Family Matters, Chapter 23
Breaking the news to Ryan about his mother's death went far more smoothly than anyone had anticipated. Fr. Mills and Jenna both came to the house on Sunday afternoon. Jenna felt it would be best to get the process going before Ryan picked up bits of information that the rest of the family might accidentally spill. She also thought it should be done on a day when Rory was home from school since he was the most consistent living caregiver in Ryan's young life.
Rory felt it was going to be a very stressful situation and asked Austin to be by his side. If his boyfriend needed him, Austin would be there. He too had learned a valuable lesson about maintaining relationships.
It was almost comical to watch Ryan when Fr. Mills was ushered into the house. The little boy made an awkward attempt to genuflect as he'd seen others do at church.
Fr. Mills got down on one knee and offered his hand to Ryan who shook it rather formally.
"You don't need to bow to me. We do that in the presence of God, and I'm only one of his servants. You are welcome to treat me like a friend if you want to, Ryan. You may call me Father Tom or just Tom if that's more comfortable for you. Do the boys in your play group give each other high-fives when they meet?"
"Yeah," the smiling boy replied as he put up his hand, which the cleric promptly, but gently, slapped.
"I like you!" Ryan smiled.
"I like you too. I'm here to talk to you about heaven. What do you know about it?"
"It's a place where God is when he's not in church."
"Could you draw us a picture of it?" Jenna asked, as they moved into the family room. "I know you can draw nice pictures."
Ryan sat on the floor with the large tablet of white paper and the box of crayons Jenna had brought. After dumping the crayons out, he chose a green one to make scribbling marks in the middle of the page. His face showed that he was taking the assignment seriously.
"This is grass. There's lots of grass in heaven. These are trees. There's lots of them too," he explained making brown marks for tree trunks and round green disks for the tops. "And there's a lake. Oh, I forgot the sun!"
A few minutes later, he pronounced it done.
"Some very nice people go to heaven," Fr. Tom explained.
"I know," Ryan stated in a matter-of-fact manner. My mommy and daddy are there."
The adults looked questioningly at Rory who raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
"May I ask who told you that?" Jenna said.
"Nobody; I saw them."
"But our dad died before you were born," Rory said. "How did you know it was him?"
"I just knew. Mommy said they love us. She said she wants you to forgive her."
"She said that?" Rory asked incredulously.
"She said she's sorry. I'm not sure why."
Rory bit his lower lip in a futile attempt to stem his tears. Austin put his arms around him tenderly.
"It's okay; let it out."
Ryan got up from the floor and sat on Rory's lap. "It's okay," he said, mimicking Austin. Charlie jumped up and joined them on the sofa.
Everyone in the room was touched by Ryan's act of compassion for his older brother. They had all assembled to console him when they broke the news of Margo's death, but he was ending up being the one who brought comfort.
"There was a song when I was growing up with the lyrics, `Bless the beasts and the children...'" Fr. Tom recalled. "We've just witnessed how loving and perceptive young children can be in their innocence."
Rory dried his tears with a tissue that Landon handed him.
"I think that's a message for me. I'm gonna try to forgive her," he vowed.
"I honestly believe you'll feel better if you can find it in your heart to do so," Fr. Tom counseled. "I know from experience that it may be difficult, but letting go of animosity can be a healing experience."
"Thank you Father. I thought priests were supposed to shame us into forgiving others, but you're really cool about it. You seem to understand that it's not easy."
"I can empathize because I had a cruel stepfather too. It took me a very long time to forgive my mother for marrying him. I'm still working on forgiving him, even though he's been dead many years. I hope I'll eventually be able to do that and truly practice what I preach."
That afternoon, Rory gained a new respect for the cleric.
Both Ryan and Rory continued to flourish, especially knowing that Ralph would never be able to hurt them again.
In the next several days the family learned new details about the supposed murder/suicide crime that took the lives of the boys' mother and stepfather. The more the evidence was analyzed, the more the authorities suspected it was a double homicide.
Bit by bit, it came out that Ralph had become mixed up with a couple of drug dealers who were particularly vicious characters. The police believed that they might have murdered both Margo and Ralph, but staged Ralph's death to look like a suicide. The authorities couldn't understand why there was no weapon at the crime scene.
