EXCURSUS
CONCLUSION
Aunt Josette was snoring softly in the living room with the TV on, and it cast its blue light on her as Anigel and Ross went past the dining room with the bright chandelier they never turned on, then down the hall, into the kitchen.
“You staying here?” Ross said.
“Might as well. Then we get to hang out with her.”
“I don’t like leaving her alone,” Ross said.
“And she wouldn’t like you staying here on the Westside just to watch her and not having a life.”
“I know.”
“And she’ll be fine. She’s got a hell of a lot of life in her, and friends and neighbors still. And I come around. And so does Chayne.”
“Are they even related?”
“I think they’re not not related,” Anigel said. “the Wynns and the Princes and all that are convoluted.”
“You said it,” Ross said.
The Westside was their home. Everything surrounding Westhaven Avenue and descending into Little Poland. Saint Celestine’s had been their school and their church and it was there Anigel had met Ross years ago and learned about the very end of Little Poland, Taylor and Nielhaus and Laoughlin Streets, that were surrounded by East Sequoya and home to all those who had left Detroit and South Bend, Gary and Chicago in Fifties, the Sixties and Seventies. Here, the streets with their late night bars and clubs had a wild life to them that reminded Anigel of the places from which these people had come, the tongue of a town dipping into the great body of a larger city, the far South had very little to do with the rest of Geschichte Falls. Here, among the Mexican restaurants and groceries stories, the botanicas and the shady adult books stores, the Cash Advances, the store front churches and the old fish markets, Ross Allan had spent the weekends when his parents, in nicer areas, had brought him to stay with his grandmother and great aunt in their two flats, and when his mother had died, the year after Aunt Josette had gotten the house on Carmen Street, Ross had come to live her for the rest of his high school career.
“You’re afraid,” Anigel said.
“Huh?”
“You’re afraid that if you go away Josette will die, like your mother did. You think if you keep an eye on her nothing will happen.”
When Ross said nothing, Anigel continued.
“I felt the same way after my family split up, like if I had too much of a good time or didn’t pay attention, then even more would happen. But even more did happen. I couldn’t control it. And you can’t control this. So have your good time.”
In the living room the news was on. The stuff happening in Benton Harbor, Saint Joseph and East Sequoya was far more interesting than what was happening in Geschichte Falls or Saint Gregory.
“You’re right, of course,” Ross said, yawning.
“See, you should come with us.”
“No,” Anigel said. “I mean, I want to. But no. I never understood until recently what it was to know other girls. Until I met Jill and Cameron, And Marissa and Sharonda. There’s a power in it, and I think there’s a power in you and Flipper and Jimmy.”
“In being one of the boys?”
“None of you are exactly one of the boys. You all are friends, on the fringe. And I don’t want to interrupt what happens with that. So I’ll stay here and let you discover it.”
“Nothing will surpass us. Nothing’s tighter than you and me.”
“I know that, fool,” Anigel said. “But we can be just as strong with other bonds too.”
“Do you want coffee?” Russell asked.
“I’m not even entirely awake,” Flipper said, shielding his eyes from the sun that entered through the second story window.
Lazily, Russell turned over and Flipper’s eyes passed over his naked body. Russell pulled the curtain close over the morning and lay back across him.
“This is an interesting room,” Flipper said, his hand lying across Russell’s back.
“You weren’t much interested in it last night,” Russell said, his finger brushing Flipper’s breast.
“I couldn’t see anything last night, and viewing this room wasn’t why I was here.”
The room on 1421 Curtain Street had undergone a few changes, for it had started as Russell’s, then briefly become Rob’s and then was occasionally Anigel’sor whoever needed it. But, as much as Russell had said his home was welcome to Jimmy and Flipper, his mother knew about Flipper, and this was the place where Russell had a room of his own and could bring into it whomever he wished.
Flipper turned on his side and Russell’s hand ran over his smooth, muscled body, lingered on his sex, darker than the rest of him, rested on his hip.
“When we first met we talked about everything,” Flipper said. “Last night we didn’t talk about anything. I loved it. You took me all over this place.”
“You liked the park on Colum?”
“Loved it. Still confounded by how one side can be so….”
“Hillbilly?”
