Absolute Jay episode one part one

Absolute Jay: Episode One: From Disappointment to the Pie House


One: Ordinary Day


As he often did, Jay dreamed of his angel Sebastian. In the final moments of his dream Sebastian had him in a discotheque hovering in a winged embrace under a mirror ball. The other angels drank purple liquid while they spread their wings below him. When he looked down upon the twelve or so gathered under him in the specks of light from the mirror ball, they posed and hummed the Madonna hymn, "Like a Virgin." He was overcome with joy. A mindless, senseless joy.


It showed on his sleeping face. He smiled. Not a subtle sign of joy smile, but a full-faced, clenching smile. He had been told by his mother that he had always smiled when he slept. "Even when you were only a few days old you smiled while you screamed out to be fed." And she had always enjoyed those moments just before he woke. She had told him, "You were never one of those burdensome babies that needed more than a mother could handle. You were my joy."


And as Jay's twelve-year-old niece crawled into bed beside her uncle, she delighted in his joyful sleeping smile. But not so much delight that over rode her own desire for him to wake and cook her breakfast. "Uncle." She whispered into his sleeping ear. Jay swatted at her wispy breath against his cheek.


Her father, passing by his brother's open door, peeped in. "Let your uncle sleep."


"I'm hungry, Dad."


"Get some cereal." He grimaced at her.


She turned back to her uncle, his eyes fluttering back and forth as he left Sebastian. "I'm awake," he gruffed, still half-asleep, from his smiling lips.


"I want dolly dancer pancakes." It was Jay's specialty. Pancakes shaped like dolls, with delicate faces and ballerina skirts. It was his niece's favorite breakfast because it had been a specialty of her mother's. A secret passed on to Jay from his sister-in-law. She had made them for her child before she got sick, and when she got sick she made Jay learn her secret for getting the face to look like a face and legs to look as if they were in ballerina poses. He promised he would carry on her tradition.


So with his niece hovering over him, he woke into duty. Gruff at first. Gruff with a smile and desire to sleep. Her sweet face and playful charm took the gruff away.


They were only five years apart in age. Once they had been rivals competing for attention. But now that he was eighteen and his beloved sister-in-law had left them to look after each other, a parental charge had taken hold. She was no longer a rival for attention; she was his precious responsibility. And waking up to cook breakfast for her was not a duty, but had become a blessing that fueled his joy.


In fact, being caretaker to his brother and niece had become his identity. His entire day was scheduled around their needs. He felt an importance that he had never known. It had reshaped his boyish ambition. He had once fantasized about the romantic nature of adulthood: coming to the age of kissing and sharing a glass of wine with a lover that looked deep into his soul and swept him off of his feet. Now he fantasized about being married and having children. Being essential to another being. He let his brother and niece satisfy that desire in him for now. Their grieving household needed his binding energy. He had left home to be with them over three months ago. And it had made a difference.


He watched his brother coming back to life from the dim graveyard where they had buried his sister-in-law over three years ago. His brother had been blank faced and mechanical since her death, and now, his brother laughed on occasion. Jay wasn't sure why his presence helped this change come about, but he was happy to be a hero for his heroic brother David.


If such things were easy to speak of, then Jay could have asked him what impact his presence had on this little grieving family, and David would have told him, "I'm not alone. That makes all the difference." He would have cried while saying it out loud.


Savanah kissed her uncle on the forehead. "You got ten minutes old man."


Jay crinkled his nose at her.


She left the room so that he could get dressed.


David sat at the kitchen table reading the sports section of yesterday's paper. He had always been a Cowboys fan, but seldom watched the game anymore. Watching the game without Sabrina felt cold and lonely. He had forced her to watch football with him when they were teens, when they were dating. He didn't enjoy anything without her, so he teased, taunted, and seduced her to share all things that he loved. And learned to love all things that she loved. His buddies had called him "a whipped man." And he never denied it. Now that she was gone, he kept up with football through the papers and ten o'clock news.


