Pumpkin Eater. Jeffrey Round

      “It’s all right. I didn’t tell anyone.”

      Donny returned with Trevor’s martini and a beer bottle with a napkin tied deftly around its neck for Dan.

      He picked up his own glass, raising it to the room with a nod. “To friends, old and new!”

      Dinner was going well. The flames wavered and glowed brighter as evening came on. Donny leapt up from time to time to check on something or stir a pot, managing to perform both chef and host duties to perfection. A bocconcini and basil salad followed the gnochetti in brodo, a light, flavourful soup. They’d just started in on the risotto ai funghi — it was a decidedly Italian-themed evening — when Domingo asked about Lester.

      “He’s gone home,” Donny said, matter-of-factly, though the forlorn look on his face told another side of the story.

      Dan suddenly flashed back to Ked’s comment. He sat up in his chair. “Wait a minute. By ‘home’ do you mean he went back to his family in Oshawa?”

      “Yes, he left yesterday. I haven’t told anyone yet.” He turned to Domingo. “I keep secrets too.”

      Dan was floored by the news. “How did this

       happen? Because this” — he looked around him — “this is his real home. I thought he knew that by now.”

      Donny shrugged, avoiding eye contact with the others around the table. He would not betray his real feelings.

      “Lester knows he’s always welcome here, but he’s turning sixteen next month and he misses his mother. Cow that she is.”

      “Children always miss their mothers,” Domingo said sympathetically. “No matter who else we have in our lives, no matter how fortunate and blessed we may be, we have just one birth mother, and it’s important to get that relationship right.”

      Donny’s eyes flickered. “Lester said something like that, only not quite so articulately. It turns out he phoned her on Mother’s Day. They’ve been in touch every other week.” He shrugged. “He misses her and wants to reconnect. It’s as simple as that.”

      “Are you saying he’s gone back to live with them for good?” Dan asked, still struggling with the news.

      Donny twirled his glass, looked away. “I am. He has.”

      “What about the stepfather?” Dan asked. “Won’t he be a problem?”

      Donny sighed and set the glass down. He gestured helplessly, as though to say there was nothing he could do. “I have no doubt you’re right,” he said, “but it’s not up to me.”

      Dan recalled the garishly dressed, crudely spoken couple he’d met the previous year while working on a missing persons case involving a young man named Richard Philips. He hadn’t been at all impressed with the mother or stepfather, but the real dilemma came when he located the fifteen-year-old, rechristened Lester and working in the city’s porn industry with falsified ID. Dan was forced to choose between returning him to what was surely a terrifying and destructive life for a young gay man and finding a better place for him. Donny had stepped in to fill the breach, offering Lester temporary sanctuary, but ended up taking him in as a surrogate son, albeit covertly. The law was not on the side of runaways and their keepers, however well-meaning.

      Dan looked at Donny. “What will he say about where he’s been living for the past year? Aren’t you afraid this might bring a lot of trouble for you?”

      Donny shook his head. “He told her he’s been living with friends, but he kept it vague. It could have legal ramifications for me for helping him hide, but on the other hand I know the kid well enough by now. He’s not going to give them my name or address. He’s anxious to get back to school and not miss another year. He knows he’s falling behind. And in another month he’ll be legal, so he can return here any time to visit.”

      “Your tutoring is probably far more valuable than anything he’ll learn in high school,” Dan snorted.

      “Well, yes, I agree that everyone should know about Lennie Tristano and the history of jazz, but it’s not exactly going to guarantee him a job when all is said and done, is it?”

      Dan put down his drink. “I don’t like it,” he said. “I met those people. They were horrible. As much as I might feel for a mother and child who’ve been separated, it was doing him no good to be living with them. That stepfather was a homophobic monster. The way he talked about Lester made me cringe and I hadn’t even met the boy then.”

      “I know, I know,” Donny said. “I don’t like it either, but I have no choice.”

      Trevor spoke up. “Maybe once he turns sixteen he can mention you. It might help his case with the parents if they know he has you standing behind him.”

      “Probably not,” Donny said. “The truth is, they’re having a hard enough time dealing with the fact their kid is gay. He’s not going to back down on that one. I doubt it would improve matters by telling them he’s been living with a ‘person of colour.’”

      Dan turned to Domingo. “What do you think?”

      “I’ve met Lester a few times. He’s a very nice boy. But like any kid, he has to make his own mistakes. Live and learn.”

      “That’s right,” Donny said. “I won’t be the surrogate dad who kept him apart from his blood family. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m his chosen family. I told him he’s welcome back here any time, even if it’s just for a weekend stay-over.”

      They sat there silently contemplating this.

      Donny stood. “Time for dessert,” he said, heading for the kitchen.

      “Seems kind of hard,” Trevor ventured when Donny had gone. “Donny’s looked after the boy for a year and now he just wants to leave.”

      “It’s ingratitude,” Dan said, colouring. “I don’t like it.”

      Domingo looked at him sympathetically. “It’s not ingratitude, Dan. It’s a fifteen-year-old boy wanting to be a part of his family before it’s too late. Don’t judge him for it. Time will tell if it’s the right thing or not.”

      Trevor put a hand on Dan’s. “In any case, Donny has been both generous and courageous in having Lester here with him this past year. Let’s hope it works out for the best.”

      “Oh, it will,” Donny said, flouncing back into the room with a tray of tiramisu. “Anyway, that’s me — social issues galore. But having that boy here has given me a new lease on life. No regrets — and I have you to thank for it, of course,” he said, looking at Dan. “Anyway, I’d rather not talk about it any more, if you don’t mind.”

      Domingo excused herself to use the bathroom. When she was gone, Dan turned and hissed at Donny. “What is she doing here?”

      Donny gave him a baleful look. “She called me up last week and said she wanted to get in touch with you. I thought it was time you two talked, so I offered her your phone number. Then I remembered you were coming over this evening, so I invited her to join us. And here you both are.”

      Dan shook his head. “I didn’t even know you’d kept in touch with her.”

      “I’ve kept in touch with all your cast-offs.” He affected a mock-shiver. “There were so many of them I thought at one point I’d have to open a shelter.”

      Trevor grinned but turned away so Dan wouldn’t see.

      “There’s nothing for you to worry about,” Donny told Trevor. “You’re one of the few he’s met who were worth keeping. Apart from moi, of course.”

      Domingo returned. Donny refreshed everyone’s drink.

      Trevor looked over at Donny. “Dan said you’d started a new job.”

      Donny’s face lit up. “Yes!