Second Chances

Chapter 26

“Oh, Alex, I had a fantastic time.”

Alex and Jesse were in Alex’s car, returning from a wonderful weekend spent together. Alex wanted to surprise Jesse with a romantic weekend. However, Alex had to make sure that Jesse did not have any plans. He spent a week asking Jesse vague questions, and it didn’t take Jesse too long to realize something was up. When Alex was sitting in his car in the parking lot of Jesse’s apartment complex on Friday afternoon, waiting for Jesse to get home from work, it was obvious something was going on. Alex would’ve liked to have picked Jesse up without telling him where they were bound, but Jesse needed to go into his apartment and pack for the weekend.

Alex didn’t tell Jesse where they were headed, though, at least keeping that much of the trip a surprise. They reached the small city of Atlantic around 6:30 pm, where they checked in to the Chestnut Charm Bed & Breakfast. Alex had asked Rhys for assistance in planning a weekend getaway for Jesse and him. Rhys suggested the bed & breakfast in Atlantic, in part because it was considered gay-friendly. Rhys had never stayed there but was familiar with it since he frequently passed through Atlantic on his way to visit his family home in Clarinda.

Once Alex had booked the room, he heard that a snowstorm was bearing down on Iowa. He prayed that the snow wouldn’t be so bad that they’d have trouble reaching Atlantic. The storm system took a more southerly track than some of the meteorological models had predicted, and Central Iowa had ended up with little more than a dusting of snow on Friday morning.

Alex and Jesse enjoyed their time together. They were delighted by the bed & breakfast, a mansion full of beautiful antiques, set on a large estate. Though Saturday turned out to be a chilly and overcast day, they wandered through the grounds of the estate, then made their way down the main street of Atlantic, looking in shops and treating themselves to homemade ice cream, despite the cold weather. More than once, Jesse heard Alex say that he ‘didn’t have a romantic bone in his body,’ but Jesse would beg to differ. Their brief getaway had brought them together. Yes, they physically enjoyed one another, with each partner taking on both roles, but Alex and Jesse both agreed that the closeness they felt went far beyond the physical.

“I had a wonderful weekend as well,” replied Alex. “Thank you for spending it with me.”

“Why are you thanking me? This was all your idea, and what an awesome idea it was, too. Everything was just about as perfect as can be. Thank you for sharing the weekend with me.” He then added, “Thank you for sharing yourself with me.” Jesse smiled as he put his hand on Alex’s thigh. Alex took his right hand off the steering wheel and placed it over Jesse’s.

“I hope Charlotte is doing alright,” Alex said.

“She’s a college sophomore, Alex. I think she can hold down your house for two nights.”

“Yes, I know. I do still feel bad that we abandoned her during the middle of her spring break, though,” confessed Alex.

“We’re taking her out for dinner tonight, aren’t we?” asked Jesse. “I think that should make up for you being gone. Besides, you said she encouraged us to go.”

“Maybe so, but I still feel a little guilty.”

After a few seconds of silence, Alex commented, “We’re taking her out for dinner tonight, not just me, eh? I kind of like that.”

“Is that what I said?” asked Jesse. Alex nodded; the corners of his mouth upturned in a smile. “A bit presumptuous of me, don’t you think?” Jesse added.

“Nonsense,” replied Alex. “I like the sound of that word – ‘we.’”

For the next several minutes Jesse and Alex did not speak, both comfortable with one another in companionable silence as they watched the white farm fields of Iowa pass by. Alex finally spoke. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, Cam is bringing two friends home for spring break, just like he did over Thanksgiving break.”

“The same friends?” asked Jesse.

“Cam’s friend Chase was here over Thanksgiving. He’s from sunny Southern California and isn’t going home for the break for obvious reasons.” Jesse nodded in understanding. “But Cam is bringing another friend home, Josh, I believe is his name. I’d met both Chase and Zeke before Thanksgiving. They’re both really great guys. I’ve never met Josh, though. I hope I like him just as well.”

“Alex, I’m sure Cam wouldn’t be friends if Josh wasn’t a halfway decent person.” Alex nodded. Jesse then asked, “Is he from some far corner of the country, too?”

“Actually, no, he’s from Marshalltown.”

“Marshalltown? Why on earth isn’t he going to his own home, then?”

“Apparently, he just came out to his family and, well, they’re being less than supportive.”

“Jeez!” exclaimed Jesse. “What the hell is the matter with people?”

