Page 332 - Some Dance to Remember

302 Jack Fritscher

shoulder in the streets, pushed and shoved and cruised, laughing, shout-
ing, stoned, and dancing to the music from the bandstand set up in the
street near the marquee of the Castro Theatre. The party went on without
them.
“I guess we’re missing all the fun,” Kick said. “I want to keep on hav-
ing as much fun as we can possibly stand.”
“Are we having fun yet?” Ryan asked.
“We’ve always had fun. The best fun.”
They both sensed their relationship had clicked another notch toward
something unknown.
“We don’t see each other as much,” Kick said, “but when we do, we
pickup where we left off. We’re good together. The best.”
He stood up against the western sun. His shadow dropped Ryan into
cool eclipse. He reached out his hand and pulled Ryan to his feet.
“The next time,” he said, “I promise not to be so down.”
Ryan hugged him.
“One other thing,” Kick said. “Logan came back from San Diego
last Monday. He closed out his apartment here before he left. I knew you
wouldn’t mind if I let him come up and stay with me at the ranch.”
Ryan’s heart sank. He knew he could not say what he wanted to say, so
he said, “Of course, I don’t mind. You and I both know what we’re doing
in the long and short run.”
“Trust me,” Kick said. “Trust me to do right by you always.”
“I love you,” Ryan said. “How could I not trust you?”

3

The late California autumn came down upon them in a fall of colors.
Everywhere the talk was of AIDS. Monday morning in the offices of San
Francisco the phones rang from company to company as gay men called
each other to tally up who they had heard in the weekend bar gossip had
come down with the plague. Private sex had become dangerous enough.
Public sex had become a scandal. Disease brought more controversy. Poli-
tics entered the bedroom. Gay sex had finally scared the horses.
The baths became a civic issue. The Mayor’s office had a tiff with the
director of public health. Madame Mayor wanted the baths closed, but the
director was against it. The woman was pitted against the man, and the
man resigned. Gay activists rallied around constitutional rights, fearing
if the baths were closed that a new era of repression would next close the
bars and eventually the gay press.

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