Savanah took a seat across from her father at the breakfast table. "Will you ask Aunt Jackie to come over for dinner tonight?" She asked her father while she dug through her backpack looking for gum.


David didn't look at his daughter. "She is not your aunt, and I don't want company tonight. Dinner time is for family."


"She is family, Dad. I think the woman who teaches a girl about her period should be considered family." She laughed, knowing that she was digging into her father's tough skin just a little.


"Ughh, babygirl. Can we keep the conversation to acceptable breakfast talk?" He lowered the paper to look at his daughter. "Maybe sometime next week."


"Whatever, Dad."


"Did you practice your Spanish last night?"


"Yeah, but I still suck. I can't roll my r's."


"Its important that you learn Spanish. I want you to understand your mother's culture. Your culture."


"I know you want me to be the perfect half-breed." She laughed.


"I'm not amused with that kinda racist humor my dear." He gave her a soft glare. "Put some coffee on so your uncle doesn't have to do everything."


She gave up on finding gum in her backpack and tossed it on to the floor next to her feet. She walked to the sink and ran the water for a minute before filling the coffee pot.


Jay walked into the kitchen still in his flannel camouflage PJs and housecoat. "Morning."


David looked up at his brother. "You didn't have to get up, little man."


"I hate that nickname." Jay hated it because he was little, 5'7'' and 119 pounds. He thought too little. He got a mixing bowl out of the cabinet and then turned the fire on under the frying pan.


"I've been calling you that since you were an hour old and I'm gonna call you that for the rest of your life. So deal with it."


"You're lucky not to have an older brother," he told his niece.


She put coffee grounds into the basket of the coffee maker. "You're lucky you don't live with a grumpy father."


David laughed, "You're the grumpy ones." He looked at his watch. "Grumpy old Daddy has to go." He stood up and walked toward the kitchen counter where his daughter and brother made coffee and pancakes for each other. He kissed his brother on top of his buzzed brown head. "I need you to walk her home from school. I'll be working a little late. I want you both home for dinner." And then he kissed his daughter on the forehead. "I love you, grumpy daughter."


Savanah wrapped her arms around her father and kissed his cheek. "I love you, grumpy Daddy."


As David walked out the door he shouted to Jay, "Call Momma, she left a message on the machine."


Jay shouted back, "I would have known that she called if I could work that 1960 antique."


"Who needs a cell phone when you have an answering machine?" Savanah laughed.


Jay whipped the flour into pancake batter then meticulously spooned it over the hot frying pan. Savanah sat on the counter watching him. "I want one doing a plie." She laughed, "With extra fat legs."


"You get what you get," he said, but worked artfully to give her the dancer that she wanted.


"Do you think my mom would be upset if I never learn how to roll my r's?" She watched her dancer coming into firm existence in the frying pan.


"Your mother couldn't roll her r's, either. She only spoke Spanish around your grandmother. And she never spoke it well." He tossed the dancer into the air and they watched her gracefully land face down.


"Why is it so important to Dad?"


<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"He doesn't want to feel like he is depriving you of anything. You have a great family on our side and your mother's side, and he just wants you to know that, to really appreciate that."


"None of my cousins speak Spanish." She grabbed a plate from the cabinet behind her and held it up for Jay to gently lay her dancer on it. "Sometimes I feel guilty 'cause its like he doesn't think I miss her enough. It's like he thinks I should be sad all the time. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I don't feel sad all the time."


"You want one or two?"


"This one is enough. She has fat legs just like I like them. I'm gonna pretend like this one is Julia from my math class. She called my friend Kaleb the F-word." She poured strawberry syrup on the dancer's face. "There, take that you little cheerleader hoochie."


Jay laughed, "You used to talk about how much you loved ballet when you ate pancake dancers. Now you treat them like voodoo dolls."


"I just don't like those perfect girls. Maybe I would if Dad would let me dress like it's 2007 and wear makeup."


"Try being eighteen and getting grounded by your brother because you were next door ten minutes past dinner."


