The reception at Sigma Alpha Tau fraternity house lasted well into the evening. Although neither Bryce nor Damon had clean-up duty, they felt obliged to remain until after midnight, in order to be available should they be needed for any reason. After that, though, they felt justified in leaving the continuing reception, and returning to the apartment. There, they collapsed in grateful relief. Homecoming was great, but they were glad it was over.
The next morning, being a Sunday, Bryce and Damon arose late after an appropriate expression of the love each had or the other, and went off to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel where they often broke their fasts on a Sunday morning. It was a leisurely morning, without Bryce insisting on a workout, and without the necessity of rousing Damon from slumber. They dawdled over their coffee, to the extent that their waitress thought they would never leave. They were discussing the events on campus, and in particular the problem of identifying the assailants of Peter Boyington. Even in their leisure, they remained concerned about that. That was the key event. They agreed that, as long as the assailants of Peter remained unidentified and unpunished, no one was safe. It would be interesting to see how the University administration reacted to the e-mails purportedly from Sean Rollins, but that was a secondary consideration now.
Taking their time, and enjoying their Sunday morning leisure, they did not leave the Cracker Barrel until it was time to go to St. Boniface for Sunday morning Mass. Bryce left the long-suffering waitress a generous tip.
This morning, October 24, was another of those uninspiring Sundays “in ordinary time.” It was made more interesting for Bryce and Damon by being the Sunday for a final or sixth trial run by a candidate for the post of organist and music minister at St. Boniface. As they entered, accompanied, of course, by the Sandoval family and their friends Nate and Jason, there was a new sound emanating from the choir loft. This was a very acceptable sound, not grating or annoying, like one of the earlier candidates, but not particularly inspiring or uplifting, either. The same impression continued throughout the Mass. The music was okay. There were no real objections. But it was not equal to that of the candidate back on September 19.
The first reading, from the Old Testament, was taken from the Book of Wisdom, one of the books dropped from their Bible by Protestants. There are seven whole books, plus parts of Daniel, in that category. Without these books, one misses Judith and Holofernes, and Tobias and the Archangel Raphael, and the story of Susannah and the Elders, and the works of Judas Maccabeus. In the sixteenth century, Protestant reformers rejected these works, evidently because a bunch of Jewish Pharisees about a century after the birth of Christ rejected them.
But the reading from Wisdom stressed the message that God has mercy on all. Parallel to this was the reading from the Gospel According to St. Luke for this Sunday, which was the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree to catch a sight of Jesus as he passed through Jericho. As Jesus told his critics, “I have come to save sinners.” It was assumed that a tax collector was a sinner, as they regularly gouged all they could from the people, and were seen as agents of the occupying Roman power.
Father Fenwick chose to emphasize in his sermon the theme of the mercy of God, of a God who was available to all who sought him in honesty and truth. No one, not the tax collectors or prostitutes of Jesus’ time, not the gays or illegals of our time, are rejected by Jesus. Jesus does not reject anyone coming to him in honesty, seeking truth. One had to reject Jesus, not the other way around. That message went down very well with Bryce, as also with Mike and with Nate.
Mass over, the group began to leave the church. Father Fenwick, as he usually did, stood outside shaking hands and greeting the parishioners as they departed. As it happened, this Sunday the Sandoval group met him head on, whereas most Sundays they were deflected to one side or another, and went to the parking lot without personally greeting the pastor.
Father Fenwick grabbed Nate’s hand as they met. “And who are you? I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.” the priest said.
“I’m Nate Hagan,” he responded.
“Hagan? I should know you,” Father said.
Nate blushed. “Yeah, I’m one of those Hagans. But I’m not a regular member of the parish. I’m a student at the University, and just sort of visiting here. Your real parishioners are the Sandovals here,” he said, pulling Mike forward.
Mike grinned at Nate’s embarrassment, but shook hands with the pastor. “Yeah, my whole family are members of the parish. We’re local, but I’m a student, too. My dad comes to the early Mass, so he can get back to open the restaurant on time. We run El Rincon Latina. You ought to visit us some time.”
“Oh, I have,” Father exclaimed, “but I did not know you were my parishioners. I’ll have to pay more attention next time.”
