What has Glen discovered? I have discovered that living blind to the world around you has its drawbacks but, strangely, it also has its rewards. While I was cut off from the joys of, say, good food and laughter, I was also blind to the overwhelminghomophobia that is our everlasting cross to bear.
I thought that for this edition of the newsletter I might write something along the lines of ahomophobia Week in Review but this single week has been much too much for me. Rather, I will recount a single day.
My day of victimization began at 7:15A.M. when I held the telephone receiver to my ear and heard Drew Pierson's voice shouting, 'Fag, Fag, Fag,' over and over and over again. It rings in my ears still. 'Fag! I'll kick your ass good and hard the next time I see you. Goddamn you, Fag!' You, reader, are probably asking yourself, 'Who is this Drew Pierson and why is he being sohomophobic toward Glen?'
It all began last Thursday. I stopped into Dave's Kwik Stop on my way home from work and couldn't help but notice the cashier, a bulky, short-haired boy who had 'athletic scholarship' written all over his broad, dullish face and 'Drew Pierson: I'm here to help!' written on a name tag pinned to his massive chest. I took a handbasket and bought, I believe, a bag of charcoal briquettes and a quartered fryer. At the register this Drew fellow rang up the items and said, 'I'll bet you're going home to grill you some chicken.'
I admitted that it was indeed my plan. Drew struck me as being very perceptive and friendly. Most of the Kwik Stop employees arehomophobic but something about Drew's manner led me to believe that he was different, sensitive and open. That evening, sitting on my patio and staring into the glowing embers nestled in my tiny grill, I thought of Drew Pierson and for the first time in months I felt something akin to a beacon of hope flashing through the darkness of my mind. I, Glen, smiled.
I returned to Dave's Kwik Stop the next evening and bought some luncheon meat, a loaf of bread, potato chips, and a roll of toilet paper.
At the cash register Drew rang up my items and said, 'I'll bet you're going on a picnic in the woods!'
The next evening I had plans to eat dinner at the condominium of my sister and herhomophobic husband, Vince Covington (see newsletter volume 1, no. 1). On the way to their home I stopped at the Kwik Stop, where I bought a can of snuff. I don't use snuff, wouldn't think of it. I only ordered snuff because it was one of the few items behind the counter and on a lower shelf. Drew, as an employee, is forced to wear an awkward garment sort of a cross between a vest and a sandwich board. The terrible, synthetic thing ties at the sides and falls practically to the middle of his thigh. I only ordered the snuff so that, as he bent over to fetch it, I might get a more enlightened view of Drew's physique. Regular readers of this newsletter will understand what I am talking about. Drew bent over and squatted on his heels, saying, Which one? Tuberose? I used to like me some snuff. I'll bet you're going home to relax with some snuff, aren't you?'
The next evening, when i returned for more snuff, Drew explained that he was a freshman student at Carteret County Community College, where he majors in psychology. I was touched by his naZ. CCCC might as well print their diplomas on tar paper. One might take a course in diesel mechanics or pipe fitting but under no circumstances should one study psychology at CCCC. That is where certified universities recruit their studies for abnormal psychology. CCCC is where the missing links brood and stumble and swing from the outer branches of our educational system.
Drew, bent over, said that he was currently taking a course in dreams. The teacher demands that each student keep a dream notebook, but Drew, exhausted after work, sleeps, he said, 'like a gin soaked log,' and wakes remembering nothing.
I told him I've had some interesting dreams lately, because it's true, I have.
Drew said, 'Symbolic dreams? Dreams that you could turn around when you're awake and make sense of?'
I said, yes, haunting dreams, meaningful, dense.
He asked then, hunkered down before the snuff, if I would relate my dreams to him. I answered, yes indeed, and he slapped a tin of snuff on the counter and said, 'On the house!'
