Page 318 - Some Dance to Remember

288 Jack Fritscher

like to take a feller in the back.”
“I’m safe,” Ryan said. “Death comes like a thief in the night. As long
as you expect it, you’re safe. As long as I expect to die, I won’t.” He started
to cry. “Why is there a reverse spin on everything?”
The next day, on impulse, he drove back to the City. He wanted to
surprise Kick.
The surprise was on him.
Logan sat shirtless in the living room of the Victorian. “I’ve been
staying here while you’ve been gone,” he said.
“I told Logan you wouldn’t mind,” Kick said. “I’m glad you’re back.”
He hugged Ryan.
“It’s alright,” Ryan said. Why didn’t you tell me? He felt safe in Kick’s
embrace. “Everything’s going to be alright.”
“Check it out, man,” Logan said, “I have to go back to like, you know,
San Diego for awhile.”
Thank God and Greyhound! You’re gone!
Ryan and Kick were together again. Only Kick stood between Ryan
and the blues. Everyone knew someone who knew someone who was sick.
The news was alarming. In the weeks that followed, those who became
sick died quickly. A momentary pall fell across the bars and baths. Some
men stopped going out. Some stopped having sex altogether. Some sud-
denly found a new spark in an old lover’s safe eyes. Some tried having what
came to be called safe sex where partners were careful not to exchange
fluids.
“How,” Solly screamed, “can it possibly be sex if you don’t for godsake
exchange fluids!”
A sizable group simply denied the syndrome’s existence.
“It’s their civil right,” Solly said, “to suck and fuck in dark back rooms.”
“This plague,” Ryan said to Solly, “has made you a sage.”
“I’ve always been a sage,” Solly said, “and a legend in my own mind.”
“They’re calling this a gay disease.”
“They’re calling it everything, because they don’t know anything. As
usual, they emphasize our differences from them. They’ve always been
jealous we have more sex than them. I find it all amusing.”
“Amusing? People are dying.”
“Considering the crowd you used to run with, I’m sure your Rolodex
reads like The Book of the Dead,” Solly said. “I’m not changing anything.
I’ve never fucked with faggots anyway. I much prefer my straight boys
sitting on my face.”
“Funny,” Ryan said. “Faggots used to feel immortal.”

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