"We need to rebel." She slathered butter down the thick legs of her dancer before she cut off its feet.


"I don't think you need to be sad at all. Your mom never was. She was always the happiest person in the room." Jay poured a cup of coffee and then loaded it with milk and sugar.


"I can walk home from school alone." She grabbed her backpack after shoving the dancer's face into her mouth. "So you can have time to get a boy friend. Please, for God sake, one of you need to get a love life, before I go crazy. I hate being the center of you guys, universe." She looked out the window to see if her ride to school was approaching. "Aunt Maria is late again as usual."


"Stay out of my love life." Jay glared at her over his coffee cup.


"I would if you had one. You got a cute butt, uncle Jay Jay. Get out there and shake it and you might find your self a little cub bear."


"What do you know about cub bears?" he grimaced.


"All my friends are gay." She heard a car approaching. She kissed her uncle. "See you at three thirty and try to dress up a little. I don't want to be seen with no frumpy dumpy. I got an image to keep up."

"Get your smart mouth out in that car." He gave her a nudge out the door.


She yelled back, "Love ya uncle."


"Love ya niecey."


*


When the dishes were done and he was dressed in his favorite t-shirts and jeans, Jay headed out the door to what he considered his third home. His first home was just outside of Cleveland, Texas, on his parents' 20 acres of muddy forest. His second home was on Dorothy St, where he now lived with his brother and niece, two houses over from his sister-in-law's grandmother, where he had spent a good portion of his summers. His brother and Sabrina never left him behind. Sabrina, even as a teen, lugged him around as if he were her own child. His third home was Daphne's Deals a convenience store owned and operated by his best friend Sonia and her mother Daphne.


Daphne often joked about the two being a chocolate vanilla swirl because you couldn't have one with out getting the other. And sometime she called them the lost sock twins. Lost from each other at birth but bound together forever.


It seemed true enough to Sonia and Jay that they were bound for life. When they were only nine months old they crawled across the floor of the store to find each other and make havoc of the candy isle. When they were found, they were side by side in a sugar high, each five candy bars heavier and covered in a rainbow of hard candies and gum. Since that day, every summer found them together. Daphne always joked that she got the eviler of the twins, and she tried on more than one occasion to switch them out.


The walk to Sonia's was only two blocks. He opened the store door and the cowbell clonked. Sonia jumped out from the back room and took her perch on the leather bar stool at the register. "How ya doin', honey?"


Jay walked behind the counter and hugged her. "Ok. Just got the kid off to school."


Sonia took a sip of her energy drink. "This girl. I have to tell you bout this girl I met in a chat room last night."


Jay braced himself; her stories had horror story endings sometimes. "Not another one. Remember Mini Mouse."


"This one, I talked to on the phone for two hours. She don't squeak." The cowbell clonked, Sonia looked up expecting a customer. But it was the third to their trio. "There's the little Mexican Boy."


"Why do you always say that? Do I announce you as my little African Goddess, every time you walk in the room?" Sean stood in front of her at the counter.


"Afri who? I don't know nothin' 'bout Africa." She leaned over for a kiss.


Sean playfully swatted her cheek then kissed it. "And I don't know nothin' 'bout Mexico." He waved at Jay. "Hey Daddy," then stepped behind the counter to sit on Jay's lap. "Can I have some apple juice, Momma?" He looked at Sonia and grinned playfully.


"Help yourself, I ain't your maid." Sean got up from the cushy lap and walked toward the fruit drinks in the cooler.


"Anyway," Sonia continued, "This girl almost made me squeeze the rabbit so tight that I broke its neck. That baby was buzzin' away and I was into this girl's warm breathy voice saying, 'now I'm sucking your nipple'."


Jay turned his head. "O.M.G. T.M.I."


Sean sat back down on Jay's lap while he sipped his apple juice through the tiny straw that came with the drink. He wrapped his arm around Jay's neck. "Daddy, I say this only because I love you. You need to update your abbreviation and your shirt. Both are expired."


