Page 241 - Some Dance to Remember

Some Dance to Remember 211

said, “Now you know why both times Thom went to Vietnam I ended up
in a mental hospital.” She fled out the door.
Sie marched off to her room.
“I’ll clean up the mess,” Bea said.
“No,” Ryan said. “Why should you? You weren’t involved in this
fight.”
She smiled at him. “Well, I’ve been in others, Uncle Ry.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I’m glad you stopped this before it got too bad.”
Ryan looked at her in amazement. “You mean sometimes you’re
worse?”
Bea laughed. “When we’re alone, we’re horrid. We’re good around
you. Dad forces us to be. He says we owe you because you let us stay here
in your house. Mom says because you’re never going to have kids that we’re
supposed to be like your substitute children.”
“I’m going to puke.” Ryan actually blushed. “You’re kidding,” he said.
Thom moved close to Ryan. “She’s not kidding,” Thom said. “Thank
you for handling this.”
Ryan resented them all making him play the daddy since Charley-Pop
had died. “Wait a minute,” he said, “you’re the father.”
“And you’re my older brother, Ry.” Thom put his arms around Ryan
and hugged him. He was bigger than Ryan and his forearms were covered
with tattoos.
Ryan caught my eye over Thom’s shoulder. His face turned quizzical.
“I don’t understand,” Ryan said into Thom’s ear, “why all this is happen-
ing. I don’t understand why you let it ever get so far out of control.”
Thom buried his head in Ryan’s shoulder. He was crying. “I don’t
know what’s happening. I can’t take it anymore. I want them all to leave.
I want to leave myself. Just get in the car and drive off. I just want to be
left alone.”
Ryan held his brother for a full two minutes. I could tell Ryan found
the hug a strain. He was used to giving sexual hugs to men. He once
told me that you could tell if a guy was homosexual or not by the way he
hugged. When straight guys hug, they hug chests and shoulders and hold
their hips carefully away from each other. When men, who prefer men,
hug, it’s a whole body press. It had long been a running joke on Castro
that guys had to be careful when they went home to visit their families,
because they get so used to Frenching everyone they meet that it’s hard to
remember not to put their tongues down their mothers’ throats. Funny,
but by the end of the two-minute hug, Thom, not Ryan, had pushed his

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