Chapter 21

“Ready to go?” Elijah asked as I met him at the commuter shelter.

I was trying to not feel apprehensive about staying in the same house as Elijah. After having met with Father Wallace again last week, I found that in reality, I was still quite confused over the things we had been discussing. It’s not that what he showed me was confusing. It’s just that what made so much sense to me while he was explaining it, contradicted everything I had ever been taught in church about being gay. A lifetime of training is difficult to flush down the drain in two one-hour long conversations.

I patted my duffle bag, and answered Elijah with a not so confident, “Let the party begin.”

He looked like he wanted to kiss me – I could see it in his eyes. Instead, he settled for smiling at me until he saw that I was smiling back.

“You talked to your pastor?” he asked as the plane began to taxi onto the runway.

“Yeah. He had some really interesting things to say.”

Elijah waited to hear more. …and smiled. His eyes always extended his smile to his entire face – and his face showed genuine interest as he focused on my own eyes. I had noticed over the past few months that it wasn’t just seeing me that caused his face to react like that. Whoever he was talking with at a given time brought the same kind of reaction. Elijah Cohen loved people. No matter who he had reason to converse with, they got the same sincere attention.

“Dude, if you don’t stop smiling all the time, your face is going to stay that way.” I remember when I was young, and my mom would tell that to me when I was making a monkey face at someone.

“So that’s what happened,” he laughed. “My mom used to tell me that it was rude to smile at someone when they were angry with something you did. At least now I know why I did it,” he giggled.

His shy giggle was another thing I really liked about him. Except for my middle teen years, when all of life had caved in on top of me, I was a fairly happy individual too. But that didn’t mean I went around with a perpetual grin on my face. That only seemed to happen when Elijah was near me.

“You’ve got a pretty devilish smile on your face most of the time too,” he told me. He looked like he wanted to kiss me again, but he turned his attention to the stewardess as she demonstrated the emergency procedures in the aisle, slightly in front of us.

“I hear there’re some pretty awesome places to eat along the beach.”

“Seafood. That’s what I’m going for. I can’t wait to dig into a blackened tuna steak.”

“I always figured you were into seafood,” Elijah laughed, reaching over and patting my stomach. “You see-food, and you want to eat it.”

I reached across the armrest, dug my fingers into his ribs, got the reaction I was looking for, but stopped abruptly when the woman in the next seat looked at us indignantly.

“Behave yourself,” he whispered into my ear, as I tried to look innocent of wrongdoing. “You are so-o-o going to pay for that.”

That killer smile was affecting me, and now I feared my face was saying something to him that I didn’t want it to say, because he immediately asked, “Are you sure about the rule?”

I felt my face flush with blood. “Sure? Not at all.” His eyes began to twinkle. “But a rule’s a rule,” I tormented him. His pouting lips were every bit as attractive as his smile. “Cut it out,” I whispered, as I threw my elbow into his ribs. The woman next to him “harumphed” again as I finished my sentence. “They’re going to start thinking we’re gay.”

“Are we? I mean, they are?” His quick pucker, like he was blowing me a kiss, left me rolling my eyes. “You are so lame, buddy boy.”

We caught a cab to the beachfront condominium. I was in awe of the flat beach, swarming with college age kids already soaking up the sun. Sarah, Elijah’s sister, was wearing a bikini when she met us at the door. The tall, dark guy at her side, whom she introduced as Mordecai, was clad in a black Speedo which caught both mine and Elijah’s attention.

“We were just heading out to the beach. Catch ya later big bro.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Red. I think he’s spoken for.”

“I will when you roll your tongue back into your mouth.”

“Do you know your ears turn red when you’re thinking lascivious thoughts?”

“How do you know I’m thinking lascivious thought?”

“Just a wild guess”

“It’s a birth defect,” I deadpanned, “…and yes, I know. That’s how Shelly used to keep track of me. …and that’s also how she figured out I had a thing for guys.”

“Guys? You mean it’s not just me?” He had that pouting look on his face again, but only for an instant, before the sun shone through and his face lit up in a smile. “Are you sure about that rule?” he said as he leaned forward.

“Okay, make that guy – singular. Which room is mine,” I asked, pouring a bucket of cold water onto the moment.

“I think the one on the left is probably where Sarah and Mordecai are sleeping, so either room on the right. Take your pick.”

