you guys were talking about?”
“Like what, Bren?”
“Like something you all were hiding from me. Something you talk about to him, but not to me.”
“Well, heck, Bren, it’s probably tons of stuff I talk about to Will that I don’t talk about to you. Same as there are things we talk about with each other, like getting Will a date.”
“Well, are you getting me a date?” Brendan said.
“Of course not.”
“Then what’s so secret?”
“Wow,” Layla said, pushing the curtain back, “the boys are having a serious conversation on your steps.”
Dena shrugged, “It’s a lot of steps. Did Simon propose to your mom?”
“Not yet. I guess he’s waiting for something. I wish he’d just do it so I could look surprised. What about your mom’s date with Charlie?”
“Not so much a date as meeting up for drinks. Sounds kind of lame to me, but they liked it. He’s picking her up again.”
“Shit, your mama’s dating the weatherman.”
“It’s about me and Dena,” Milo said down below.
“Oh,” Brendan said. Then. “Is is about sex?”
Milo looked at him.
“Is it about you and Dena having sex?”
“Yes, already.”
“Um,” Brendan said. “So that’s the thing you don’t talk to me about. I see. Are you guys already doing it?”
“God, Bren. Drop it. I gotta go.”
Brendan followed Milo to his old El Camino.
“Well, it just seems if you wanted to know I would be the go-to-guy.”
“I don’t want you to be the go-to-guy,” Milo said, at last. “The last thing I want to do is talk to you about sex.”
“Sex with Dena or sex period?”
“God, Bren. Why are you pursuing this? You could stop anytime. Really you could.”
“I just want to know.”
“Well, I just want to go, All right.”
Brendan stared at Milo.
“I’m gonna go,” Milo said. “Bye.”
When Layla came through the door of the house on Versailles with Dena, Dena ran to Todd’s feet while Layla said to her uncle, “How long have you been back?”
“Since last night,” Fenn told her, pulling a bag of Doritos out of the cupboard and handing it to her.
Todd was under the sink, feet sticking out, a tool box beside him while he banged the pipes.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dena accused her uncle.
The flashlight left the cupboard and glared into Dena’s face.
“Ow.”
“Maybe we didn’t want to be bothered,” Fenn suggested.
Layla, opening the bag, taking no notice of the insult as she reached in and scooped out a handful of corn chips.
The doorbell rang, and then Brian came in to the kitchen along with Tom and Dylan. Fenn complained, as Tom dropped the baby into Fenn’s hands, “Damn, we just got here and they come in like flies.”
“Glad to see you too,” Brian greeted him with a hug.
“Is that my baby?” Todd’s voice came from under the sink. “Is that him! Is that my Dylan?”
Fenn rocked the gurgling baby and said, “It is and Dylan says… what’s that baby…? He says,‘I love you Uncle Todd, but you shouldn’t come out until after you’ve fixed the disposal, cause it’ll make Fenn very angry.”
Fenn dodged an old Brillo pad and muttered, “You evil son of a…”
“You know,” Todd went on, from under the sink, “the only reason Fenn wanted me was because it saved on plumbing.”
There were two good knocks, and then Todd came out from under the sink wiping his hands. He turned on the water, flipped the disposal knob, and it growled with health.
“We’d been seeing each other a while,” Todd reported, shutting off the disposal, “when the chain in the toilet upstairs broke, and Fenn couldn’t fix it. The moment I did that, and then when I fixed the tub—”
“I knew you were a keeper,” Fenn said, taking out two cigarettes, one for himself, and the next for Todd.
“And the rest was history.”
“I’m just glad you’re back,” Layla said.
“Yeah,” Dena agreed. “Every time we got ready to come over here, we were like, crap, they’re gone. Whaddo we do now?”
“Dena’s mom is dating the weather man?”
“What?” Todd said.
“You know. Charlie what’s his name?”
“The gay one?” Fenn and Todd said.
“He’s not gay,” Dena said. “He’s dating my mom.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be the first time,” Fenn noted. “And, in your family it’s kind of hereditary.”
Dena frowned at Fenn.
“How’s Brendan by the way?”
“Bren’s fine.”
“He’s bringing Kenny to the prom,” Layla said.
“Well, snap!”Fenn said with satisfaction, taking a drag off of his cigarette.
“That really is splendid,” Brian announced, which was the same as him saying snap.
“We knew we had to be back in time for prom,” Todd said, “I couldn’t not see my favorite girls in their prom gowns.”
“Embarrass you with photos and shit,” Fenn added. Todd nodded.
“Mom got me this ugly dress. At first,” Dena said. “Then she just mellowed out and changed.”
“Prom,” Tom said, smiling.
“This brings back fond memories?” Fenn said.
“Yeah, I took Suzie Redmont.”
“I hated it,” Fenn announced the same time Todd said, “It really sucked.”
“The only good part of it was the prom songs,” Todd said.
“What was yours?” Fenn asked him.
“Uh… Madonna… ‘Take a Bow’.”
At once Fenn and Layla began.
I’ve always been in love with you
I guess you’ve always know its true
You took my love for granted why
Oh why
The show is over say goodbye!