“Not the word I was looking for,” Flipper said, as Russell pushed his shoulder length red hair out of the way and reached for a cigarette.
“It is,” Russell said, laughing, and as he puffed, a trail of smoke went up from his mouth. “It’s exactly the word you’re looking for.”
He had lit a second cigarette from the first and handed it to Flipper. Flipper took a great inhale and on his back exhaled smoke as well.
“It was so easy last night. With us.”
“It’s always been easy with us,” Russell said, standing up and looking glorious, a burning white angel with red gold hair.
“It was just everything around us that was so hard. Me and Cody, you and Andy. The drama about Jason. Your drama about girls. And we thought love meant hard.”
They had come back here last night, and Jimmy might have found his way there or not, and the house was asleep, but a little light was on in the kitchen and it reminded Russell of how much he loved summer in Geschichte Falls, and they had come upstairs and undressed in the dark with no preamble, kissing and tasting each other, linking the whole time, knowing that everything that had taken places this evening was building to this moment when Flipper lay back, naked against the wall as Russell knelt before him, head swiveling in circles as he engulfed his cock. Later, quiet in the dark, Flipper fucked him, and as their hands bunched together in ecstasy and their limbs locked, they both swore silent cusses into the dark, and in even more silence, buckled in orgasm when Russell flooded the sheets and Flipper spurted a hot puddle in the middle of his back.
“”It doesn’t have to be hard,” Russell said. “It doesn’t have to be an agony. That’s not what makes love love.”
“Promise me,” Flipper said, “when you’re eighteen, you’ll come with me on a trip to Miami, and I’ll show you all the shit I’m about to find now. Promise?”
“You think you’ll remember?”
“Of course I’ll fucking remember,” Flipper said.
“Then yes.”
“You want some breakfast?” Jimmy said. “We could pick up something, I bet?”
Ralph stretched, yawning, and said, “What time is it?”
“Barely nine, and we’re for real supposed to be on the road by ten, which seems like twelve.”
“You weren’t in a huge hurry, were you?” Ralph asked.
Jimmy shrugged and said, “Doesn’t look like it.”
Last night, when they had all been drinking on the back porch of the Balusiks, as John was going to bed, Jimmy had said, “Well, looks like Ross and Ani are going, and it doesn’t seem like Russ and Flipper are coming back.”
“Nope,” said Ralph who was in shorts and hoodie and managed to be rangy and stocky all at once. He laughed, “Russ just plain abandoned me.”
“Well, what are you off to do now?” Jimmy asked, downing the last of his beer.
“Guess go to bed.”
“Yeah, go to bed,” Jimmy echoed.
He said, “People always say there’s nothing to do in Geschichte Falls, but that’s not really true.”
“Usually I just hang,” Ralph said. He sat with his legs apart, right leg bouncing up and down.
“Well, I guess I’m going to head over to Chayne’s house,” Jimmy said. “It’s where we said we were all staying and he should have his door open.”
“Isn’t it kinda strange that you aren’t staying at Russell’s house?”
“Yeah, it is strange,” Jimmy said. “It’s probably a Flipper thing. Since he and Flipper you know, had some stuff going on. And Cousin Patti knew. It might make an odd sleeping situation if Flip stayed there.”
Jimmy jiggled his keys and said, “You coming? Or what?”
“I was gonna go to my folks,” Ralph said, shrugging. “But I could come. I’ll drive I’ll follow.”
“Actually, since this is your city,” Jimmy said, slipping on his shades though it was almost eleven. “why don’t I follow?”
They headed up Brigham, the one through street that crossed the river back into the main part of town, and Jimmy followed Ralph’s taillights toward the Bridge and then was surprised when they turned right, a few blocks north of that big old church, and he turned into a tree lined street, and parked in the driveway. Curious, but not disturbed, Jimmy parked his car and quietly joined Ralph.
“I have to check on my kid,” Ralph said.
“Oh,” Jimmy said neutrally, following Ralph up the walkway to the little house. Not far off he could hear a barge passing, and the sound the wind made over broad rivers.
“He was just born a few months ago. He’s really changed things,” Ralph said, opening the side door and coming in.
“What are you doing here?” the girl asked, and Ralph was surprised that the mother was there, assumed that Ralph was coming to his house.
