After leaving Peter Boyington on Sunday evening, Bryce and Damon dropped in at Pat’s for a few moments. They found Jason and Nate there, and related what they had learned about Peter and his prospects. Neither Jason nor Nate had ever met Peter as far as they knew, but the details about the homophobic aspects of the attack obviously concerned them as much as anyone else in the gay community.
“I just don’t understand this violent reaction to gays,” Nate somewhat naively objected.
“Xenophobia,” Bryce declared.
“Explain,” Damon demanded.
“Well, as you know, xenophobia comes from two Greek words meaning fear of the other,” Bryce somewhat pedantically began.
“Yeah, that was right on the tip of my tongue,” Jason said with some sarcasm.
Bryce peered at him. “Can I carry out my partner’s orders in my own way?”
Jason sighed. “Go ahead.”
“If you think about it,” Bryce resumed his narrative, “those who are different have always been persecuted, or discriminated against. Ancient Jews divided the world into Jews and Gentiles. Ancient Greeks divided the world into Greeks and barbarians. It’s a case of us against them. In the Roman Empire, those weird people who refused to accept the authority of the state over their consciences, called Christians, were persecuted. When Islam arose, it also divided the world into Moslems, or those who have submitted to the will of Allah, and the infidel, or non-believers, and infidels could not own landed property, had to pay extra taxes, and had other discriminatory laws to deal with. One of the emotional, but not official, supports of the Inquisition in the Christian West was the fear of heretics and witches. In our own past, the most obvious example of xenophobia is the treatment of blacks. In addition, following the attack on Perl Harbor in 1941, thousands of families of Japanese descent from California, Washington, and Oregon were incarcerated in government camps even though about 60%, over 70,000 of them, were US citizens, and many were US born. The camps were in remote areas well away from the coast out of exaggerated fear of contact with the enemy. In the past, and to some extent still today, it is manifested in the discrimination against immigrants. We gays are just another example of the same irrational fear of the other, of people different from the majority.”
“Any sign that this is going away?” Jason asked.
“Well, ole buddy, I have to grant you that better educated people tend to be less prejudiced against those different than themselves. But there are still plenty of ignorant rednecks. There are the Collinses, Kathy’s family. And I think I would include these Lomaxes and Cuttlesworths, from what Mrs. Sandoval told us. They may not fit the standard image of a redneck, but their outlook is pretty much the same,” Bryce added.
“Ah ha! You actually agree with me that education can solve some problems,” Jason exulted.
“Ameliorate, not solve,” Bryce quibbled. “And that has always been true. The issue is, whether the population as a whole is better educated.”
“What do you mean, that has always been true?” Jason challenged him.
“When society is healthy, then people who are not ‘the same’ or ‘local’ have always had a chance of being accepted, at least by those who set the tone for society. For example, at the court of Charlemagne, some of his leading advisors included the Englishman Alcuin of York and the Spaniard Theodoric of Orleans. Around the year 1100, the Archbishop of Canterbury was Anselm, who was a native of Italy, and who had been Abbot of Bec in Normandy. A century and a half later, the leading academic at the University of Paris was Thomas Aquinas, a native of Italy. Around 1720 or so, the leading musician in England was George Frederick Handel, a German. Closer to home, during the American Revolution, the American army was trained by Baron von Steuben, a Prussian, and one contingent was led by the Marquis de Lafayette, a Frenchman. During the mid twentieth century, we welcomed thousands of immigrants from Germany, Poland, and the Ukraine who were being threatened by the Nazis. There was Hajo Holborn at Yale, and Albert Einstein at Princeton. After World War II we even welcomed Wernher von Braun, the controversial rocket scientist who not only worked for the Nazi regime, but was a member of the NSDAP,” Bryce stated.
“NSDAP?” Nate asked.
“National Socialist German Workers Party – the Nazis. The point is, when society is healthy and confident, it makes use of talent wherever it finds it, and does not worry about where someone came from, or whether he is a member of ‘us’ as opposed to ‘them.’ In my opinion, it is when society is sick and fearful that it sets about looking for a scapegoat, or comes up with conspiracy theories to explain its failures,” Bryce concluded.
“Well, I’m not sure I like all your examples,” Jason objected, “but I guess I can grant the basic thesis.”
