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It goes easier after that.
"Do you, Tom, take Tom here to be your husband?"
Tom A. nods his head, silent-movie sincere.
"What about you, Tom?"
"Yes, I do." He kind of knows this is a joke, doesn't he? Tom B.'s pretty
smart. He knows that life is filled with little jokes you have to take serious so that something means something.
"Well, okay then."
My dad's face is plush and full of pride. I can see all those people coming at him, then at me. That big airport hanger or whatever, the red light. In my version, they are all smiling the way Tom A. does during a blow job session. The light is blossoming from all of that, that red light is blood light. Love light. Lava-lamp light. Archie has a lava lamp in his bedroom, or used to. He would turn it on in the dark while we made love. "Real cheesy," he would say. "Just call me your lava-lamp porn stud." The ceiling would get translucent blisters, like jellyfish were splattering into themselves.
When they kiss, Tom and Tom in my dad's living room, it's embarrassing, sure. They kiss long and hard, two retarded guys kissing really wet. Dad just has to look away.
"That is so sweet," Mimi says.
Salsa says, "Look at those two go at it."
Raquel gets up, goes over and whispers to the two Toms, and they stop, both out of breath, standing back.
"I now pronounce them Tom and Tom," Dad says.
Raquel comes over.
"I called Motel 6. They have adjoining rooms. I was gonna take them over and stay in the next room," Raquel says. "But Mimi wants me to go with her. She's in some drag show. You think you could stay with them till I get done?"
Mimi's right next to her, begging me in high style, both long-nailed hands pressed together.
"Sure," I say.
Raquel comes over to me then and hugs me tight, "We are so silly," she whispers. "Ain't we?"
I look at her as we pull apart. She's in her forties but looks about 60. Her hair is dyed. She's about to go bald. Those eyes though. I see us at some bar next week laughing about all this.
"We are," I say.
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©1999 Keith Banner and Nerve Publishing
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