The Nonconformist
by Ken Cohen
Chapter 16
Battlefields
Humber West High School had, man for man, the biggest players in the Toronto high school football league. Their linemen, both offence and defence, had dominated the field in most of their games. Their defence was endlessly aggressive, using blitzes to harry the opponent's quarterback on nearly every play. Their offence was grim, relying on a running game that used its big guys to challenge and overrun opponents head-on. They were arrogant. They were the returning league champs from last season. They truly believed that man for man they were the best in the league. Their record demonstrated their prowess. They had not lost a game this season.
If King High had any advantage, it was speed. Their players were mostly smaller, lighter and faster. King's defence had been second only to Humber's all season long, primarily due to their defensive backfield led by Gray Samuelson, which tended to dominate other teams' passing games.
The team discussed a game strategy at length with Coach Taylor. The offence knew it had its work cut out. To do that, they would use a classic approach to deal with the blitzing Humber defence, a combination of their running game, draw plays and quick passes to open receivers in spots left unprotected by blitzing linebackers and defensive backs.
The attendance for the championship game on King's home field was by far the best of the season. Not only was the small bleacher section with about 150 seats filled, but another 300 or so students, parents and teachers were seated on benches specially brought in around the field, or in some cases standing behind those benches. So, for once, the team had a real cheering section. Mike's, Danny's and Gray's families were all among the spectators, as were families and classmates of many of the other players.
Humber scored a touchdown the first time its offence had the ball, using its running game to pretty well dominate the field. It scored a second touchdown just before the end of the first quarter.
At the start of the second quarter, leading 14-0, Humber kicked off the football and King's Wesley Rumfeld caught the kick on the run, found blockers, and returned the kick for a touchdown. Humber led 14-6. King missed the conversion point.
King's defence tightened up and began its own blitzing game, leaving the defensive backs to run single coverage on Humber pass receivers. They managed to hold Humber to one field goal for the rest of the second quarter. The score was 17-6 at the half.
At the start of the second half, Coach Taylor put Gray in as one of the two kick return players. Humber kicked off, the kick was short and Gray fielded it on one bounce on the left side of the field near the King 40 yard line. He faked one tackler, then picked up two blockers, aggressively straight-armed another tackler out of his way, broke into the open left side of the field and easily outran the last two opponents into the Humber end zone. This time the convert was successful. It was 17-13.
The teams traded short range field goals twice in the third quarter. At the start of the fourth quarter, it was Humber leading by 23-19.
King's offence ran into trouble early in the fourth quarter when Danny caught a short pass but was hit hard, fumbling the ball. The fumble was recovered by Humber. It then used a long series of running plays along with two short passes that used up almost eight minutes of the last quarter. They were looking for short gains on every play while keeping the ball inbounds to keep the clock running.
Things were looking glum for King, they couldn't stop the short runs, until finally, with three minutes left in the game, Humber tried another running play at the King 15 yard line on third down with two yards needed for another first down. Gray Samuelson, playing close to the line for a blitz, tackled Humber's halfback in his own backfield while punching the ball out of the opponent's grip. The fumbled ball squirted loose up in the air. Matthew Braun, King's middle linebacker, had also penetrated the Humber backfield and was on the spot to recover the fumble in mid-air. Better, he ran the ball down the field to the Humber 42 yard line where he was finally tackled. King's home crowd suddenly woke up.
Now rushing without a huddle to confuse the defence, Mike called a quick pass play over the middle. Danny ran a slant pattern behind the middle linebacker position, caught a line drive pass on the run and outran Humber's defensive backs to score King's second touchdown. The convert kick was good this time. King led by 26-23.
There were just over two minutes left in the game. King's kickoff was fielded at the Humber 35 yard line and the receiver was tackled almost immediately. Humber was running out of time as they set up for their first play. It was a run to the right side which picked up a few yards. Running the game without huddles, Humber's quarterback took the snap, then looking left he dropped back and threw a quick pass to running back Bobby Roland, who gained four yards. On second down, the quarterback looked to the right and then threw another pass to Bobby Roland on the left side, but he only managed one yard. On third down the quarterback dropped back and threw a pass about 15 yard downfield into the centre of the field where their split end was supposed to be. Gray anticipated a pass into that area and beat the Humber receiver to the spot, intercepted the pass and ran it back about twenty yards before being tackled.
The game was essentially over at that point. There was just over a minute left on the clock. King ran a series of running plays, the clock ran down to zero, the referee signalled the game was over. It was King's victory. The school had a championship team for the first time in its eight year history.
