Layla Does It
2
“Are you coming to bed?”
“I am in bed,” Lee, who was sitting up in the dark, legs folded to his chest, said.
Tom rose up on his side and leaned against Lee.
“You know exactly what I mean?”
“Do you know we’ve been together almost sixteen years?”
“Is that what’s keeping you up late?” Tom kissed him on the shoulder.
“I can see you’re in the mood.”
“Give me your hand and you can feel it too.”
“You’re so vulgar,” Lee told him. “I have to go check on Mathan.”
Well, caring for nephews and children was the only thing that could keep Lee away from sex.
“Fair enough,” Tom said, lying back down. “But you better hurry up because I haven’t felt like this in—”
“Three days, Tom. You haven’t felt like this in three days.” Lee got up. “Where’s my housecoat.”
“Hanging from the door, like its been forever.”
Tom was massaging him and bringing Lee’s hand to his crotch. Lee thought of saying, “Stop that.” But he wouldn’t have meant it.
“And then,” Tom murmured, leaning forward, “I do a little of this to you, like that… the way you like.”
“Tom.”
“All right,” Tom moved away and shrugged. “But hurry up. We need to get the party started.”
Lee did hurry up, because he wanted to get the party started as well. Tom had become more, not less amorous over the years. They had been with each other longer than they’d been with Fenn or Lemonade, the previous partners they shared a child with. Lee loved to be touched by Tom, loved Tom coming up behind him and nuzzling his throat, those fingers over his hands, reaching into his shirt, Tom in the dark beginning all sorts of things when they should be sleeping. And Lee always responded. They were like kids together.
He tapped on Mathan’s door, willing his erection to go down, and then he pushed the door open.
“Are you asleep?”
“Not really,” his nephew said.
Lee sat down on the bed and said to his nephew, “Was it really that wonderful? Things between you and her?”
“It used to be.”
“But used to be is not is.”
Mathan’s breathing was his only contribution to the conversation for a while, and then he said, “But I knew that if we worked on it, it could be better.”
“From what you said it wasn’t bad, it was just dead. You can’t work on what’s dead. That’s just two people doing what they don’t need to be doing anymore. Give it some thought, Mate. And then think about letting it go.”
Mathan turned over in bed.
“I just can’t imagine not being with her.”
“And that’s your problem,” Lee told him. “But just cause you can’t imagine anything better, or anything different doesn’t mean both don’t exist. All it means is you lack imagination.”
SHE PUT THE skin cream on and said
“i look much too young for what i am.” i could tell i was supposed to agree
but now i’m 33 the perfect age for one who has been thirty two
and don’t you know that nothing keeps you young like being who you are
and don’t you know that age is like a wine that will waste nothing
and i love you lines and you’ll love mine all of life is embracing
all of it is loving things the way they are we love to change and never know
love is the only thing that changes
this blood red love i have for you rearranges every part of me
In the applauding audience, Dena turned to Claire and said, looking up at Layla. “She’s good you know?”
“And she’s short and to the point,” Claire noted. “That helps.”
Todd had thought of putting up a podium, but Layla disagreed and she sat before the group in a chair. It was a large turn out, but she was over the initial nerves.
“Uh… Who wants another on? Last one?” “Two more!” someone in the crowd shouted. Layla laughed and held up a finger.
“One more,” she said.
You do the same thing you’ve done a thousand times before
and here you are asking the same old questions
and i thought we’d had this conversation in the past and i knew we handled this
how do you handle me?
and how do i learn to live with you? how do we stay with each other?
it is wise to forget and better to forgive that’s how you live that’s the loving
that’s all we ever needed
the sealing of cut skin needs it
the rending of sad nations needs it the second half of God breeds it and you and me
in this unity will become the third
Layla waited to speak. She wasn’t going to read anymore, but she thought she should say something else. Now she stood up.
“You’re wonderful!” a woman shouted.
“I’m competent,” Layla replied.
She put her hands together.
“I don’t know much about poetry.”
There were objections, and Layla said, “No. I really don’t. I don’t read it a lot. I just put out what was in my head. I hope you all like it. Actually, I really hope you like it, cause there are the books on sale.”
She walked off to chuckling, and Will instantly caught her up.
