NOTE: This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this installment, please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Shelia Downes, Aaron Beecher's long-time girlfriend sat with a sobbing Anna Friergarten on the couch in the living room at the Pence house as Jackie's party got started again as the hostess walked over. "Anna, listen to me," Shelia pleaded, "none of us knew this about Jake. It was the best kept secret at Severn."
Looking up at Jackie, Shelia continued, "Did you know, did Evan tell you?"
Jackie shook her head no, "not a word from Evan. Ev just told me a few minutes ago that Jake came out to him in August days before school started."
Anna composed herself just long enough to get out, "That's not what I'm upset about. I understand what happened and what Jake did and why he took me to your school dance and your school friend's party. I'm not mad at that. I'm mad that your country lets this happen. This would not happen in Germany or anywhere in Europe. My younger brother is gay and everybody likes him. There is no hate, everybody is everybody friend. All this drama, as you say, all this drama is for nothing."
Standing, tears subsided and blotted up, Anna walked over to Jake and gave him a hug, "you are my friend too, you remind of boyfriend Dieter at home, big and strong, inside and outside."
Breaking the hug with Jake she hugged Will also, "you are friend Will, too, remind me of my younger brother Bernd. I hope we stay friendly for a long time to come."
Jake's coming out swept the student body of Severn High by surprise. Even though the school building was essentially shut down for the winter break, it's communications networks weren't. Party guests were texting their friends about what happened almost as fast as it happened. And then the parents got wind of it and began calling each other until the phone rang at the Grimke house. As Will dropped off Jake at home just before 1:00 AM, more lights were on than Jake was used to; he knew his parents were up and waiting.
"Want me to come in with you?" Will asked.
"Nah, I have to face the music on my own, I made this happen, not you," Jake replied.
After a quick kiss and car hug, Will said, "thanks for a pretty wild first date, it's going to be hard to top."
"Welcome," Jake answered, "I'll call you later."
"You better Jake," Will replied as he felt the passenger door close.
Inside the side door, Emma in her night gown and a bathrobe and John in jeans and a flannel shirt were seated at the kitchen table, each sipping a cup of coffee as they waited for Jake. Just an hour or so before, Jackie's mother Mimi had called Emma and gave her a first-hand account of what had happened. In the back of their heads, John and Emma knew this moment was coming, they just didn't expect it so soon or so sudden or how intense it would be.
"Hey sweetie, how was the party?" Emma asked before Jake was fully in the door.
Jake looked at both of them, "I'm guessing you heard."
John nodded and picked up, "I thought we had an agreement, you were going to tell us when you were ready to do this; that you weren't going to blind side us with some half-assed stunt?"
Remembering the talk they had just a few weeks ago, Jake nodded his head yes, "we did, I just didn't have an out tonight and things just started rolling downhill really, really fast. Really fast. I'm sorry; I had no idea it was going to happen this way."
Turning to John, Emma continued, "According to Mimi, Jake didn't have many options or time to pick them."
"What exactly happened, son?" John asked, "tell us what happened from the moment you and Will left here. And remember, we have eyes and ears in that school just like you."
Jake, glad he didn't have to tell them what happened before they got home from Christmas shopping that day, told the story in full detail from the time they left for the party until Will dropped him off less than 15 minutes ago, leaving nothing out.
Emma nodded at each point noting it coincided almost word for word with Mimi's telephone version earlier.
"Well, what do you want us to do now?" John asked Jake after a glance to Emma, "your grandparents will be here for Christmas Eve."
Jake pondered for a minute and said boldly, "tell who you think you got to tell, I'm okay with it. I think for the first time in my life I'm finally kind of okay with this now. Can I go to bed now?"
Emma stood and hugged Jake, "yes sweetie, go to bed. We'll take this a little bit at a time; we can't figure it all out tonight. C'mon John, you need some sleep too before you go in to work."
"Your mother's right Jake, I need some sleep before work. We are going to work on this one day at a time," John said hugging his family.
Jake changed and slipped into his favorite lacrosse shorts and crawled into his bed and slept soundly, not hearing his father's alarm clock at 5:00 AM. John pushed the door open to Jake's room and saw him sleeping in his bed in a knot of bedding. Quietly he waked over to the bed, sat on the edge, "Hey Jake, time for me to go fight some fires, see you for dinner tonight. I love you son."
Waking just enough, Jake looked up at his father in his Baltimore City Fire Department uniform and hugged him, "I love you too Dad, see you at dinner."
Jake wasn't the only Severn student at Jackie's party that grilled by his or her parents about what happened. Will got questioned as did Evan and the rest of the guys from The Mohawks as they met their parent set curfews. Will and Jake spent most of Sunday together doing last minute Christmas shopping and just talking a lot, meeting Jackie, Evan and Anna at the big mall in nearby Annapolis.
