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It happened on President’s Day nineteen eighty five. So far back it seems like
just a dream the day we met. In Sleepless in Seattle, the guy says he knew the
moment he took her hand. I got that all right, but it didn’t even take the first
touch for me to know, and as I sit here and write, I can not seem to recall, the
fist time we touched.
Maybe we touched first when we shook hands.
I do remember the first time we made love.
That day was April 26, 1986. It was Friday. It was hot. A water pipe broke in
the parking lot, and Kyle was the assistant maintenance man of the complex we
lived in. He and Dave spent the entire day in the Texas heat ripping up the
pavement, fixing the bust and filling in the hole again.
They worked like dogs and both were dead tired. I had made a light dinner that
night and Kyle and I ate as we usually did, in front of the TV. We had been
living together for just over six months and had by then known each other just
over a year. He was a smashing 20 year old stud, no matter how else I could
describe him, and I was, even by then, a dirty old man at 25. I think maybe I
was born a dirty old man.
He had moved from Wisconsin the year before to stay with his brother and go to
school, and I ended up in Dallas more or less as a last resort. I knew friends
that would let me hang with them, and because I was again down on my luck, I
asked, they said yes, and I found myself working in another kitchen, in another
hotel.
The second our eyes met, I knew.
The first night he came over to hang out, back then, guys didn't go out on dates
or even wear outfits, just cloths, and besides, he was straight, so it was
nothing more than buddies hanging around, but somewhere I knew, from the second
our eyes met, but we played backgammon and I read him poetry.
I was a poet, or I guess I should say, I am a poet; gotta remember the ol’
self esteem.
It was intriguing how naturally our friendship grew. We were fired from our jobs
on the same day. I was off that day, and the chef called and told me the food
and beverage director told him to call me and fire me, and as he was telling me
this, there was a knock on our door, and Kyle was there just fired too.
We had a party.
As spring grew into summer, we saw more and more of each other.
Every time I
looked into his eyes, I saw a world I knew was my home, but I had been in this
situation before with straight guys and yet I knew he knew too.
©2006 lou phinneystoltz
Email 4 Full Text |