Jay shoved Sean out of his lap. "I come here for what? Raunchy masturbation talk and abuse."


Daphne stepped out of the back room carrying a pot of hot nacho cheese. "Baby I know how you feel. Sometimes you feel like you just want to run away. That girl ain't got no sense and no decency."

"Ooohhh, decency, what would I do with that?" Sonia scowled at her mom. "Besides old lady, if you don't want to hear somethin' then don't listen from the doorway."


"Baby Girl its hard to miss your voice. I go down three houses and still know about your damn rabbit, and that makes mommy's ears bleed." Daphne put corn chips in plastic containers and ladled cheese on top. "I wasn't a church-goer 'til you learned how to talk. Now I have to shower three times a day and go to confession four times just to feel halfway clean."


"Go back to your soap opera old lady," Sonia yelped as she rounded the counter to take over setting up the warm food bin for her mother.


"I don't need a TV for soaps. You are more than entertaining. I get my drama and comedy all right here. I can't wait 'til you're famous. I can get rich on selling stories about you to the National Enquirer. Lord knows that would be a full time job right there."


Daphne walked toward Jay. She put her hands on his shoulder. "When you talk to your momma tell her that me and the girls are gonna go for our annual gambling cruise. I would love it if she would join us again."


Jay looked up at her. "I will. I will tell her to give you a call."


"I might just call her myself. I was thinking the other day how peaceful it was that weekend I spent out there hunting and fishing with your parents. It's deer season. I might just have to get my bow and arrow out and get me a big buck one weekend."


Sonia screeched, "Two vegetarians here and your gonna talk about deer hunting! Damn hicks."

"You liked that deer sausage when you thought it was soy." Daphne laughed.


"See where I get my evil?"


Daphne walked into the back room.


"My momma is a nut," Sonia said, while putting on plastic gloves so that she could put weenies on the hot dog rotisserie without getting weenie juice on her fingers. She loathed the smell and could smell it on her fingers all day if she touched them with her bare hands.


Sean sipped his apple drink and repositioned himself on Jay's lap. "Let's go to the Boy Bar tonight."


"Tonight Chances is 18 and over!" Sonia screeched.


Sean looked at Jay, ignoring her. "I want to go see boys. I want to see dick dancers. And I want to get laid. You gonna come with me or her?"


Jay grabbed Sean's apple drink. He took a sip. "I'm scared of the Boy Bar. All the guys there are tall and thin. Let's go to Chances."


Sean took his drink back. "We are going to be forty-year-old virgins if you don't grow some balls."


Sonia took her seat at the register. "You know he don't do sex. He's a fuckin' tease."


Jay took the apple juice back. "Go by yourself."


Sonia laughed. "I saw Sean's package in the shower the other day. He could have it delivered at the cost of a postcard. Two little peanuts and half a Vienna Sausage. He ain't gonna go unless he has backup. Both of you are so afraid to nut, just thinking about it makes you sweat."


Sean glared at her, "Callete, morena." He turned and smiled down at Jay, "I'm a bottom anyway, Daddy."


Jay handed him his apple drink. "I have to go to work."


"Two hours a day at the library. That ain't work. Work is cleaning up that nasty public toilet in the back room." Sonia lowered her head to the counter thinking about the task.


"I know some illegal Asians who will do it for $2.50 an hour," Sean said seriously.


Jay stood up, displacing his friend again. "God Lord! I am out of here."


Sonia shouted, "Before you go..." Then her head disappeared as she reached down under the counter for an envelope. She handed it to Jay, "Got you some charity dollars. Sold four of your rainbow bracelets, and Mrs. Uma donated some extra."


Jay stuck the folded envelope in to the back pocket of his baggy jeans. "Thanks, my dear." He kissed Sonia's hand and then walked toward the door.


As the cowbell clinked with Jay's exit, Sean composed himself from his de-lapping and Sonia put pink gloves on that stretched all the way past her elbows. "Oh sweet mercifully gay god, don't let there be any poo paper on the floor."