Their theory that the dealers had killed the couple was strengthened after a bullet-riddled body turned up in a car trunk and ballistics test showed the bullets matched the ones that killed Margo and Ralph. The gun was still unaccounted for.
The month of May marked two birthdays in the household, Corbin's and Ryan's. They were only a few days apart, but each was celebrated individually. On his special day, Corbin had his own tiny cake all to himself. His daddies set him in his high chair in only a diaper and let him "attack" the cake with both hands. They were hoping to get a cute video of a chocolate-covered boy.
However, Corbin didn't like the feeling of the frosting on his fingers and wouldn't eat any of it until Landon put a small piece of it on a spoon and fed it to him.
"I think he's a neat-freak like his father," Michael grinned.
"Don't talk, neither of us is big on messes."
"True, but he's around you more, so I'm not taking the blame, or credit, as it may be."
Before long, they washed his hands and put a shirt on him. He seemed much happier that way as he toddled across the room to find Charlie. He wanted to feed the little dog a piece of cake, but Michael told him he must never give a dog chocolate because it would make him very sick. After that, they put the cake up out of reach because Corbin wasn't old enough to understand the seriousness of the situation.
Ryan loved his birthday celebration too. He wanted to have a tiny cake just like Corbin had had, but he cut it into four pieces, one each for Corbin, Rory, Austin, and him. Unlike most children his age, he didn't claim the biggest piece, but gave it to his older brother. Rory was quite touched.
Ryan had played with the Duplo blocks that the men had bought for him, but had never had a Lego kit before and was fascinated by it. He looked carefully at the pictures on the instruction sheet and tried to build the police car that the set was supposed to make. At times, he needed help from the older boys, but he did a lot of it on his own even though the blocks were much tinier than Duplo.
On a day when there was a staff meeting at Ad Tech, Mr. Bloomberg requested that Landon stay to discuss something over lunch afterwards. Landon found his mind wandering a few times during the meeting in his attempt to figure out why the boss would want to talk with him alone. He'd had his yearly evaluation in December and had been given a substantial raise for the current year. Obviously, Mr. Bloomberg wasn't unhappy with his work.
"I probably should have given you some idea of what I wanted to discuss with you. It's all good," Mr. Bloomberg began after they'd ordered. "I fear I may have inadvertently upset your morning."
"No, that's fine. I must admit I've been curious, but I didn't obsess over it."
"You remember the Stern account last year where you saved my butt, and several others for that matter?"
"How could I forget? You've treated me like royalty ever since. It's more than I've deserved."
"Oh, don't be so self-effacing. Your conscientious hard work has put you in good stead with Robert Stern as well as with me. He has a favor to ask of you. He's not pressuring; he simply wants you to consider the matter thoroughly before you say yes or no."
"Now you HAVE piqued my curiosity!"
"His brother, Eric, is in the film industry in California, and he would like to meet with Michael and you to see if you'd be willing to let them do a documentary about your blended family."
"I'd have to know details, and the whole family would need to be involved in the decision."
"There will be no decision to make until his brother has met with everyone to lay out exactly what he has in mind. He'd like to come next weekend if that's convenient. Otherwise, he could do it later in the summer."
"I'm sure we don't have anything pressing next weekend. Do you have any idea why he chose to check us out?"
"I got this secondhand, but this is how it appears to me. He knows that you're not a typical family in the traditional sense. He'd like to show the world how the structure of a viable family in the 21st century can be built on something other than blood ties."
"So, he knows that Michael and I are gay?"
"Yes, and he knows something about how you've created great relationships with Marian and her grandsons."
"Did you, perhaps, have a hand in that part?" Landon smiled.
"Yes, perhaps, but I've told that to Robert Stern, and not Eric. I'm not sure how the subject came up between the brothers."
"Okay, if you have Eric's contact information, I'll be happy to get in touch with him directly."
"Excellent! Now remember, whatever you decide has no impact on your job here at Ad Tech - none whatsoever!"
The conversation over the dinner table that evening revolved almost entirely around the prospect of taking part in a documentary. In the midst of it, Rory texted Austin about it and suggested he come over. He headed there the minute he had finished eating.
"Mom says I can stay over tonight like you wanted," Austin grinned. "She said her permission was a preemptive strike to head off any whining I might do. Imagine that! She's accusing me of whimpering and pouting in order to get my way!"
