The Prayers in Rossford

The Oyster Bar was downtown across the street from Saint Agatha’s, the large, grey stone Catholic church that was Saint Barbara’s rival. It was a pretty church, Nell thought for a moment. It was a church that was nicer than Saint Barbara’s. Once in her whole life she’d been inside of it though now, she reflected, she’d lived in this city for over forty years. It was all pillars. She remembered cream colored pillars, pillars the color of butter. And she remembered brass lanterns hanging about everywhere. It had been the most beautiful church she’d ever entered. She felt immediately protective of Saint Barbara’s, and to ward the treacherous thought of this church’s beauty away had never set foot in there again.

“I should go back.”

She powerfully wanted to go back, and wondered if this wasn’t perverse, if this wasn’t a way of keeping her from her date in the Oyster Bar which, of course, she’d never been inside either. Across the street he was standing there in a white fur collared suede jacket, waving. It was undeniably him.

Nell waved back, looking both ways, which was purely symbolic in a downtown like Rossford’s, and crossed the street.

“Hey, how are ya?” he said. “I’m glad you made it here all right!”

Everything he said ended in an exclamation point, and Nell didn’t know how to reply, so she said, “I’m glad I made it too!”

He was so young. He was eager and sweet and cute in his own way. But more for Dena. No Dena was too young, what about Brendan Miller’s sister… Carol?

“You didn’t have a hard time finding it, did you?” Charlie opened the door and ushered her in.

“No,” Nell said. “I’ve lived here my whole life.”

“I’m new,” Charlie said. “Well, not new anymore. But when I first got here, I used to get the whole region confused.”

“Where do you come from?”

That was an easy question. And in the short seconds before he answered she could guess. Not Chicago, not with a goofy smile like that. Some country place, some good old down home place.

“Near Canaan,” he said, a question mark in his voice. “It’s near the Ohio border.”

“Oh, okay,” Nell said. “Center of the state. I mean, half way down.”

“Yes, exactly. Oh, there’s a good window table. Do you want a booth or would you like to sit at the bar?”

“A booth is nice,” Nell said. “We can see all the people passing by.”

A waiter came up and Charlie ordered. She didn’t remember what, but she was surprised that he drank. The waiter was looking at her.

“I think… I haven’t had a strawberry margarita in a long time.”

Daiquiri seemed like the wrong thing to say, so she’d requested a margarita instead.

“I should have got that!” Charlie said. “So, Nell, what do you do in life?”

“I uh… Well, it’s not nearly as exciting as what you do.”

“Whaddo you mean?” Charlie made a spluttering noise and threw open his hands in something that looked less than ingenuous.

“I’m not on television.”

“It’s just local TV.”

“I’m a part time secretary at Rossford Elementary.”

“Education is very important,” Charlie said seriously, folding his hands together and nodding his head in earnest.

Nell suddenly wanted to laugh. There was no getting away from the fact that she was on the wrong side of forty and Charlie was not even thirty. And suddenly, when she realized the impossibility of this being anything like a dream date, or even a sensible date, she just let herself go, as if she were part of a comedy and the only way to keep it funny was to not let Charlie in on the joke.

Everything was quite earnest, and all that she told him he greeted like a news anchor, either giving earnest nods or winning smiles. Halfway through the margarita she wondered what he would be like in bed, and this divided her so sharply between a shock of lust and absolute giggles that, when he reached across the booth, touched her hand and said, “Nell… I can call you Nell, right? Would you like to go out on a real date sometime?”

The only thing she could say was:

“Yes.”

“Fenn?”

“Wait…” Fenn muttered, looking over the script. “How can I tell you what I think if you won’t let me finish looking this over?”

“Fenn…”

“Todd,” Fenn turned the page, and pushed up his glasses.

They lay in the bed together and Todd leaned over and turned off his light, leaning in to kiss Fenn’s throat.

“Todd, stop,” Fenn laughed and said, “Now, I’ve got to start again.”

Todd continued to kiss him and, under the cover, put his hand on Fenn’s thigh, walking his fingers up now. Up now.

“You said this was important to you, and I think it’s a good film, and you said you wanted my—oh!”

“Look,” Todd said, taking the manuscript away, and leaning over to turn off Fenn’s lamp, “Tomorrow.”

Fenn reached to turn out the lamp with a low chuckle.

They worked off their shorts and their tee shirts, laughing in the dark and then Fenn said: “One last bit of business.”

“Ah, shit, Fenn,” Todd said.

“Todd,” Fenn stroked his head. “Horny Todd, lovely Todd… I was thinking about Dylan.”

“Hum?”

“The adoption’s going through, and I was thinking of not doing it.”