Then the whole team was together somewhere at midfield, all of them and their happy fans rejoicing. They stopped long enough to accept the handshakes of the Raiders players and celebrate with some of their friends. Then everyone ran off the field and inside. The dressing room was a wild scene of excitement. Mike eventually managed to get everyone's attention. While things were still quieting down, Mike gave Mr. Taylor the game ball.
It was past 7 o'clock that evening by the time they all showered, changed, and recovered enough energy to go home. Before he left, Mike reminded Danny they had a card game at Mike's house as usual.
Accepting the game ball, Mr. Taylor told the team, "you demonstrated your courage to me, to yourselves and to your fans all season long. You've won the final game. You've taken the title. You're the pride and joy of King High. Congratulations!"
A week later, after the championship game, Danny Stavros found that he needed all the courage he could muster to deal with a new predicament he had never encountered.
On November 27, Uncle Lewis came to the house to talk to the family.
"The insurance company has notified me it will not pay the insurance claim. I have its letter here if you want to read it. They say their investigators believe that Alex committed suicide. Under Canadian law, if the insured person dies by suicide within two years after the date of the life insurance policy, the policy becomes void and the insurance company is not required to pay any claim under it."
Barbara, Danny and Mary were shocked.
"Suicide!" said Danny. "Where did they get something like that?"
"We don't know, Danny. It remains to be seen. It could be that they have nothing to prove it with. They will need very strong proof indeed to support such a position. For now I think they're just playing tough, hoping you'll settle for less. In other words, it may just be a far-fetched negotiating position. But without knowing what evidence of suicide they're relying on, I'm only guessing about this."
"What can we do about this?" asked Barbara.
"We will have to hire a litigation lawyer to try to negotiate, but if necessary, sue them. I don't want to wait, I think you should do that right away."
Danny asked, "A what lawyer? We don't know any lawyers, Uncle Lewis. Who should we hire?"
"A litigation lawyer. That's a lawyer who handles lawsuits. A lawyer who goes to court regularly on behalf of his clients. While any lawyer can represent a client in court, lawyers who handle that kind of work regularly are specialists we informally refer to as litigators. Representing a client in court is like being an actor on the stage, it's a performance and at times there are many people in the audience. It's an art as well as a skill and involves a great deal of hard work. It's also very stressful.
"And this is a huge amount of money we're talking about here. The claim will be for over $600,000. Since this is a whole life policy, there will be some value that's accumulated on the payments that will make the payout higher. By the time it's over we will also be looking for interest and compensation for the legal costs you will have to lay out in the meantime.
"In essence, the insurance company is telling you, we're playing hardball here, you'll have to sue us and spend big money to do it. They're hoping you can't afford that, or don't have the nerve, or both. So if you're going to sue, it's important to choose the best litigator you can afford."
"Well, what about you, Uncle Lewis? You go to court. You've told me about it."
"Yes I do, but I have a general practice, Danny, I'm in court maybe a few times a month for many different reasons. But I don't have the necessary expertise to take to trial a case as specialized as this, that involves this much money. There is too much money at stake here.
"Also, your dad was my brother-in-law. I'm related to the family and that creates a problem for me. I won't have the objective viewpoint to provide you with the best advice. And my emotions could get in the way of good judgment. So that is not advisable.
"The lawyer I have in mind is Marvin Kingman. Marvin's an experienced litigator downtown, I've known him and worked both with and against him for about 15 years. His father is the senior lawyer at his firm and is well-known across the country. I've referred a number of clients to them over the years, I've always been satisfied with their work, and so have my clients. They have a solid background in insurance work, and handle a lot of civil litigation at the trial court level. They also handle appeal work. They're the right people for this job."
"Can you set up a meeting with him?"
"Yes, I'll phone him when I'm back in the office. After I touch base, I'll let you know, and you or mom can arrange an appointment."
"Okay, thanks Uncle Lewis. We'll let you know if we have any other questions."
"Danny, in the meantime, you gather every piece of paper you can find that has anything to do with the policy, with your dad's death, and anything else having to do with his estate, the will I have, or the accident, any and all documents I don't already have. They will all have to go to Mr. Kingman after you retain him as your lawyer.
"That includes, by the way, that private letter you found from your dad. Mr. Kingman needs to know about everything, including the details of your private life. I expect the insurance company has all your dad's medical records from his doctors, and the basis for their claim of suicide might be in those records. So the more information we have, the better.