Mike grinned. “If you come, I may be your waiter, in which case I’ll be Miguel, but here I’m Mike. And this is my reprobate brother Kyle, who is Carlos at the restaurant, and his wife Kathy, and his little dictator Peter Charles.”
“Oh, I do believe you were my waiter the last time I was at your restaurant, Kyle,” the priest exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Kyle admitted. “But that was back before you became pastor. We’ve missed you since then,” he accused.
“Mea culpa,” Father said. “I’ve allowed myself to get so busy with administrative details, that I haven’t been out to eat much.”
“We’ll expect to see you before long,” Kyle promoted the family business.
“And this young man?” Father enquired, touching Peter Charles on the forehead.
The boy immediately gurgled, and his mother grinned widely.
“This,” Kyle proclaimed, “is the next generation owner of La Rincon Latina. After Dad, then me, comes Peter Charles. He’ll be the fifth generation.”
“Impressive,” Father Fenwick admitted, chucking the boy under the chin. “But what about you, Mike?”
“Like I said, I’m a waiter for now. But I plan to be a teacher, so Kyle gets to inherit the business,” Mike explained.
“We’d better allow some others to speak to Father,” Isobel intervened. “But, Father, when you do come to the restaurant, I’m the first person you’ll likely encounter. I’m the hostess, and, I have to admit, I’m the mother of these two rascals,” indicating Mike and Kyle, “and of this one, too,” pulling Terry forward.
“I am so happy to meet all of you, including the visitors from the University. You’re welcome any time. And I do promise to visit the restaurant soon,” Father Fenwick said.
At the Olive Garden, where they reassembled for Sunday dinner, once the obligatory adulation of Peter Charles had been given, the talk for a while was about Father Fenwick, and about his sermon. The consensus definitely ranked Father Fenwick as a ‘good guy’ in David’s words. Everyone seemed to appreciate the sermon. As Mike said, it applied even to such rank sinners as his partner, David, who made a face at him for that comment. When that topic about wound down, David Simpson indicated he had something to say.
“You guys know about how I don’t get along with my mom, and especially not with her church, but my brother Greg sort of tries to keep on the good side of both camps in the family. Well, he sent me this story about an incident at Mom’s church two weeks ago, when he went with her as part of his bridging-the-gap effort. Brother Timothy was really wound up, giving the prayer before the collection was taken up. He ended up saying something like, ‘Lord, thou knowest we are all sinners and unworthy of thy notice. Still, in thy great mercy hear us, even though we are but dust in thine eyes. [pause] Let us pray’” David gave a good impression of the minister. “At that, everyone bowed his head, and there was silence before the ushers began passing the collection plate, until a little girl in the second row said in a loud voice, ‘Mommy, what’s butt dust?’”
“Oh, no!” Isobel laughed.
All the others were laughing as well.
“And what did the congregation at your mother’s church do?” Damon asked.
David laughed, “Even that group of professional sourpusses could not resist that. They broke up laughing, too.”
“Out of the mouths of babes …” Kyle quoted, chucking little Peter Charles under the chin.
“Where does that come from?” Jason asked.
“One of the Gospels, I think,” Nate responded.
“Yeah, it’s one of Jesus’ sayings. Like when he’s holding up a little kid as an example,” Kathy contributed.
“But I think this is another case where he’s quoting. You know, when he reminds the scribes and Pharisees by saying something like, ‘haven’t you ever read in the scriptures’ whatever,” Bryce suggested.
“Yeah, it’s one of the psalms, but I can’t remember which one right now,” David said.
From that, they passed on to a lengthy discussion about the competition for music minister, or, more specifically, about the performances of the various organists and the parish choir under their leadership. But it was Jason who dominated much of the conversation with his analyses of each of the six candidates for the position. Once again, he went off into technicalities which his audience could not follow. Finally, Isobel said, “Jason, if you will write all that down, I will be glad to see that it gets to the search committee, but I have not understood a word you said for the past five minutes.”
At that, everyone laughed, except Jason, who looked embarrassed. His partner, Nate, just kissed him ‘to make it good,’ like a protective mother.
Not long after, they broke up, to meet again later that afternoon at the soup kitchen.