“Wanted to know if you need anything? How my girl is? I was just passing by.”
The girl smiled as she handed Ralph the baby.
“I’m Dell,” she said.
“Hey, Dell. I’m Jimmy.”
“This man is a king,” she said, as she handed him the bottle. “Most girls talk about how their baby’s dads are never around. Ralph is always around. He’s always taking care of me and this kid.”
“You wanna hold her,” Ralph held out the baby to Jimmy.
He didn’t, but he didn’t know how to say that, and Ralph looked like such a dad right there, so Jimmy did, and the baby was heavier than he thought a baby would be, and sweet, and all too alive, and so Jimmy gave it back.
“That’s a girl. You need a change. Dell, are the diaper’s still in the bathroom?”
“Um hum.”
Jimmy went off with the baby, and the blond girl shrugged.
“He’s a good man,” Dell said. “That’s why I liked him. Football player. Good athlete, probably’ll go to school on a scholarship.
“You know I was never his girlfriend,” Dell said.
“He had a girlfriend, and they were pretty happy, but I’m the one who got knocked up, and he could have cried or denied it or whatever, but he just stepped right up.”
“What happened to the girlfriend?”
“That’s over. It turns out you can’t get one girl pregnant and keep the other. I know it must have hurt him but he never said a word about it. He just acted as if I was the most important thing in the world. Treated me better than any real boyfriend. And he’s always here for the baby. Runs with a better crowd now. That Russell guy—”
“He’s my cousin.”
“That explains it!” Dell snapped her fingers.
“Well, yeah, Russell’s a king too. I think he likes guys. You can’t tell or anything and I say everybody for everything, but I’m pretty sure Ralph is a little bit in love with him.”
At this point, Ralph came out, singing to his daughter, and Jimmy thought Dell knew as much as she needed to.
“You ready?” Ralph asked, and Jimmy said he was.
“Where are we going anyway?” he asked Ralph when they were outside.
“I dunno,” Ralph said, rocking back on his heels. His chest seemed massive under the open sweatshirt, and he took a hand through his bronze hair. “I just wanna do some shit, you know?”
“Russell and Flip are probably at Chayne’s house.
“My parents don’t really care what I do,” Ralph said. “I mean, they used to worry about girls in my room till the baby. But like, we could certainly hang out there.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m eighteen, man,” Ralph said.
“You ever do lines?”
“Lines?”
“Of coke?”
“You got that?” Ralph looked amazed.
He said, “My friend Jason did it once, but I didn’t try it.”
“You game for it? Cause I got cigs—”
“I’m not much of a smoker.”
“Weed.”
“I like weed.”
“And coke. And I can get liquor.”
“Oh, I got liquor,” Ralph said. “My family owns that store.”
“Right as rain then,” Jimmy said. “Right as rain.”
They drank and laughed in Ralph’s upstairs room, and Jimmy rolled a blunt which they shared, and then Jimmy had a cigarette while Ralph drank, and finally Jimmy took out the cocaine. He asked Ralph for a mirror and a razor blade. It was the first time Ralph had ever done coke and it had been a long time since Jimmy had.
“You okay, man?” Jimmy asked.
“I’m fucking flying. This is amazing.”
“Hell, yeah it is.”
“We should have started with this,” Ralph said.
Jimmy said nothing to this.
“I feel fucking extraordinary,” Ralph exclaimed standing up and leaning against the wall, staring at corner.
“Amen,” Jimmy murmured. “Amen.”
“What now?” Ralph said.
“I could suck your dick.”
Ralph unbuckled his belt and pulled down his jeans.
To be high on coke and pot, high on the adventure of travel and suck and cock, the tongue rolling over the shaft and the helmet of the head, onto the v, and up and down the little vein, was a meditation, was more than meditating, and he clung to Ralph’s waist, sucking and sucking, slobbering over him. When they undressed, when they went to the bed, when the drugs took them on a ride that lasted all night, neither one of them saw it coming. However, on closer inspection, the next morning, when Jimmy drove to McDonalds and picked up hash browns and Mc.Muffins for the both of them, he had to admit that since the moment Ralph had walked through the door with Russell, into the apartment over Balusik’s grocery store, he’d always seen it coming.