"And while things are fresh on your mind, you are the main witness to the accident. You were the only person in the car with him when the accident took place. I know you did something like this for the police, but I want you to do it again. Prepare as detailed a memo as possible setting out everything you remember about that morning. Every single detail.
"All of this will help us keep important details alive and not forgotten. Also, it will make it easier for Mr. Kingman if you hand him all the evidence on paper, in an organized fashion, when you meet with him. It will save him and his people a lot of time interviewing each of you.
"Essentially we're assembling the evidence for your lawyers. There will be more from the insurance company because they have to produce what they're relying on in their defence.
A couple weeks later, Danny went downtown with Barbara and talked to Marvin Kingman. He was expensive, $110.00 an hour! Wow, Danny thought, maybe I should go to law school after all. Uncle Lewis said he was definitely worth it. If you want good results, your best chance is to hire the best lawyer. Like Uncle Lewis said, there are no guarantees of the outcome. Nothing in life is certain.
Danny asked Mr. Kingman how the insurance company could possibly claim that Alex committed suicide.
"Well, Danny, it's like this. $600,000 is a huge payout. It's a very large claim. They want to try to reduce the payout or even get away with not paying it, if they see a chance to do that. And this company has a bit of a reputation for playing hardball, especially if they believe you cannot afford to sue.
"The expression we have is, they're playing hardball with you. They'll make you fight for every dollar. They want to see how far they can push you, whether you even have the money to pay lawyers to sue them. Some people in your position settle right away for half or less of what they're entitled to, because they don't know any better, or they can't afford to wait for the legal process to be completed. Others don't have the funds to pay for a major lawsuit. Or the will to pursue it. Those costs can run into the tens of thousands of dollars."
"Well, we have the money from the other insurance policy. The $100,000 from dad's office group insurance. That's where the money will come from to pay for this. Right mom?"
"Yes, Mr. Kingman, that money we received from the other insurance company. They never raised such a thing as suicide, so why would this one?"
"Well, possibly because the payout on this one is at least six times as large. Anyway, I expect that at some point we will have to sue. Then for sure they'll know you're serious. Also, frankly, the simple fact you've hired my firm tells them a lot. They're not dealing with a neighbourhood lawyer who dabbles in court work, we believe we're among the best civil litigation firms in the country.
"In my experience, a lawsuit is the kind of language they will understand. The further we push the lawsuit forward and the harder we push back at them, the more they will understand that they can't push you around and get away with paying you far less than what you're entitled to.
"We have one year within which to begin the lawsuit, so there is no urgency to that. Our first steps will be to see what they are prepared to offer at this point, and what evidence they have. I assume they have some evidence of what they're claiming. On the other hand, you and your mom have both told me that there is no basis you know of for a claim of suicide.
"It's odd your dad would choose to commit suicide with his son in the car. Suicide is in my experience almost always takes place in isolation, alone. Also, most suicides leave a note behind. So suicide doesn't make sense to me.
"To be clear, under Canadian law, the suicide of a deceased person within two years after a life insurance policy is issued is a complete defence to a claim for payment under that policy. If it was suicide, you can't recover anything.
"For now, leave everything with me. When I've seen their evidence, I'll be in touch with you again.
"Now, I'll get my secretary in here and we can go ahead with the retainer agreement if you're ready."
"We're ready, sir."
Barbara, Danny and Mary all felt better. The life insurance policy was in Marvin Kingman's hands now. They had a good lawyer, thanks to Uncle Lewis. And Uncle Lewis was filing the will with the court, taking care of the estate taxes and a few other legal details.
It took some of the weight off their shoulders. They talked about it at home.
"I don't know about you and Mary, mom, but I thought that meeting went really well. I feel way better than I did going in. I think we took an important step today by hiring him."
"Me too," said Mary, "I feel kind of relieved. Like now we have a chance with this insurance company. He sounded pretty optimistic about it."
"You're right, he did," said Danny.
Barbara then said, "I think you're both right. I wish we still had daddy, but he's gone and we have to learn to live with it. This suicide business is nonsense. I'm angry about this and I'm glad we have a good lawyer on our side. The Alex Stavros I knew would not have committed suicide and certainly wouldn't have tried to take with him the son he loved. And he certainly loved you, Danny."
Danny didn't say it, but he thought, "I wish he had told me that."
