Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 22:59:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brad <brad060103@excite.com>
Subject: College With Mark 8

CHAPTER 13

Mark handed Brad the keys and then said, "Wait.  Do you think you will have
time to drop me by Rick's house?  He will be home soon, and I want to visit
with him a while."

"That's fine.  Do you want me to come and get you after we are done?"

"Nah, I'll just get Rick to take me home."

"Ok, no problem, but let's ride.  We don't have a whole lot of time."

The two rode quietly through town.  Rick lived in a small two bedroom house
that he rented cheaply on the opposite side of town from his parents.  It
wasn't really big, but Mrs. Lee had made sure it was nice when he moved in.

Mark kissed Brad, wished him luck and jumped out of the truck. Brad sat
there a moment waiting on Mark to go in.  Mark waved him on, and then
knocked quietly on the front door and just walked in.  Rick was across the
room with his back to Mark, and he was talking on the phone.

He heard Rick say, "I think they have one over there in Statesboro and
that's far enough away that nobody would know you.  If it's not then we..."

Mark was immediately concerned when he heard the tone of his brother's
voice.  He was crying, and Mark knew that Rick never cried.  When Mark
knocked on the wall to let his brother know he was there, Rick turned
around in surprise and motioned for Mark to go into the kitchen.  Mark did
as he was told, and waited a few minutes for his brother.  When he did not
come, Mark went back into the living room to find Rick sitting in the floor
crying.  Mark was terrified.  He went over to Rick, and sat on the floor
with him and put his arm around him.

"Rick, what's wrong?" Mark asked.

CHAPTER 14

Brad drove Mark's truck over to his father's house in silence.  He didn't
listen to the radio at all.  He was terrified of what his uncle was going
to do.  When Brad got to his dad's house, he didn't have to wait long
because his neatly dressed and sober dad was opening the door to the truck
before he came to a full stop.

As they rode through town, Mr. Jones asked, "Are you as nervous about this
as I am?"

"Terrified."

"I am to.  I don't know how he is going to take it."

"Dad, you have a lot more to lose if he goes crazy.  He is bound to find
out about me, but only Mark and I know about you, and neither of us will
tell anyone.  You could be homeless.  Let me tell him about Mark first.
Then, if you think it is the best thing to do, then tell him."

"Brad, that is such a brave thing for you to do for your dad.  You are
wrong about one thing.  I don't have more to lose.  I lost everything a
long time ago."

"Well, let me tell him first anyway."

"If that's the way you want it, then ok."

By this time they were sitting in the parking lot of Brad's Uncle Robert's
law office.

"Its showtime," Brad said.

They trudged into the law office of Robert Jones.  His secretary greeted
them as she was gathering up her purse.  She smiled warmly at Brad but was
somewhat surprised at the neatly dressed handsome man with him.  Slightly
flustered, she said, "Robert is in his office.  I know he is waiting on
you."

Brad just smiled and said, "Thanks, I know where it is."

She just smiled and said, "Well then, I am gone.  Have a good visit."

"Ok, you have a good night," Mr. Jones said.

They walked to his office and Brad tapped lightly on the door.

"Come in."

"Hey," Brad said.

"Hey, Brad."  He paused and said, "Steven?"

"Yes, its me.  I know I look a little different than you are used to seeing
me, but I am working on turning over a new leaf."

"I am glad to hear it, though I hope you will forgive me when I say I don't
really believe you."

"I'll just have to prove you wrong," Brad's dad said defiantly.

"I hope you do," Robert said quietly.  "I hope you do for your own sake."

"Well, I hate to interrupt this reunion, but I have a few things to talk to
you about, Uncle Robert."

"Ok, what's on your mind, Brad?"

"I need to tell you that I am gay, and I am in love with someone."

"Brad, quit kidding around," his uncle said to him.

"I'm not kidding.  I am in love with Mark Lee.  It will soon be all over
town, and I wanted you to hear it from me before you hear it through the
grapevine.  I want you to know it is true, and that I truly love Mark and
hope you can be happy for me."

"Brad, I can't believe you would march in here and tell me such shit.  Do
you know how wrong that is?  Do you know what you are doing to yourself?
You are ruining your life."

"Robert, stop right there.  Would you rather he end up like me?  Trying to
make himself straight when he is not.  Ruining his life with alcohol to
escape from the problems of his life?"

"Brad's not an alcoholic like you.  He is smarter than that."

"Robert, I wasn't an alcoholic until I tried to start being something I
wasn't.  Until I started trying to be straight.  Yes, I am gay.  I always
have been.  I was never attracted to women, but I tried to force myself to
be normal.  I just dove for the liquor to escape, and look where I ended
up.  Are you telling me that by facing his problems head on rather than
hiding from them, that he is ruining his life?  I have ruined my life to
date."