Sean commented, "He's so touchy."


Sonia checked her gloves for holes. "That's just how nerds are."




*


Unlike most of the commuters on the number 25 metro bus, Jay loved the ride. Public transportation was one thing that really made him feel a part of the city. He loved watching the anonymous faces get on and off the bus. He often wondered where they were heading from and to. On long trips, sometimes he thought of stories to go along with the faces, but his ride to The Aurora G. Public Library on the number 25 was never long enough to fictionalize the unknown lives of strangers. Instead, he listened to bits and piece of stories. Some amused him, and on occasion some stayed with him, and plagued his sleep.


As he rode to work there were few people or stories. The bus was almost too quiet. He didn't involve himself at all with his fellow commuters; he thought about how much time had passed since he had moved to Houston to be with his brother and how few days there were until school began. He had completed all of his paperwork for financial aid and admissions for the spring semester starting in January, but he was still undecided about a career path. After graduating high school his one anxiety had been that he would set himself on a course of loathed destination. He thought himself a writer, an artist, a mind made for the liberal arts. He loved philosophy, psychology, sociology and history. But with so many loves it was difficult for him to choose one field to paint his future landscape. The thought of it almost caused him to have a panic attack. So he took a deep breath and waited for the bus to stop completely before he got up and got off.


The bus stop was half a block from the library. When he arrived usually his co-worker Gerome was standing out side leaned up against the walkway rail on his cell phone. Today Gerome was not outside as Jay walked up the steps. A believer in myth, having his faith planted firm in the signs of the esoteric, Jay knew from the bus ride and missing co-worker, today would be a day for out of the ordinary things to happen.


As soon as he reached his hand into his pocket to check for his house key and looked down at his shoes to make sure they were still perfectly tied in double bows, that out of the ordinary thing happened. He bumped into a tall man. "Excuse me." Jay looked up.


The man smiled at him, "You're fine." The man stepped in front of Jay and opened the library door. He motioned for Jay to walk in.


"Thanks." Jay walked ahead of the man then briefly turned around for a second look. As he walked away, he realized that there was something vaguely familiar about the man. Almost as if he had seen him one-dimensionally in a magazine or TV program. He ran through names as he walked toward the back, names that could fit the man's perfect body and handsome face, green eyes that twinkled, suit that cost a fortune, and a subtle musky cologne. "Kyle. No. George. No." As he opened the door to the back room, and saw Gerome sorting books, "Eric Price."


"Who?" Gerome looked up.


"Eric Price is out there."


"Who is that?"


Jay kept up with local celebrities and politicians. A lot of famous people had grown up in Houston, but few stayed. The Thornburg-Price family, though, had their heels deep in the soil of Texas. "Eric Price is the son of actress Dreanna and State Senator Samuel Price. Heir to the Thornburg billions."


"He's out there?" Gerome stopped sorting and looked through the door crack. "That hot white man in the Anthony Peak Velvet Blazer."


"OK out of that question I understood, white man." Jay peeped through the crack. "Yes, that's him talking to Miss Emory."


Gerome spoke slowly and gestured with his hands. "Ralph Lauren."


Jay ignored the patronizing. "I wonder what he's doing here? I would think the library downtown would be more his style."


Gerome walked back to his pile of unsorted books ."We work in a library, Ain't no style to it."


Jay took a few books in hand and placed them on the appropriate carts. "What are you doing back here, actually working?"


"Trying to forget that I'm a old man with no real career and no Daddy to call my own."

"Daddy, no wonder I can't find a decent boy friend. Every gay guy I know is looking for a Daddy."


Gerome laughed and rolled a cart toward the door. Jay followed with his own cart. They started shelving books in the non fiction section. "We ain't all looking for Daddies."


"Then why can't I find a boy friend?" Jay stood beside Gerome straightening up the Anais Nin biographies.


"You too young to get into the clubs, and still got a bit of eggshell on your head, and baby fat around your midsection."


