Epilogue One
Charlie
Five Weeks Later: End of July
“Stewie!” I waved my hand over my head to get his attention. He was talking to some guy with heat in their eyes, and we didn’t have time for that today.
We were slammed.
Me starting at The Underground actually brought in more clientele than they had originally.
Who knew by putting a skinny young guy behind the bar that legally couldn’t even drink would act like a hormonal scent signal to all the men and their friends in the community.
Stewie just hired another man to help on the nights we were really busy and when I needed a night off.
“What’s going on, Darlin’? I was about to get carted away,” Stewie said in a minor complaint, southern judgment edging his tone.
“No. Not tonight,” putting my foot down.
Sam was right when he said this was more than a bartending job.
It came with the responsibility to control Stewie.
Well, as much as anyone could control Stewie.
“Also, I’m out of Jim Beam and Gilbey.” I handed over the two empty bottles, which Stewie took from me.
He likes to keep inventory, but also, we have to be sly when discarding the liquor and beer bottles, and cans since the bar shouldn’t be here.
I looked down the bar, taking in not only my new job, but my new home.
Jimmy was at the end of the bar with the boys, Donald, Mickie, and Jacob.
He was smiling and having fun. It looked good on him.
He wasn’t the person I met all those weeks ago.
He was so closed off and hidden. David said I woke him up from a deep slumber, like Snow White.
I think being here helped too. Jimmy doesn’t come down every night.
He works early in the mornings at the library across the river on the North Side, so he was usually asleep when I got done and headed up to our new place.
He really likes the job. It’s taken him some adjustment to the new pace, and the quieter environment, but he was surrounded by all the books he could ever dream of all day, every work day.
Betty and him are still thick as thieves too.
We moved four days after the fire. It had gotten around pretty quickly that Jimmy and I were together as a couple, so we needed to leave before there was another uprising.
Karen was loud being dragged off, but also Jimmy holding me in the open while I laid unconscious, kissing me in the open was all the confirmation the town needed.
It was a miracle Jimmy wasn’t arrested that night before he could run off to meet me at the hospital.
By the time I was discharged, and got home, Tom and Betty had rounded up some troops and packed me and my dad’s place for us and what could be saved at Jimmy’s after the fire was put out. Then we used three cars and Will’s pick-up truck, moving all our belongings in multiple trips.
It took us a couple days to get sorted and organized in our new home, which we love. Betty helped with her womanly touch, since she needed something to do until the library was safe to work in again.
Which never happened.
She ended up getting moved to the North Side location with Jimmy.
The Mount Washington location got postponed indefinitely while the cleanup and stabilization process on and in the mountain occurred.
She’s been commuting there every morning, since she lives on the mountain, not wanting to leave since she started to see Tom.
Secretly.
For now, at least.
They seem happy when we are around them. Tom loves on her hard and follows her around like a puppy, doing what he’s told.
It’s cute.
I recovered from the fire and the toxic inhalation quickly, after spending two nights in the hospital.
Karen was arrested and charged the night she tried to kill us.
She is still being held in jail until her court date because she was deemed a danger to society, which is ironic considering what I was told about what happened and what she said.
I know that night, leaving the safety of my unit was stupid, looking back on it. But I needed a book to distract me from my thoughts, and the ones I had on me, I had already completed.
So, I went to Jimmy’s to get one.
When I was coming down the stairs, I heard a crash and whoosh noise. Karen apparently threw a Molotov Cocktail at the door by using one of Richard’s liquor bottles, originally meant for me and my dad’s unit.
The kitchen went up in seconds. So, I ran back up the stairs, looked around to make sure nothing important was going to be burned.
That’s when I started to throw the books out the window.
They were Jimmy’s most prized possessions.
If I was going to die, the least I could do was save them.
I saved about three-fourths of his collection, which were then scooped up by the crowd from Will and John’s direction.
They held them at their place for safe keeping.
In the end, after we told each other everything, Jimmy said “You are my most prized possession. The books could have burned.” He loves me so much, sometimes it feels like I can’t breathe.
He takes all my oxygen away. He said “I love you so much, I selfishly need you to keep breathing, keep living, keep burning for me. When I thought I was losing you, it felt like the fire you started within me was dying too.”
David recovered.
Loudly.
The bullet went straight through his shoulder, so they went in and fixed him up. It didn’t hit anything major. But he never can drop the topic of almost dying twice from the same psycho couple, showing off his wound and telling anyone who would listen.
He came down to visit us in his down time since he couldn’t work. And I mean, he came to visit a lot. Jimmy finally had to be stern with him. Threated he would get a show from us if he kept coming around as often. Of course, he said, “That could be hot”.
Smartass.
He had gotten very comfortable. He’s learned a lot about men liking men.