Back at the apartment, during the down time between dinner and helping at the soup kitchen, the guys just chilled for a while. Homecoming and the other things happening on campus had been so intense lately, that they felt the need for some time to just wind down. About the only interesting thing prior to leaving for the soup kitchen was Damon’s comment, “You know, growing up without a church, you miss a lot of what people talk about. Like that thing about ‘out of the mouths of babes.’ You Catholics and David at least had some idea of the context, but Jason and I were totally at sea to explain it, even though I’m sure he had heard it many times before, just as I have.” Being a part of the community involves a lot of common references, and those who do not have the common background, often feel left out.
On the way to the soup kitchen, Bryce stopped to pick up DeShawn and Malcolm, of course. Just to see what would happen, Damon asked the boys, “Do you know where the expression, ‘out of the mouths of babes’ comes from?”
Right away, DeShawn spouted, “Matthew 21:16.”
“How do you know that?” Damon asked in admiration of the ten year old.
“Sunday School. I’m on the Bible team this year. We only do the Gospels, but if I stick with it, we’ll do the whole Bible by the time I’m out of high school. We have contests to see who can identify all kinds of famous sayings,” the boy reported.
“Don’t encourage him,” Malcolm pled. “He’s been walking around like the king or something since he got a certificate last week.”
“Well, getting a certificate is a good thing,” Damon conceded, “but I think another part of the Bible says something like ‘pride cometh before a fall,’ right?”
“Uh, that’s not in the Gospels, is it?” DeShawn hesitated.
“No,” Bryce intervened, “it’s in the Book of Proverbs, and that’s in the Old Testament.”
“No wonder,” DeShawn defended himself, “haven’t got to that yet.”
By then, they were at the soup kitchen run by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The weather was very fall-like, with the possibility of rain, and just a little cool to be outside unless doing something active, so Bryce let the boys remain in the car while he and Damon went inside to begin helping. After only a few minutes, the Sandoval family, or a great part of it, arrived to also help. Mike could not refrain from boasting a bit. His fraternity had logged more hours than Sigma Alpha Tau this past month, so they held the trophy currently.
Just to test him, much like he did to DeShawn, Damon said, “Don’t show off too much. You know the old saying, ‘pride cometh before the fall’ don’t you?”
“Uh, heard that somewhere before. It’s in the Bible, isn’t it?” Mike replied.
“Book of Proverbs,” Damon said, exhibiting his newly acquired bit of knowledge.
“Now who’s showing pride,” Bryce whispered in Damon’s ear.
But before long they were all too busy preparing to serve meals to engage in rivalry, even of a very friendly sort.
Nothing more of an interesting nature occurred while the guys helped out at the soup kitchen, but something did pop up later, when, as they often did, they retired to Pat’s afterwards. All six of the guys … Bryce and Damon, Jason and Nate, and Mike and David … were sitting around a table when Annette Rimbault and Ken Broussard came in. Those two, being seniors this year, were actually over 21, and therefore legal, whereas only Mike met that standard among the six guys.
Bryce could tell as she approached their table that Annette was excited about something. She was practically bouncing on her toes as she walked.
“Come join us,” he invited the two newcomers.
“What, and ruin my reputation this close to graduation!” Annette joked.
That evoked a chorus of boos from the table.
She grinned. “Ken and I prefer to sit together, and I mean together with each other, not with you guys.”
Another chorus of boos.
“But, I do have some news,” she bubbled over, not being able to contain it any longer. “And I understand I have Bryce to thank for it.”
“Me?” Bryce queried.
“Don’t do things like that. He has a big enough head as it is,” Mike kidded.
“The way I hear it, it was Bryce who told somebody to tell Greg Lenihan to get in touch with me if he was willing to do an interview,” Annette insisted.
Bryce replied, “Oh, yeah. At the reception after the game yesterday. Remember, Greg came in with a whole bevy of people, including Wayne Diebold. Damon and I know Wayne from Clay Hall last year. I did mention that to Wayne when he told me about what happened during half-time in the locker room.”
“What? You haven’t told us,” David complained.
“Well, I guess I just had enough Homecoming, and didn’t think about it today,” Bryce excused himself.
