The Peacock 1265

 

"And just where the hell have you been?" says Carl, looking up from his laptop in the living room

"there's a rolling pin in the kitchen drawer if you want to use it".  There is still coffee in the pot, so I am reaching for my favourite mug, the dark blue one with the bright yellow daffodil.

"We were getting worried about you", he says coming into the kitchen.

"Carl was getting worried about you", says Francois, putting his phone aside at the table.  "the rest of us don't give a shit."

"I'm sure I love you too.  Where are the other two?"

"We're on the sun deck", calls George from outside.  "It's fabulous here.  Come on out and keep us company."

"So, where were you", asks Francois, following me outside with his phone.

"Chelsea invited me in for coffee.  She's coming for dinner tonight."

"It's going to be a  full house", says Carl, joining us on the sundeck...

The Peacock 1264

 "So very good of you to stop by and chat, Christopher", she says, walking me to the front door.  "Shall I drop in at round six-thirty?.

"that would be great."

"What shall I bring?"

"Nothing."

"Not even dessert?"

"Let me worry about that."

She clearly does not want me to go yet.  but I must.  My masters expect me at home.  Plus, I don't want to give into her neediness.  She is like Carl in drag.

"How will you be spending the day?"

"I have to wait around for Carol and Jesús to arrive.  He is bringing my car, and I really want to be here for that.  This afternoon, who only knows?  You never know with my friends here but something always seems to end up happening, especially when we haven't planned for it."

"I think I know exactly what you mean.  See you this evening..."

The Peacock 1263

 "That would have been Kenny.  he died around that time."

"I'm sorry."  And she does seem genuinely sorry.  Perhaps also a little, and appropriately embarrassed.  "What happened?"

"It was officially suicide, presuming that he jumped off the lion's Gate Bridge."

"You say presumably."

"There are a lot of unanswered questions."

"Could you tell me a little about him please.  You see, when I was a kid, I used to see him, and all of you, you and your dad I mean coming and going.  I must admit I was enormously curious about all of you."

Kenny was a former drag queen, a transvestite hooker we took into our home and he became part of the family, is what I could tell her, but I really don't want to satisfy her appetite for scandal, or not just yet.  So, I am merely saying, "He was an environmental sciences student we came to know.   He fell on hard times and we took him in."

"Hard times?"

"Yes."

"Nothing else?"

"Not really.  Look, I just got a text from Carl and they are wondering where the hell I am, so I had better get back before they send out a search party...".  

The Peacock 1262

 "Tell me something please, Chelsea."

"I will see if I can oblige you."

"When you were little did you come here sometime, from the UK I mean, to visit your grandma."

"Only once, when I was eight.  I was actually here for about a year.  Mom was having so much trouble with Dad and the marriage and his adulteries, and she thought it best to ship me here for a while where I' could be safe from it all.  Plus I got to continue my piano lessons, and that is why Grandma bought the piano.  It was really the happiest year of my life.  I seem also to remember seeing you here from time to time."

"Mrs Montgomery didn't really communicate much with us."

"She didn't like you, your family,I mean.  I must confess that Gran was a dreadful snob, even if she would have been considered lower middle class had she stayed in England.  She would repeatedly warn me to stay away from all of you, and she really had massive issues with the Church of England from back at home, so your father being an Anglican priest didn't help.  plus she was also a racist and a bigot and did not approve of your mother being from Mexico or somewhere down there.  And when that friend of yours moved in with you for her that was the icing on the cake..."

The Peacock 1261

" I'm sure you're not serious.  Please, that area is so awful and depressing.  You say you two are going to be working there?  How did that happen?"

"By chance, the other day I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in many years.  He is working there with the homeless, and just yesterday he took Francois and I on a tour.  So, he thinks we would both be good at it, so tomorrow he will be trying us out."

"I never would have imagined.  Where do you know him from?"

"Chuck?  That is quite a long story."

I am simply not about to go there with Chelsea.  I have already revealed too much to her this morning.  She is not entitled to know these things.  Plus, I seem to remember that morning, when Chuck left, seeing a little girl playing with chalk on the pavement in the house next door.  That would have been her, perhaps around eight or nine years old back then.  She looked up when I walked Chuck out to the sidewalk.  And after we hugged each other, stared at me as he walked away, with hard and suspicious eyes.  No need to give Chelsea any more dots to connect...

The Peacock 1260

 "He's a Roman Catholic priest?"

"Was a Roman Catholic priest."

"What happened?"

"Long story.  It would be better to ask him.  But I think it would be better to respect his privacy and leave him alone."

"Was there a scandal?  Anything inappropriate."  I really cannot abide these hyper nosy hairdressers.  She is not privy to any of this, and really I ought to change the subject, redirect her.  or simply just swallow the dregs of my coffee and leave right now.

"He is not a pedophile, if that is what you are getting at."

"Oh, I wasn't implying...I didn't mean that at all.  What is he going to do now?"

"Tomorrow, Francois and I will be beginning our practicum doing street minister in the Downtown Eastside."

"Oh, I never go there, it is such a horrible, sad and depressing neighbourhood.  All those drug addicts and homeless.

"We are going to have to take you on a tour..."

The Peacock 1259

 "You said community."

"Now here is a long story that I really don't know that much about.  There has been a collective of Christians living together in this place for quite a number of years.  Carl and his sister, Melissa, have been more their de facto landlords than participants."

"So you're all religious."

"I would have to say that we ae all seekers."

"What is it that you seek?"

"Not an easy question to answer, and if I could tell you what it is then probably I wouldn't need to seek after it."

"Would this be true of the others?"

"I would say so.  yes."

"Francois I find particularly interesting-"

"Francois is particularly interesting...