“Imagine that!” Damon exclaimed. “Those two actually agreed on something.”
Not long after, they broke up for the evening.
Classes on Monday morning seemed to drag. Bryce was concerned about Peter Boyington, and about what the attack on him might mean for the campus. Dr. Anjot began his discussion of Bryce’s research man, Jean Racine, but Bryce could not summon much interest in the lecture. The same was true in English, where Dr. Drake was lecturing on William Wycherley (1640-1715), author of The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer, among other works.
Following his English class, Bryce checked the Post Office, but the state of his mind is illustrated by the fact that, even though there was another missive from the Illinois vital statistics people, he just put it in his book bag without opening it, and went to meet Damon. They were going back to the hospital to visit Peter.
Peter and his mother were both happy to see them. Peter was bored out of his skull, he said, with nothing to do but watch television. Even the kiddie cartoons were an improvement over most of what was available. And Mrs. Boyington was clearly restless as well. She really wanted to take her son home, but had been convinced by Dr. Gianelli that moving him at this point was not good for his recovery. Fortunately, she did not have to live in Peter’s hospital room. Across the side street from University Hospital was the Clifton Inn, where those visiting patients received a special rate. Even so, she could not remain indefinitely.
Bryce and Damon again offered to stay with Peter while his mother went to get something to eat. They discussed the attack on him, and the reaction around campus. Neither Bryce nor Damon had heard anything negative about Peter, and they assured him that his sexual orientation had not been broadcast in the school newspaper or on the school radio station. Evidently, both the city police and campus security were keeping that information to themselves, much to Peter’s relief.
Peter had been visited by a number of students, including the fellow he had been visiting the night he was attacked. Also, Felicity Gaines and Josh Young, the president and vice-president of the LGBT Club, had been by to see him, separately. Josh had been pressuring Peter to come out of the closet, but not in front of his mother.
Damon asked whether the attackers had been concealed behind the shrubbery, near which the attack had taken place. “No,” Peter responded, “they came up behind me. I don’t know how long they had been behind me, as I was not aware of their presence until they attacked, except vaguely aware of footsteps behind me.”
“Have you told the police this?” Bryce asked. “I have no idea whether it’s important at all, but anything might turn out to be relevant.”
“Yes. It was part of my initial statement,” Peter assured them.
About half an hour into the visit, Bryce decided he needed to visit the restroom. Although Peter noted that there was one opening off his private room, Bryce chose to go down the corridor to a public restroom. There was something bothering him. Why was this attack, obviously based on anti-gay prejudices, directed against Peter, who was not out and not visible in any way as a representative of gays on campus? He needed to get away and consider this, but it did no good. No matter how he looked at it, he could come up with no answer to that question.
After completing his business in the restroom, Bryce started back to Peter’s room. He was greeted by Mrs. Boyington, who was returning from her lunch in the hospital cafeteria.
“May I ask you something?” she asked.
“Of course,” Bryce replied.
“It seems that Peter was attacked by hooligans who thought he was homosexual. Why would they think that?” she asked.
“I was just asking myself the same question, Mrs. Boyington. I have no answer. Peter is certainly not obviously gay, nor is he associated with any public appearances or statements by the gay group on campus as far as I know. But you know how prejudice works. People get an idea stuck in their heads, and it’s impossible to get it out, no matter what the facts are. It used to be that blacks were attacked, and sometimes still are, just for being black. Now it seems the same thing happens to gays. But it’s a lot easier to tell by looking at someone who’s black than it is to tell who’s gay. I have no doubt that the attackers, for some reason known only to them, decided Peter was gay,” Bryce commented. He hoped by saying all this to elicit some comment from Mrs. Boyington which would indicate how she felt about gays.
Bryce secretly congratulated himself when she replied, “It’s simply wrong to attack someone like that for simply being who he is. I don’t know any homosexuals myself, but as a Christian woman I think any such attacks are wrong and sinful.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Mrs. Boyington. Regardless of whether we approve of homosexual activity or not, I agree that it’s wrong to attack anyone just for being who he or she is. Violence is never the answer to disagreements, and the attacks on gays, or blacks, or anyone else are just not part of the way things are supposed to work here in America,” Bryce expanded his argument.
