The Peacock 1350

 "I have been in your store on Granville Island", says Sarah to Dorothy as she sits down beside her on the couch.

"You were buying scented candles", she says, in a crisp upper Canada diction.

"You have a wonderful place."

"Why thank you.  It is a pleasure having good clientele."

"Dorothy has brought over one of her piñatas", says Carol, who is seated on the couch on her other side.  she pulls it up.  It is shaped like a great shining silver and gold star.  If it wasn't so huge it would be appropriate on top of a Christmas tree.

"I brought it from Magic.  It is filled with liqueur chocolates."  She has a very calm, deadpan kind of manner, but appears to be always struggling to disguise a wee little smile full of mischievous cynicism.

"You brought it from Magic", says Carl, pulling up a chair from the dining room table.  "Do you also pull rabbits out of hats?"

"Magic, my good man", says Carol, "Happens to be the name of her store on Granville Island.  I am sometimes a regular customer..." 

The Peacock 1349

 The odour of fresh cooking wafts from the kitchen and the living room is full of people: Francois, George, Chelsea, and a woman I have not met before.  She is around sixty, but with her short white haircut could pass for older.  She is dressed in a shapeless green, blue and purple caftan, with bangles hanging from both forearms.

"Hello, Christopher", chimes Chelsea, "I would like you to meet Dorothy, my mother's partner.  The woman smiles shyly and raises her hand as I approach to briefly shake it.  

"Hello Carl", says Chelsea, And he follows me to make his introductions to Dorothy.

"And", says Carl, "This is Sarah, and Jesús."

"Where is Jeffrey?" says Carl.

"I'm in the kitchen, cooking dinner."

"Can I help with anything", say I.

"In about five minutes you can chop mushrooms and garlic if you don't mind making your fingers smell lovely..."

The Peacock 1348

 "People are scared", says Carl.

"It's not, as some fearmongers have claimed, an existential threat.  When I was fifteen, back in 1990 when Kenny came back to live with us, I was already joining him as he visited friends of his who were dying in hospital.  What an eye-opener that was. I remember the first time I saw someone with advanced kaposi's sarcoma.  His face was swollen to twice its normal size and he was covered in purple lesions.  They managed to knock him out with morphine, and it was just after our visit, perhaps a few minutes, when he passed away.  And there were others.  We were living in perpetual bereavement, because Kenny was family to us, and by extension, his street brothers and sisters became our own.  I don't wish to denigrate what is happening to your mother, but people have a very short memory about this, especially since it mostly affected people that society tends to despise and marginalize.

"Point taken", says Carl, as we turn down the street where I live.  "Did these experiences help you decide to go into nursing?"

"Without question..." and now we are pulling into the driveway....

The Peacock 1347

 "I wish this pandemic would end", says Sarah.  "Way too many deaths.  Thank the Lord your mom is doing okay now."

"She's not out of the woods yet" says Carl, not looking up from his phone.

"Am I the only one here who remembers AIDS when it was one hundred percent lethal."

"Well, you are the senior member here", says Carl.

"I must have been, what, six years old when we first heard about it.  Dad was reading the news aloud to me one evening, and he never was one to censor things in order to protect my innocence. Then, a couple of years later, Kenny came into our lives, and as a  sex worker, he was at high risk, so even while he was on the street, Dad would keep him in condoms.At that time, at the age of eight, I knew there were homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts, and I knew that their unsafe practices made them particularly vulnerable to this horrible death.  When Kenny was staying with us, sometimes that was all he would talk about. But AIDS, while one hundred percent fatal, was often overshadowed by other concerns, because it only seemed to affect the already marginalized.  Now we have covid with perhaps a one point five mortality rate, and because it's mainstream, everyone is shrieking and whimpering....

The Peacock 1346

 We have been sitting here silent in my car now for almost ten minutes.  And now I can hear what sounds like Jesús snoring lightly in the back seat.  Sarah nudges him awake.  "We thank you, Lord", say I, "For the life of Yuri.  We commend into your hands the safekeeping of his soul.  May this very day, Jesus, he find himself dining at your table.  Amen."  The others also say amen.

"That was very beautiful Christopher", says Sarah.

"Yes", says Carl.

"Thank you", says Jesus.

Everyone is quiet as we drive the rest of the way home  They are coming down from their their high, and I imagine everyone must have the munchies now.

"I imagine you're all a little hungry", say I.

"More than a little", says Carl, who appears to be texting on his phone.

"who are you texting?" says Sarah.

"My sister.  I want to tell her about my visit with Mom today..."

The Peacock 1345

 "Just doin' my job."

"Yeah, like professional killjoy is somewhere on your resumé."

"Oh Carl", says Sarah, "Do give it a rest, will you?  Christopher has done the right thing.  Okay?"

"It's just on five", say I.  "There might be something on the news. " And sure enough, it is the first announcement.

"A man has been found dead following a vehicle accident in New Westminster less than two hours ago.  A high reading of alcohol has been detected in his blood, and foul play is not suspected.  Found in his vehicle next to him were a baseball bat and what appear to be two house keys..."

"That is just so sad", says Sarah, who is suddenly crying.  "That poor man.  What a terrible thing to happen."

"Instant karma", says Carl.

"Yeah", affirms Jesús.

"How can the two of you both be so fucking callous", she is almost shouting.

"Sarah is right", I concur. turning on Oak Street to turn again on West Tenth."

"Hey, where are you going", says Carl.

There is a convenient space just on the right where I stop the car.

"Why are you stopping?" says Jesús.

"Look", say I, "Regardless of who he was or what he tried to do to us, the man is a human being, and we are going to pause here for two minutes of silence in his memory.  Jesús, what was your landlord's name?

Yuri", he replies....

The Peacock 1344

 "I really should have been more careful.  But all the stress and excitement today, of course I wasn't going to be my most watchful, what, with the long trip down here, staying with Carol, and then the incident with that poor Ukrainian man.  Oh, I do hope he's okay, how awful.  We really should have stayed and at least helped the police.  There is a law against fleeing the scene of an accident."

"How could we have possible helped?" says Carl.  "First he tried to assault Jesús when he couldn't extort him, then he tried to run us down with his fucking truck.  And the police are going to find the alcohol in his system.  Not our problem."

"But what if he dies?"

"He'll be okay."

Say I, "Jesus did say that he would be sitting at his table tonight.  Whatever that means."

"Jesus?" says Sarah.

"The kid who told me to give him the baseball bat and the keys, when he approached the car."

"I didn't see or hear anyone", says Sarah.

"Better believe him", says Carl.  "How else could the bat and the keys have disappeared like that?  And now Chris, about those cookies you just threw in the garbage...