Even though Josh was exhibiting an outwardly happy demeanor the next half dozen weeks, Kyle was more than aware that the estrangement with his mother was weighing on his mind often. The few times he got him to talk about it, Josh only reiterated how he considered the problem entirely her making and therefore hers to deal with. The only communication that had occurred between the two had been the blunt note Josh had handwritten the night after the coming out fiasco. He had asked Kyle to read it before it was mailed to her at the farm. Even though he was extremely impressed by the intensely deep message behind the words Josh had used, he wondered yet again if he should have suggested it not be sent. Once more, while Josh was at work, Kyle repeated them to himself...so well memorized it was as if the paper was right there in front of him.
Disapproved!
An unnatural act. A deep dark transgression. A burning pain within your child's soul.
Not about them. It's about you and your nefarious and unprincipled attitudes.
You, a parent, have forsaken your child because of a difference between their's and your tiny, close-minded world.
You say you disapprove. You disapprove of what? Your child for being himself? For daring to love and be loved back?
You reply: "It's unnatural." How can you say it so coldly and without feeling?
Unnatural in your eyes perhaps. But not as unnatural in their eyes, the desertion of your love seems to them.
Your child, unchanged, still loves you.
And if for this overall insignificant part of their life you stop loving them...then I am the one that must disapprove!
Kyle shuddered again, as he always did when he remembered the words. Tomorrow the two of them were flying to New York and he already knew what kind of reception would greet them. Kyle's parents had only talked to his boyfriend on the phone a few times, but he had already been fully accepted. He had wanted Josh to make peace with his mother before the trip, but the pleas fell on deaf ears every time. 'Damn how I love him, but he is so stubborn sometimes,' was the thought he was having when his cell phone buzzed.
"What are you up to stud? Watching hockey porn again?" came from Josh with a chuckle.
Kyle laughed back and replied, "Nah. This was my night for surfing smut sites for pizza delivery boy movies. They've got me thinking about ordering one and seeing if I can get lucky."
"So call the shop and order one. I'm on my last delivery now, but would be willing to make one more...if breakfast comes as part of the tip."
"You're too easy baby. At least make me work for it."
"Oh don't worry. You will be doing some work if I have my way," Josh seductively purred. He laughed again and promised to bring home dinner before disconnecting from the call.
As Kyle stared at the phone in his hand, he thought: 'Maybe he is handling this mess with his mother okay and I need to stop worrying so much.'
* * * * *
Josh closed his cell phone and pitched it to the passenger seat as he pulled out of the customer's driveway and headed back towards Capitol Highway. Even though this final drop off for the night had been at the far edge of the shop's delivery area, it went to a regular customer that always tipped very well. It also gave him time to think on the way back.
As had so often entered his mind the past weeks, he kept hearing his Mom viciously use the term 'faggot' in her reference to Kyle. He had talked several times to his Dad, his Grandparents, and both his older brothers...all of them reassuring him of their love and that his Mom did too. He angrily smacked the steering wheel hard with his fist and actually yelled at the windshield. "Fuckin' bullshit!" The next words in his mind were the same ones he had used every time any of his family had brought his Mom into the conversation. 'When she tells me that herself, and that she accepts both me and Kyle, then I might believe it. Until then, I am as much a faggot as he is to her.'
As if by divine intervention, the Honda's radio suddenly began playing the Macklemore and Lewis chart buster 'Same Love' and Josh turned it up full blast. He sang along with the chorus each time as if he was singing it to his Mom.
'And I can't change. Even if I tried. Even if I wanted to.'
By the time the final verse of the song was playing, Josh was choking back tears as he parroted the words.
'Whatever God you believe in, we all come from the same one. Strip away the fear, underneath, it's all the same love.'
He shook his head as he turned the volume back down and once again spoke to the dead air in the car: "Why can't you just give it to God, Mom? He will tell you the right answers if you do. Then we can be a family again."