Dance With Me!
Denny and Alan once again were sitting on Denny's home balcony as the sun set over Boston, when Alan had a thought. "Denny, do you remember how we danced in your office together just before your marriage to Bev?"
"Oh, yes, when you were such a pro!"
"I really miss doing that any more!"
"Well, circumstances were a bit different then!"
"Yes, we had your upscale boom box and an attentive and appreciative audience:http:/www..com/watch?v=8idHUjpVrao&feature=related!"
"Do you think we could do that again?"
Denny thought long and hard: "Married people do dance, don't they?"
"YES!" cried Alan, Even in contests...Have you never heard of the film "Ballroom?"
"I guess I never thought of getting dressed up and dancing with another man."
"He would be your husband, anyway, Denny!"
"But I don't think so in formal competition!"
"We'll never know if we don't try?"
"I just don't like the idea of being a laughing stock!"
"Well, we don't have to come as formal contestants in tuxedoes and every thing. For one thing, I have no intention of going in a gown cut down to here."And Alan indicated his navel. "or a tall fancy Austrian head-dress."
"Well, I have no intention of going and dancing with you dressed like that either. I'm going to leave it up to you to find a place that would accept us and finding a dress that would be becoming to you!"
"That ought not be too difficult, there are all sorts of same sex dance competitions in Europe! But I'm not so sure I would want to go in a dress, not even Ginger Rodger's!
"Europe? France is lousy with them I suppose!"
"Yes, but Austria as well."
"Well, I don't want to troll the streets of Boston or New York in one of the absurd gay pride parades!"
"Oh, no, love, no parody for you. I'll show you some of the better same sex dancing contests on You-tube"
After Denny had seen some of the Swiss and other European same sex dancing, he agreed that those men were elegant and very admirable and he could see he and Alan winning some of those contests. "But no laughing!"
"I don't think that any of them would be laughing at you! Me in Ginger Rodgers' frocks, maybe!"
"I don't want anyone to be laughing at the most elegant partner I ever had either!"
"Well, I'll have to put on my thinking cap"Alan conceded.
Denny circled Alan, and circled to his rear, then dropped this right hand across Alan's chest and siezed his right hand and pulled it upward in a smooth motion and Alan swirled on the ball of one foot, his other foot lifted in a centered swirl gracefully and Denny siezed Alan's chest and held him tightly against himself. "Get with it,Sailor!" Denny ordered masterfully. Alan mimed shock and awe and shortness of breath, and uttered, "Oh!" while trying not to laugh. But he could not feign terror for very long, however, and he pirrouted into a first position from ballet, laughing all the way!
Alan asked Denny if he knew of the Gaitey Theater from about 1908, which had hosted all sorts of burlesque and clean entertainment for the lower classes, about 2 blocks north of the Boyston Building in which Crane, Poole, and Schimdt worked. It had fallen into disrepair around about 1995, and since it did not qualify as a historic landmark, the city had decided not to restore it. That would be a great place for holding same-sex dance contests, something along the lines of "California Dreaming" same sex dancing in California. But, he ventured to say that the cost of restoring the old theater would probably be prohibitive, and so the city of Boston would probably never consider it. "How disrepaired is it?" Denny asked. "I've never seen any figures, but it was quite big deal in its day. But now, Alan opined that the basement was covered in several feet of water, and since it was from the beginning, a theater and not a dance hall, there was no great dance floor, it had mainly shown early films and talkies and outrageous burlesque and reviews from Europe and other parts of the world. Probably it had not been used since 1935 or thereabouts. Denny brightened, and immediately looked at Alan with anticipation. And afterward it could be given to the Boston gay, bisexual, lesbians, and transexual group, which had caused so much trouble to Denny and Alan during their effort to obtain a marriage license registration. "Denny, why do you have any concern to donate anything to those bigots!"
"Because I can or not, and it would be such a coup for me to do it for them! To say, you don't have to be homosexual to be thoughtful and caring!"
"Denny that may be the most unselfish and caring thing I have ever heard you say!"
"And few of them are poor, either. I can be as charitable as you are!"