“I’m happy to hear you say that, Bryce,” Mrs. Boyington said. “So many people now-a-days seem to be ashamed to be American, and look down on those of us who feel patriotic.”
“Not me, Mrs. Boyington,” Bryce assured her. “In fact, I belong to the Sons of the American Revolution.”
“I don’t know about that organization,” she said, “but I don’t approve of revolutions.”
“This is the male counterpart to the DAR. It’s about celebrating the American Revolution, when we became independent,” Bryce explained.
“Oh, that’s different,” she said. “Peter won an award from our local chapter of the DAR for his essay on something or another. But we really should get back and see how he’s doing.”
“I’ve only been away for a few minutes. I had to stop in the restroom. Peter and Damon were talking about the similarities and differences in their attacks. Peter’s was much more damaging.”
Mrs. Boyington sighed. “Yes, Dr. Gianelli says Peter really cannot be moved for at least two weeks.”
“We’ll continue to visit as long as he’s here,” Bryce assured her.
Bryce and Damon stayed until Damon had to get to his Spanish class. Before leaving, Bryce managed to tell Peter very privately that his mother thought attacks on gays were “wrong and sinful.”
Then, both guys left, with Damon grabbing something from a vending machine to tide him over, but Bryce retired to the cafeteria in the Union, as he had another hour before his Medieval England class. He did not encounter anyone he knew well, so he sat alone. It was while he was eating his lunch that he remembered the letter from Illinois. Pulling it out of his book bag, he found that it was a response to his request for birth and death certificates for Ernest Watson, Damon’s ‘father of record.’ Damon called him this, as he was never quite sure the man was his actual biological father, given his mother’s way of life.
This packet contained significant information. Ernest Antwon Watson was born on 15 October 1961, the son of Carson Livingston Watson, age 27, and Doreen Winter, age 23, married. The death certificate indicated that Ernest Antwon Watson, age 31, died as a result of being hit by an automobile on a major thoroughfare in downtown Chicago on 3 May 1993. This was great news in several ways. First, and perhaps most important, it showed that Damon’s father did not simply abandon him. He was killed when Damon was only two years old. Second, it gave the name of Damon’s grandfather, which contained the significant names Livingston and Carson, both of which tended to link him to the family of Cpl. Benny E. Watson in the American Cemetery in Normandy. The information obtained about the family of Carson and Delilah Watson indicated that their youngest son was named Livingston, so there was a good chance Damon was a great grandson of Carson and Delilah, and a great nephew of Cpl. Benny. That was not definite as yet, but only a possibility, so Bryce sent off another request, this time for the birth and death records of Carson Livingston Watson, born about 1934. Thinking he had the links wasn’t proof, so Bryce wanted another birth certificate to make that final link, and place the relationship beyond question. Once that connection was made, then Bryce would begin attempting to link Carson Watson to one of the patriots at Valley Forge in the First Rhode Island Regiment.
At 2:00 Bryce had his Medieval England class. Having disposed of King John, Dr. Dickinson was now discoursing on King Henry III, John’s son and successor. Henry III was born in 1207, and was thus only nine years old when his father, King John, died leaving him as King of England. The nobles who had forced his father to issue the Magna Carta were again in rebellion, this time without much wider support, as their aims were much more clearly self-interested. When this First Barons’ War ended, Henry issued the Charter of 1225, which confirmed many of the limitations on royal power contained in the Magna Carta ten years previously.
Henry was quite devout, enjoying elaborate church services, and going on pilgrimage to such shrines as St. Albans and Walsingham. He made extensive donations to the poor, feeding 500 paupers each day. Henry had a special devotion to Edward the Confessor, and rebuilt Westminster Abbey in his honor. There he installed his relic of the Precious Blood of Christ, which he acquired in the 1240s. This was intended as a rival of the relic of the Crown of Thorns acquired by Henry’s brother-in-law, Louis IX of France, at this same time, but it never achieved the same popularity.
