Sparkle: The Queerest Book You'll Ever Love (35 page)

Of course, we invented that look. “Too late,” Sparkle said. “Now you,” he commanded Sam, “get in that rat-trap, get your things, and get your skinny ass back out here in five minutes. And you,” he added, now talking to Peter, “you get over to my car and sit yourself down in the back seat and don’t say one word until I tell you too.” Both boys did as they were told. Honestly, I’d never seen Sparkle so angry before. Usually, everything rolled right off his back.

Minutes later, Sam came running out with his meager possessions and followed us to Sparkle’s car. Of course, fitting five in a Corvette is no easy task, but we managed. Then it was time for some answers.

“Okay,” Sparkle began, “start at the beginning, please, Sam.” I could tell that he was fuming beneath his relatively calm exterior.

“Well, you guys were there at that horrible dinner three years ago. Unfortunately for me, things went downhill after that night. My mother just couldn’t deal, and Grandma and Grandpa lived too far away to have any real influence on her. Though Grandpa Jesse tried his hardest, my mom freaked out every time the subject of my being gay came up. And then some kids at school found out about me, and pretty soon I was getting regularly beat up … (Sam started to sob, which meant that Sparkle and I immediately forgave him for anything he might’ve done.)… and, of course, the school had to keep calling my mom to come down and get me, which she hated doing. And then she hated
me
for being the cause of it all.”

“Oh, Sam,” I said, “I’m so sorry. Your mom always was anxious that way. But you’re here now and, by my calculations, you must be at least eighteen, so, even if I do call home to say that you’re here, there’s nothing she can do about it. And you can stay with me until we figure something out. How does that sound?”

Through his tears, he said, “Oh, Cousin Bruce, thank you… thank you so much. I should’ve called you from the beginning. I’m sorry for making Peter go behind your back that way. I’d love to stay with you. I mean, that hotel was way scary. Heck, they don’t have places like that back in Iowa.”

They probably didn’t, but there was something about Sam that gave me reason to pause. Oh, I was sure he was telling the truth about his mother; she always was a bitch. But the way he looked and sounded made me think that there were more things going on than met the eye. Still, that wasn’t the time or place to go into it, and I had a feeling that my mother could add something to his story anyway. I’d just have to wait until I got home to give her a call.

“It’s okay, Sam. We’ll straighten this whole thing out. At least you had the sense to call Peter,” I began, and Peter started to smile, thinking he was out of trouble.

“No, Mister,” I corrected him. “You should’ve known better. I don’t care what Sam made you promise; you should’ve told Sparkle and me what was going on from the start. Sam is my family, after all, and you’re
our
family. That means sometimes having to do things that we don’t like in order to protect each other. So you’re still in trouble.” That wiped the smirk off his face. Of course, when you start preaching all high and mighty like that, there’s always something that brings you down a notch. For me, it was my big mouth. “Well, at least now I know how you knew that Betty worked at The Snatch,” added I, realizing right away what I’d just said and praying that no one else caught on.

“Excuse me?” Sharon coughed out, turning around to look at me cowering in the back seat. She had, apparently, caught on. “What do you mean Peter knew that Betty worked at The Snatch? And since when did you know that Betty worked there, Mister
Let’s try that place out, I hear they make a good drink
? You fucking tricked us.” Uh-oh, she had me.

“Not tricked, exactly. I mean, really, you guys sort of made me go in there in the first place.” I made a hopeless attempt to save myself.

“Give it up,” Sparkle said. “You tried to pull something over on Sharon and you got caught. Really, Secret, you should leave the underhanded trickery up to me.”

“Told you so,” Peter whispered in my ear.

“Shut up,” I whispered right back. “You’re still in trouble.”

Sharon heard me and added, “Not as much as you are.” (
Gulp
.)

Peter nudged me. I nudged him back. Sometimes I forgot that I wasn’t that much older than him, but I should’ve known better. Still, I couldn’t help but start to laugh.

“What’s so fucking funny?” Sharon fumed.

“Well, I did get you. I mean, you were surprised, and she obviously likes you, so…”

“So what?” she said, but with a little less edge to her voice.

“So let the baby have this one,” Sparkle interceded. “But he better not let it happen again,” he said to Sharon, though he was clearly talking to me.