“I know,” Alex responded. “It’s sad how people can turn against their own children. From what Cameron said, though, they haven’t completely disowned him, so that’s good. I guess it’s just very uncomfortable for Josh right now. I’m hoping his folks figure out pretty quickly that he’s the same son he was before, they just now know one small additional thing about who he is. It’s like finding out, I don’t know, that his favorite color is blue.”

Jesse smirked. “I think finding out your child is gay is a little more significant that knowing your child’s favorite color.”

“Yeah, okay, but you know what I mean,” said Alex. “It is only one component of who their child is, though. Children are a lot more than simply ‘gay’ or ‘straight’.” He continued, “You’re supposed to love your kids unconditionally. I’d love Cam or Charlotte even if they murdered someone. I just don’t understand how anyone can think it’s okay to throw away your child just because you don’t like something about them, especially something that they can’t change. I wonder how many people who’ve disowned their gay children regret their actions years later.”

“So, is Josh your new pet project?” asked Jesse.

“What do you mean?” replied Alex.

“You know, you always like to help people out.”

Alex looked at Jesse quizzically.

“Come on, Alex, you have to know what I mean.”

Alex was still unsure. “Can you give me an example?”

“Okay…uh, like when you volunteered to try and help Ben to become more accepted by the group.”

“Oh, that was nothing.”

“Alex, I can tell you for a fact that you may think it was nothing, but Ben most definitely thought it was something.”

Alex rolled his eyes in response. After a moment, he said, “I want to find out if Josh and Chase are 21 yet. If they are, I thought I’d invite them to The Ranch next week Friday. It’s karaoke night, you know.”

“Best make sure they’re all comfortable going to a gay bar,” commented Jesse.

“We know Cam is perfectly fine with it, and I don’t see why Josh would be uncomfortable, unless he doesn’t drink alcohol.”

“And that leaves Chase,” said Jesse.

“I highly doubt Chase would have a problem going to a gay bar, either. I am pretty envious of their generation. They all seem to be so more open and accepting. Comfortable with their own sexuality.”

“I’m sure not everyone in their generation is accepting, Alex.”

“Oh, I know, I know,” replied Alex. “But come on, think about the kids you grew up with and went to grade school and high school with. How many of them do you think would have voluntarily walked into a gay bar? I bet not all that many.”

“And how old do you think those three homophobic hoodlums were that threatened us?” Jesse retorted. “Something tells me they were around the age of Cameron, or younger.”

“I’m not saying everyone in their generation is accepting,” said Alex. “But in general, their generation is much more open and accepting than mine was. And mine was certainly more accepting than my parents’ generation. We’re moving in the right direction.”

“But,” replied Jesse, “In 2008, America elected a black man as president. America threw off the shackles of racism forever, and now we live in a color-blind, post-racial society, right? Then 2016 came around and, well, let’s just say that in 2008 we as a nation were a little overenthusiastic.”

“Yeah, for sure,” said Alex. “The 2016 election sent us backwards as a country, but we at least didn’t revert to before the Civil Rights movement. Think of that woman we saw at the American History Museum. She doesn’t need to travel south to stand between the men at a lunch counter and an angry, white mob.”

“Perhaps, but do you remember what her shirt said?”

“Yeah, ‘hands up, don’t shoot’.”

Alex and Jesse then quieted, lost in their own thoughts as the seemingly endless farmland of Iowa, clothed in a bright, white garment, passed by.

-----

“Hi, Cameron! Hi, Chase! And welcome to our house, Josh. I’m very pleased to meet you.” The college students traded greetings with Alex as they walked from Cam’s car towards the front door. Alex hugged Cameron and Chase, then extended his hand to Josh. As he did so, he said to Josh, “By the time you leave, you’ll be getting a hug as well.”

“Thank you for having me, Mr. Kimball,” said Josh as he stepped through the front door.

Before Alex could respond, Cam said to Josh, “He wants you to call him Alex. And you better do it because he won’t stop correcting you until you do.”

Alex laughed. “He’s got my number, Josh. We’re both adults, no need to be formal.”

“Adults?” asked Cam. “You always said that to my high school friends, too.”

“Ah, but I did want them to call me Mr. Kimball exactly once,” replied Alex. “That told me that they’d learned some manners along the way.”

“So, is Charlotte home, dad?”

“Yes, she’s up in her room, probably either reading a textbook or reading for pleasure,” replied Alex.

“Incorrect, dad,” said Charlotte as she made her way down the stairs. “I am greeting my brother and our guests.” She hugged her brother, then greeted Chase, and introduced herself to Josh.

“So, dad, any big announcements today?” Alex gave Cameron a look of annoyance, which went completely unnoticed by him.

