Floridian Nights by Lance Ringel

Author:Lance Ringel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, romance, gay, 1980s, generation gap
Publisher: Lance Ringel

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Over the next few days, the sultry heat, with daytime temperatures in the nineties, persisted. Gary faithfully took the antibiotics that Joel had prescribed, and his symptoms gradually disappeared. He spent the days mostly in bed, in the house, out of the heat, and restless. On Friday he awoke in the late afternoon, feeling fine, and called his answering machine in New York; not a single message. He thought of dialing Julia at her parents’ – he knew she’d be heading back for New York in a day or so – but then he decided yet again to put off talking to her.

For a change, when he ambled out into the light-flooded living room – the “Florida room”, as they were called in this type of house – it was his mother who was nowhere in sight, and his father who was sitting there, reading the Tampa Tribune. Mr. Gaines glanced up, seemingly a bit surprised, and put down the paper. “Enough sleep for now?” he asked.

“Yeah. More than enough.”

“You want part of the paper?”

“Okay. Front section?”

His father turned back to his own reading, and Gary asked, “What’s up for the evening?”

“What’s ever up when you’re retired? Nothing in particular. Why?”

“Mom got something special planned for dinner?”

“I don’t think so. You know your mother.”

“Let’s go out to eat, then. My treat.”

Mr. Gaines frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. First of all, your health–”

“I’m okay now. Really. Do we have to call Dr. Blaustein?–”

His father stared at him for a few seconds, then said, “No, I don’t think that’s something we should bother him with. I guess I can understand your feeling a bit housebound. I suppose going out couldn’t hurt. We’ll go when your mother gets home.” He returned to his paper. “But you’re not paying for us.”

“Why not? I’m still getting my paychecks in the mail.”

“Then save them. You’ll need them.”

“I’ve got the money, Dad.”

“You’re our guest.”

“I’ve been a guest in your house for quite a while now.”

“Maybe quite a while more.”

That comment threw Gary off. “Just tell me if I’m overstaying my welcome–”

“You’re our son. You know you’re always welcome here.”

“You have your own lives. I must be disrupting them.”

“Not that I’ve noticed.”

“Oh, c’mon, Dad–”

Mr. Gaines put down his paper. “Son, believe me, your mother and I feel better that you’re here when you’re going through this than alone up there in New York.”

“ ‘Going through this’? Going through what?”

“What you’re going through.”

“Which is?”

“I don’t know. Something. You know. Not me.”

“Dad, I–”

“Don’t make an argument, Gary. When your mother comes home, we’ll go out to dinner.”

“On me.”

“No.”

“Dutch, then.”

“No.”

Why did he fight it? It had been this way all his life.

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