Two Sides of the Same Coin (38 page)

“How ’bout I wear it all the time we’re in Winslett, too, and then you can give it a good tongue washin’ while I got it on when we get back home?”

“That sounds real good, Jeffy. I want it bad.” I was so hard it hurt, and I was trying to burst out of the strap, so I tried to think about somethin’ really unpleasant. I settled on Porky in a Speedo swimsuit. That knocked the wind out of my sails right away.

“Okay, buddy, get that sweet ass of yours downstairs and into the workout room, or I ain’t gonna fuck it later.” He moved right quick. We headed downstairs to the workout room. We were doing abs and legs today. We had a good workout. We changed into jeans and shirts, and headed down the stairs, outside, and into Mike’s truck. It was coming up on five when we got into Winslett. We parked and went into the artists’ co-op. Mary Grace was there in her earth mother outfit: long denim skirt, a work shirt over a tie dyed T-shirt, wool socks, and Birkenstocks. She rushed over when she saw me and Mike come through the door.

“Jeff! I’m so glad you stopped by. I wanted to show you the pictures. Would you boys like some coffee?”

“Sure, Mary Grace, I ain’t about to turn down a cup of coffee.”

“Mike?”

“Please.” She rushed in back, no doubt to triple the amount of coffee she would put in the coffee maker normally. She came back with two steaming mugs.

“Wow, real mugs, Mary Grace, we sure must rate somethin’, right, Mike?”

“Yep, you’d think the young lady was happy to see us.”

She giggled at this. She went behind the desk, pulled out a portfolio, and brought it over to the table where we were sitting. I opened it and began to leaf through the pictures. They were quite good. As much as I usually hate pictures of myself, I had to say these showed me in a good light. Mike squeezed my thigh under the table and winked at me to show his approval. That made me realize again how uncomfortable the jockstrap was. I turned back to the pictures. She had several good ones of me, and a real good one of me and Mike. She had some really nice pictures of the ranch also. What impressed me though were the pictures she took of my metal casting equipment. She had also handwritten little captions explaining each piece of equipment and its place in the process. She had it spot on, and it was explained very well.

“Mary Grace, this is incredible. You really did a good job explainin’ the process, and Ryan’s pics are great.”

She giggled again. “Thanks! Just don’t give Ryan any more cowboy coffee. He claims he still can’t sleep.”

“It seems that just about everyone but cowboys likes real weak coffee.” Mike grinned as he spoke. Mary Grace laughed again and started talking about the exhibit.

“We’d like to start the exhibit on November first and run it through the end of February. Normally we wouldn’t feature one artist so long, but since you’re a local boy born and bred, the co-op members thought it was a great idea.”

“I reckon I’m the only local artist in the co-op.”

“That’s true, unless you count a guy from over in Okanogan and a lady off in Colville.” She got a serious look on her face. “I hear you had a spot of trouble out at the ranch last night. I was so happy to see you both I forgot all about that! Thank the goddess you’re okay, both of you.” She pulled me into a big hug and then hugged Mike just as hard. Mike and I told her what had happened, leaving out the fact I’d spent a good part of the adventure streaking.

“Maybe you boys will get some peace and quiet now. I wouldn’t want anyone to get shot, but maybe since that biker is gone this whole nasty business will be done.”

“I hope so too.” For a moment I was letting myself think that Porky’s threat about the boss man was just that, a threat, but then I let go of that hope. Somebody had shot him.

Mike was looking at Mary Grace. He finally asked her, “Mary Grace, I do horsehair belts and hat bands. Think you could exhibit somethin’ like that? We can’t let Jeff think he’s the only one with talent in the family.” I almost laughed out loud on this one. Mike had gone from being under the floor boards of the closet to being open about him and me right quick. She smiled at him warmly.

“Do you have a sample I can see?”

“Sure do.” He whipped off his belt, and then pulled off his hatband. He pointed to my hatband.

“This belt and both our hatbands.” She took the belt and looked it over. Then she looked at the hatbands.

“Mike, these are beautiful. You made these yourself?”

“Yep, some old buckaroo from Nevada showed me how. I make this stuff in my spare time.”

“I would love to show these. Maybe we can get a couple more pictures of you and the two of you together. You two wouldn’t mind if I put Mike’s stuff together with yours, Jeff, and billed you two as artistic partners, would you?”