“Cross my heart,” I said and crossed my heart. “I promise to leave the deceitful, conniving, manipulative, and otherwise evil behavior up to Sparkle.”

“Well, okay then,” Sparkle said. “And if Peter promises that from now on he’ll never go behind our backs, no matter what, then he’s forgiven as well.”

“I promise,” Peter promised and crossed his heart. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and ruffled his hair. I don’t think I could ever stay mad at him for more than five minutes, anyhow.

“And if Sam wants to be a part of this family, he has to promise it, too,” I added, but Sam was already sound asleep in the back seat. “I guess Sam will have to promise it in the morning then,” I whispered. Still, I had my doubts that Sam wanted to be part of our family, or he would’ve called me when he got to San Francisco and not Peter. That, you see, was what was really nagging at me.

***

That night, Sparkle dropped Sam and me off at my place and he went to his apartment with Peter. I had to wait until the next morning to phone my mother, as it was way too late by the time we got home. Needless to say, I was nervous calling her, and I had good reason to be.

As it turned out, she had no idea that Sam was even missing. That was surprise number one. Surprise number two was that my mother got off the phone with me to call her brother to find out what he knew, and, it so happened, he didn’t know that Sam was missing either. Well, as I said before, bad news comes in threes, seeing as that Uncle Jesse called Cousin Tess, and she did, in fact, know that Sam was missing and simply didn’t care.

But, and this is a big old but, while Sam was telling the truth about the beatings and everything, what he neglected to tell us was that the school was calling Tess mostly because her son was caught smoking crack several times. They only let him graduate to get him out of their hair. My mother said that he was lucky not to be in jail or worse. She also said that it was the first she’d heard about any of it and apologized to me for having it thrown in my lap. I thanked her for the information, told her that that was what family was for, also told her to tell the rest of the family that I would look after Sam and not to worry, and then I hung up. All while a pit the size of a watermelon formed in my churning belly.

I knew something was off about Sam, as I’d mentioned, and now I knew what it was. But what was I to do about it? And did I really want him living in my home? First thing I did was call Sparkle, who, through Peter, already knew the whole story. He told me that he was sending Peter over to look after my cousin so that I could go to work. Meanwhile, said cousin was still fast asleep in the living room. I sighed and scratched my head. Did I really owe him anything? Did I need the aggravation? Did I have a choice?

When Peter arrived, he pulled me in the hallway to apologize again for what he’d done. Then he explained how he was trying his best to get Sam in a shelter or a drug clinic, but that he wasn’t having any luck. Also, when we’d caught them the night before, he was there to tell Sam that he was going to tell me and Sparkle about him, when we just appeared out of nowhere and the whole mess was suddenly out in the open. I could tell that Peter was relieved now that we, too, knew about the drugs and everything.

“The only reason I didn’t tell you guys from the very beginning was that I was afraid that Sam would split, and he needs help. Badly. I’ve seen his kind before, in case you’ve forgotten. (I hadn’t.) But don’t worry, go to work; I’ll keep an eye on him.” Peter was convincing enough, but I was still worried. Sam, after all, had too much Sparkle in him and not enough Secret, and I was afraid that Peter would be too naïve to see it. I was right, of course, but hindsight, as I always say, is twenty/twenty.

Anyway, what could I do? I went to work and was greeted by a forgiving Sharon and a not-too-concerned Sparkle.

“Let me guess,” I guessed, “you’ve taken something little and blue, right?”

“No, Miss Smarty-Pants,” he responded and stuck his tongue out at me. “It’s merely that I trust Peter to watch your cousin, and, just as soon as we can, we’ll call our old friend, Dan, and get Sam some help. Okay? Stop you’re worrying; you’ll get frown-lines. More of them.”

“It was the little yellow one, wasn’t it?” I tried again, choosing to ignore the backhanded comment as it slapped me in the face.

He shrugged. “Fine. Yes, it was the little yellow one, but I still trust Peter, and there’s nothing we can do about it right this second. So sit down, have some coffee, and help me pick out a tattoo from this magazine.”

“Oh, God, why do you make me face multiple problems simultaneously?” I asked, raising my hands up to the Almighty. “What on earth are you talking about now?” I then shouted at Sparkle, and gladly took the pill from his hand that he had waiting for me. (Judge not, lest ye be judged.)