"I'm fat?"


Jay moved his cart ahead, but walked slowly, waiting for Gerome to catch up to him. "I didn't say you was fat. I said you got baby fat. You look innocent and pure. If I was to pick you up for the night I would feel like a pedophile."


"So basically your saying that only perverts would be attracted to me." Jay pushed his cart faster, toward the reference books leaving Gerome's insults behind him. He shelved a few encyclopedias then gave the cart a hip thrust, pushing it out past the shelves and into the leg of the handsome man he bumped into on his way in.


"I'm getting the feeling you don't want me around." The man laughed.


Jay looked up to see the aftermath of the collision. "Oh, Mr. Price, I'm sorry."


"You can make it up to me by calling me Eric and helping me find Black's Law Dictionary, 8th edition."


Jay walked to the end of the aisle, and led Eric to the legal reference books. "It should be in this section."


"I checked the library's computers and this was the nearest library that had a copy."


Jay kneeled in front of the shelves and ran his fingers along the books' bindings. He pulled the book and handed it to Eric.


Eric checked the edition number. "Perfect. You're good. I wouldn't worry at all about your baby fat." Eric grinned at him.


Jay blushed. "Sometimes I guess we forget where we are."


"Sounds like you have a good time at work. I envy you that."


"You don't like your job?"


Eric reached his hand down to pull Jay off of his knees. "That's putting it mildly. But don't tell my mother." He winked at Jay.


"What do you do? I know your mother retired from acting and now runs Thornburg Media and your father is a state senator who might run for governor."


"You know a lot about my family."


"I'm into news and entertainment." Jay blushed again. Wondering if he were gushing.


"I work for Thornburg. It's hard to escape the clutches of my Granddad. Right now I work for the part of TM that Rev. Laud is so against. I basically oversee contracts with performers for that unmentionable network. But let's not get into that."


"So you are a lawyer?"


"I will be." Eric held his book up. "Can this be checked out?"


"No, sorry, its reference only." Jay walked toward the sitting area a few aisles away. "You can sit over here if you would like."

"I would like." Before Eric took a seat he turned to Jay. "If I need anything else do you mind if I call on you for help? I'm not real familiar with this library."


"Of course. That's what I'm here for. Just shout Jay, and I'll come a-runnin'."


Gerome stood quietly watching the scene from the edge of the fiction aisle. As Jay approached him, he quietly whispered, "Thank you just found the Daddy of all Daddies. That billionaire boy was giving you the eye."


Jay ignored him as he grabbed his cart and pushed it to the back. Gerome followed.


As they sorted books in the back Jay considered for a moment that Eric might be attracted to him. "Was he flirting?"


"Could have been." Gerome held a stack of books and tossed them onto the appropriate shelf. "You really are as green as a fresh cow pasture."


"I'm not green. I've just never been the kinda guy that other guys are into. I'm not tall. I don't have abs of steel. I don't spend $50 on a haircut."


"You describing me, little one? You left out fashionably black, and that I spend a lot more than that on my 'do."


"And there is this cool lingo that I just don't get. Gay people have witty little expressions for everything. I don't have any of those."


"You know I only tease you. Right? You are cute as hell, boo. And just because sometimes the cool people are talking over your head, doesn't mean we are saying anything. Sometime I feel like the only real conversation I have is with you."


"Really?"


"With you I drop my pretense and act human. I don't have to impress you. I don't have to dress myself up like a hot cliché from a magazine. That's valuable to me, Jay."


"Then why do you tease me?"


"It's fun. I love to watch you blush. And when I make you laugh, you got those cute little dimples. You're the little gay brother I always wanted to harass." Gerome pushed the full book cart toward the door. "Do those for me, bro. I need to make a phone call."


"Behind every tear-filled moment there is lazy motive."


"See, you got some witty expressions. A little too wordy and nerdy, but you got some."