“Hell no, we are partners, so why not? What do you think, Mike?”

“I think it’s a great idea. Why wouldn’t it be?”

She looked kind of shamefaced. “Reverend Spencer was here today and asked me not to exhibit your sculpture, Jeff.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” She was angry, so angry she stamped her foot. “I told the old hypocrite to get the hell out of here. He didn’t leave, so I told him he was a close-minded bigot and an idiot. When I told him the Goddess was going to send back all that hate and negativity on him threefold, he told me I would be in hell with the two of you.”

I walked over and gave Mary Grace a hug. She really did have a heart of gold. “Thanks for stickin’ up for us. I don’t reckon he has too many followers around here.”

“No, and that makes him even angrier. He’s trying to start that old fight between the families who have been in this valley for generations, and those of us who’ve come more recently.”

“Why is that? What’s the difference?” Mike was apparently unfamiliar with local politics.

“The folks who have lived here a long time have always been the ones ranchin’, loggin’, maybe doin’ some farmin’, or raisin’ fruit trees,” I explained. “They tend not to have a great deal of money and to be a bit redneck, real conservative. Not in that holier than thou religious way, but in the ‘don’t tread on me’ way. For example, they’re okay with me or me and you, but they wouldn’t like to see us kissin’ on Main Street. They’re more of a ‘you do what you wanna do and so will I, but we won’t throw it in each other’s faces’.

On the other hand, most of the folks who have come to the valley in the last twenty or twenty-five years tend to be rich, liberal, and college educated from Seattle. Lots of ’em are what we call Microsoft millionaires. They made their money in the tech boom. They move in here, and they are a bit vocal about what they believe in, things like restrictions on guns, no huntin’, stuff like that, which raises a lot of hackles around here. In some cases they’re justified, in others not. Probably the biggest thing is that they came in here and bought up a lot of property. The prices skyrocketed. So people who been here for generations can’t afford the property taxes; their kids can’t afford to buy homes. My way of puttin’ it would be they come from two different tribes or cultures, and sometimes those two don’t sit all too well together.”

“That’s a real good explanation, Jeff,” Mary Grace said. “Every few years there is some issue that causes a lot of bad feelings and mistrust. Those things take years to calm down. People like reverend Spencer like to incite hate and the differences to further their own ends.”

“I ain’t never thought about the things you two mentioned. It’s a mess, ain’t it?”

“It sure can be, buddy.”

“Most of us on both sides believe that people like you boys, Sandy, Maria, José, even Josh are the ones to end it. You two see both sides. Being gay you are in a better position to understand the liberals, but being locals you understand what the longtime families here in the valley care about. I mention Sandy because she’s in the same boat. Josh is dating the older lady from Seattle, but he’s a local, and Maria and José are from Mexico, but hang around with locals.”

“Mary Grace, I reckon that’s why the co-op is so happy to have a local artist or two, since that shows that the co-op is bringin’ money into the town and valley among the locals.” When I said “or two” I put my hand on Mike’s shoulder.

“I ain’t local though Jeff, I was raised in Nebraska.”

“Yeah, but, you’re workin’ as a ranch hand, one of the traditional ways of makin’ a livin’ here in the valley. The folks around here lump you in with the locals because of that.”

“You’re right, Jeff. We do come under pressure to hire local kids to man the store, but we haven’t found anyone who really is that interested in art or wants to learn about it enough to do the job.”

“Do you want me to ask around? There’s gotta be some kid out there who was like me, wantin’ to do his or her art stuff, but just doesn’t know how to go about it, or more likely gets resistance from their parents since they don’t see it as a way to make money.”

“Could you, Jeff? I’d be ever so grateful!”

“I’d be happy to, Mary Grace.”

Mike’s face lit up all of a sudden. “I have an idea. Remember how you said you wanted a picture of Jeff in the winter with a Santa cap on his cowboy hat?” She nodded. “How about you get one of him, and give him credit for startin’ it, but when we all go carolin’ before Christmas, we could all do that. That’s most of the young folks in town. Jeff’s got enough of a followin’ that he could easily talk everyone into doin’ that. And that would be a way to get both sides together.”