“Well, tell,” Mike insisted.
“Okay. You were all at the game, and saw what a lousy performance our side put in during the first half, right? And then you saw the unusual use of players when the second half began, and the spectacular final touchdown by Greg Lenihan, right?” Bryce reviewed.
“Yeah, get on with it,” Jason urged.
“Well, Wayne told me that Greg came out to the team the week before …”
There was a jumble of comments, drowning out whatever Bryce would have said next.
“By ‘came out’ I mean exactly what you think I do,” Bryce said once he had regained the attention of the group. “Came out as gay. He’s one of us. But not all his teammates were overjoyed at that. In fact, some of them claimed they could not play with a ‘queer,’ and demanded that Greg be tossed off the team. But Coach Morelli refused to change the opening line up.”
“I never thought I’d be grateful to Coach Morelli. I had him for PE back in freshman year, and he was a real bastard,” David remembered.
“Made you sweat, did he?” Mike teased.
“And how,” David responded.
“To continue,” Bryce said in a raised voice, drowning out further commentary, “three first stringers decided to embarrass Greg, and so we got what we saw during the first half. They simply ignored him, and would not even touch him, so the plays did not work. During the half-time in the locker room, Coach reamed out the three, and benched them for the rest of the game. Enough said?”
“Wow! That’s some story,” Jason said. “And you’re going to write that?” he asked Annette.
“Not exactly,” she replied. “Greg would not let me write about the guys treating him like dirt, or about what happened in the locker room during half-time. But he did give me an interview about coming out.”
“After his starring performance yesterday, that will be big news, even without the inside scoop on the change in line up,” Mike assayed.
“He’s a great guy,” Annette said. “Here, listen to a couple of his answers.” She produced a recorder, and played a few selections.
Annette: “Thanks for the interview, Greg. You’re famous now after winning the Homecoming game all by yourself.”
Greg: “Not so, Annette. There are eleven guys out there all the time. No way I could do it all by myself. Winning is a team effort.”
Annette: “But you were playing under some pressure.”
Greg: “I had some things on my mind. But I knew I had the backing of the guys out there with me, and of Coach Morelli”
At this point, Annette fast-forwarded the interview, and found another section.
Annette: “So, Greg, what are your plans now?”
Greg: “The season is not over. I expect to be playing for U of C the rest of the season, and we will make it to one of those bowls this year.”
Annette: “And after that?”
Greg: “I’m a junior, so I expect to be back again next year. And I’m a CE major, so I’ll be back for a fifth year. I couldn’t crowd it all in four years and still play ball.”
Annette: “Not thinking of the pros, then?”
Greg: “No. I admit I considered it at one point, but it’s not worth it. Sure, there’s the fame, and the big bucks, but the pressures and the temptations are tremendous. I did a little checking, and the number of pro athletes who end up as alcoholics, drugs addicts, or dead before turning 40 is sobering. I can do without that.”
Annette then fast forwarded again.
Annette: “So, tell me about coming out to the team.”
Greg: “I knew for a long time I was gay. I thought about coming out for a long time. My folks know, and they’re wonderful. But I figured it was not honest to keep this from the guys I spend so much time with, and who are my teammates. So, I asked Coach about it, and he encouraged me. Coach Morelli is a great guy. Most of the team also gave me all the support I can handle. I play with some really great guys.”
Annette: “But not all of them.”
Greg: “No comment.”
Annette: “What difference do you foresee as a result of coming out?”
Greg: “I’ll be under a lot less pressure, so I hope I can perform better.”
After listening to these selections, everyone at the table was quiet for a couple of minutes, perhaps each thinking about his own coming out. Damon broke the silence. “Kind of makes you proud to be gay, doesn’t he?”
“Annette, this will be a blockbuster interview. You will win a Pulitzer,” Jason declared.
Annette grinned. She liked the adulation. But she had to be honest. “There are no Pulitzers for student newspapers.”
“Enhances the job prospects, though,” Mike commented.
“I sure hope so,” Annette replied with a grin. “Now, Ken and I will adjourn to our own table. But I did want to thank Bryce for the contact.”
For the rest of the evening, this formed the core of the conversation among the six guys.