Alex then turned towards Josh. He said, “Did you hear about how the Thanksgiving holiday began here?”

“Yes,” replied Josh, “It kind of pushed me to make my own announcement at home, which, I imagine, you heard didn’t exactly go as I’d hoped.”

“I’m so very sorry to hear that your folks weren’t very supportive. And I’m sorry that I was the one who caused the rift between you and your parents.”

“Don’t apologize, Alex. It was something I needed to do, anyway. Plus, well, knowing my parents, I was pretty sure things weren’t going to be all warm and fuzzy when I sprang the news on them.”

“Coming out is not for the faint of heart, is it? I knew my kids were very accepting, and I was still scared as hell when I told them. You were much braver than I ever was.”

“I’m hoping they come around, but even if they do, I still expect it to take some time.”

“Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“So, dad,” said Cam, “where does Josh rank on the, what was it? Cute-o-meter?”

Alex began to blush. “Cameron!” he exclaimed. Cam gave Alex a look that somehow seemed to say both “gotcha!” and “Who said that? Not innocent little me.” Josh giggled audibly, while Chase bit his tongue to suppress a laugh. Charlotte looked confused.

“High, okay?” continued Alex. “Very, very high.”

“I’m sure you’ll get to meet my dad’s new man this week, Josh,” said Cameron. He then added, “you too, Chase. I forgot you hadn’t met him, either.”

“Actually, guys, you’re going to meet him in a little bit. He’s going to join us for dinner tonight.”

Changing the subject, Alex then said, “Well, make yourselves comfortable. Bring your stuff in and get settled. And feel free to get started on your laundry, which I assume you remembered to bring. Chase already knows where the washing machine is.”

-----

“Hello, and welcome to the inaugural episode of ‘Shuffle.’ I’m Alex Kimball.”

“And I’m Alex’s son, Cameron Kimball. Here’s the premise of our music podcast.”

“The show is called ‘Shuffle’ because that’s what we do. In advance, either Cameron or I will put our iPhones on shuffle. The songs which come up on the ‘shuffle’ setting will be the songs we play for you and talk about, in the order in which they’ve been shuffled. We will talk about up to ten songs per podcast. We’re going to try to keep the show to no more than about 90 minutes per episode, so we may end up not playing, and discussing, all ten songs.”

Cameron continued, “Before the show, one of us will choose songs by shuffling. We will then research the songs and/or the artists who’ve recorded the songs. Just like you, the audience, the other person will not know what songs will be included until we record the podcast.”

Alex then added, “Some songs we may play and say no more about them than the song title and the artist. Other songs we may take a deep dive into. We may even play other songs, or snippets of songs, to assist with the story we’d like to tell. For example, we may want to compare and contrast the song with a version done by another artist. Or we may want to compare the shuffled song with a song from a different point in a music artist’s career.”

Using their family room as a makeshift recording studio, Alex and Cameron had begun to put together their first attempt at a podcast. They were finding out that putting together a podcast is relatively straightforward, but only to a point. It’s not too difficult to record a podcast that includes only a conversation between two people. It turns out that inserting songs, and parts of other songs, adds to the complexity.

“We realize that you, the audience, will have to trust us when we present our ‘shuffled’ songs. Scout’s honor, we promise not to cheat. We want to play, then talk about, the songs that show up on ‘shuffle,’ in order, with no exceptions.”

“Well, there’ll be one exception, Cam. You know that stupid U2 album that everyone with iTunes got whether they wanted it or not? Well, if that shit shows up on shuffle, we’re going to ignore it, you know, like we do whenever else it shows up.”

“I’d like to take a moment to warn our audience, dad.”

“About what? That there may be some bad language? The audience has probably figured that out already when I mentioned the U2 album.”

“No, I want to warn them about your music collection. My iTunes library is full of relatively conventional music, skewing towards alternative rock. However, my dad’s music library is, ah, how can I phrase this? His library is pretty much all-encompassing of music genres, from the time of the beginning of recorded music until present.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration, Cam. Go ahead and call me uncultured, because one, I am not yogurt, and two, I have no opera music in my collection. Never have and never will.”

“That’s about the only type of music not included.”

“So, for our inaugural episode, I put my phone on shuffle, and I don’t know if I could’ve come up with a wider variety of songs, Cam.”

“Well, dad, let’s get this thing started.”