The following weekend, on a Sunday, Danny and a dozen or so of his friends, seniors and juniors, got together to play two hand touch football on the field behind the school. There hadn't been a snowfall yet and the temperature was in the 40's Fahrenheit, so it was still good football weather. The field behind the school was a somewhat muddy mess from the championship game, but they decided to play anyway.
The group included five boys from the school team, being Danny, Mike, Gray, and Matthew and Shawn Braun. Along with them were the usual other guys. The field was empty when they arrived. They grouped themselves into two teams with Danny and Mike on one team, and Gray and the Braun brothers on opposite teams. Matthew would be the other team's quarterback. They began playing and everything went fine for about half an hour.
Then an another group appeared toward the far end of the field. It looked like there were at least ten of them. After watching for a few minutes, they decided to help themselves to the other half the field, saying nothing, acting as though no one else was there. Bit by bit they began to encroach as though they were entitled to the whole field. They could have asked to join the game that was in progress, Danny and his friends actually might have enjoyed that, but they didn't say a word.
Danny's group ignored them for a short time. Then Mike and Danny ran a play that resulted in Danny catching a pass for about a 20 yard gain. That brought them to midfield where the interlopers were grouped. Danny ended up on the ground after he caught the pass. As he stood, Gerald Borstin approached and said to him in a loud voice, "Get the fuck out of here, fairy boy."
"Fuck you," Danny replied as he walked away. "And get off the field."
By this time most of the guys were down in that area waiting for the next play. Danny walked away from Borstin and joined his team's huddle, immediately saying to Mike, "What do you think we should do about this?"
Then he noticed Gray and Borstin eyeing each other and talking. Their voices were getting loud.
"Get off the field."
"Fuck you, Jew-boy."
That made the decision for them. Gray threw a punch that hit Borstin in the face, leading to a melee with guys yelling at each other. One of Borstin's pals blindsided Gray from behind, throwing him forward into Borstin, who stood his ground and pushed the off balance Gray backward, slamming him to the ground, the back of his head hitting the turf pretty hard. Surrounded by his friends, Borstin jumped atop Gray and began swinging. Gray tried to cover up. Danny saw this as it developed, ran directly into the scrum, grabbed Borstin by the neck from behind and used all the strength he had to pull the larger guy backward off Gray. Danny ended up on his back under Borstin with one arm around the front of Borstin's neck.
"Let go of me, let me up," croaked Borstin while trying to get out of Danny's choke hold.
"You'll leave if I let you go?"
"Let go of me."
"Not until you answer. Will you get up, leave the field, and stop this bullshit?"
"Okay, let me go."
Danny eased up. Borstin rolled off him but Danny got to his feet first. It was now between them, while Gray, still on the ground, managed to roll onto his stomach and was trying to stand.
Danny thought Borstin had had enough. Borstin stared at him. "I told you before, don't ever touch me you fucking faggot." He took a swing at Danny, catching him by surprise, hitting him square in the eye, sending his glasses flying off in the process. Mike stepped in front of Danny at that point:
"Back off."
Borstin swung at Mike. Mike was waiting for it. He easily stepped out of the way, then in the same motion launched a kick that caught Borstin in the chin. Borstin fell back, hit the ground and stayed down.
"Take your friends and leave. We might have invited you to join our game if you'd asked nicely, but it's too late for that. Leave, now."
Borstin just lay there breathing hard, looking up at Mike, no doubt wondering what had hit him.
Danny had no idea Mike could do kicks like that, and so effectively. The two of them stood over Borstin looking down at him, while Gray managed to regain his feet. After maybe thirty seconds, Borstin slowly stood, turned and walked away, muttering to himself while his friends trailed him.
By now, everyone else had gathered round and were talking about what had happened. Danny watched Borstin's group begin to leave. One of those boys, ironically named Brian Friendly, had once been a school friend of Danny's but they'd been in different classes since junior high school. Brian approached him and asked, "you're not really a homo, are you, Danny?"
Danny said, "are you?"
"Of course not."
"Look, Brian, if you're not looking for a homosexual friend, why would you ask me a question like that? It's what I'd expect a homosexual guy, like, say, your buddy Borstin, to go around asking people. Are you obsessed by homosexuals? Is there some kind of intellectual attraction in it for you?"
Brian looked at him, turned and walked away.
If he hadn't already been red in the face from the exertion, Danny might have been blushing. Shame washed over him. He hadn't ever been humiliated in front of all his school friends that way. That F word. The one with three letters. He didn't dare look around, couldn't look anyone in the eye. All he could think was, they all heard what the guy said, they all must think I'm a fag now.
