The General and the Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari Read Free Page A

know?”
    “Anything you want to tell me?”
    “Nope. Not a thing! Later, Uncle J.” He slipped through the door out to the garage, where he and Billy had a studio apartment. Slippery as an eel , John thought. Something was definitely up.

Chapter 2

     
    M ONDAY morning the house was quiet, everyone off to their various schools and jobs, and John was making his weekly to-do list. He wrote haircut under Monday afternoon, because the feel of his hair creeping down the back of his neck was going to start driving him crazy if he didn’t deal with it pronto. One good thing about the army, he thought, not for the first time, was you didn’t have to waste good creative energy on non-issues like hairstyles or clothes. You just got the job done and moved on. Not like Kim, who collected pictures of his potential hairstyles and hung them up on his bulletin board for a couple of weeks while he was deciding on a change. He’d told John he was thinking of doing a “Patti Smith” with his black hair, whatever that meant. John had decided it was best not to get involved and to confine his role to support.
    He walked out to the mailbox and collected the few remaining pieces of mail that didn’t come via e-mail, and when he lifted the magazine out of the box, he felt his stomach drop down to his shoes. Oh, no. Was it here already? Out magazine, and he and Gabriel were the cover feature. There was a picture of the two of them, with Gabriel looking dark and handsome in his flight suit, and the caption of the photo said: The General and the Horse-Lord: The Army Comes Out of the Closet.
    The interview had been extremely difficult, at least for him, because he was not eager to talk about himself to the young reporter. Every word that he dragged out into the light seemed to be a betrayal of something he valued more than himself. He was careful to gauge the possible impact of his words, and he could see that the interviewer was working much harder than usual to get his story. The young man sent to do the interview was obviously expecting John to give the army a public spanking. He’d wanted juice, he’d wanted stories, nasty details. John doubted the boy could think his way out of a paper bag, and he’d very soon lost interest.
    Gabriel had a difficult time with his interview as well, but he seemed relieved and happy to get it done. Gabriel wanted this, or John would never have consented to such an intrusive interview. It had been Kim’s idea, of course, but Gabriel wanted it too. He wanted to live in the light. He wanted their new life together, after a lifetime of hiding what they were to each other, to start out clean.
    After the initial interviews, Out had changed their approach and sent a young army vet to do a joint interview. He came with a different perspective than John’s and Gabriel’s, having become an activist while on active duty. He’d paid for it by losing what John knew had been a very promising career. The interview with Brandon Cho had been extremely interesting. John appreciated the man’s intellect and subtle mind, and regretted the loss of his talent in the service of his country. He also recognized very clearly that the loss had been because the man had never had a role model. He didn’t know how gay men were supposed to behave in the army and how to find a reasonable balance between work and private life, the demands of service and the demands of the heart. His own internal compass had pointed him along his path, but he’d been out there alone, trying to find his way. If there was one argument John could agree with, it was that young men needed role models. And if that job was being put in John’s unwilling hands, he could not put it down. There were boys watching him.
    He looked down at the magazine cover. Kim’s photograph was gorgeous. He had more raw talent than he knew what to do with. His own face, he was sorry to see, was quite recognizable, and the words on the cover were bright red, very