"Yes, you can be, Denny. But why would you really be doing it?"
"So you and I could dance as well as we are able!"
"But there are any number of gay spaces that we could do that, without paying the enormous costs of restoring a fading jewel."
"I don't want to be owing those bigots anything! Or even our own living room, but I want you seen dancing with me, if for no other reason, than to enhance my considerable dancing skills, which look so much better when you are dancing with me, by the way!"
Seeing that Denny would be as impossible to move as ever, Alan replied "Sure, Why not, we do look good together! There's no arguing that. But might it not be a good idea to approach that subject with them to be sure that they can even use it, or care to bear the maintenance costs!"
"I don't know how to get hold of them or even approach them...You are the broad-minded one with contacts with the netherworld!"
"I don't know how to classify that remark, Denny. It's not like I am one of the undead!"
"Aren't you the one who spent the entire viewing of "Interview with the Vampire" with his hand down his pants?"
"Back then Brad Pitt was much more fetching! You sure it wasn't the Scientology proponent?"
"Oh, be real, you saw I reacted to Jerry's trial for firing the Scientologist from his firm!"
"Is this because I didn't go into Jerry's office and jump up and down on his couch when you asked me to marry you?"
"Dream on, Dream Boy! So will you track them down in their lair and ask if we can beard them?"
"I can find them on the internet, I imagine!" Alan went to the computer and read out loud:Coro Allegro
67 Newbury Street, Boston, MA
(617) 236-4011 ·
artistic director · concert · sanders theater · patricia van ness · [pinkham award]
"Coro Allegro, Boston's acclaimed chorus for members and friends of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, will perform this important ..." -
And:Boston Pride Committee Inc
398 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA
(617) 262-9405 ·
I think that the chorus would be the most obvious arty gay membership."
I guess that I'll be off to Harvard tomorrow, then and I don't know if I can locate the two little angels who were at our hearing. Hopefully, not!"
"That would be very helpful, love" Denny crooned in Alan's ear.
"This could be extraordinarily expensive, partner. Are you sure you even want to get into this?"
"Unless I could convince you to ballroom dance for me so I can watch, I don't see any other way to admire you to my satisfaction."
"I could do that if it is what you want. But it would ruin the effect of our joint performance."
"Okay, I concede that it would!"
"Unless you could be satisfied seeing me dancing with someone else!"
"No, you are right," I do not want to see you with someone else. Maybe Jerry?"
"Never, no, us in the mirror if no one else."
"I could barely take the sight of you with your arm around Jerry on my balcony!"
With that comeback, both of them stepped upstairs to bed, Alan still trying to get his head around Denny's reaction to his meeting with Jerry on Denny's balcony so long ago. Denny was just like the jealous lover that Alan had so long striven not to be.
The following day, Alan phoned the Legal Aide office where he worked, and said his calendar was clear, and that he was going to take a personal day. The he went downstairs and got into his car and took out the Boston map he kept in his glove compartment and searched out Harvard College on the map and decided how to most quickly and safely drive there. Entering his own mental map of Boston, he pulled out into the street and headed for Harvard. At the entry gate he asked the guard how to most conveniently reach the Conallegro building for gay and lesbian arts studies. The guard gave him a little map of the campus they afforded visitors and circled the site on the map. Alan began to pick his way on the street map to the little, old appearing building that was alloted to that purpose. His car was small, so the small parking lot assigned the building fit just about right for his needs. He pulled into a space and put the VISITORS plaque on his windshield, before he got out and entered the building. The fresh-faced youngster who was staffing the "Welcome" desk, smiled at him warmly and asked if he could be helped. Alan answered that probably he couldn't anymore, then asked for the room number that housed the head of the Gay and lesbian fine arts project. When Alan entered, he was asked to take a seat and fill out a "request for consultation card". When he turned it over to the youthful woman at the counter, she asked him to wait to be called. He sat back down and immediately wished he was reading something. He pictured his book on sea lice lying beside his bed, then found some old art magazines on the table beside him and took one of those, skimming it for dance articles. Most of it was related to the visual arts, but at least it had some limited references to dance as an art form. He felt that it probably had nothing about the sort of dance that he did with Denny, but there was a lot about physical