Mike came up to him, placed an arm around his shoulder and said in a low voice, "Danny, it's okay, they're losers, 100% losers, just disregard them."
Danny nodded and said, "That was one hell of a kick, where'd you learn that?"
"Tae-kwon-do. Fairness, honesty, perseverance, self-control. The art of using your feet and hands for self-defence and honourable combat."
"I knew you were into something Mike, but you never told me about this. Well, you were in the right place at the right time."
"I was waiting for a reason to do that for a while now. Don't like that guy at all."
Matthew and Shawn were standing there with them. Matthew said in his lovely Jamaican lilt, "Let's keep on for a while, man, until these bad minded boys leave. Don't want to leave the field to them. You know, if they asked nice, we could have had a game with them, but no, they have to try to steal the field."
Danny clapped Matthew on the back. "Thanks, man. You're the best."
Matthew picked up the two pieces of Danny's broken glasses. One of the arms had been torn right off the frame. "Here's your glasses, or what's left of them," he said, and handed the two pieces to Danny.
Danny examined them. "They're wearable, one arm broke off, that's all," he said triumphantly. He replaced them on his face using just the one arm to hold them precariously in place, and smiled.
Mike's voice again: "Danny, you're bleeding."
"Huh?" He turned around and looked at Mike. "Where?"
"Just above your right eyelid. Does anyone have any tissues?"
Danny used the sleeve of his sweatshirt, there was blood where he touched the spot. He smiled again.
Mike looked at him as if to say, what are you doing?
So Danny winked at him and said "Sleeves are useful for cleaning up a little blood now and then. Anyway, now you know my big secret. I'm a red-blooded Canadian boy. Something to be proud of."
"You're something else, Danny Stavros."
Mike put his arm around Danny's shoulder and said to him in a low voice, "Don't pay any attention to Borstin. He's an asshole. He's called me a fag, too." Then a moment later, "Let's play another 15 or 20 minutes, everyone okay with that?"
There was general agreement. They resumed playing. Borstin and his pals had departed. Gray's head hurt so he rested. After about ten minutes, Danny joined him off the field. Shortly, everyone else followed and sat down to rest. They sat talking for the next while.
Afterward, Mike, Matthew, Shawn and Gray squeezed into Danny's Plymouth.
He dropped the first three guys off, then drove Gray home. As they drove, Gray said, "I knew it was you. I just knew."
Danny said nothing. He had stood up for his friend. He didn't stand up for himself a long time ago when he needed to and should have, but on this day he stood up for Gray.
It was much easier to do it for his friend than it had ever been for himself. He wondered why. Anyway, he thought, now he knows. I've shown him. He can count on me.
Gray said, "Hey, you look kind of funny, Dan. I never saw anyone wear glasses missing one of the arms."
"My driver licence requires me to wear them. Doesn't say anything about the glasses being damaged. I'm gonna get shit from my mom, though. Getting into a fight again, costing her money. What a bad boy. Anyway, without the glasses, I assure you either we'd be hitching a ride or be in an ambulance after I crash into the car ahead of me. I can't see diddly squat without them."
"You're going to have one hell of a shiner, I expect." Gray said. "I knew it was you, I just knew."
"What?"
"When that asshole jumped me. I couldn't see who pulled him off me, but I knew it was you."
"I hate bullies, Gray. You know about bullies. I can tell you some stories. Those guys operate like a gang but I know them all well enough to know ultimately they're just a big pile of chicken shit. I've known Borstin since he showed up around here in grade four. He always was a conceited one. He is one sick prick, there's something definitely off about him."
"Yeah, I've noticed."
"You okay, Gray? Man, you really hit your head hard."
"Yeah, I have a bit of a headache but I'll be okay. He rang my bell, though, woke me up. I owe you one. He would have beat the crap out of me. My head was ringing when I fell back and hit the ground like that."
"You don't owe me anything. No way I'm standing idle while some asshole ... well, you know, someone else would have jumped in if I hadn't. Shawn was ready to do that when I did, I just beat him to it. I mean, you're just about the best friend I have, Gray. You and Mikey both. I won't stand by and let someone hurt you. Fuck Borstin, he can go to hell."
Danny drove on. Maybe the silence in the car attested to the fact they were good, were solid, the best of friends. Could Danny ever get any closer to him?
Gray invited him in for lunch. His parents were out. Eddy was up and around, finally back in school.