“She’s brilliant!” he declared, wrapping an arm around her. “She’s brilliant, isn’t she?”
The people applauded their agreement.
“You better go out there and meet your people!”
First in the crowd were Claire, Radha and Dena, and then a woman with short hair and vibrant eyes caught Layla’s wrist.
“Are these your sisters?” the white woman said.
“Uh… this is my sister-in-law,” Layla pointed to the Claire. “And this is my oldest friend. She’s like a sister.”
“I mean, your soul sisters.”
“I am her uncle’s gay lover’s niece,” Dena said. “And out mothers are best friends.”
“Soul sisters,” the woman decided. “My name is Anita. Soul sisters are so important. I just wanted to say I love your poetry.”
“Thank you.”
“Love it!” Anita repeated. “It was a spiritual experience for me.”
“Spiritual?” Radha murmured and then cried, “Ouch!” when Dena kicked her.
“I am inviting the four of you,” Anita handed her card to Layla, “to WomanFest.”
“Uh…”
“It’s in Terre Haute three weeks from now, and I really hope you can attend. Please give me a call in the morning.”
Layla placed the card in her pocket and nodding, said, “Yes. I will. Thank you, Anita.”
And then Anita kissed her on the lips, and while Layla was still blinking, turned around and left. She winked and waved at the entrance of the poetry room, and then was gone.
“So… how did you feel about your first lesbian experience?” Claire asked her.
“If that was it,” Layla said, wiping her mouth, “I’m pretty, pretty sure I’m straight.”
“Oh, look…” Radha pointed across the lobby, “Your uncle?”
Dena thought Claire was talking to her about Todd, but she nudged Layla and said, “It’s Fenn.”
Layla blinked and walked toward her uncle, noticing Dylan and, beside him, “Kenny?”
“Hey, Layla,” he said, his voice sounding thin. “We heard your last one. It was really good.”
She leaned forward and kissed him. “Thanks, Kenny.”
“Who is that crazy bitch?” Fenn said to his niece.
Fenn raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“That’s alright,” he decided.
“We just got back,” Dylan said. “We tried to be here earlier.”
“I didn’t expect you all to be here at all. I really didn’t expect Kenny to be here.”
“Well….?” Kenny began.
“Kenny’s going to be here for a while,” was all Fenn said.
“We’ll talk later,” Kenny assured her.
He looked so tired and so unsure, that Layla said, “I need to talk about myself a little longer. But why don’t you go back to the house.”
“Good idea,” Fenn said. I’ll take him back. I have to go talk to my husband a moment, though. I’ve been neglecting him.”
Fenn went searching for Todd, and Dena came toward Kenny.
“Where’s Bren? What’s going on?”
“Bren’s in Chicago, and I’m going a little crazy. I just came back for a little bit. That’s all,” Kenny said.
Dena looked at the person who had become her friend over the years.
“That’s all,” he repeated. And she knew there would be no further discussion, not for now.
It was a few a moments before Kenny realized he was being shadowed, and when he turned he saw Chad North beside him.
“How have you been?” Chad said.
“Alright.”
“Not really,” Chad said. They stood in the lobby of the theatre. “You look like I feel.”
Kenny had always liked Chad. He was sort of Brendan-ish for lack of a better word, though he was smaller and in some ways more handsome. Brendan was blond and Chad was dark. Chad was pea coats, skullcaps and five o’clock shadows.
“Well, I’ve felt like this for a long time," Kenny said. "Brendan’s pretty much married to his job, and I’m back here with no job and no boyfriend.”
“There are worse things,” Chad said.
“Like?”
Chad gave him a grin. “Like having the good job and the good degree so that no one sympathizes with you, but losing the guy cause you cheated on him with someone else and that didn’t work out. And now you have no one.”
“God, Chad!”
“Does that make you feel better?”
“Actually, no,” Kenny said.
Then he said, “The only thing that makes me feel better is being away from them.” He pointed to the room where Layla’s party was going on. “And that makes me feel horrible because they’re all my friends, and they love me.”
Chad looked back, considering. “I know what you mean.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m gonna go ditch the girls. You wanna go out?”
“Where to?”
“Does it matter?”
Kenny chuckled and ran a hand over his unshaven throat.
“Nope.”