Sharon yelled from the back, “He wants a tattoo. Haven’t you been listening these past three weeks? It’s all he can talk about.” Actually, I had been listening, but I didn’t want to encourage him. I knew that if he got one… well, you can guess what would happen, and I was scared to death about getting a tattoo. (Secretly, I really did want one, but it’s those damn needles and all that pain that worried me.)

“You know,” I shouted back, “he rants about so many things that I can hardly keep up.”

“Hardy, har, har,” Sparkle mock-laughed. “Now shut up and start looking at these magazines; and for once, I’m not going to force you to do something just because I’m doing it.”

“You’re not?” Of course, he would pick the one time to turn noble, just when I wanted him to force me to do something.

“No, I’m not, but you still need to help me pick one out.” Damn that reverse psychology. Now I really wanted one and was just too chicken to admit it. 

Just then, who should walk into the store but our friendly neighborhood stripper, Betty. She looked different with her clothes on. (By different, I mean better than naked.) Still, it was all I could do to not picture her undressed as she waltzed into the shop and again straddled the chair next to mine. Sparkle thanked her for the prior evening’s entertainment and then excused himself. He went to the back to call Dan, which immediately made me feel better. See, if anyone could help Sam, it was going to be Dan. At least I prayed as much.

“Yes, Betty, thank you for… an enlightening evening,” I added to Sparkle’s parting sentiments.

“You’re quite welcome,” she said and then asked for Sharon.

“Sharon,” I bellowed, “you’re friend, Betty, is out here to see you.” Man oh man, I never saw Sharon move so fast. She was sitting down with us before I could even blink an eyelash. She also gave me a warning look that said,
Look Buster, I’ve forgiven you for last night, but you better behave yourself
. Which, of course, I did, seeing as how Sharon was almost as dangerous as Sparkle, and I really didn’t want her getting even with me. I may have been a bad liar and an awful sneak, but I knew how to save my own skin, at the very least.

“Hi, Betty,” she said, practically panting.

“Hi, Sharon. I just wanted to come by to make sure that you guys were okay with, well, you know,
last night
. I mean, I don’t know you all from Adam, but I hope I didn’t shock you or anything.”

“Well…,” I started, but Sharon stopped me.

“No, not at all. We had a lovely evening. Thanks for your concern,” she said and kicked me under the table.
Ouch
.

“Oh, good, because I was hoping that you might like to go out sometime,” Betty professed.

And before Betty could even finish the word
sometime
, Sharon was spitting out a “yes”. (There’s a fine line between obvious and desperate. One that I’d crossed on numerous occasions. So I know of what I speak.)

“How’s tonight grab you?” Betty offered.

“Grabs me fine!” Sharon accepted.  (And then replace desperate with easy.)

“Great, I see that you guys close at eight. I’ll be by to pick you up then, okay?” she asked as she stood up to leave.

“Great. Yes. I’ll see you then.” Sharon was positively beaming.

“Okay then. See you at eight,” Betty said, then waved and walked out the front door.

“Sharon’s got a girlfriend, Sharon’s got a girlfriend,” Sharon sang to herself. (How quickly they change their tune, right?)

Soon after Betty left, Sparkle returned from his phone conversation with Dan. Turned out, we were in luck. Dan knew of a halfway house not far from my apartment that specialized in young people with drug problems. He said that he would put a call in to a friend of his and then would get back to us as soon as possible. I felt better, but skeptical. See, Sam didn’t strike me as the type that thought that he needed help. Obviously, if he were, he would’ve phoned way before he ever left for San Francisco.

“I think we’re gonna need Peter to help us out on this one,” I suggested.

“Agreed. Let’s give him a call and tell him the plan and see if he can convince your cousin that it’s in his best interest,” Sparkle suggested. Seeing as there really was no better alternative, I prayed that Peter could do the job.

I called him right away and filled him in. He agreed to our plan whole-heartedly and said that he would spend the day with Sam trying to convince him to check himself in. Considering that he had ample firsthand experience with living on the streets and all that that entailed, I doubted it would be a hard sell. But I also knew that drugs severely interfered with one’s better judgment and that Sam could very easily not see things our way. Thank goodness Peter was young and handsome, of course. If nothing else, it was hard to say no to such a pretty face. (Jeez, did I just describe my relationship with Sparkle in a nutshell or what?)