North Meets South, Worlds Collide - 11. Chapter 11

I can only say, after the confrontation with my parents, aunts, uncles, and others, I felt this huge weight lift! We, Tony and myself, and those few cousins went to the living room. It had originally been a bedroom, all the rooms were bedrooms, but now they used it as something else. Tony and I sat on the couch there. It wasn’t long before my cousins were acting as they had years before as I knew them. Cutting up, ribbing each other. Ribbing Tony! They loved him. Who wouldn’t?

“God, I love your accent!” Mary smiled at Tony.

Tony smiled at me. “I don’t have an accent, you do.” Then he looked at the other cousins and grinned. “Or should I say, ya’ll do?”

Rhonda grinned at me. “He’s gorgeous!” Then looked at Tony. “You’re sure you’re gay?”

“Would it be more believable if he were ugly?” I asked.

Tony smiled. “I was gay last night.”

Mary smiled. “Mitch is good looking, too, but a cousin.”

I chuckled. “Mary was runner up for Miss North Carolina,” I told Tony. “If she thinks your handsome, it’s true.”

“Really?” Tony nodded with a growing smile. “A Southern beauty queen.”

Looking at my cousins, we all shared the same grandmother and grandfather, all but Chuck had the same black hair and dark eyes. Chuck had his father’s sandy colored hair. We looked more like siblings than cousins. And we were really. Then a young woman came carrying a little boy about one-year-old. She was blonde as was the baby’s.

Chuck looked up and smiled at her. “Oh, Mitch, this is Pam, my wife.” He got up and took the baby. “And this is Nate. Nathaniel officially. My son.”

It had been a few years since I’d seen these people and I felt a pang of regret as I stood walking over to Chuck and his son. I missed their wedding and the birth of their son. I smiled at Pam. “It’s nice to meet you, Pam.” Then I got closer to Nate. “I’m your cousin, Mitch.”

Pam smiled at me. “That was quite a speech you gave them.” She grinned. “A swift kick in their complacency was needed.”

“Well, we have an addition you haven’t known about.” Tony smiled. “Mitch is going to be a step-father.”

“Really?” Michael smiled at us.

I nodded. “Tony has a son. Nicolas.”

“How old is he?” Mary asked.

“He’ll be nineteen in October,” Tony answered.

All my cousins’ eyes widened, but David voiced his surprise. “You had him when you were ten or twelve!?”

“How old are you, Tony?” Mary asked.

“I will be thirty-eight on the eleventh of November,” Tony admitted. “So, I was not much older than ten or twelve.” He smiled guiltily. “I was in my first year of college. Jean was a senior in high school. Nick was conceived Valentine’s Day weekend.” He shrugged. “We married in the first weekend the following June.”

Three of my aunts came into the living room.

“They’re getting ready to serve dinner.” Aunt Judy, Michael, and David’s mother said.

“Mitch, what you’re father said.” Aunt Hilda said. “Doesn’t come from all of us. We only want you happy.”

I nodded. “Thanks.” I turned to Tony. “This is Earl’s wife, Aunt Hilda.”

Then we heard a commotion in the hall.

“Richard, think.” I heard a man challenge my father and two uncles came in. The man that spoke was Uncle Bernie, Aunt Judy’s husband. Dad was Bernie’s Irish twin. The truth was Uncle Bernie and Dad looked a lot alike even eleven months apart in age. Not like David and Michael, but damned close.

Dad wrenched his arm from his brother’s hold on his arm. “I want you…” he pointed at Tony angrily. “…out of here. You’re not welcome here.”

“Oh, Richard.” Aunt Judy said sadly looking at her brother-in-law.

The other was JC, my eldest Uncle. “Stop, this isn’t helping.” He said to his brother. He also had a strong resemblance to his brothers.

Tony rose holding his hand up. “That’s okay. I’ll go.”

“Absolutely not!” I said equally angry at my father. “Let it go, Dad.”

“He doesn’t love you. He can’t love you!” Dad said as he fumed. “He’s a man!!”

“But I do,” Tony said quietly. “And what do you know about love, Mr. McKenzie? Have you told your family about the Aversion Therapy? Was that love?”

Dad looked a little surprised. “It was to help him. Of course, it was love.”