"When Brad came to me and told me he was gay, I picked a fight with him and
ran him out.  It was a sobering experience for me.  I mean that literally.
That is why when I tell you I am turning over a new leaf, I mean it."

"If you want me out of your house and out of your life, then I am prepared
to do that.  I had hoped that you would allow me to get my feet on the
ground, but I have lived through hell, and I can live through whatever you
throw at me, and if I don't, well then, at least I was for once honest with
myself and the people around me."

Robert just sat there silently for a moment.

"My son is gay, and I am proud of him, and I love him."

"And for the first time in my life, I actually feel like I know my father,"
Brad said.

"As touching as this is, I still can't believe I have not one but two fags
in my family," Robert said.

"You always were a sarcastic sumbitch," Steven said, slamming his hand onto
the desk.

"And apparently you were always a fag."

"Both of you, stop it!!!" Brad screamed.  "If you can't accept me and my
dad for what we are, then I don't have anything else to say to you.  Have a
good night."

With that, Brad stormed out of the office and shouted behind him to his
dad, "Come on."

"One day you will realize how wrong you are, and you will regret this,"
Steven said to his brother.

"One day when you are dying of AIDS, you will regret this conversation too.
That is God's way of punishing sinners," Robert said.

"That sentence applies to homosexuals as well as heterosexuals.  Think
about that for a while."

"But being gay is a sin."

"I have spent the better part of my life wondering why God created me to be
something he hates.  I finally realized that maybe it's men who are hating
what I am and not God.  God also hates lying, which actually made the ten
commandments.  Gay men didn't make the list.  You might not understand
this, but by that definition, you are damning a whole bunch of people to
hell no matter what they do.  They can choose to live a lie, which is
definitely a sin, or they can be gay which may or may not be."

"You may or may not have a point, but I still don't agree with it."

"I have about had it," Brad shouted.  "I have learned a few things lately,
and the number one thing that I have learned from my dad is that before you
judge somebody, you need to at least think about what its like to walk in
his shoes.  Maybe even try and understand that you may not exactly know the
reasons for what he does.  So, until you have walked a mile in my shoes, I
am going to tell you to take your judgements and go to hell," Brad
exploded.

Brad took a breath and continued, "My mom hates me.  My step dad hates me.
Now my uncle hates me.  The ONLY family of mine who has come through for me
on this one is my dad, whom I thought would never come through for me on
anything.  You can sit there in your leather chair and tell us we are going
to hell, but if I remember my Sunday school lessons well, that is a job
that isn't exactly reserved for you.  Go visit my mom and the both of you
can go to the country club and look down your noses at people.  I am out of
here.  You can come or not, Dad."

"Brad, stop right there."

Brad stopped as his uncle demanded him to.

"I have never in my life been talked to like that by a kid."

"There is a first time for everything.  Don't count on it to be your last."

"Well, I don't like it, but you are right.  It isn't my place to judge, and
family should stick together.  Sometimes I need to be reminded of that."

"I grew up with my mom.  I don't know a hell of a lot about what families
are supposed to do, but I do know right from wrong."

"Well, I guess that explains her call yesterday."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I should have been on this a little sooner than now, and this
probably isn't the best of times, but when your grandparents were killed,
the estate and the settlement were divided equally between your mother,
you, and your half brother."

"I never got any."

"No, you were purposely not told about it.  It was placed in trust for you.
When you turn 21, then you will be able to break the trust.  Should you die
before you reach age 21, then it is broken and divided evenly among your
heirs, which with no will would be your parents."

"I don't want my mom to get any if I die.  Where is this trust?"

"I am the trustee, actually, and if you don't want your mom to have any
then we need to create a will."

"That's easy."

"Don't you want to know how much it is?"

"Ok, but it is not necessary."

"Well, just so you know, it is currently worth about 6 million dollars.
Your mom invested well, but when I took over as trustee, I sold most of the
stock in your portfolio and replaced it with tax municipal free bonds just
before the stock market crashed.  I was looking out for you.  The bonds are
of staggered maturity, but most of them are yielding about 5%.  That means
you have a steady income of about $300,000 a year, tax free."

"You are kidding?"

"Those are not exact numbers, but they are fairly accurate."

"Well, I want that will now.  I want 25% to go to dad, and 75% to go to
Mark."

"Mark?"

"Yes, Mark.  He is the best person I have ever known. If it weren't for
him, that trust would have been broken a long time ago."

"What?"

"Yeah, I was going to kill myself.  Mark saved me without knowing he did
it."

"I just don't believe it."

