We Break the News by Jon Rutherford

Author:Jon Rutherford [Rutherford, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

“You wanted to know if I’d like company this evening,” said James.

We were in the kitchen sipping some V-8 juice at the little breakfast bar, a remnant of the ’30s when the house was already fairly old. The place had been kept up splendidly all those years since — till 1997, when I acquired it and started letting it go pretty much to hell. I’d felt ashamed all along, but failed to remedy my behavior. I was still basically squalid about it. Well, that’s just how it was. I wasn’t house proud by any means. I kept it fairly clean, but nothing like conventional notions of presentable.

I’d just started coffee dripping in the coffeemaker Tony and Clyde had given me two Christmases ago, a solid, dependable, no-nonsense German machine that knew how to do its job right. I knew the best way to make coffee was still by hand, but damned if I wanted to stand there and do it when a machine could do it for me while I read, or listened to music, or watched a movie, or masturbated — if not all four at once.

“I wasn’t sure then, but now I am, and, yes, I’d love it. If your offer still stands.”

“Of course it does. Good! I thought we might watch a movie here, if that sounds good to you. Or, we could take a walk or just about anything, eat out, whatever. I’d rather not go to a bar, is all, but last time I checked, that wasn’t your favorite entertainment, either.”

James laughed. “You remember right. I’ve come to loathe them, Gerry. I’ve never been fond of crowds, as you know, and now I’m not even fond of alcohol, either. I just keep it for company. So that leaves cruising, as far as bars go, and I’m really, really not fond of cruising anymore.”

I didn’t say anything, but just silently gave him a quick sideways hug. He had never been picked up in a bar, nor picked anybody else up. I suspected his gaunt appearance made guys afraid he had AIDS. He doesn’t. And it shouldn’t matter anyway, but... Well, I won’t go into that. I’d get too angry.

“I know, I know, twenty-five years old and doesn’t want to cruise, what the hell’s wrong with him, etc., etc. I really don’t care what people think. That’s just — that’s just another crowd, isn’t it?” He laughed again, and not at all uneasily. He seemed to know his own mind and to be his own man as well as anybody I could think of, including me.

“Bound to end up an old maid, then, is that it?”

“Well... Not inevitably, but, yes, it does appear probable. Aren’t there worse fates though? Like...like unhappy relationships, disastrous marriages or partnerships, you know, all that stuff Ingmar Bergman made all those great films about?”

“But that’s Sweden! “ I retorted, feigning indignation. “No, you’re right. Still, I think a young man of your goodness and intelligence doesn’t have to settle for either solitude or a second- or third-rate life with somebody, though, James.

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