Ringo and the Sunshine Police by Nick Wilgus

Author:Nick Wilgus [Wilgus, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-289-6
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

FORTY-NINE

“DADDY, THIS is my foster son, Jeremy,” Thomas said.

“Is that right?” Rev. Manfred said. He offered Jeremy a once-over with his old, watery eyes and frowned.

When nothing further was forthcoming, Thomas added, “We stopped at the Pig and bought you a Mississippi mud cake.” While the cakes at Piggly Wiggly were not something that one wrote home about, Rev. Manfred had always liked them.

“You’d best come in and put it on the table,” Rev. Manfred said eventually, stepping aside—reluctantly, Thomas thought—to allow them inside.

The house was sparsely decorated and cold.

“You should turn on the heat,” Thomas said.

“You should see the bill,” his father replied dismissively.

“You’ll get sick, Daddy.”

“Well, I reckon if I have to choose between heat and something to eat, it ain’t much of a choice. Anyway, you were always too soft, and I’m too old to get sick.”

Thomas put the cake down on the small, familiar table in the kitchen. The same two chairs sat on either side, their vinyl seats worse for the many years of wear. Sitting on the table were a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, numerous twist-ties, toothpicks, coins, a pocketknife, a stack of bills—old man things. The kitchen was clean, though. Everything put away. Nothing left to set out, to rot, to go to waste.

His father was not one to waste.

“Are you enjoying the holidays?” Thomas asked.

“Well, I reckon if there really was peace on earth and good will to man, the world would be a much different place, but the Savior came to save what was lost. And if we ain’t lost, I don’t know what we are. ‘Lost’ is too polite a word. But he’ll be setting things to rights soon enough, and you and your homosexual friends can take that to the bank.”

Thomas refused the bait.

Jeremy glanced at him, a frown in his blue eyes.

“We just came to wish you a happy birthday,” Thomas said, trying to smooth over the moment.

“Social worker called me,” Rev. Manfred replied. “Asked me what I thought about you adopting a child. Whether you’d be a good parent.”

“They have to do that,” Thomas said. “Check my references, background. Stuff like that.”

“Well, I reckon you can imagine what I told them.”

“I would have expected no less.”

“I told them the truth, Thomas. The truth about you. That you’re a homosexual pervert.”

“Daddy, please don’t start.”

“I told them the truth of God was not in you, that you mock God’s holy word—”

“Daddy—”

“And that I felt sorry for any child they placed in your home. What does someone like you know about raising a God-fearing child? And why would the government want to place a child in your home? They ain’t got normal parents, they got to place a child in a home like yours with you being sexually perverted—”

“Could we please not talk about this in front of Jeremy?”

“The truth is not in you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Daddy. I told you the truth. You just don’t want to believe it.”

“All I ever wanted was for my

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