Aunt Faye looked at her brother. “What does this Aversion Therapy do?”

“Tony.” I looked at Tony quietly.

“No.” Tony shook his head. “You may not want to tell them, but I will.” Then he turned to everyone there. “He had someone use techniques on his son even the Geneva Convention said was inhumane on enemy prisoners. He tortured his son! His son!”

“What?” Uncle JC looked surprised at his brother as did everyone else.

“This doctor his father authorized to treat his son, who was only sixteen at the time, attached electrodes to his body, the showed him images to bring arousal. And every time he got aroused, he was shocked. Literally electrocuted every time. Reconditioning his son’s mind.”

My cousins were staring at me, and Dad then looked at Dad in shock.

“Oh, Uncle Richard,” Michael said sadly, appalled.

“How could you?” Mary asked in disbelief.

“Richard.” Faye said in almost a wail. “That was cruel.”

Dad looked at all there. “It was to help him!”

“To make him become what you wanted,” Tony said. “What you imagined him to be. And when he said he wasn’t to you, he trusted you, but you were going to make damned sure he would be. To the point you nearly killed him!” Tony pointed at me. “He was suffering headaches every day as his true nature tried to come back.”

Aunt Judy was furious. “There’s a knife in the kitchen that’s very sharp. Maybe that will help. If that doesn’t cut the gayness out of him, then at least he’ll die with great less suffering!”

Dad looked for everyone to understand. “He was going to die anyway!” He waved to me. “What he is, is a living death!”

“It is not!” Tony argued. “He’s alive! Since I met him, he has been with me through a really dark place. I was almost killed in the World Trade Center that September morning. I was dying. Then I meet this man.” He walked to me. “His humor and his love helped me out of that place. I’m still coming out of it. He is a strong man, a brave man. He was so upset about coming here he was literally shaking. Your conditioning of him was so thorough. Yet, here he is. Facing you and telling the truth! That’s brave.”

That’s when Chuck stepped forward. “They are staying!” He said firmly. “Or we leave, too.” He said holding his son and joined by Pam.

“And us,” Michael said standing with his cousin Chuck. Then David, Mary, Rhonda, Sherry, Uncles JC and Bernie standing with their sisters and wives. United against my father.

“They stay!” Uncle JC said in a tone that wasn’t asking for confirmation. He was the patriarch.

Things began to blur for me. I hadn’t realized how it would affect me, but I was crying. My family did really love me.

Tony walked closer to my father. “Mr. McKenzie, you raised an amazing human being. Stop worrying about what he is and find out who he is. You’ll find him loyal, loving, caring and selfless. He’s someone to be proud of, not ashamed of. Get to know him.”

My father was in such shock, by his siblings, nieces, and nephews, he was speechless.

“Now, as I said,” Judy said again. “We’re serving, so everyone come to get something to eat.” Then she turned to Tony. “All family needs to come, including you, Tony.”

Tony smiled. “Thanks.” He kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll be there.” He held his hand out to me which I took.

“So when are you going to have this wedding?” Rhonda asked changing the subject drastically.

“I’ve never been to a gay wedding!” Sherry said happily. “I definitely want to come! I insist!”

“And you stay in touch, damn it!” Chuck growled. “I want both your numbers and emails!”

Tony laughed. “He just asked me to marry him yesterday, we haven’t planned a thing.”

“I’ll be having one of my own in a year,” Michael said happily. “Then everyone will be able to tell David and me apart.”

“Yeah.” David chuckled. “He’ll have the ball and chain around his ankle.”

After that, it was all good. Tony was a new member of the family getting kidded about his accent and ribbed mercilessly by all my cousins. Which like with Nick, Tony ate it up and gave it back!

We got to the Bed and Breakfast about midnight, collapsing on the bed.

“You left out something when you described your family.” Tony moaned rubbing his stomach. “They’re good cooks! I’ll be stuffed a week!”

I rolled over looking down at him. “They are.”

Tony smiled. “You were amazing. They’re good people. But you stood up to them bravely. You stood up to your father. That was something to be proud of.”

I nodded. “It’s finally over. I feel lighter now.” Then I chuckled. “And since we’re on the coast, we’ll be having a lot of guests now.” Then I grinned. “Just for the beach, of course.”

