The man looked around the group. “Y’all aren’t from around here, are you?”
“Nope,” Charlie said less tightly. “Minnesota.”
“Guess I can make allowances. After y’get moved in, y’all come on down for coffee and cake. My wife’ll give me hell if I don’t invite you right off.”
“That’s kind of you,” Charlie said, “but I promised the guys pizza and beer.”
“Even better. Bring it along. She might let me eat pizza for once.” Frank put a hand on his chest. “Heart, y’know. They’ve got me on one of those diets where you live forever if you eat cardboard. I can break it for a special occasion.”
Nick couldn’t resist asking, “What about the gay guys and the black man? We all welcome too?”
“Why the hell not?” Frank peered at him. “Did I get your feathers ruffled?”
Nick jerked a thumb at Doc, standing stone-faced by the truck. “For one thing, he’s not a boy.”
“If you say so. Don’t none of y’all look old enough to shave to me.”
Charlie said, “And you don’t think your wife will care about the gay guys?”
“Ah, hell, no. She’s real open minded. Always has been. Now me, it took a while for me to be okay with the blacks and the queers. Was probably my second tour in ’Nam, I finally realized that the lieutenant from that good white Charleston family was mean as a snake, and the guys hauling my ass out from under fire were the darkest guys on the squad. When I started lookin’ under the skin, I eventually got my head ’round the idea that white don’t mean nothing special, you know?”
“Sure.”
“As for the gays, well, that was tougher. Not that there’s probably any man that did tours overseas can say he never went behind the latrines with another guy. But that felt like a different thing. A guy has needs, you know? Didn’t mean we were queer.”
“Um.”
“And when I got back here, the preacher was shouting up and down that gay folk were damned to hellfire. But my Helen, she kept working on me. Got me to change churches, too. What a man won’t do for a pretty woman, huh?” He glanced at Nick. “Well, some men.”
Nick wasn’t sure what the answer to that was, so he shrugged and slid an arm around Brian.
“Yeah. Anyway, Helen wouldn’t hold with anyone going to hell for lovin’ somebody. Can’t say as I have strong feelings on that, like she does, but I’m good with live and let live, you know? And the world’s changing. Hell, there’s even that gay guy in football now.”
Charlie said, “And probably a lot more who aren’t out yet.”
Frank gestured at Nick and Brian. “Now doing that kind of thing? That could get you hurt around here. Not like up North, I guess. It’s probably smart to keep it off the street, but personally I don’t care what goes on in a man’s house, as long as you don’t wake Helen up when she’s sleeping.”
Brian said in a stuffed voice, “The baby might. When it comes.”
“That’s different. Can’t nobody keep a baby from crying. Anyway, Helen loves babies. She’ll be thrilled. Last couple upstairs, they fought all the damned time, and then made up like cats in heat, but never had any kids. Left the place a mess and ran out on the rent. Wait here.” He turned, climbed the steps, and went inside.
Nick exchanged looks with Charlie, who shrugged. “At least he doesn’t have a problem with the blacks and the gays.”
“Right.”
The door opened again, and Frank came back out with a crumpled bill in his hand. He held it out to Charlie. “Here. Order a plain cheese and mushroom for us. Helen can’t eat the pepperoni anymore, gives her gas. Come on down and knock when you’ve got it. Helen’s napping now, but when I tell her, I bet she’ll bake a cake.”
Charlie said, “You don’t have to pay for it.”
“Now, son, ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Or a free pizza. You take the money. Then you get that poor girl’s bed up in her room so she can get off those swollen ankles, and you order up some dinner. Right?”
Charlie took the money with a blink. “Sure. Yes, sir.”
“Attaboy.” Frank turned and marched back inside.
Doc laughed. “At least you’ll be able to get along with the neighbors. If you can get a word in edgewise.”
Brian said, “Don’t you mind the stuff he called you?”