“What?” Todd shot up, turning Fenn’s light on.

“I was thinking,” Fenn continued, slowly, “that I should not adopt Dylan.”

Todd looked, as he rarely did, incensed with Fenn.

“Why the hell not!”

“Because I know a better father.”

Todd raised his eyebrow.

“You,” said Fenn.

“What are we watching?” James leaped over the sofa to join Noah.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s something close to bullshit.”

“It’s pornstars,” Danasia said, taking the chips from Noah. “Gay for pay porn stars along with a gay man, two straight bartenders and a female ex pornstar.”

“Tyra,” Naomi supplied.

“Don’t you guys have a TV at your place?”

“Yours is bigger,” Naomi said.

“So you think you’re not gay?”

“I know I’m not gay. I’m straight. I have three kids and a wife. This is just what I do…”

“But how do you… how do I say this? I heard that you think… well, if it’s Christmas, let’s just say you think it’s better to receive… that to give.”

“This bitch is so stupid,” Danasia said. “If she can get a TV show, why the fuck can’t I?”

“I mean, isn’t it more gay to receive than give the… shall I say, present?”

Noah and James looked at each other, and they both laughed.

Everyone muttered: “Dumb bitch.”

The door opened and Noah, leaning over James who was crunching on a chip, said, “No one ever knocks.”

“To hell with you,” Claire said, brandishing a large plastic bag and dragging Layla behind her.

“Who wants to see Layla’s prom dress?”

“We all wanna see your prom dress,” James told her, and Noah leaned over him, resting his elbows on James’ shoulders.

“If you,” Noah began, “are closer to the prom dress than I am, then doesn’t that make your looking at the prom dress gayer than mine?”

“What?” said Claire.

James shook his head. “It’s just this bullshit we’re watching.”

“What are you?—” Claire began, and then said, “Never mind, let me show you the dress.”

Layla opened it up.

“Shit!” Naomi put a hand over her mouth while Danasia nodded.

“Layla, you’ll look like Cinderella at the ball.”

“You’re not saying anything,” Layla turned to Noah.

Claire looked at Noah and he said, at last, “You’re really going to look like something else. I wish I could see all you guys.”

“Noah had prom nostalgia,” James said.

“I would have thought the last thing you’d like to remember was your prom,” Claire said.

“Oh, no, I never actually went to the prom,” her friend explained. “I just thought about it. What it would have been like. Yours is going to be something, Lay!”

“And Brendan’s taking Kenny. That’ll be something to see,” Claire said. “That makes me wish I could go.”

“You could,” Layla said, suddenly.

“No, I—”

“Who’s to stop you?” Layla said. “Who’s to stop any of you? And you, Noah.”

“Me and James?” he said.

“You’d be hot in a tuxedo,” Claire said.

James looked at Noah, and he told Claire, “See how red he is. He’s blushing. I think he wants to go to the ball.”

“What is this shit?” Layla looked at the TV as she and Claire began folding up the gown and slipping it into the bag.

“Tyra,” Danasia said.

Layla and Claire looked at each other before agreeing:

“Dumb bitch.”

While Danasia and Naomi were fitting Layla for her dress so she could show Noah and James the final effect, Claire sat down to watch TV between James and Noah.

It wasn’t long before Layla reentered the living room, and James nodded with approval.

“Of course my hair will be up,” Layla told them.

“Well, you look great this way too,” Noah said, appreciatively.

Layla smiled, looked surprisingly shy, and then she leaned against the wall, and said, “What’s that man saying?”

“Tyra’s talking about porn,” Claire said in a hushed voice.

“The thing about porn is you just cover up the way you feel by using drugs, and it ruins you. Every time you have sex like that it takes away a piece of your soul. It totally degrades you.”

“I don’t feel degraded at all! I like what I do. I provide a service for people so they don’t have to go out and do dangerous stuff. They can just fulfill their fantasies with me, and that doesn’t make me ashamed at all.”

Since no one was looking at Noah, it was finally Danasia who simply said, “Which one of them is right?”

“I think that Tyra wants one answer,” Noah said, “and there are as many answers as there are people up on that stage. I wouldn’t be caught dead up there.”

“Noah?” Claire sighed feeling, as she often did, very in love with him, “You know what I think?”

Noah raised an eyebrow and looked back at her with his little smile.

“What?”

“I think you should come to the prom.”

Layla Lawden heard her name called, and she knew the voice now. She closed her locker and waited for Annelise, who was coming down the hall with a fierce expression on her face.

“Layla, when you think of me, what do you think?” the girl said.

“Huh?”