"Believe it.  I love him, and I want to share it with him even if I am not
here to do it."

"Come back up here tomorrow morning when my secretaries are here.  I need
two signatures of people not beneficiaries for it to be official."

"Thanks for being so good about this."

"I haven't been really, and I really hate it, but there ain't a hell of a
lot I can do about it."

"Well, Thanks.  I appreciate it."

"I do need to tell you one thing.  If you need money for survival before
the trust runs out, call me.  I have discretionary power to pay out some of
the earnings to you.  Now don't get excited, there will be no checks for
$300,000 or anything, but if your mom cuts you off or something, you are
still going to be able to get an education."

"She might do that.  She said something about paying me to stay away from
here so that she wasn't embarrassed.  I don't intend to do that, but I do
intend to stay away from her."

"Well, the reason I mentioned it is because you need to be aware of this,
but she called me this week and asked how she could take your money out of
trust.  I had no idea why she wanted to know this.  I just assumed that she
had blown through her money, but after what you just told me, I think that
the motive might have been to better control you.  Unfortunately what she
apparently didn't think about was the fact that you had no idea you had the
money.  She also didn't count on the fact that her call would prompt me to
inform you about it either."

"I guess she didn't.  I am still really in shock about even knowing I have
that money."

"Well, just to put your mind at ease, there is no way that she can get her
hands on it.  She never had any right to it.  The payout from the lawsuit
went into the estate, and in your grandparents' wills, you, your mother,
and your half brother were each given one third of an interest in the
estate."

"You mean the estate was 18 million?"  Brad asked.

"No.  First of all your grandparents had quite a bit saved over the years.
They had at least $2.5 million after estate taxes on their own.  At the
beginning, when the money was in the estate, your mother was picking stocks
to put it in.  She did VERY well.  She more than doubled your money when it
was there.  When it was transferred into the trust, I became the one making
the decisions as your trustee.  When I took over, I was not comfortable
with the idea of having the money for your future in something I viewed as
so volatile.  By the time everything went bad after September 11, I had
managed to sell most of the stocks and purchased municipal bonds."

"Is that good?"

"Well, I think it is," Robert said grinning.  "If it was still in the same
stocks your mom had, you would have about a million and a half instead of
three million. I told your mom to do the same, but I don't know if she
listened to me."

"She probably didn't.  She never listens to anybody.  If they cut me off,
then I am going to have to see about getting insurance and another truck --
not necessarily a new one, but I am sure they will take that if they get
around to it.  Do you think I could have that?"

"I am sure we can find something for you.  You don't need to worry about
that.  We will also have to find you some health insurance."

"Maybe I can help with that.  If I find a job with insurance, I would be
glad to carry you on my insurance," Steven said.

"That is going to cost a lot to you."

"Well, I don't really have anything I would rather spend it on than you."

"Thanks, Dad," Brad said. "I think I would prefer to keep this conversation
a secret for the time being, but even if they don't cut me off, I would
rather stop taking their money.  I had thought about just getting a job and
telling them to go to hell anyway, but I didn't think I could afford to."

"You can.  I will see about getting you a truck and insurance and will give
you an allowance of whatever they were giving you, but you don't need a
job.  Just don't think you are going to be able to just be sorry."

"Oh, I am not.  I am going to be just like when I was on their payroll.  I
just won't have to worry about how I am going to eat when they find out I
am gay."

"You need to worry about your school and not that now," Steven said.

"Mark had helped me through that.  He was somehow certain his mom and dad
would continue to support him, but I sure didn't realize it.  He said we
could both get jobs to take up the difference in what they were giving me."

"He must love you, Brad," Robert said, amazed at the realization that these
two guys felt that kind of love for one another.

"I'm sorry for my reaction."

"No need to be.  You made up for it with your news."

"There is one other matter of business that I need to attend to.  I have
the power to designate who will become the trustee should something happen
to me, and the way it is set now, that power goes to your mom.  I don't
think that is in your best interests right now.  I am going to ask you who
you are most comfortable with doing it."

"Well, I think..."

"I want to suggest Mr. Lee, Mark's dad," Steven broke in.

"I don't think that is a bad idea," Brad replied.

"I don't know," Robert said.

"I think it is a great idea.  He and Mrs. Lee were the most accepting of
this of anyone we have told.  I worked for them for years and I trust both
of them probably more than anyone other than Mark."


I hope that you have all enjoyed this part.  I have another part coming
soon.  We will get to find out what is wrong with Rick and will visit a few
more people who have learned of Mark and Brad's relationship.  As always, I
welcome all comments and really appreciate hearing from readers.  I do my
best to respond to all emails as soon as possible.  Thanks again for
reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy my story.