The Grimke's lived modestly without a lot of excessive expenses. Lt. Grimke's salary exceeded what was necessary to provide comfortably for his family and much of what Emma earned through her work at the Peabody Conservatory was banked for their future. Earnings from his overtime shifts or mandatory training requirements for company officers paired with the occasional part-time instructor wages he earned teaching for the University of Maryland's Fire and Rescue Institute contributed substantially to the Grimkes' financial well-being as did Emma's shrewd home financial planning. In a nutshell, if it came down to it, Jake wouldn't have to worry about any of his college expenses; no matter where he chose to go or whether he earned scholarships or not.
Like anything else Jake observed, he learned good financial habits early from the way his parents managed their own. He banked the money he earned cutting lawns in his neighborhood and was afforded a rather princely generous allowance from his parents, most of which he banked also. And like most teenage boys, he had the itch for a car, a car of his own. He had the money but every time he brought the subject up, his parents talked him out of it. Fuel, maintenance and insurance costs were usually all they needed as ammo to get Jake to see that having a car was just a pit to throw his money into.
More often than not, the dependable Honda was in Baltimore; with its automatic transmission, it made sitting in rush hour traffic a little bit less of a burden for John or Emma, depending on who was making the drive into the city that day. That left Emma's early 1990's Saab 900 convertible at home as Jake's default car more often than not which he took care of; washing it, waxing the fading paint and even threatening to replace the pre-digital era stereo in its dash on more than one occasion. Despite Jake's care and with the odometer just over 100,000 miles, it was showing its age. It needed another set of tires, the leather on the seats was cracked and worn and the canvas for the roof was more like a leaky roof, letting in cold air and other elements if the car had to sit outside in the weather rather than in the little bit of car space left in the Grimke garage.
Dropped off by Will, Jake was home in time for dinner with gifts to wrap which he quickly dispatched to the far recesses of his closet. Jake had purchased the new fishing pole that he knew his dad would like and found a very nice watch for his mother even though she was not one for much jewelry. Right after Evan had received his Letter of Assurance from the Naval Academy, Jake ordered an official replica Nike USNA Lacrosse uniform and matching hoodie from an on-line lacrosse supplier. And now, he had to come up with something for Will.
As John walked in from work to the Grimke house decorated for Christmas, he gave Emma a hug and kiss and a hug to Jake. Even though John had showered at work, Jake could still smell the smoke on his father. And when John didn't talk about the fire, then it was not a good one if any really can be. It probably meant someone died and with it being the holidays, that didn't sit well with anybody, whether they were a fireman or not.
Emma had declared a pizza night earlier in the day, busy in the kitchen trying to get as much ready for the Christmas Eve visit of her Richmond in-laws. Jake always liked pizza night because it usually meant he could have a couple of beers with dinner and maybe one more with his dad on the couch afterwards. And tonight, as Emma folded the pizza box into the trash can and Jake sat on the couch with his dad, John asked, "so, how big a mess we got here?"
"Just what happened last night at Jackie's," Jake answered truthfully.
"Anything else going on we should know about?" John asked, "anything that's going to bite us in the ass? You messing around with Will at all?"
"A little," Jake reluctantly volunteered, knowing he was too honest to lie or keep secrets for very long from his father or mother.
"You guys use condoms?" John demanded to know, "I didn't by them for you to let them dry rot you know."
"It didn't get that far," Jake said sipping from his third bottle of beer, "I'm still 99.8% virgin, okay?"
John turned and stared at Jake, kind of stunned, "really?"
Jake just shook his head yes and smiled, kind of pleased he could report that factoid. In fact, it looked to Jake like that this might have been the one bright spot in John Grimke's day since he left for work 14 hours before. Sitting close and still smelling the smoke, Jake asked, "fatal?"
John nodded yes, flashed two fingers meaning double fatal as he took a swig from his beer, "Had to wait for the third-due engine to arrive first, our engine was closed for budget cuts. We had no water, we couldn't make the interior stairs; had to go up ladders in the front. Too much heat up there, they didn't have a chance. When the investigators found the smoke detector, it didn't have a battery. No fucking battery! A forty-nine cent battery would have saved their lives. Hell, they could have come to the firehouse and we would have given them one for free."
John continued, feeling Jake's arm draped over his shoulder trying to offer some comfort, "It's still the best job in the world but like any job, some days just suck."
"I know Dad, I know you and everybody tried as hard as you could," Jake offered.
"We did, I know that much, but today our best just wasn't enough," John said, "somedays, your best will never be enough, that's one of life's cruel lessons Jake, if not the cruelest."
Jake squeezed his father's left hand with his own left hand as they sat silently on the couch and finished their beers.