“When you look at me,” said Annelise Michaelson, “do you think… um, now there’s a girl who would have a hard time getting a date? Or do you think, as I think people should, there is a girl who is beautiful, gifted and talented, who every man should want? Because that’s what I think.”

“I think so too,” Layla said, stalwartly, though she wondered where this was going.

“But, as I’m sure you know, it is not easy being beautiful and smart. Men just don’t come up to you and say, ‘Hey, you’re beautiful and smart. Let’s get together.’ Do you know if I was fat and dumpy, and stupid to boot, like half those bitches over at Rossford High, I probably would have been laid by now. Of course, I’d probably have a couple of kids too. But my point is, I was paid to go out with Will, and I would like to go out with Will, and prom is this Friday. I have no dress, no corsage, no invitation. You know why? Because he hasn’t asked me. And all of my friends have been asked. Yours truly is beginning to feel like a loser.”

“You’re not a loser.”

“I know I’m not!” Annelise snapped, and then she said, “I mean… I know that, Layla.”

“Will is just…” Layla began. “Will doesn’t get certain things.”

“Well,” Annelise said, straightening the straps of her book bag, “you tell Will Klasko he better get on the stick, or he won’t get shit.”

And then she was gone.

“It’s kinda pissing her off,” Aidan confided in Layla when they were on their way to the cafeteria.

“Will has to be coaxed,” Milo said.

“Yeah,” said Brendan. “This has to be done in the right way. I mean we’ve arranged this whole thing behind his back, and then for us to expect him to go out and ask Annelise too, well, that’s delicate.”

At once Brendan shut up, and they all saw that Dena and Will were coming down the hall from their advanced French class.

“I think I know what to do,” Aidan said.

Layla looked at him, but he just raised a finger.

He left them, approached Will and Dena, and must have asked to speak to Will alone, and then Will was off a few second later in search, Layla supposed, of Annelise.

Aidan came back, quietly confident, and Layla hooked her arm around his, pulling him away from the rest of them.

“Whaddit you say to him?”

“I said,” Aidan stated, “if he didn’t ask Annie out, I would push his face through the grille of my car.”

Layla stared at him, and Aidan said, “Was that too much?”

“It was,” Layla said after a time. “But for some reason I’m okay with it.”

“Okay everyone, you have to tell me how I look,” Nell shouted before coming into the kitchen.

“What for?” said Todd. “It’s Dena’s prom.”

“It’s Dena’s prom,” Adele said, “but your big sister has a date of her own afterward.”

“Adele, you’re giving it all away,” Nell shouted.

“Well, come out, and then tell us all about it.”

Nell came out, and for good measure did a turn while Todd whistled with admiration.

“Shit, Sis, you look terrific.”

“That is high praise coming from you,” Nell said.

“Who’s the hot date with?” Fenn asked her.

“Wait till you hear this,” Adele said to her brother.

“Adele!”

“I haven’t said anything, yet.”

“I met him online. On Eros.Com.”

Fenn nodded, signaling for Nell to continue.

“It’s the weatherman off of Channel Twenty-Two.”

“Jack Stachak?” Todd said.

“No,” Adele told him. “That would make sense.”

Nell frowned at her friend, but said to Fenn and Todd, “Charlie Palmer.”

“Are you serious?” Fenn spat.

“Well, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Cause you’re too fucking old,” he said, casually.

Nell looked from Fenn to Todd and said, “Like you’re one to talk.”

“Todd is young enough to be my baby brother,” Fenn said. “Charlie Palmer is young enough to be your…”

“Baby,” Todd finished.

Nell eyed her brother and tried to think of something to say to his charming and infuriating smile, but it was Adele who said, “They hit it off on the first date.”

Fenn gave away his amazement: “You’ve already been on a date with him.”

Nell nodded.

“It was just drinks the first time,” Adele elaborated.

“Would you let me tell it?” Nell said, frustrated.

“If you would tell it,” said Adele. “Which you haven’t, which is why I am.”

She went on, “So this time he’s going to pick her up and everything. Real romance.”

“I won’t be the only one having real romance,” Nell said.

“Yeah, the prom,” Fenn said.

“No,” said Nell, in a voice as infuriating as her brother’s while Fenn eyed her so that she would finish.

But it was Adele who finished.

“Simon’s going to take me out. He won’t tell me where. He just says, and I quote: ‘Make yourself beautiful’. You know, Hoot used to be good at that. He’d surprise me all the time.”

Fenn burst out laughing, and then Todd, and lastly Nell chuckled while Adele looked around for a while, lost before she realized her inadvertent joke. Then she said, “Well, if Simon has me get dressed up to meet a secret wife and child, we’re definitely quits.”