“Plus a great deal of publicity for the town and the co-op since we get a lot of tourists that weekend. I’ll ask the board of the co-op if we can spring for the hats. When it snows, we can get pictures of you and your friends with the Santa hats on, and then pictures of the group and the lights and everything, just after Thanksgiving!” Mary Grace was on a roll now. “That’s a great idea, Mike. You weren’t hidin’ in a ditch the day they passed out brains.” He turned a bit red, but looked really pleased.

Mary Grace showed us around the co-op, and where she was planning on putting my sculptures, and where the photo story would go. It looked fine to me. She also showed Mike where she’d like to put his belts and hatbands. When he mentioned he also did bridles and reins, she got giddy and said that collectors love that sort of thing. Next thing we knew, she was planning on coming out to the ranch tomorrow with Ryan and interviewing Mike and taking some more pictures. It was supposed to be clear tomorrow, so she wanted to get some pictures of Mike in front of the bunkhouse working on a belt. We agreed that noon would be a good time and said our goodbyes.

Mike and I stepped out of the co-op and onto the boardwalk. It was cold. The sky was crystal clear, and the moon was full. There was a big circle around it, so I reckoned that the weather was going to change. We were supposed to get a hard freeze tonight. We headed over to One Eyed Jack’s. Sandy was working tonight, so it would be nice to see her. We walked into One Eyed Jack’s and headed toward a booth. Before we could get all the way there, Sandy came running toward us and threw her arms around me.

“Jeff, thank God you’re okay! You got shot at and almost froze to death. I am so happy you’re all right!” She was yelling pretty loud and crying too.

“I’m okay, darlin’. It would take a lot more than Porky to kill me. He didn’t have any kryptonite with him.” I smiled at her and returned her hug. She kept sobbing loudly. We were the center of attention. I reckoned that in a small town pretty much everyone had heard about me getting shot at and Porky getting killed.

Sandy finally stopped sobbing and pulled back. Then she slapped me. I stood there with my mouth hanging open wondering just what in the hell was going on.

“I can’t believe you were such a damn fool to run outside buck naked chasing that fat thief in almost freezing drizzle. Just what in the hell were you thinkin’? Don’t you ever do somethin’ like that again. If something happened to you, how do you think I’d feel, Mike would feel, José and Josh and Maria would feel? First, you almost get shot, and then you almost freeze to death.” She started sobbing again and ran into the kitchen. I was still standing there with my mouth hanging open. A booth right near us was filled with folks I went to high school with. One was a guy named Nick who thought he was the class wit.

“Hey, Connelly, I hear you were off solving crimes last night. Too bad the name ‘Lone Ranger’ is taken. We’ll just have to call you the naked ranger.” He hooted with laughter at this and so did his friends at the table.

I was beginning to feel a bit peevish after Sandy’s reaction. I turned to Nick.

“Howdy, Nicky. Some of us have bodies to be the naked ranger, and some of us don’t.” I looked him up and down. He was gettin’ a bit thick. He got my insinuation. He really wasn’t a bad guy though. He laughed along with his friends.

“I’m just happy you’re okay. Don’t mind me teasin’ you.”

I felt like a real ass. “Sorry about the mean comment, Nick. I was just hopin’ people wouldn’t find out I ran outside bare assed.” I was anxious to change the subject.

“Have you met my partner, Mike?” They did introductions all around. After a minute of chatter, Mike and I headed over to the booth.

I could clearly hear one of the girls ask Nick, “
Partner
? Does that mean they’re a gay couple?”

“Yeah, Connelly admitted to folks he was gay when we were in high school. Lotta folks learned it don’t matter. He’s a regular guy.” It felt nice to be accepted. Mike had a big smile on his face.

We both turned a bit red when the girl continued to Nick, saying, “I’d pay to watch the two of them go at it. They are both hot!”

Nick answered, “I don’t think you have what they want. Besides, if you ever see ’em around town, you’ll see just how into each other they are.” They then started talkin’ about other things. I thought it was kind of interesting to see how others in town saw me, really saw us.

“You were right, Jeffy. It doesn’t seem to matter to a lot of people that we’re gay. I never realized in my whole life just how accepting decent folks are.”

“Decent folks see ya as a person first. It don’t matter to them that you’re gay, straight, black, white, Latino, whatever.” He smiled at me. I loved the way he looked at me. If your eyes are the windows of the soul, Mike had a whole lot of caring, love, and admiration in his soul. It made me start to physically react and remember I had on that uncomfortable jock.