all god's orphans

Daniel awoke engulfed in sunlight and for a brief but very real moment, thought that he had died and this was Heaven. As his brain swam up from the depths of sleep he realized this wasn’t Heaven, or at least, not the one his grandmother had told him about. Brian was still asleep beside him, his back turned. Daniel was so entranced by the muscles in his boyfriend’s naked back that he forgot to question why they were still alive. Should he call Brian his “boyfriend”? They had not discussed this, of course. Brian was not just one of the most popular boys at their high school, he was also the consummate Southern male. Athletic. Stoic. Dutiful. Daniel had no experience with dating. Being gay in Tennessee wasn’t as hard as he’d heard it used to be, but that didn’t make it easy. Still, he had somehow managed to get a football player into bed. That had to count for something.

The morning air was cool and a light fog lay low to the ground around them. Watercolor trees in fall hues pressed themselves against a sky of pure pale blue. Daniel rubbed his eyes and collected his thoughts. Why was he sleeping in the back of a pickup truck in the middle of a forest? Oh, right.

“Brian,” he shook him gently. “Wake up.” A low groan was Brian’s only response so he nudged him harder. “Wake up!” Brian rolled over without opening his eyes.

“Mmm.” Was all he managed to “say.”

“Wake. Up.” Daniel couldn’t believe how heavy a sleeper his boyfriend was. Brian’s eyes opened slowly and then he jumped up, rocking the old Ford on its shock absorbers.

“What the Hell?” Brian expectorated, standing naked in the back of the truck, his head snapping from one sight to another. The forest. The dirt road. The bright sky. Daniel stood, wrapping himself in a blanket. “What happened?” His tone suggested fear, which confused Daniel for a moment. Why isn’t he happier? Then he remembered and it made sense.

“It doesn’t look like anything happened.”

“That’s not possible.” Brian observed as he vaulted over the bed of the truck and got into the front seat. He switched on the radio and searched frantically for the news, but there was only static. He tried again, moving the dial slowly this time until he found something. He could barely hear it, but it sounded like “This is the emergency broadcast system. Please stay tuned for an important announcement.” Over and over.

“Anything?” Daniel asked, stepping up into the passenger seat. Brian’s face was difficult to read, as usual. He stared intensely at the radio, willing it to tell him what had happened to the apocalypse, but it just kept repeating itself. Mechanically, he retrieved the pack of Camel Lights from the visor of his truck and lit his first cigarette of the day. Daniel thought about reminding him that he was trying to quit, but in light of the circumstances, it seemed petty and he DID NOT want to be the nagging type.

Brian sat at the steering wheel with one hand wrapped so tightly around it that his knuckles were white and with the other hand raising the cigarette to his lips with such a slow, unbroken rhythm that it reminded Daniel of the pendulum on a grandfather clock. He stared out of the windshield trying to puzzle out his next move. He hadn’t planned on being alive today so there wasn’t anything on his ‘to do’ list.

“We need to get to town.” He finally announced. “Find out what the Hell is going on.” Daniel realized what that might mean.

“Does this path go anywhere else?”

“Nope.” He said curtly, exhaling smoke. “It goes to a field where my dad’s deer blind is.”

“Well, at least I’ll get to meet your parents.” Daniel tried to smile, but Brian didn’t think it was very funny.

As the truck bounced slowly along the dirt road, the two of them sat in silence. Brian focused on the path, or more specifically, what lay at the end of it while Daniel tried to enjoy the scenery. Paper-thin ribbons of light sliced through the mist as the late summer umbrage stippled the dirt road in light and shadow. Outside the truck, birds were singing and a peaceful silence pervaded everything. Daniel wished it could just be this, forever. That Heaven could be him and Brian driving slowly through a green forest for eternity, but he knew where this road would end.

In a few minutes, they would round one last bend and Brian’s house would appear before them. It was a large, log cabin type place that Brian had told him summed up his dad pretty succinctly. It only looked rough. Real log cabins didn’t have steam shower or home theater system stocked with action movies. Brian’s dad liked to carry himself like a cowboy or a soldier. He liked football and movies about war, but he had never joined the military. Didn’t even know how to fight as far as Brian knew, but he made sure his son did.

Brian’s large hands were still squeezing the life out of the steering wheel and Daniel desperately wanted to comfort him, but he felt like anything he might say or do would be an intrusion. Brian was steeling himself for a conversation he hadn’t planned on having today. The road out to his father’s hunting grounds went right past the house and there was no way to get by without being seen. On more than one occasion, his dad had hinted that he should be taking girls out to the woods. “Y’know why a truck’s got a bed, dontcha?” His dad was college educated but would often affect the dumb hick vernacular just to fit in. It irritated Brian no end seeing his dad stifle his own intellect just to be accepted. He wasn’t going to like seeing his son return from the ‘fuck forest’ with another guy, especially one as effeminate as Daniel. “We were just camping” was not an alibi that would get him anywhere.

After what felt like infinity to Daniel and just a few seconds to Brian, the hills of the property moved aside like curtains to reveal Brian’s house and he stopped the truck with a jerk.

“What the fuck?” Was all he could muster in this moment. The road approached the house from the rear, and instead of seeing his dad on the back porch sipping coffee and reading the paper, dozens of well-dressed people were just standing around in his backyard, staring into space like mental patients after ingesting a mountain of meds.