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About the ti a barbecue on the beach, a man came in and sat in the row behind Jason, about five seats to his left As Wagner boo village with gunfire and explosives, the light from the screen bathed the face of the man and I could see his profile—soatee, close-cropped dark hair, a stud glinting from his earlobe
During the Do-Long Bridge sequence, as Martin Sheen and Sa for the battalion leader, the man moved four seats to his left
“Hey, soldier,” Sheen yelled over the , scared black kid as flares lit up the sky “Who’s in command here?”
“Ain’t you?” the kid screaoatee leaned forward and Jason’s head tilted back
Whatever he said to Jason was brief, and by the time Martin Sheen left the trench and returned to the boat, the guy was stepping out into the aisle and walking back toward ht and build,He wore a dark sport coat over a loose green tank-top, battered jeans, and cowboy boots When he caught , he blinked and looked down at his feet as they carried him out of the theater
On screen, Albert Hall asked Sheen, “You find the CO?”
“There’s no fucking CO,” Sheen said and climbed into the boat as Jason left his seat and walked up the aisle
I waited a full three minutes, then left my seat as the PT boat floated inexorably toward Kurtz’s compound and Brando’s lunatic improvisations I stuck my head in the
bathroom to be sure it was empty, then left the theater
Out on Harvard, I blinked into the sudden glare, then looked both ways for Angie, Jason, or the guy with the goatee Nothing I walked up to Beacon, but they weren’t there either Angie and I long ago agreed that the one separated from the chase was the one ent hoed down a cab and rode it back to the neighborhood
Jason and the guy with the goatee had ie photographed them from across the street, and in one shot, the hands of both men had disappeared under the table My initial assu deal
They split the tab and, back out on Brighton Ave, their hands grazed against each other, and they both smiled shyly The smile on Jason’s face wasn’t one I’d seen in the previous ten days His usual srin, rife with confidence But this sush to it, as if he’d had no time to consider it before it broke across his cheeks
Angie caught the sed
The guy with the goatee walked up Brighton toward Union Square, while Jason walked back to Bryce
Angie and I spread her photos on her kitchen table that night and tried to decide what to tell Diandra Warren
This was one of those points when my responsibility to my client was a bit unclear I had no reason to think Jason’s apparent bisexuality had anything to do with the threatening calls Diandra had received And I had no reason, on the other hand, not to tell her about the encounter Still, I didn’t know if Jason was out of the closet or not, and I wasn’t coraph, I was looking at a kid who, in all the time I’d observed him, looked purely happy for the one and only time
“Okay,” Angie said, “I think I have a solution”
She handed oatee in which both were eating, neither really look-
ing at the other, but instead concentrating on their food
“He ie said, “had lunch, that’s all We show this to Diandra, along with ones of Jason and his wouy, but unless she offers, we don’t bring up the possibility of a romance”
“Sounds like a plan”