The phone vibrated off the nightstand and took his pack of Newports with it.
It was either a wrong number or it was a bartender at Angelo’s seeing if he would drive Lucido home.
Vince leaned over the edge of the bed, reached, tried to get the phone and smokes in one swipe, missed the smokes, answered his phone.
“Yeah?” he said.
“You told my mom I could call whenever I wanted.”
Vince almost dropped the phone.
“Dino?”
“Yeah,” Vince’s son answered. “I prefer DeanAllen. One word. I know it’s kinda pretentious but it’s memorable.”
“Ok...DeanAllen. One word. You in trouble? It’s kinda late. Though if you were in real trouble it would have been collect.”
Vince swung his legs off the edge of the bed and brought the Newport’s closer to him with his left foot.
“I’m not in trouble with the law or otherwise. I’ll be in Detroit tomorrow, I was hoping I could see you.”
Vince kicked the Newports across the room in delight. He pumped the fist that wasn’t holding the phone.
“Of course, Dino...DeanAllen. Of course, of course, of course.”
Vince stood, lightheaded with joy. He hadn’t been this happy since he won his wrongful termination suit, but this was better, way better.
“You coming with somebody? Girlfriend? You gonna tell me I’m gonna be a grandad or something?”
“Dad?” Time slowed, warped. Vince hadn’t ever heard that word out of his son’s mouth.
It echoed and hummed and tickled Vince’s ear. Even his son’s few letters to him in prison had started “Hi” not “Dear Dad.”
“Dad,” DeanAllen said again, in a different tone. “Didn’t mom call you yesterday?”
“Umm, no, Dino, she didn’t.”
“She said she did.”
“She might have called, but we didn’t actually talk. I didn’t know she called, but why, talk to me Dino, DeanAllen, why did she wanna talk to me? I haven’t talked to her in three years, since your grandma died.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, but Vince could hear his son breathing so he didn’t ask about the pause. He tapped the foot that kicked the Newports impatiently, wishing he had just lit one when he got on the phone.
“I asked mom to ask you if it was okay to come see you, and she said she did.”
Vince’s gut clenched. Tina had always struggled with the truth. So had Vince, but usually he thought his lies protected his wife and young son.
“Dino, you’ve had a standing offer...DeanAllen, sorry...to come visit me since forever.”
“Even if I’m queer?”
“Even if anything. Wait. What did you say?”
Vince could hear the hiss of Dino sucking in his breath through clenched teeth.
“Mom,” DeanAllen said slowly “promised me she would warn you that I’m gay, so if you didn’t want to see me…”
Vince shook his head, getting angry at his ex-wife.
“Well... she didn’t do that.”
“Oh, Jesus. She’s such a liar.”
“So you’re gay.”
“Yes, Dad. Yes.”
That word again. It turned on a switch Vince didn’t know he had. Warm, content, giddy.
“Sooo, “ DeanAllen continued “if you don’t wanna see me because I’m queer--”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Vince said, “Your Uncle Tommy is queer.”
“Wait, what? Dad? Your brother is gay?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“How come mom never told me your brother is gay?”
“Probably because she hates your Uncle Tommy.”
“Mom hates your brother for being gay? That doesn’t seem--”
“Nooo, no, she hates him because he grabbed her tit at a block party in front of everybody.”
Vince heard laughter on the other end of the line. His son’s laughter. Vince felt like his phone was a slot machine, feeding out a jackpot.
“ You’re telling me my Uncle Tommy is gay but he grabbed my mom’s breast...and you didn’t kill him?”
More laughter. Vince flopped back in his bed. He would not have recognized his own smile.
“Your Uncle Tommy was, what’s the word?...he used to overcompensate. You couldn’t be a fag...umm, gay in our neighborhood back then. It just...besides, I wasn’t fucking-sorry-dating your mom yet then. So yeah, she never forgave him for that. He was in Desert Storm for our wedding anyway or he wouldn’t have been invited.”
“Dad?”
Vince rolled around on his bed like a teenager drunk or in love or both for the very first time.
“Yeah, Dino?”
“Can I come over tonight? I was gonna get there in the morning, but I just…”
“Hell yeah, you can come tonight.”
Vince looked at the ancient digital clock on the nightstand. 1:21
“What do you like to drink? I’ll jet to the party store on the corner.”
***
Johnny Badal was running the lottery machine report in EZMart Liquor and Hotsandwiches.
He read the pale orange printout that hummed out of the top of the machine and said to Keery, who was mopping, “Someone caught the Lotto47 tonight. Nineteen mill.”
Thirty seconds later Johnny saw Vince Paluzzi come trotting up to the double glass doors, shirt buttoned wrong, missing a sock, and smiling more in five seconds than Johnny had seen him smile in 13 years of buying Newports and Twizzlers.
As Vince’s hand grabbed the door handle, Johnny bet Keery fifty bucks that Vince had the winning ticket.
***
This is great. No matter how old I get and how much time has passed, coming out stories always conjure up the anxiety of that moment for me. And I always really like the happy ones. My parents were more interested in talking about the Korean BBQ menu than my orientation when I told them. They’d known forever, but KBBQ was totally new 🤣
One of your best.