And then they dissolved into laughing while Todd slapped the table.
“That was the song! And:
Let’s go into the water and try…
At this there was several aws and ohs around the table and then they began singing.
Let’s don’t wait till the water runs dry
We might watch our whole lives pass us by
Let’s don’t wait till the water runs dry
We’ll make the biggest mistake of our lives
Don’t do it baby
Ohhh ohhh ohh ohhh
Wahoooo!
And when they had stopped Brian, still stuck in the moment let out a long: “Wahoooooo!”before he realized everyone else had stopped, and they just looked at him.
Fenn smiled predatorily at Brian before Brian said, “You’re all very, very evil people.”
“So,” said Tom, when they were in the study, “the adoption papers are ready. Everything can go through.”
“Yes,” Fenn nodded. “I’d thought about that.”
Tom cocked his head.
“What’s to think about? Whaddo you mean?”
“I mean, everything. I’ve been noticing something. I’ve been noticing how attached Todd is to Dylan.”
“You’re attached to Dylan too. Heck, you made Dylan.”
“I commited the perfidious act which made Dylan possible,” Fenn said. “There’s a difference. I just think that it is Todd who should adopt him. Now listen,” he said, while Tom opened his mouth to protest. “I was listening to us tonight. I was listening when you brought Dylan in the house, and I called Todd Uncle Todd. That would mean I’m Father Fenn. But I feel like Uncle Fenn, and Todd acts like a father, and he’s always wanted to be one. So I think he should be the father.”
Dylan was not with them. Dylan was, in fact, being watched over by Todd.
“Are you saying that you refuse to be the father?”
“No, because that’s a bit much.”
“I mean, in an almost biological way you are the father.”
“Todd’s a better one, though. And a more logical one.”
“But…”
“Look,” Fenn gently put up his hand, “What I am saying is you should at least consider the possibility of Todd being Dylan’s adoptive father.”
“THANKS A LOT FOR dropping us off, Brian,” Tom said on the way back.
“Oh, we were going in the same direction and… it’s nice just to hang out. You know? At peace.”
“Yeah.”Then Tom said, “We used to be at peace all the time. We used to like each other.”
“I think neither one of us really liked ourselves that well, and that was the problem.”
“Fenn thinks I should ask Todd to adopt Dylan.”
“Really?”
“He thinks that Todd—well, he says that Todd is closer, and wants a child more. And—”
“I think it’s a good idea.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Brian said. “Listen to Fenn. He usually makes a hell of a lot of sense.”
“Do you remember the day you helped me build Dylan’s crib?”
“Yeah,” Brian said. “Of course I do. It was on Christmas.”
“I was so surprised. Here we were, the two of, building this cradle together. For my kid. I never imagined us doing anything together.”
Brian snorted and laughed as he turned on Versailles.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tom said.
“Of course we did things together. We were screwing each other this time last year. Like we did for years.”
“But that’s all it was,” said Tom. “And there wasn’t anything sweet or kind in it. And I think you hated me a little.”
“And you hated me.”
“Probably. But… it was like…”
“It was like going to your dealer for a fix, and you hated your dealer cause you wanted to stop. But you needed him.”
Tom discovered, slowly: “Riggghhht.”
“I forgot that one time I was in love with you. I spent so long wanting you that I forgot I loved you. Isn’t that funny? At one time it must have been pure. It must have been good. At one time it had to be an innocent love.”
“I think,” Tom said, “that it was.”
Dylan stirred in the back, and Tom said, “Don’t worry, baby, we’re almost home. I got you. See.”
He put his finger behind him for Dylan to play with, and said, “Brian, I think you think that it was a one way thing. That you were in love with me and I was just… seduced.”
“But that is what it was,” Brian said. He was about to say, “You made that clear,” but this sounded mean and spiteful, and he didn’t have any meanness or spite in him anymore.
“No,” Tom said. “I’ve been thinking about this since… since everything. Since you left and Todd went to bring you back, and the way we’ve all been for… the last year and a half.
“I see you now, Brian. And you are a wonderful man.”
“God, Tom,” Brian said, sounding a little like the old Brian, “please stop.”
“No, I mean, I see this handsome, wonderful guy who’s kind, and I remember why I fell in love with you, and why in the end Fenn and me ended.”
“You all ended because—”
“We ended because he told me that I could never have, not back then, been with someone I wasn’t in love with. He said if it had just been lust he would have moved past it. He knew that I loved you. I did love you Brian.”
It was a red light now, which was a good thing because this caught Brian so off guard he gripped the steering wheel and seemed to be going into something like apoplexy. But he blew out his cheeks and said, “God, Tom.”
Tom thought that Brian might be about to cry. Brian had turned so sensitive recently that he was almost crazy, as if years and years of coldness thawing made a strange impact on him.
The light turned green and Brian said,
“Maybe we could find a way to love each other again?” Brian suggested. “You know, without the whole cheating on our partners thing.”
Tom was conscious of the impulse to laugh, but the inability to do it. He just said, “I think I’d like that.”