I pushed open the first door on the right and saw ruffled sheets, a pile of clothes strewn on the floor, and some embarrassing personal items on the nightstand. Yanking the door closed, I stuttered, “Ah-h-h, I think your sister and maybe her boyfriend are sharing this room.”

“Take the one on the left then. That’s the master bedroom.”

I was still unpacking when I heard Elijah’s voice call from across the hall “Let’s get changed and head to the beach.”

Recalling some of the things Pastor Tim Wallace had told me about same-sex relationships being holy before God when they were kept within the strict bounds of sexual purity, I began to fret a little about what could happen between us if we allowed ourselves to get into a compromising situation. Even if what he said was true, which I still wasn’t convinced that it was, we were not in that kind of a relationship with each other. I went into the bathroom, both closing and locking the door behind me before changing into my board shorts just to be extra sure.

Elijah was waiting for me in the living room, dressed more like he was heading downtown, then to the beach. He was wearing long, heavy, red, swim trunks, and a long tee which ended well below his waist.

“I’m glad you decided to come down here with me, Phillip. We are gonna have so much fun this week.”

“Thanks for asking me.”

“Sunblock,” Elijah suddenly remembered. “I forgot to bring sunblock. Did you bring any along with you?”

“Oops.”

“Maybe Sarah has some in her room.”

I followed him into her room, momentarily forgetting the scene I had laid eyes on when I first opened the bedroom door.

“Wow,” Elijah gasped when he saw what was obviously a lover’s nest. “Doesn’t leave too much to the imagination, does it?”

I turned and waited for him in the living room, and in short order, he returned holding a tube of SPF 30.

We were both a bit reluctant to pull off our tee shirts in front of the other, and even more hesitant to offer assistance in spreading the film of UV protection across each other’s back and shoulders. I was just finishing up, when Elijah leaned forward and wrapped his arms around his knees, like he was in pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked, concern written across my face.

Looking up sheepishly, face as red as his shorts, he said, “Yeah just give me a minute.”

Realizing what my touch must have made happen to him, I quickly sat beside him on the sofa and turned my back to him.

I was leaning forward, my ears burning hot when he finally got up and moved to the sink to wash his hands.

We pulled our tees back on without saying a word, and headed out to join the crowd.

It took some searching, but we finally found a spot big enough to spread out our beach towels and then raced each other into the waves. The water was a bit cooler than I had expected it to be, but was definitely tolerable.

Near dusk, we made our way, exhausted, back to the sixth floor of our condo to change. Sarah and Mordecai were already dressed for the evening, and asked if we wanted to join them. We looked at each other, shrugged, and answered in unison, “sure.”

Mordecai told us at dinner that he was from New York. Of Jewish descent, but not devout, he ordered shellfish, much to Sarah’s chagrin. I saw her and Elijah exchange glances when Elijah ordered mahi-mahi, the same as I had.

“It’s not dolphin, sis. It’s dolphinfish. It has scales and gills, so it’s okay to eat.”

Sarah ordered a filet of sole, and made sure to tell the waiter it needed to be kosher.

“Oh course, madam.”

“So, Phillip, Elijah tells me you’re studying geology. What field of work does that open to you?” Sarah asked.

“It’s actually quite a large field, from road building, to seismology, to mining, to oil and gas exploration.”

“Where do want to go with it after you graduate? You’re a junior like big brother here, right?”

“Yeah, we’re in the same class. I’m not really sure where I want to eventually end up, but I’ve always been interested in the earth’s makeup. I’m sure I’ll find something to my liking.”

Sarah was in her freshman year at MIT, and had met Mordecai when he helped move his sister into the dorm Sarah was staying in.

“It was love at first sight,” Mordecai told us, smiling into Sarah’s eyes. “We’ve practically been living together since we met. We ought to ask for a partial refund on her dorm room.”

“TMI, TMI,” Elijah began chanting, feigning horror over the disclosure that his sister and her boyfriend had more than just platonically relationship.

“Oh, like you’re the innocent virgin son,” she pooh-poohed.

“Proud of it, too,” was Elijah’s unreserved come-back.

“Yeah, you’re proud alright, but if you’ve still got your cherry, then I’m Catwoman.”

“You don’t even look like Halle Berry, sis.”

Sarah’s feline mewl sent everyone into a fit of laughter just as our waiter was setting dinner before us.

Sarah and Mordecai were headed off clubbing, so Elijah and I decided to rent a movie and crash back at the condo. We had just gotten through the previews that the DVD player wouldn’t let us fast-forward through, when my phone rang.