“Of course the beach is the only reason.” Tony smiled knowing it wasn’t the real reason. “But you’ve only had me meet your part of the family. Wait until you meet the Delveccios.” His eyebrows waggled.

I chuckled. “After this, no problem. And you haven’t met Mom’s side of the family yet.” I warned. “But that shouldn’t be as bad as this was.”

“So, Thanksgiving at your Mom’s family, an annual reunion with your Dad’s family and Christmas with mine.” Tony smiled. “We’ll be busy.”

“And the many trips not on any schedule, yes.”

I was back at work that Tuesday. Things were definitely a lot better now. Tony started working for this Investment Firm that needed an office in Charleston. Tony was their guy. And he still did the private consultant thing he did for selected clients. Alan, my boss, made me his number two. When he wasn’t there, I was the manager. I was before, but now it was official.

When my cousins came, not all at once, but they were wide-eyed when they came into our home.

“Boy.” David marveled. “I gotta find me a rich boyfriend.” He said quietly. “How big is this place? It looks huge!”

“4100 feet,” I answered.

“For the last time, I’m not rich!!” Tony growled.

I waved Tony off. “Ignore him. He is.”

Tony’s eyes just rolled and gave up throwing his hands up in surrender with a tired huff.

“And it helps to be gay to have a boyfriend.” I grinned at David.

David shrugged. “I’ll convert!”

Then the day came when I got home before Tony and was making dinner. I couldn’t cook Italian meals as well as Tony, but I could cook. Americana. Roast beef, chicken, vegetables…you know.

I heard the door open and he came in with a sigh and put his briefcase on the counter. “Ciao, Luce dei Miei Occhi.” He greeted me. Calling me the light of his eyes.

I grinned as he came and kissed me. “Ciao, voi stessi.” I said back, saying hi, yourself.

Tony grinned. “You might learn enough Italian to weather meals with my family.”

I smiled back. “That’s the goal.”

“You’ve only been learning a few months, that’s great!” He said opening his briefcase.

“I’m motivated,” I said watching him dig out some papers. “The Rosetta Stone language computer program wasn’t kidding about learning quickly.” Then I pointed to his stack of papers. “What’s that?”

Tony smiled at me. “The paperwork that will tie us together.” He spread them over the counter. He pointed to a piece of paper. “This is for the bank. Our accounts are joining. What’s mine is yours and vice-versa.” Then he pointed to another piece of paper. “This is an insurance policy, making you the beneficiary of the policy.” Then he pointed to another couple of pages. “These are Durable Powers of Attorney. We will legally become each other’s’ next of kin.”

I looked at the many papers. Then looked at Tony. “I never wanted your money, you know.”

Tony nodded. “I know.” He frowned. “In fact, it kept us from getting together.”

I looked at him surprised. “It did not!”

“In the beginning,” Tony said. “Understand. You saw the money and the things I had, and I saw you resist. It made you very uncomfortable.”

I nodded. “I was, but I got over it.”

He smiled. “And that made me love you more.” He kissed me. “I realized you loved me, not the money.” He sighed. “When I was involved with Luke, he and I were attracted to each other at first, but he saw the money and that’s when he moved in.” He ran his fingers through my hair. “I, on the other hand, moved in with you. You didn’t care.” He chuckled. “In fact, you still don’t. I can’t stop you from shopping at Walmart for clothes.”

My eyes narrowed. “And what’s wrong with Walmart?”

He chuckled. “I didn’t say there was anything wrong with Walmart. But I’ve never even stepped a foot in a Walmart.” He sighed. “Sign these and we will legally be like we are married.”

“Without the marriage certificate.” I nodded. “Fine. So, I’m protected, what about you?” Then I shrugged thinking how ludicrous that statement was. “I don’t really have anything to give you.”

Tony frowned. “Oh, yes you do.” He brought me into an embrace. “You give me love. You give me purpose. I feel in many ways you gave me your life, your family.” He looked at me. “You give me clarity. I love you.”

“Fine,” I said moving the papers so I could sign them. “Pen?”

Tony smiled handing me a pen.

“But you don’t go anywhere!” I signed all the places that were highlighted. “Understood?” I asked handing him back the pen.

“I’m not planning on it.” Tony chuckled kissing me again. “What’s for dinner?” He sniffed.