He comes to The Underground more often than he should, to be truthful.
Although, I’m waiting for the day he actually takes up an offer from a guy to have some fun.
With the right man, he might just take the leap. That would be something to see.
Moving and throwing myself into this new job was a great distraction from the fact I lost my dad.
I miss him so much and have felt like a horrible son and person because of what happened.
It hits me at random times, a memory will just slam into me out of nowhere or someone will say something and it will provoke a thought.
Jimmy had been really patient with me. He takes such good care of me.
He said he doesn’t know how it feels, what I am going through because his parents are still living, even though he has no contact with them.
But he said I need to feel it. That if I try to hold it back, ignore it, or skirt around it, it would only be harder later.
That the sad moments will lessen and turn into happy memories, even when the memory itself is sad.
I’m waiting for that to happen.
I love my new job. I started the week after the fire and three days after we had moved in upstairs.
Sam was an amazing teacher, showing me technique and the artistry of making a cocktail, not just producing it.
He ran a smooth ship behind this bar and taught me everything he knew in two weeks, then he handed over the wheel.
He is missed, but he is doing well in Washington, DC.
It’s a lot of late nights, but it has given me the opportunity to spread my wings and be myself.
In the open. Stewie is a great boss, even though I’m technically the one running this place.
He pays me a good salary, which I’m told is way above average.
Plus, I get to keep all the tips people leave for me.
Stewie was happy because the customer count had gone up. Even on weeknights. They had to institute a new system upstairs to let people in because of the increased traffic flow.
Will and John are working hard to stabilize the site.
They have already been approached by the city to help run the projects they have planned.
They have come down a couple of times to visit.
We had warned them that David does show up as a courtesy, so they made the decision to tell him.
Of course, his mouth had something to say about that.
“How the hell did I get surrounded by all the likes of you? Is dick really that fucking good! Who’s next?
Is Tom going to show up here?” Will, John, Jimmy and I side eyed each other, because Tom will come here when his brother visits.
So that’s entertainment for the future I can’t wait for.
The Pittsburgh Coal Company and the City of Pittsburgh have been hard at work stabilizing the site and prepping construction on their new tunnels and bridge project. It was finally announced to the public that the mine would be closing, what the plan was, and the timeframe.
It sounds like a lot, but I have a feeling it will bring more people to the city that normally have a hard time getting here, and it will help beautify the area, so it won’t look so dead.
Verna Dibble and the Woman’s Club of Mount Washington got approval and budget to start helping with planting the trees and shrubs like they wanted, but not near the mine or future construction site. It will be a multi-stage project. But their request to take down the big billboard was denied.
“Honey,” Jimmy’s voice broke my thought process, while I was making a Tom Collins with the gin Stewie brought back for me.
He was smiling at me, warmth in his eyes mixed with a little sin.
We made a rule that there was to be no affection allowed while I was working, really testing our self control.
“The boys want to go see a movie tomorrow afternoon. Some musical called ‘Singing In The Rain’. Do you want to go?”
Sunday mornings we learned are the perfect time to go see movies, because the faithful are in church or at family brunch.
We still have to be careful but it’s less of a risk.
Before I could answer, the man I was making the drink for spoke up, “My wife dragged me to see it the other day. It’s actually really good.
Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds are so talented. You will be in awe.”
“Well, I guess that settles it then. I guess we are going to the movies tomorrow morning.” It will be my second one. When Jimmy found out I have never been to a theatre before, he about dragged me there, cave man style.
Jimmy and I have been doing well. We know we moved fast, but even if what hadn’t occurred, we probably would have ended up here eventually, anyway. Just more thought and planning would have gone into it.
We had our first fight a week or so after we moved.
The stress and emotions finally popped. It was over money.
My payout came through from the company like it was agreed on.
I was trying to decide what to do with it and was attempting to get Jimmy into the process since I considered it our money.
He couldn’t grasp why I was including him, which turned into other little problems that apparently, he had been holding in instead of communicating with me.
He was afraid that in my fragile state, minor issues would be too much.
I fixed that real quick.
But we are happy. Together. At work. And life in general.
Jimmy is the love of my life. I may be young and he may be a little older, but we are perfect together.
We compliment each other. We have great friends and friends that we consider family now.
That’s all I could ask for. Nothing else matters as long as we are all together, even if underground is the only place that is acceptable.
I have hope that times will change.
And change for the better.
The fight had already started. President Eisenhower ordered the purge of all individuals that were found to like the same sex in government positions.
Someone by the name Frank Kameny is challenging his firing in the courts, saying him being Gay, a term that is now being used to describe us, shouldn’t have anything to do with how he performs his job.
I have a feeling, our generation will be in the fight for our lives coming up and for all the future gay people to come.
Because our love shouldn’t be an illegal love.