My Brother’s Keeper - 15

“I’m sorry,” Tad said when he returned to the living room after he’d shown Jerry where the bathroom was and set out towels for him. “I overheard some of your conversation with your brother.”

Roy nodded. “So now you know my dirty little secret. I’m surprised you didn’t just kick us out.”

“Hang on a second. What kind of an ass do you think I am?”

“I don’t know. What kind are you?” Roy said with a serious look as he wondered if Tad would get the bad joke.

Apparently he didn’t because his reply was, “Not one who would think any the less of you just because you’re gay. It happens even in the best of families, and I’d say from what I overheard yours isn’t.” He sat down on the arm of the sofa. “Does your family live here?”

“In one of the suburbs up north.”

“You’ve never run into them since you left?”

Roy shook his head, a slight smile on his lips. “We don’t hang in the same social circles anymore. Besides, it’s a big city so the chances are slim that we would, as long as we stay away from the part of downtown where my mother works.”

“Next nosey question, how sick is your brother?”

“The doc at the clinic said it was just bronchitis.”

“Just? That’s nothing to fool around with,” Tad told him with a frown. “My granddad had it; it turned into pneumonia and… Hell, you don’t need to know this.”

“He was old, Jer isn’t,” Roy replied a bit defensively.

“Jerry’s also living on the streets with you under less than optimum conditions.”

Roy snorted. “That’s a fancy way of saying it sucks out there. But there’s no real option.”

“Can’t you get a job, even if it’s just manual labor or flipping burgers?”

“You need ID. If my family put out a missing person’s report for Jer, and they probably did, it’s more than possible they’d be notified, or my father would. He’s a cop.”

“Here in the city?”

“Nope, in the suburb where we…where they live.” Roy chuckled wryly. “Some fun huh? A bigoted suburban cop and fundamentalist churchgoer has a gay son.”

“Ouch,” Tad said. “And your mom is just as bad I presume.”

“Absolutely.”