I returned home, my heart a bright balloon. Drew might be young, certainly perhaps no older than, say, Steve Dolger's current boyfriend. He may not be able to hold his own during strenuous intellectual debate, but neither can most people. My buoyant spirit carried me home, where it was immediately deflated by the painful reminder that my evening meal was to consist of an ethnic lasagna pathetically submitted earlier that day by Melinda Delvecchio, a lingering temp haunting the secretarial pool over at the office in which I work. Melinda, stout, inquisitive, and bearded as a potbellied pig, has taken quite a shine to me. She is clearly and mistakenly in love with me and presents me, several times a week, with hideous dishes protected with foil. 'Someone needs to fatten you up,' she says, placing her eager hooves against my stomach. One would think that Melinda Delvecchio's kindness might come as a relief to the grindinghomophobia I encounter at the office.
One might think that Melinda Delvecchio is thoughtful and generous until they pull back the gleaming foil under which lies her hateful concoction of overcooked pasta stuffed with the synthetic downy fluff used to fill plush toys and cheap cushions. Melinda Delvecchio is no friend of mind far from it and, regarding the heated 'lasagna' steaming before me, I made a mental note to have her fired as soon as possible.
That night I dreamt that I was forced to leave my home and move underground into a dark, subterranean chamber with low, muddy ceilings and no furniture. That was bad enough, but to make matters worse I did not live alone but had to share the place with a community of honest-to-God trolls. These were small trolls with full beards and pointy, curled shoes. The trolls were hideously and relentlessly merry. They called me by name, saying, 'Glen, so glad you could join us! Look, everybody, Glen's here! Welcome aboard, friend!' They were all so agree-able and satisfied with my company that I woke up sweating at 6:00A.M. and could not return to sleep for fear of them.
I showered twice and shaved my face, passing the time until seven, at which time I phoned Drew at his parents' home. He answered groggy and confused. I identified myself and paused while he went to fetch a pencil and tablet with which to record my story.
Regular readers ofGlen's Homophobia Newsletter know that I, Glen, honor truth and hold it above all other things. The truth, be it ugly or naked, does not frighten me. The meaner the truth, the harder I, Glen, stare it down. However, on this occasion I decided to make an exception. My dreaming of trolls means absolutely nothing. It's something that came to me in my sleep and is of no real importance. It is our waking dreams, our daydreams that are illuminating. Regular readers ofGlen's Homophobia Newsletter know that I dream of the day when our people can walk the face of this earth free of the terriblehomophobia that binds us. What are sleeping dreams but so much garbage? I can't bear to hear other people's dreams unless I myself am in them.
I put all these ideas together in a manageable sort of way and told Drew Pierson that I dreamt I was walking through a forest of angry, vindictive trees.
'Like those hateful trees in The Wizard of Oz?' he said. 'Those mean trees that threw the apples?'
'Yes,' I said, 'exactly.'
'Did any of them hit you?' he asked, concerned.
'A few.'
'Ouch! Then what?'
I told him I came upon a clearing where I saw a single tree, younger than the rest but stocky, a husky, good-looking tree that spoke to me, saying, 'I'll bet you're tired of being hated, aren't you?'
I could hear Drew scratching away with his pencil and repeating my dictation: 'I. . bet. . you're. . tired. . of. . being. . hated. .'
I told Drew that the tree had spoken in a voice exactly like his own, low and firm, yet open and friendly.
'Like my voice, really?' He seemed pleased. 'Damn, my voice on a tree. I never thought about a thing like that.'
That night I dreamt I was nailed to a cross that was decorated here and there with fragrant tulips. I glanced over at the cross next to me, expecting to see Christ, but instead, nailed there, I saw Don Rickles. We waved to each other and he mouthed the words, 'Hang in there.'
I called Drew the next morning and told him I once again dreamt I was in a forest clearing. Once again I found myself face-to-face with a husky tree.
Drew asked, 'What did the tree say this time?'
I told him the tree said, 'Let me out! Let me out! I'm yearning to break free.'
'Break free of what?' he asked.
'Chains and limitations,' I said. The tree said, 'Strip me of my bark, strip me of my bark.'
'The tree said that to you personally or was there someone else standing around?'