In other ways, Henry and Louis were also rivals. Henry married Eleanor of Provence, and Louis married her sister, Margaret of Provence, but Provence was absorbed into France, not England. It was, after all, on the Mediterranean coast. Henry twice attempted to recover the lands in France lost by his father, in 1230-32 and 1252-59, but failed miserably both times, having in 1259 to make a definitive renunciation of all claims to Normandy and the other lost provinces. Henry’s financial exactions to pay for these wars led to severe hardships imposed on the Jewish community in England, and to a second rebellion by the barons, called the Second Barons’ War, in 1263. The opposition was led by Simon de Montfort, grandson of the like named baron who was a leader in the Albigensian Crusade. In 1265 Montfort summoned the first Parliament which had representatives of the middle classes in the towns along with the nobles, churchmen, and landowners, called the Great Parliament. But later in 1265 Montfort was defeated by Lord Edward, the son of King Henry, at Evesham, where he died in the battle. His grave at Evesham Abbey was destroyed when the abbey was dissolved under Henry VIII.
King Henry’s brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, was elected as German King by one faction in 1257, but never managed to make good his claims, while Henry’s younger son, Edmund, was nominated as King of Sicily by the pope, but also failed to actualize his claims. Henry’s son, the future King Edward I, went on crusade with his uncle, Louis IX of France, landing in North Africa, and after King Louis died there in 1270 Edward went on to the Holy Land, but accomplished nothing.
Whereas Louis IX of France was the most admired monarch of the thirteenth century, King Henry was despised as a weakling. Louis was canonized as a saint, and has many places named for him, including St. Louis, Missouri, the mission of San Luis Rey in California, São Luis do Maranhão in Brazil, and San Luis Potosí in Mexico, as well as Île Saint Louis in Paris. Henry left Westminster Abbey, but few remember his work on that monastery, and even fewer his care for the poor.
Of course, Dr. Dickinson had to end the class with a reading from 1066 and All That. According to this work, the barons had many important duties.
“1. To be armed to the teeth.
2. To extract from the Villein Saccage and Soccage, tollage andtallage, pillage and ullage, and, in extreme cases, all other
baronial amenities such as umbrage and porrage. (These may
be collectively defined as the banorial rites of carnage and
wreckage.)
3. To hasten the King’s death, deposition, insanity, etc., and make
quite sure that there were always at least three false
claimants to the throne.
4. To resent the Attitude of the Church. (The Barons were
secretly jealous of the Church which they accused of
encroaching on their rites.)
5. To keep up the Middle Ages.”
With this citation, Dr. Dickinson left the classroom. Bryce again knew he would be called upon during the study session to explicate the entire passage, so he looked up the feudal usages which were being satirized. At least, he had two days to prepare.
Normally, this would be a day when Bryce met with Father Miller, as it had been two weeks since his last session. However, last Monday fell during the fall break, while Nate Hagan was out of town. Hence, it was decided that Nate would meet with the chaplain today, and they would resume their alternation from here. Still feeling that his ego needed attention, Bryce texted Damon that he would not be around for dinner, and put in another three hours working for the soup kitchen. Maybe it was the story of King Henry feeding the poor which inspired him, but Bryce thought this an appropriate way of paying attention to others as a counterweight to any ego on his part. At the kitchen, he was pleased to see several volunteers from campus, both from his fraternity and from Mike’s.
One of the volunteers from Sigma Alpha Tau was Malcolm Hamilton, the younger brother of Keith, who had been Bryce’s second mentor last year. Malcolm was a pledge this year, but thus far Bryce had not come to know him very well. He found that Malcolm had made contact with Malcolm Burgess, the nine year old car watcher, and they enjoyed teasing about who stole whose name. The two Malcolms derived from different sources, however. Malcolm Hamilton was so named for a family member, and was proud of his Scottish heritage. Malcolm Burgess got his name in remembrance of Malcolm X, the civil rights activist who was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in 1965 after abandoning that extremist movement. Although named for this Black Muslim leader, Malcolm Burgess was not himself a Muslim, but a Baptist. Bryce and Malcolm Hamilton enjoyed getting to know each other better, and their joint appreciation of the lively nine year old about whom they spoke.
Malcolm told Bryce that his mentor was Kyle Grainger, a junior pre-Med major like him. That’s probably why Pledge Master Phil Cecil paired them. They were getting along okay, but had a lot of different interests and ideas, so it did not look like this would lead to a close friendship, which was a shame.
