“With all due respect, Mrs. Sinclair,” Bernard said. “Rory is a grown man and can make his own decisions.”
“Like you did, you faggot!” she yelled.
Rory winced at the word.
“You have filled his head with indecent ideas and thoughts of perversion,” she said.
“Mother, please,” Rory begged, tears of humiliation filling his eyes. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I want this piece of garbage to know what he’s done to you,” she spat. “He’s corrupted you into thinking you’re a queer like him.”
“Excuse me?” Bernard stood at his full height. “Rory asked me out.”
“My son would never do something like this on his own!”
“I asked him out, Mother,” Rory said.
“He must have tricked you.” She grabbed his hand. “Now, let’s go before he tricks you into something more sinister than a kiss.”
“You have no right, you controlling bitch,” Bernard said.
Rory and his mother looked at him. Bernard’s hands covered his mouth and his eyes went wide.
“You can’t talk to my mother that way.” Heat rose through Rory’s body. He balled his hands into fists. “Despite what she does, she’s my mother and I won’t allow anyone to talk to her that way.”
“I…I…” Bernard sputtered.
“Maybe I was wrong,” Rory said. “Maybe you’re not the man I thought you were.”
Rory allowed his mother to lead him down the stairs. He turned to see tears streaming down Bernard’s face.
“Rory, I’m sorry,” Bernard choked. “I shouldn’t have…I want to be with you.”
“It doesn’t matter what a pervert like you wants,” his mother said. “Your kind is an abomination who preys on the weak. My son is better off not knowing you.”
Rory turned and walked to his car in silence.
He made it home before his mother, and he sat on his couch.
His mother entered, a soft expression on her face.
“Oh, poor dear,” she said. “I can’t believe he said those awful things about me.”
There was no sign of his father. Did his father know what his mother did? He encouraged him to be himself. Did he not approve of him being gay? Did Rory misunderstand?
“I’ve never heard him talk like that before,” Rory said.
“Well, that’s what sinful people do.” She sat down next to him. “They trick you, and their true colors show when you confront them.”
Rory leaned against his mother. “I thought I loved him.”
“I know you did, dear.” She rubbed his hair. “That’s what he wanted you to think.”
Rory cried in his mother’s arms.
“You get some sleep, and we’ll see you at service in the morning.”
She kissed him on the head and stood. She walked to one of his surfaces and ran a finger across it, then rubbed her index and thumb together.