"I can't believe it either," Rory smirked. "It's like she knows you really well, or something."
"So tell me about this mini reality show," Austin requested, steering the conversation away from him.
Rory told Austin everything Landon had learned up to that point. Since it was three hours earlier on the West Coast, Landon was trying to contact Eric Stern at that very minute.
About a half hour later, Landon called Rory and Austin up from the basement to hear the update. Landon and Michael had agreed to let Mr. Stern interview them on the coming weekend since neither they nor the boys had a conflict. Mr. Stern wanted to have his parents come over too because he would need their consent if he were to be involved with the filming, assuming that it worked out. Austin quickly sent a text to his mother to see if she and Ron would be available.
On Saturday, the entire family plus Ron, Jennifer, and Austin were seated in the family room when the doorbell rang. Landon answered the door and ushered Eric Stern into the foyer with his assistant, Winston Brick.
"Please come on in and meet the rest of the extended clan," Landon invited.
Everyone, this is Mr. Eric Stern and his assistant, Mr. Winston Brick."
"Please call us by our first names," Eric invited.
"Great," Landon said. "I'll start the introductions with my partner, and soon to be husband, Michael Day. Corbin, whom he's holding at the moment, is our youngest. He turned one a few days ago.
Next is Ryan who also had a birthday recently."
"I'm five and I'm going to `kinder-garden' next year," Ryan announced proudly as he held up five fingers. "That's my big brother, Rory and his boyfriend, Austin." (There were several smiles over his pronunciation of the word "kindergarten.)
"Okay..., Ryan seems to have taken over as host, but he's forgotten several other important people. This is Marian Thompson, Ryan and Rory's grandmother. She's our loving mother-figure and the glue that holds this place together.
Last, but not least, are Austin's parents, Jennifer and Ron Banks. I believe that's everyone."
"No, you forgot Charlie!" Ryan exclaimed. "Charlie, show Eric how you can shake hands."
Charlie dutifully held up his right paw and both of the guests solemnly shook it. Seeing how they interacted with Ryan and Charlie made the rest of the group feel they'd be good to work with.
"Would it be okay to hook my Tablet to your TV so that everyone can see my outline?" Mr. Stern asked.
"Of course," Michael responded, as he got up to help Winston make the connections.
"As you can see, the working title is A 21st Century American Family Association. That is subject to change, but it conveys what I want to show, and it's a kind of play on the right-wing anti-gay group.
I assume that all of you, except for Jennifer, Ron, and Austin, are a part of this household."
"They don't reside under the same roof, but we are all like an extended family," Landon answered, "some related by blood, but all by love. Austin is here often enough that we tend to claim him."
"Winston, would you please record the names of everyone and how they are interconnected?"
As Winston began doing that, Eric continued to discuss how he planned to present the family to the viewing audience, and also his philosophy behind the project.
"My hope is to present a peek into a household that contains both straight and gay members and show that they aren't some kind of extraordinary or unusual people."
"That's good, because we don't live drama-filled lives like the Kardashians," Landon joked.
"Well, Austin almost got killed at school by a kid who stabbed him for being gay." Rory said. "That wasn't exactly an ordinary event."
"That is definitely something that would grab the interest of our audience," Eric nodded. "I'd like to show the dark side of homophobia as well as the bright side of acceptance. Jennifer and Ron, I assume that you accept and support the relationship between your son and his boyfriend?"
"Very much so," Ron responded without hesitation. "In fact, we'd be quite pleased if Rory were to become our son-in-law."
"That's great!" Eric smiled.
"So, I understand that you boys are out to your school friends and wouldn't likely be bullied when and if this hits the airwaves."
"Yup!" Austin and Rory said in chorus.
"Boys, I try so hard to work on your usage!" Jennifer laughed. "How about saying: `Yes, Mr. Stern?"
"Are you by chance an English teacher, Jennifer?" Eric said in return.
"Yes, Eric, I am."
"That's cool! Would it be possible to have you write down some bits of information about the people in this room? You know them intimately and can tell us things that our script writers wouldn't discover for months. If you agree, I'll have a contract drawn up so you'll be compensated for you work. I might hire you to do some editing too. Our younger staff members don't know the difference between lie' and lay' and a lot of other grammatical particulars."
