to stretch my legs. My knees tended to crack and creak whenever it rained. Thirty-eight was a rough age. Not quite forty yet according to the calendar but feeling about sixty whenever rain was on the air. Old baseball injuries I liked to say when my knees locked up, but those who knew me knew I’d never actually played baseball for the Cedarburg Cardinals. Not that I’d not tried, but my membership in the LGBTQ club made Coach Knight’s lips flatten whenever he looked at me during tryouts. I ended up warming the bench for every game. He kept a sharp eye on me during showers that first year after I’d come out. I took it all in stride, even the few knockdown fights I’d had with a few of the school jerks.
“Gideon Pierce,” I muttered as I dropped into my ergonomic seat and picked up my now cold cup of coffee. Whenever I thought of those who had made my childhood harder than it had to be, his damn face popped up in my mind’s eye. Taller than me, bigger, dark-haired, and brilliant green eyes to counter my strawberry-blond and blue-eyed self, and certifiably meaner, Gideon had always been a festering sliver under my skin. Way before anyone knew I was gay, hell before I was even fully aware of why Shawn Hunter appealed to me way more than Topanga on Boy Meets World, Gideon was being a jerk.
Then suddenly one day he just wasn’t there on the playground anymore. He wasn’t even in school, or the state. Rumor had it that his parents had divorced after a pinnacle domestic squabble that the town cops still talked about. The Pierce’s always fought. It was a standard thing every weekend. Mr. Pierce would end his work week at the tannery over in Silverwood and hit the nearest bar where he’d leave most of his paycheck.
Gideon was taken to Seattle to live with his mother, so the story went. Mr. Pierce disappeared and was found dead in an alley in Buffalo one week after his wife and son had left the state. Cause of death was suicide. What he had been doing in Buffalo no one seemed to know. Gossip ran rampant for about two weeks and then the town moved on. I, for one, was thankful to see Gideon gone but the circumstances surrounding his leaving were chilling to say the least.
“The big bully.” I took a swig of coffee, grimaced, and put the mug down beside my cellphone lying on the blotter. Mara came hustling into my office in a cloud of lilac perfume and big round eyes.
“The bus from Elmira just arrived,” she panted, one hand on her rather substantial bosom, the other still holding her cellphone.
“That’s good.” I smiled, wondering why she hadn’t knocked before barging in. Not that I’d been doing anything. At all. But still it was odd. Her blue eyes were huge behind her glasses. I sat back into the firm cushion of my chair, folded my arms over my blue dress shirt and dark blue tie, and raised an eyebrow. “What? Did they bus in zombies?” She shook her head strongly, sending her recently dyed red-orange hair swaying. “Vampires? Werewolves? More Democrats?!”
“It’s Gideon Pierce,” she whispered as if saying his name would make him appear before us like some evil wizard. My mouth dropped open. “It is. Mollie from the beauty parlor just called Sue-Ann at the fabric shop who called me. You know Sue-Ann worked in the cafeteria at the W. B. Kitterman Elementary school for forty years before she retired and opened the fabric shop which was always her dream but what with Pearly getting sick and all she always stayed in the school because it was full-time and—”
“Mara, focus.” She tended to get off-track when riled. She bobbed her head, ran her hand over the front of her dark brown dress, and pulled in a deep breath. I gave her my most appealing smile, the one that all the girls had liked so much back in college. Pity they never could get more than a smile from me but alas. “Good. Okay, so are we sure it’s Gideon? I mean, why on earth would he come back to Cedarburg on a Greyhound from Elmira?”
“Well, the bus from Elmira is the only one that runs from the airport,” she calmly explained.
“Yes, I know, Mara. I wasn’t asking that literally I was just…” I waved it off and stood. My left knee