Saints+Sinners by Saints & Sinners- New Fiction from the Festival 2019

Author:Saints & Sinners- New Fiction from the Festival 2019 [Bold Strokes FF, MM] (retail) (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635550580
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2019-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

Shopping for Others

William Christy Smith

Marshall Higgins had to get out of the house. Even though he lived alone, he needed somewhere outside in the open, where he could be by himself and digest the news. He’d held it in all afternoon.

He crossed Elysian Fields and hurried through the cast iron gates into Washington Park. He plopped down on one of the concrete benches, underneath the live oak trees and crepe myrtles, in front of the aspidistra. This was the place to sit down, take a deep breath, and try to figure this out.

Just five hours earlier, he’d walked out the doors of Godchaux’s Department Store on Canal Street, the ones on the side that employees used, to go to the clinic at Tulane University Hospital. It was his lunch break, a mere thirty minutes, and he was going to get the results of his HIV test. Marshall had decided he should finally get tested, mostly as a formality. He’d only been with three partners in his entire life and no one recently, and he was fairly certain he couldn’t have been infected.

Marshall had remained silent, sitting at a table in a small office, while a white-haired, bespeckled physician who looked to be in his seventies or maybe eighties entered the room and took the chair across from him. Marshall noticed that he was a plodding man, moving in slow motion, adjusting his glasses as he read Marshall’s chart. He’d probably retired already but was called back into service because no other physicians wanted to deal with AIDS patients. The doctor introduced himself, extending his arm limply to Marshall’s, a liquid handshake. Could the doctor move a little faster and get this thing over with?

The doctor opened a yellow folder without fanfare. Inside was a piece of paper that he scrutinized before passing it to Marshall. There wasn’t much on it but the message was clear. Marshall stared at the paper in disbelief. There they were—three little letters followed by a plus symbol.

“Are you okay?” the doctor asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Marshall answered. But he wasn’t. He was melting inside. He was about to protest, to say that the test couldn’t be correct, but knew it was pointless. He didn’t want to be rude to the gentlemanly doctor, but he wanted out of the room as soon as possible.

He stood to go, and he could tell it alarmed the physician.

“Are you sure you’re ready to leave?” the doctor said. “I can stay and talk with you if you’d like.”

“No thanks,” Marshall said. “I’m okay. I’d have been more surprised if I hadn’t tested positive.”

It was a lie, of course.

“Do you have a friend you can talk to?”

Marshall had to think about that one for a moment. “Yes, I have one.”

Marshall was referring to Will Parsley, a colleague and former head of the ladies shoe department at Godchaux’s. He had been Marshall’s closest friend at the store and outside it. While Marshall was low-key and kept to himself, Will was flamboyant. Sometimes he embarrassed Marshall with his exuberant personality.

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