Jay pushed the cart back out toward the shelves. He couldn't help himself but to stare at Eric sitting quietly at the table reading his law book. As he weaved in out of aisles he caught glimpses of the photo-perfect man involved with a book. Boys with books had always been Jay's weakness. He wanted the big hands of a reader or poet to tilt his head back in a smart romantic kiss, but he had never actually found such a man. Daython, his "sort of boyfriend," from back home, was a hot country boy, who some had described as "thick as a blackberry bush." As he glimpsed at the beautiful pre-lawyer billionaire heir, Jay wondered where his true potential lay. Was he destined to be forever uncoupled and green? Fall for a simple man that he loved but couldn't talk to? Or could he overcome his own naivete and height and attract a lawyer that looked like a magazine ad? Those questions he pondered while hiding at the end of the specialty books on science and health had less to do with Eric, and had more to with Jay's indecision about his own near and distant future, at school. In brief moments of high self-esteem he realized that, too.


Eric disrupted his meditation as he quietly called out, "Jay."


Jay left his cart and followed Eric's call back to the reference books. "Here."


"I'm done for the day. Just putting this monster away." Eric found the correct spot on the shelf and placed the book. "I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your help."


"No problem."


"Until all my books are shipped from L.A., I may have to come in from time to time. Are you here often?"


"From noon 'til two most days. I only work part time 'til school starts. Then I'm not sure if my brother is going to let me work at all."


"Well your junior and senior years in high school are important, so it's best to stay focused."


"I'm going to college."


"Oh...You just look so... You'll appreciate that when your older, trust me."


Upon the realization that Eric was either a pervert interested in high school boys or just was not romantically interested in him at all, he changed the subject. "May I ask you a question?"


"So long as it doesn't have to do with Rev. Laud picketing the Thornburg tower, go ahead."


"Oh, I know why he is there already. Do you know Representative Shelia Jackson Lee? She is one of my current heroes."


"She has been to dinner with my mom and dad a few times, but I don't really know her. So you really do enjoy politics?"


"In a soap opera kinda way. You have your good guys and your bad guys. Life and Death, scandal black male, DNA tests, I don't see how it could bore anyone."


Eric laughed, "You have a point." He walked toward the table where he had been sitting. "Can you sit a second?"


"Sure. As you can see the library here is pretty slow most of the day."


"That's good for me. Its hard to escape in a crowd."


"I hope I didn't invade your privacy."


"You're fresh air, Jay. Really. So what do you do when you're not here shelving books?"


"Take care of my overbearing brother and adorable niece. Hang out at my friends' convenience store."


"Convenience store? Like a Mall Greens?"


Jay laughed, "More like a poor Zex-Zone. You know with a gas station and bad food."


"I've been into one of those. My mother's limo was running low on fuel. Against her wishes I went in with the driver. I was amazed at the candy rack."


"Wow. I would think some one like you would be very worldly. You know, know what the real world is like."


"Are convenience stores real important to the real world?"


"Sorta. I guess you have to go pretty high up on the economic scale before you can find someone who thinks of it as a foreign object full of candy." Jay softened his words with a smile. "But I am sure the things of your world pale the interesting qualities of those things in my world."


"I'm not sure Jay. You have an intuition and sincerity about you that I don't see often. Maybe there is something to a world with convenience stores in it."


Jay reached his hand out to Eric. "I should get back to work. It was a pleasure to meet you."


Eric grasped Jay's hand a bit too firmly, almost as if he were holding on from a fall off of a building. "I hope I see you again, Jay."


Their eyes met, each with a message, neither of them knowing what was being said. The gaze was too much for Jay and Eric. Eric let go first and gathered his notes written on library paper scraps. Jay looked at the floor as he walked toward the remaining unsorted books in the back room. As he passed Gerome in the doorway, Gerome grinned. "Guess your little baby fat gonna get you the Daddy of all Daddies."


Jay didn't want to think about that. Something else was trying to penetrate his thoughts. For now he felt confused, and being a lover of myth with his faith rooted in the esoteric, he knew better than to make an assumption too soon.