continued to inspect the props, making notes on his check list, but she saw a flicker of pain in his hazel eyes. “No names, please.” After a pause, he continued, “It’s been over for a while.”
She waited, but he didn’t elaborate.
“Well, what say you come for barbecue on Saturday? We’ll try to forget what’s happening and have a gay old time.”
He winced at the word gay but allowed, “I did miss barbecue up north. Count me in.”
“You could bring me flowers,” she suggested. “Everybody will think we finally fell in love.”
“What they’ll think is you finally lost your mind. Given up all hope of finding a normal man.”
She lowered her voice. “Little do they know I only like abnormal men like you.”
He put down a china vase he’d been assessing and turned toward her with a pinched look. “Gen, you realize how serious this is.”
“I know.”
“They caught five men. They won’t stop there.” Fenton forced his trembling hand into his jacket pocket. “I had a nightmare about Mark last night. I told him so many times how risky his behavior was, parks and tearooms and such, but did he listen? And it turns out he was doing it with a Negro behind Big Beau, for God’s sake!”
She flinched at the dismissive mention of Mark’s Negro lover. She never took Fenton for a bigot, but he was so upset, this wasn’t the time to press the issue. The town’s venerable shrine to the Confederate dead featured the names of local soldiers engraved along its base, plus the battles they served in. It took its nickname from the bronze statue mounted on the pedestal of an officer on a prancing horse—almost as majestic as Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond. Before Gen was born, the Daughters of the Confederacy had raised the funds to honor Colonel Wylie Beauregard Thoms of the 10th Virginia Cavalry, who lost his life in the Battle of the Wilderness. Many of his descendants still lived in the Springboro area, including the History Department’s Henry Thoms.
“So you never—”
“No! I always play it safe.”
She wasn’t sure how “safe” it could be, frequenting bars in Richmond, but she couldn’t point that out with Fenton so distraught.
“Sometimes I think gay girls have it easier,” he said. “You don’t have to meet up in bathrooms where the person in the next stall might be an undercover cop.”
Gen bristled. “Yeah, women have it so easy, being invisible to each other! Or we might risk everything coming on to a colleague who turns out to be horrified by our very existence. Or some girl we teach could get angry about her grade and—”
“Touché.” Fenton sighed and scratched something off in his notes. “Thank God you’ve got Carolyn. That must be a comfort.”
She blurted out the barest facts of the breakup while they perched on uncomfortable, wrought iron chairs with tags that read, “Earnest/Spr 59”—props from an Oscar Wilde production that had drawn huge crowds.
“I truly don’t know what to say.” Fenton rubbed the palm of her hand in a soothing way. “Except that I never much liked her.”
Gen stiffened. “You barely knew her.”
“That’s right, she never deigned to come to you, always making you travel to her. Selfish and self-centered, if you ask me.”
“It was my choice,” Gen said. “Richmond was safer for us than a town where everybody knows everybody’s business.”
“Still, I saw her maybe twice in what—five years?”
“Six. Which gave you plenty of time to let me know what you really thought, friend.”
“I couldn’t tell you the truth. You were so much in love.”
Gen let go of the anger that had flared in her. Many times, she’d kept her opinions close to the vest with friends, too.
“Love,” she said with a shrug. “That’s something I won’t be rushing back into.”
Their heads swerved at the sound of light footsteps coming from the direction of the stage. Fenton dropped her hand, his eyes widening, and leapt to his feet. Gen was surprised to see one of her students emerge from the shadows, clutching what looked like a script.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Page! Dr. Rider! Did I get the audition time wrong?”
Fenton fished out his gold pocket watch. “I’d say so. We won’t start until at least four-thirty.”
“Sorry. It’s my first time going out for school play.”
“Well, you’re welcome to take a seat in the orchestra, Miss—”
“Margaret Sutter. I think I’ll just come back later.” Margaret mumbled another apology and slunk out the way she had entered.
Fenton clicked his tongue. Gen wasn’t sure what bothered her fastidious friend more, the girl’s earliness or the fact that she’d come backstage uninvited.
“Margaret’s one of my advisees,” Gen said. “Always comes to office hours. She’s a good egg, but she can get underfoot.”
Fenton’s face registered annoyance. “I don’t like them skulking around. Eavesdropping, even. What were we talking about when she showed up?”
Gen raised her eyebrows. “I believe you were telling me how very much you disliked Carolyn.”
His cheeks colored. “I’m sorry, hon, I shouldn’t have—”
“I’m teasing, Fenton. Feel free to hate Carolyn as much as you want.” She cast a look at her wristwatch as she stood to leave. “Anyway, I don’t think the girl could have heard much. Maybe she saw you holding my hand and will tell everyone we’re a couple.”
He expelled his relief with a burst of laughter. “Ah, yes, but a couple of what?”
✥ ✥ ✥
Gen arrived home after a long day of teaching and didn’t bother to kick her shoes off before fixing a frosty gin and tonic. Talking and engaging for so many hours had both worn her out and energized her. She wouldn’t soon forget how her students’ eyes blinked double-time as they flipped the pages of her syllabi. She guessed some would drop the class before the next meeting, intimidated by the long reading and assignment list. Her ideal would be a tight group of history majors engaged with the material.
When she was finally in her armchair, feet up, G&T in hand, she took the still-unread morning paper from her briefcase and read the story about Mark with its headline designed to titillate: “POLICE ROUND UP LOCAL HOMOSEXUALS.” The subhead implicated the college: “Arrested Men Include Baines Instructor.”
Gen didn’t recognize any of the names except Mark’s. One man was picked up in the public restroom of Town Hall, unwittingly exposing himself to an undercover officer. Cops found two other men in a parked car in an alley