Bryce also spoke with the two guys from Mike’s fraternity who were volunteering that evening. They joked about the competition between the two fraternities. The official competition had not yet begun, as everyone needed to get accustomed to the work, and to the rules of the competition. But Bryce had already spoken with a local sporting goods store, and was put in contact with a firm which manufactured trophies. Following up on the suggestion when they first talked about it, the trophy would be in the shape of a dinner plate. It would be engraved with the words “Champion Volunteer, St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen.” Beginning next Sunday, a record would be kept of the hours volunteered by the members of the two fraternities, and each month the trophy would be awarded anew to whichever had logged the most hours. As next Sunday was the third Sunday of the month, they talked about giving the award following the third Sunday of each month, but a look at the calendar showed that this was not practical in November or December. November began on a Monday, and the third week was too close to the Thanksgiving break, so they agreed to hold the ceremony on November 16, Sigma Alpha Tau’s regular meeting day. The following month, the joint meeting would be on the other fraternity’s regular meeting date, which was a Wednesday. They agreed on the third Wednesday of the month, December 15, which would be the first day of final exams for the fall semester. To make the award, a committee of two members of each of the fraternities, and a fifth person who was not a member of either, was charged with tabulating the hours. The fifth person was someone selected jointly by the presidents of the two fraternities.
By seven in the evening, Bryce had worked through his feelings about his ego, and had enjoyed the exchanges with the other students, as well as with Deacon Jeffers, who seemed to be always there. He had not noticed when he arrived, but Malcolm Burgess was car watching that evening. When Bryce came out of the facility, Malcolm confronted him.
“What’s the matter, Bryce?”
“Hi, Malcolm. What do you mean?” Bryce answered.
“When you got here, I waved to you, but you totally ignored me. Did I do something to tick you off or something?” Malcolm complained.
“Oh, Malcolm, I’m sorry. I apologize. I was so wrapped up in what was on my mind that I did not even notice you. Again, I’m sorry. What can I do to make it up to you?” Bryce asked.
“Well,” the little entrepreneur decided, “a nice tip would help.”
Bryce chuckled. “Getting to be quite the business man, aren’t you? Is DeShawn here, too?”
“No,” Malcolm told him, “we decided to each take one day during the week, and we still work together on Saturday and Sunday for the supper meal. Then we got some friends of ours for the other times. So, how about it? Tip?” the imp held out his hand.
Laughing, Bryce opened his wallet, and presented the boy with a twenty dollar bill. “Don’t spend it all in one place,” he joked.
“I decided to put aside at least half of everything I get. I’m going places, man!” Malcolm stated.
“Good for you,” Bryce congratulated him.
“Oh, there’s the guy who stole my name,” Malcolm announced as Malcolm Hamilton appeared.
“No, I told you, you must have stolen my name, as I’m older,” the SAT pledge insisted.
“But I was here first, so you must have stolen mine,” the car watcher replied. “I’m going to have to charge you rent for the use of the name while you’re here.”
“I’d watch this one,” Bryce said to the pledge. “He’ll end up richer than Croesus.”
“He tries this on me every week,” the pledge replied. “But here, this is for keeping a special eye on my car.” He handed the boy another bill.
The car watcher grinned broadly. “Thanks, guys.”
“Keep up the good work,” Bryce encouraged him.
Back at the apartment, Bryce told Damon all about Malcolm the budding plutocrat. Then the two of them went to visit Peter again.
As they left the hospital after a visit of about half an hour, Bryce remarked that he had been more active than usual in carrying out the Corporal Works of Mercy.
Damon gave him an enquiring look, and commented, “Is this another of those peculiar Catholic things you’re always springing on me?”
Bryce laughed. “I guess so, although performing them is not specifically Catholic, just the listing and enumeration is. As I recall it from my catechism classes, the list goes something like this: to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and to bury the dead. They’re called ‘corporal’ works, as they deal with alleviating sufferings of the body. There are also spiritual works of mercy. Since I put in some time at the soup kitchen, I fed the hungry and gave drink to the thirsty, and since we just visited Peter, that’s a third one, all in one evening. I’ll have to remember to tell Patricia it’s part of my prep for canonization,” he joked.
“I might be interested in one of those. Wasn’t there something about the naked?” Damon kidded.
“Pervert,” Bryce accused him, giving his partner a push.
As a result, they chased each other back to the apartment, where they found some naked bodies to attend to.