Gray made them all peanut butter sandwiches. He had peanut butter his mother made herself at home using a blender with freshly shelled peanuts, nothing else. And soft sweet chewy yellowish bread. Gray said his mother would spend an hour shelling hundreds of peanuts to make the peanut butter. A messy job but it tasted intensely of peanuts, like no peanut butter Danny had ever tried. No sweeteners, corn oil or other industrial stuff you get in most supermarket peanut butters. And the bread was like night and day compared to the usual fluff bread.
"Where does your mom get this bread, Gray? I've never tasted anything like it. It's a bit like cake, you know. But I see it's made with yeast, so definitely not cake."
"It's a bread called challa. Sounds a bit like halal, you know, the Muslim version of kosher. You can buy challa at most Jewish bakeries, especially on Fridays because they make a special twisted dough version for the Sabbath every week. The recipe for it includes a couple eggs, sugar and sometimes raisins, so it's more expensive than regular white bread. It's traditional in Jewish homes. On Friday night we have it with sweet red wine, it's kind of ceremonial. To welcome the Sabbath."
"Oh. What bakery should I go to?"
"Try Deluxe Bakery down on Sheppard, that's where my mom goes. Sorry to change the subject, but why'd he call you that? What does he have against you?"
Danny shrugged. "I'll tell you another time."
Eddy asked, "Call him what?"
"Another time, Eddy, I'll tell you later," said Gray.
"Why not now?"
"Eddy," said Gray, "later, okay?"
Eddy looked a little lost, like he'd done something wrong but didn't know what.
Danny said, "Eddy, this guy we ran into at the football field behind the school tried to bust up our football game this morning. He's a real bad type and he kind of has it in for me. You know, doesn't like me. I've been in school with him since grade 4. Here we are in grade 13 and he's still behaving like a nine year old. He called me a fag. Fag is sometimes used as a very bad word here in North America. Kind of full of hate, for a guy who's a homosexual. You know what that is?"
"I've heard of it. I don't really know."
"It's a guy who finds other guys sexually attractive. He's attracted to other guys instead of to girls the way most guys are. It's like a mistake of nature, he's born that way. It's unusual, there aren't many guys around like that, but there are some. A guy would find out when he goes through puberty that he's attracted to guys, not to girls. You know what puberty is? I think you're old enough to know that?
"Yeah, it's when… I know what it is."
"Anyway, some people think it's wrong to be a homosexual, just like some think it's wrong to be left-handed, or to have dark skin, or to be a different religion. Over time homosexuals have gotten a bad reputation, there's bad stuff in the Bible about them for no good reason really but that's how it is. So some guys use it as a way to try to insult other guys they don't like.
"The fact he called me a fag doesn't mean there's anything right or wrong about me. It just means this guy hates me. Why that is, I don't know. He's never explained his hate to me. He just hates me. He's kind of mentally unbalanced. He seems to hate almost everyone. So he uses insults like that to express irrational feelings like hate. Irrational feelings are ones that don't make any sense.
"You kind of understand now?"
"Yes. I think so."
"Okay. Listen carefully, Eddy. It's a very bad insult, one of the worst ones you can use, for many reasons. It's as bad as calling a coloured person a 'nigger.' You shouldn't use it. You understand? Fag and nigger are very bad words that you should just never, ever use for any reason. If you hear someone else use one of those words, either tell them not to, or just keep your mouth shut, but don't join in. It's very bad in many ways."
"Okay. Thanks… for talking to me about that."
"My pleasure, Eddy."
Danny's left hand shook slightly as he ate. Gray noticed. Danny couldn't tell him. The feeling nagged at him. I'm a fag, he thought. Everybody knows. Even Gray knows now. Maybe he'll hate me like Borstin does, just won't say it. Or maybe he will say it. But I need Gray.
"That's well said, Dan," said Gray.
Danny suddenly felt he had to get out of there. He finished eating. "Listen, I'm going, sorry to eat and run, I have stuff my mom needs done, I promised I'd get to work this weekend. Raking leaves and stuff. So I have to go. I'll see you Tuesday or maybe sooner."
"Do you ever hear from Ken? How's he doing out there?"
"He's at first year university, in pre-engineering, you know, math, physics, chemistry. The toughest course there is, so I hear. I had a few letters from him after he left, almost, what, a year ago? But not much in the last few months. I guess he's really busy at school. I don't expect to hear much more from him. He has a new life out there."
"Okay, man, talk to you later."
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