"I'd be pleased to do that," Jennifer agreed, "if it all works out."
"Well, I started to talk about my mission in doing this project before I got sidetracked. You can see the words GAY AGENDA highlighted on my outline. First and foremost, I want to expose the gay agenda' for what it is. People on the extreme right bandy that term around to frighten others. My contention is that gays DO have an agenda, but it's not to turn straight people to be like them. They simply want to be treated as any other minority in our society hopes to be treated. They want to live their lives as ordinary people being able to marry, raise children, and enjoy life – the American Dream' if you like. That's why this family seems like the perfect model.
My philosophy is rather like that of Mark Bruzee and the other people who operate L.E.A.P. Audio. I don't suppose any of you are familiar with that."
Jennifer, Austin, Rory, and Landon all raised their hands and grinned.
"A cool male nurse at the hospital, when I was recovering from being stabbed, told Mom about it," Austin said. "She asked Landon to review it to see if he thought it was appropriate for us. Then Rory and I listened to several broadcasts."
"Wonderful!" Eric exclaimed. "Then you're aware that they produce PG stories in which some of the characters just happen to be gay. They present them in everyday settings to show that being gay isn't some kind of aberration, but a normal thing."
"We listened to the current stuff and went back to read earlier ones. We really enjoyed the Thanksgiving story from last year about Wyatt and Jesse." Rory said. "We know that it's fiction and has to have a happy ending, but Wyatt's family was very much like Landon and Michael in rescuing a kid who'd been thrown away by his own family. I can relate, because that's what happened to me."
"Wow, there is a LOT here that I'd never have guessed without all sorts of digging. Jennifer, I'm depending on you to set these things down in print for me."
After Eric and Winston had made their departure, the friends and family had a discussion about what their answer would be. Michael volunteered to pick up carry-out from the Greek restaurant so everyone could eat together and wouldn't have to interrupt their debate for meal preparation.
While enjoying their dinner (with a bottle of white Boutari for the adults), they continued to discuss the pros and cons of having their lives on display to anyone who wished to see the film(s). Rory said he'd like other guys his age to know that there was hope even if they got kicked out of their homes. Landon agreed, but wondered how the invasion of cameras into their house would affect their daily lives.
Michael remembered reading about a cinema-verite on public TV back in the 70's called An American Family. The parents, Bill and Pat Loud separated and eventually divorced. Lance, their oldest, came bursting out of the closet in the series. Many people blamed the breakup of the family on the presence of the cameras.
"I don't want anything in the world to mess up our family," he said.
"Do you know if there were problems in that family before the series?" Austin asked.
"I think the marriage was rocky already," Michael admitted. "Being on camera probably magnified their troubles."
"Then it shouldn't be a problem for you guys," Austin noted. "You have a great relationship!"
"Austin, I don't believe we have a voice in the decision," Jennifer reminded him quietly.
"He does because he's my boyfriend!" Rory insisted. "This affects him the same as me."
"I tend to agree," Landon nodded. "His life is quite intertwined with Rory's."
"Me too," Michael chimed in. "He's a frequent part of the household and should have a vote. We'd welcome your input and Ron's as well even if you might not feel you have a direct vote."
"Well, I think we should sleep on it and possibly call for a tentative vote tomorrow afternoon," Landon suggested. "You might all say a prayer for guidance in the meantime."
Lance Loud
Born:
Alanson Russell Loud
June 26, 1951
La Jolla, San Diego, California, U.S.
Died
: December 22, 2001 (aged 50)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality: American Occupation: Musician, magazine columnist
Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Loud
Author's notes: Chapter 24 will be the last one for this story. It will come to resolution at that point, though there will be loose ends here and there. After all, that's life. I cannot at predict whether the characters will turn up again in some other tale. If you've followed my writing, you know it's possible.
Thanks to all who emailed since the last posting: Wayne, Chandra B, David A, Mike D, Michael B, Tony W, Bill K, Mendy D, Bill T, Lorne W, Peter M, Paul R, Tony F, Tom A, Al R, Ott H, Jeremy R, Jim W, Jim L, Dick M, Walt S, David T, and Jesse (Brandon's Baby Boy). If I've missed someone, I'm sorry. Please let me know.
Hugs to you, my Internet Family,
David