The Orion Mask by Greg Herren

Author:Greg Herren [Herren, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626391734
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2015-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The sound of persistent knocking pierced down through my sleeping consciousness.

At first I just groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore the thudding of knuckles against wood. Vaguely I couldn’t imagine who’d be knocking on my apartment door—no one ever did, and certainly not in the morning, and I couldn’t remember any scheduled pest-control appointment. I pulled a pillow over my head as the knocking continued, resisting the urge to scream Go away! as awareness began swimming back up out of the fog and I remembered that I wasn’t in my own bed in my apartment back in Bay City, but was at Chambord.

Chambord.

That jolted me awake, and I called out, “Just a moment, thank you,” as I shoved the covers off and stretched, listening to the lower vertebrae in my back crack as I yawned. I swung my legs back to the floor and stood. My clothes from the previous day were scattered all over the floor, and I quickly gathered them up and tossed them onto a wingback chair by the dressing table. I padded, still yawning, over to the armoire and pulled on my Bay State University sweatpants and a white ribbed tank top. I headed over to the big door and yanked it open. “Come in,” I said to the maid, who stood there trying to avoid meeting my eyes while holding a large silver serving tray.

She brushed past me without saying anything, set it down on the dressing table, and fled back out of the room in silence, pulling the door closed behind her.

“Good morning to you, too,” I said to the door.

I sighed and went into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I checked in the mirror to make sure I hadn’t grown horns or something in the night. Probably the gay thing—she probably is a good Southern Baptist and thinks she’s never been around a gay man before. Maybe she’s afraid she’ll catch it from me or something. I turned on the hot water spigot and washed my face thoroughly. It had been a while since I’d experienced anything like that, but it still happened. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were filled almost every day with news stories about gay bashings and homophobic business owners refusing service to gays and lesbians. But I wasn’t hurt or offended—I felt sorry for her more than anything else. And there was certainly no reason for me to address her conduct with my grandfather. The last thing I wanted was to get her in trouble…but I couldn’t help but wonder why she was acting the way she was around me.

I’d slept extremely well, which was actually a bit of a surprise. After all the heavy emotional revelations yesterday, I was pretty sure I would just toss and turn all night long. But after driving back out to Chambord, I’d been so emotionally exhausted I could barely make it up the main staircase and had tumbled into bed—and apparently hadn’t bothered to turn the lights off, either.

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