See You In The Morning, The Finale

     Back to the current task at hand, Charles asked David again what he wanted to do with the leather rig.  “Let’s donate to the Center’s rummage sale.  They’ll get some money for it and maybe it will save someone else’s relationship like it did ours,” was David’s suggestion.

     “Okay.  That about does it.  Time for you to hit the shower and get ready.  You don’t want to be late.”

     David looked sadly around the room.  “I’m sure there’s more we could get done.”

     Charles took David by the hand and led him to the bathroom.  “We’ve been through this.  I’ll keep working while you take your shower.”  He pushed David out of the bedroom and simultaneously swatted him playfully on the butt.  “Go!”

     Soon there was the sound of water running.  Charles retrieved the mysterious black bag from the closet and placed it in the center of the floor where piles of clothes had been earlier.  He called out to David, “So what about this black bag?  I know how you stash things you don’t really want to part with.”

     David shouted back over the shower, “I told you.  It’s just trash.  Forget it!  Why don’t you decide which shoes you want to keep, Mrs. Marcos!  I’ll be out in a minute.”

     Charles thought maybe shoes was a clue about the contents of that bag.  Something had to make it so heavy.  His curiosity finally got the better of him and he opened the bag to look inside.  “Oh my God!”  he shouted.  “What’s all the blood on these rags?  David, why are you keeping a bag full of bloody rags?” Charles called out in terror.

     David came running in dripping wet from his shower.  He grabbed the bag and began to shove the contents back inside.  “Goddammit, Charles!  I told you to stay out of this bag!  Can’t you ever just do what I ask?”  He continued pushing the rags into the bag.  He  started to cry.  “Just once before I die, I wish to God, you would respect my wishes!   I didn’t want you to see these.  I didn’t want to see them.  I can’t stand to ever see them.  I should have burned them in the fireplace!  Charles, I asked you to leave the bag alone.  You told me you would.  God, Charles!”  David crumpled to the floor, all the while clutching the bag tight to his body.  “I can’t deal with this.  I-I don’t deserve this!  Boops!  Boops, please come down from Heaven!  I need you!”  David twisted and turned so that he was laying on the floor in a fetal position, still embracing the bag.

     “I-I’m sorry, David.  I just thought we should take a look before tossing it into the garbage.  I thought maybe you had put shoes in it since it was so heavy.  I didn’t mean anything by it.  I promise.  This is our last day together in our house.  I certainly didn’t mean for it to end like this.”

     Charles laid down behind David and held him tightly.  “You are the best thing that ever happened to me.  I love you, David.  It’s all right, Honey.  I’m with you.  I always will be,” Charles whispered in his ear.

     David cried out to his friend Boops again as though he was unaware of Charles.  “Boops, I really need your special wisdom now.  Char-Charles has―something has happened I can’t make right.  I don’t know how to deal with this.  Please, Boops, come down from Heaven and help me!” 

     David finished his crying and pulled himself together and off the floor.  He moved trance-like, but he managed to get dressed.  When he arrived at the event Charles had been so adamant he attend, he was led into a large room.  All of his friends were waiting for his arrival.  He saw all the flowers and a table draped with a crisp pink linen tablecloth.  On it was a tray of champagne flutes filled with the Veuve Clicquot Gran Dame.  Next to the tray was a framed photograph of Charles.  David picked up a glass of champagne and downed it in one.  He set the empty on the table and picked up a second glass.  As he scanned the room, he spotted Charles in the center and proceeded to take him the glass.

     In his mind he was replaying his recurring nightmare of Charles laying in a coma.  He was glad at least that had not come true.  He looked at the only man he had ever truly loved and whispered, “Happy birthday, Sweetheart.”

     He took his keys out of his pocket and tapped his glass.  “Everybody, could I have your attention please.”  The room went quiet as all the guests gathered around David and Charles.

     “I want to thank you all for coming.  This isn’t the birthday party I had originally planned, but as Charles is fond of telling me, I have to go with the flow.  Today is my beloved’s thirtieth birthday.  So that’s what we’re here tonight to celebrate, his birthday.  I want to thank you for all of your kind cards and letters.  I promise I will answer each and every one of them.  Soon.  You’ll have to forgive me.  I feel like time and space have collapsed around me and trapped me in my worst nightmare.  I can’t wake from it.

     "You may know that I’m selling the house.  In the meantime, I have taken a suite at the Windsor Court Hotel until I can determine what comes next.

     "This afternoon, I came across the bag of rags the police gave me.  I knew what was in it, so I never opened it, not until this afternoon.  I don’t want to tell you all the gory details.  The clothes Charles had been wearing the night he was attacked had been reduced to ribbons.  His Valentino slacks, his favorite Donna Karan silk shirt, shredded and soaked with his blood.  The police told me it was the most vicious attack they had ever seen.  He was nearly shredded as badly as his clothing.

     "Y’all knew my Charles.  He was such a sweet―like a puppy, just glad to be around, living life, having fun.  He never harmed anyone.  He was always the first to volunteer whenever someone needed anything.  He didn’t deserve―they stole his Gucci loafers.  God! If they had just asked, Charles would have given them freely.  They didn’t have to―do this.  Charles was truly one of a special breed.  He was―” David had to pause here and set his jaw to stop it from trembling and to take a moment to just breathe.  “Charles was the secret ingredient in my life.  My only consolation is that I know he is with our friend Boops.  I am confident she has taken him in hand and is showing him the ropes around Heaven.”

     David then turned to look at Charles’ closed coffin draped with a blanket of gardenias.  “Loverboy, I want to thank you for everything you gave me, everything you taught me, for―for loving me―for giving yourself so completely to me.  We have never said good-bye to one another.  I am certainly not going to start now.  Instead, I raise my glass to you and say,  ‘See you, Charles.  See you in the morning.  Now, let’s everybody, have more champagne and some of these hors d’oeuvres.  After all this is a birthday  Charles and Boops came and stood next to David.  “Great speech, David.  You really ought to go into acting so you can win an award!  You were every bit as touching as Sally Fields, I swear!”

     Boops gave Charles a friendly swat and said, “Charles!  Shame on you.  You shouldn’t tease David like that; not today.  David, I’m trying my best with this lover of yours, but he’s getting all kinds of looks from my martyr friends.  They thought they had been through enough before Charles came along.”

     “Honey,” David heard Charles say, “Boops is right.  I shouldn’t joke with you today, but how else would you know it’s really me?  Anyway, thanks for dressing me in my tuxedo.  I knew you wouldn’t forget.  Wow, they did a great job with hair and make-up too.  Where were these people when I was alive?”

     “David, I wish you could see Charles in his resurrection splendor.  He is  more beautiful than ever.  Now if resurrection could just do something about that mouth of his!” Boops said with delight.

     Charles looked to the others like he was standing there next to the coffin alone, smiling and drinking his champagne.  They couldn’t begin to fathom the conversation that was taking place.

     “David, we have to go back now.  Boops and I sneaked away so that we could let you know we’re alright.  I loved being with you today.  Don’t worry, David.  Time passes quickly when you’re having fun, so you have to get out and live your life so we have plenty to talk about when you get here.  Boops and I will be waiting for you.  See you, my love.  See you in the morning.”