A Company of Players by Ken Bachtold

Author:Ken Bachtold [Bachtold, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-347-3
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

“YOU KNOW,” Barb informed me a couple of days later, “one can be too careful. One can be so careful that one becomes afraid to take even a single step forward. In that case—”

“But you’re the one who kept hollering for me not to be impetuous, to wait until I was sure the same thing with Adam wasn’t happening again,” I said.

We were in the theater lobby looking over plans for the dressing rooms upstairs. Blueprints and mechanical drawings of any kind look to me much like a Picasso painting. Undecipherable. Ross was upstairs getting some equipment that had to be attached to the ceiling. He’d been doing the ladder tango for some time.

“That may be true, I did want you to be careful, but I think maybe you’ve gone too far the other way.”

“But how am I to know?”

“I’ll tell you.”

“Oh, now we’re going into our Mystical Madam psychic mode.”

“Not at all. I just have superior means of observation.”

I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and I figured it must be Ross.

“Hush,” I whispered. “I don’t want Ross to overhear us.”

As the rumbling of his steps drew closer, I tried to make my expression bland and uninteresting, although I knew it wouldn’t be easy. As Barb always looked like the proverbial cat with canary feathers all around its mouth, this would not be a problem for her.

“Hi, guys,” Ross said, smiling his killer smile.

So much for bland and uninteresting. His smile almost always resulted in me smiling too, much like a yawn produces a yawn in anybody seeing it. Ross had a loop of wire around his shoulder and a strange-looking instrument in his hand.

“What’s up?” Ross asked as he climbed up the ladder, just like an agile monkey might.

“Nothing,” I fibbed.

“Actually,” Barb said, “we were discussing the nature of romance.”

I actually put my hand over her mouth so she couldn’t say anything more.

“Interesting subject,” Ross said, his voice echoing from above. “Any particular aspect?”

Barb nipped at my fingers. Somewhere in her genetic background, there was definitely a piranha.

“Ouch.”

“Serves you right.”

“Hey,” I said to Ross, “you’re pretty high up on that ladder. Want me to hold it for you?”

“I’m fine.”

“But—”

“Oh nooo,” Ross hollered. Then the coil of wire that he’d had over his shoulder fell to the floor with a loud bang. It seemed like the whole ceiling was crumbling. In horror, I saw the ladder begin to tip, and I rushed over, hoping to catch Ross if he was falling. Too late.

The sound of his head hitting the floor echoed through the lobby. A pool of blood began to form immediately. I kneeled beside him.

“Ross, Ross. Can… can you hear me?”

There was a lot of blood. You hear that head wounds bleed a lot, even superficial ones. I hoped that whatever this was, it was superficial. I know you’re not supposed to move an injured person, but I couldn’t help pulling his poor head into my lap. Luckily, I had a clean handkerchief in my pocket, and I

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