The Orchid Eater by Marc Laidlaw Read Free Book Online Page A

you? Nuts, I mean?
If you are it doesn’t matter, not to me. I’m a little loopie myself. Just ask
my parents. They’re always trying to have me put away.”
    Marilyn
extended his hand while he chattered but Lupe only stared at the long red
nails. Marilyn pursed his lips, offended, and drew back his hand.
    “I don’t bite,” he said. “Do you?”
    Lupe pushed
up from the couch, his smooth face contorted with disgust. The other boys were
trickling into the room.
    “Who are
they?” he said.
    Sal put a
hand on Lupe’s chest, calming him gently but forcibly. “Lupe, man, I haven’t
seen you in five years. Wherever you went, that was your business, your life.
But I have my life, too, okay? These are my friends and students, and they work
for me. I expect you to treat them with respect.”
    Marilyn
shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me, Sal. I get it all the time.”
    The other
boys, picking up on Lupe’s hostility, were treating him to their own brand of
it. Randy and Douglas put their arms around each other and engaged in a
flaunting kiss.
    Well, Sal
thought, so let them. He had meant what he said.
    Lupe scowled
and looked away from the boys.
    “This is who
I am, Lupe. If it bothers you . . .”
    “I know what
you are, Sal,” he said.
    Sal had to
remind himself that Lupe had been through hell. His childhood had ended with a
violent initiation into adulthood, of a sort. The boy had almost died. Sal, as
he had so often before, regretted that he hadn’t been there to protect Lupe.
    Yet Lupe now
looked steady and strong, sure of himself, nurtured by an inner source of
strength.
    “Okay,
Lupe,” Sal said, trying not to let a bittersweet compassion turn saccharine in
his mouth. “These are my friends. Boys, this is my brother. I hope you can all
get along. If you want to stay here, Lupe, you’re welcome to.”
    “I don’t
want to put you out,” Lupe said mockingly.
    “It’s no
bother.” He turned to the boys. “Is it?”
    “Hell no,”
said Randy, with a smug grin. “He can take my bed, Sal. I’ll sleep with you.”
    If the
comment was supposed to get a rise out of Lupe, Randy must have been
disappointed. Lupe only nodded then sank back down in the couch.
    “I won’t be
staying long,” he said.
    “Stay as
long as you like,” said Marilyn. “There’s always room for one more in Sal’s
house. Your brother is one of the nicest guys in Bohemia Bay.”
    Lupe smiled.
“You mean he has a reputation?”
    “In certain
circles.”
    Sal sat down
next to Lupe and put a hand on his shoulder. “I try to keep a low profile.
Business being what it is.”
    “You’re
dealing,” Lupe said, without surprise. “How else could you afford to live in a
place like this?”
    Sal
shrugged. “It got me here, true enough. But that’s only money. What matters to
me is my other work. You don’t see me wasting the money, you know, on a bunch
of luxuries. I support my causes—gay rights, shelters for runaways. You’d be
surprised at the number of kids who end up here. I teach tai chi, to bring mind
and body into harmony, get things in balance. I’ve got a good life, Lupe. I’ve
got friends. What about you?”
    Lupe
shrugged. “You know me, Sal. Nothing ever changes.”
    Sal hoped it
didn’t sound like he was trying to impress Lupe with his success and make all
Lupe’s accomplishments seem trivial. In the past, you could never be sure how
Lupe would take things. Even the plainest statement of fact seemed to go banging
around in his head, ending up twisted beyond recognition.
    Maybe all
that had changed now. Maybe.
    Sal’s
students crouched down on the floor or dropped into chairs, watching Lupe—some
openly, some covertly.
    “God,”
Marilyn said, “I would die for your complexion. I’m allergic to hormone creams.
Do you shave?”
    Sal tensed
up, waiting for one of Lupe’s surges of rage, of violent temper. But apparently
Lupe had mellowed enough to answer the question with a weary smile.
    “Naw,” he
said.