“The first song we’re going to listen to is Slowly by Webb Pierce. Slowly was recorded in November of 1953, and went on to reach the number one position on Billboard’s country chart in early 1954. I don’t think we could’ve kicked off our podcast with a better song, too, because this is probably one of the most important country songs ever recorded. Now to understand why this song is so important, we first must talk about the steel guitar.”

Recording the first two episodes of their podcast over Cam’s Spring break worked out well. Alex wasn’t the world’s most technologically savvy individual. While he’d thought about putting together a podcast for a couple of years, he’d balked at the work needed to record an episode. Josh, however, threw himself into Cam and Alex’s project. They couldn’t have asked for a better producer and director.

Alex had taken two days off during the week of Cam’s Spring break. They spent the day Thursday assembling the debut episode of their podcast. All in all, they were happy with the results.

-----

Jesse and Alex had begun to stay at one another’s house a few times during the week, and regularly on weekends. Thursday evening found Jesse at Alex’s. They’d retired early to have a little private time, away from Cam and his friends.

“Jesse, tell me, what’re your thoughts about Josh?”

“He seems like a real nice guy, Alex,” replied Jesse. “Unbelievable that his family is estranged from him.”

“I know.”

Alex and Jesse were quiet for a few seconds before Alex asked the question he’d been building up to. Well, one of the questions.

“I’ve not talked to Cameron about this, but what do you think if I were to invite Josh to live here this summer?”

Jesse reflected on the question briefly before responding. “I think that would be nice of you. Like I said, he seems to be a very thoughtful and easy-going person, so I don’t think you’d probably have much of a problem. I’d find out Cam’s thoughts on it, though, before asking. Charlotte, too.”

“Well,” replied Alex, “in a way, I’m really only thinking about it as a backup plan for Josh. With any luck, there’ll be rapprochement with his family. I think I could get him a paid internship where I work, too. He’s a business major, but the program he’s in focuses on real estate. It would be a great fit for him. If he did that, it would make sense to stay here, at least some of the time. Marshalltown is a long haul for a daily commute.” He then added, “if he were to stay here, I would charge him rent, though. Really, just enough to cover food costs.”

“I think that would work, Alex. But I’d definitely talk to both Charlotte and Cameron first.” After a few seconds of silence, Jesse continued. “Why are you asking me, though? It’s your house, not mine. Cameron and Charlotte live here, too. Their opinion is more important than mine is.”

“I’ll see if I can run it by Cameron before they return to Luther on Sunday. I’ll give Charlotte a call tomorrow.”

Again, quiet filled the bedroom as Alex thought about his next question. Eventually, he spoke. “When is your lease up, Jesse? Or are you renting month-to-month?”

“My lease? Umm, I think July. I’d have to check, though. It might be August.” Jesse thought he knew the purpose of the question but played dumb in case he was incorrect. “Why do you ask?”

“What do you think about moving in with me? We spend our weekends together, and at least a few nights during the week. It would make sense financially to move in together. And if your lease isn’t up for a few more months, you’d have plenty of time to think about it, and we wouldn’t need to be in a rush to get you moved.”

“What do the other residents of the house think about it, Alex?”

“Cam knows that I’d been thinking about asking you. While I haven’t specifically asked his opinion on the matter, he’s made it clear that he thinks it’s a good idea. I haven’t talked to Charlotte, but I think she knows that the topic would be coming up soon as well.”

“Alex, I don’t need time to think about it. I’m thrilled that you’re asking me, and yes, I would love to move in with you. But we should talk to your kids first. While I’m excited with the prospect, I don’t want to make a firm commitment until we do that.”

“Makes sense. I’d say that we could ask Cam before Sunday, but I don’t know how appropriate that would be with two of Cam’s guests here. Maybe we should ask Cam and Charlotte at the same time. I don’t believe they will be home at the same time before their summer break begins in May, though.”

“I would think we could do a three-way FaceTime after Cam is back at school. I don’t know that we all need to be face-to-face for the discussion.”

“I like how you’re using ‘we,’ Jesse. But do you think I should have this conversation alone? Just in case one or the other does have an objection, they might not feel comfortable voicing that objection if you’re in on the conversation.”

Jesse’s response came quickly. “Well, if you want to do it that way, go ahead. But I really think I should be part of the conversation. I mean, I’m really asking them if they’ll let me move in. I’m the one that would be inconveniencing them, not you.”

“I don’t exactly think you’ll be inconveniencing them, Jesse.”

“Well, if nothing else, it will be one more person needing bathroom time. And what if Josh ends up here this summer, too? It’ll be a little crowded.”

“A little prior planning should take care of the bathroom issue. There are two bathrooms in the house, you know.”

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