training for the dance, and he immediately felt old and fat, or at least fatter than he had when he had walked in. "I know you!" a young and slightly acne scarred man stood before him. "You are one of the two lawyers who wanted to get married for tax purposes! Are you still with the terminally-ill old guy?" Then, smirking mockingly he posed for Alan's inspection. "Or have you come for advice on how to get an old terminal crock off?" Alan felt his face redden and the sweat began to course down the back of his shirt. At least when he was with Denny, he had an audience from whose passion to work. Plus, some one older than Alan and fatter and less fit than Alan, and the occasional wisecrack to embolden him, and some one with whom to chat about the upstart later! Right now, Alan felt alone and near to bursting out in outrage and demeaning chatter! "Yes, no thanks to your attitude or support, my lover is close to being able to overcome this horrible terminable disease, and we are happy together and my own attitude is just grateful for every chance we are given! And he still loves me as I do him, and neither of us has to fear the lonliness and desertion that often accompanies young, hastily formed relationships. In fact I am here today only because of his forgiveness toward you and your organization. I told him that he owed you and your bigotry nothing." The young man stepped back from this tirade and excused himself, saying that he had to meet his own long-time lover for lunch, or he would be glad to hear how the sick, old man had brought himself to allow them anything of worth at all.
Alan never found our the cocky young man's name, as he really didn't give a damn. Later, he remembered that the rude and unfeeling young man's name was Pinnard. Fortunately for both, the person for whom Ala had been waiting called for him to enter. He was sure that his flushed face and clipped manner of speaking would give him away to anyone who might be willing to listen to what had proposed. He took his sweaty torso into the office of the Ms. Patricia Van Ess the artistic director responsible for CoroAllegro, the Boston acclaimed chorus for members and friends of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities. He introduced himself to her and explained the unfortunate incident which had led him to yell at a student in her outer office a few minutes ago. Alan explained that he had married his very best friend who especially loved to watch him dance, and the history and condition of the Gaiety Theater, and Denny's plan to restore it if there were to be a group within the community who would be willing to assume responsibility for the building and could find a use for it and a way to maintain it for some time to come, as his own years were probably numbered. The stately and soft-spoken woman listened to him with increasing respect as he explained the purpose and hoped-for use for the restored building. She was taken back a bit by what seemed to be such a generous offer, and did indeed remain skeptical of the generosity of the idea. She said that it was obviously too great a responsibility for a single person such as herself to accept without consulting the group she said that she represented, and therefore deferred any immediate decision until she could get some advice and consent of more learned and aware people within her group. There was just so much she didn't know about what the restoration and maintenance entailed that she didn't know or understand, and obviously Alan didn't know enough to make her understand it all. Once again, as at his pleading for Denny's access to Dimibolin at the Supreme Court, Alan felt that it was his own pleadings that made her listen fully to him and see the pain at Denny's predicament caused her see him through his eyes and feel the pain of a man deprived of one his last pleasures. If that were so, Alan was glad, and even let a tear fall on Denny's behalf, knowing that it was not the first, nor would it be the last. He ran back to his car and made for home hoping that he would be bringing an encouraging word to his suffering loved one!
When he explained to Denny the day's results, Denny leapt to his feet and began dancing alone, after which he motioned Alan to join him. Tears trickled down Alan's face without bidding, and Denny rested his face on Alan's shoulder and hugged him more tightly than ever. Then Denny noticed Alan's erection against him, and he said, painfully, "How much did this hurt you, Alan? I mean facing down Pinnard and painting the picture of an old and faded man who only wanted to dance with you as before."
"Not nearly as much as if I hadn't gotten close enough to the goal to feel your arms around me as we danced!"
Then Denny also began to weep openly as well, and he embraced Alan as if he could absorb him by osmosis! "How could you hold yourself back from flattening Pinnard?"
"Alan answered honestly: "I had no one else around to pay for flattening him. Aw, Denny, not to worry. If he has that limited concept of what real love is, trouble is coming later in his life!"