‘I think we’ll have separate bills this time. I’m not getting in trouble with my wife again.’
‘That’s a shame, I was looking forward to showing the commander our combined receipt and watch him sweat as we tried to expense it.’
They talked for some time about their upbringings and families, but the conversation naturally took a turn to the Lincoln case as it was after all what they had most in common.
‘I gotta tell you, Darnell, I’ve read a lot about Lincoln. And sure, I’ve heard theories before questioning whether he truly was the man everyone claimed he was, but I never once thought it was true. I just thought it was hype. But the Changs and the Spabrunts of this world have proven it’s all true. I’m just in shock.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Darnell replied, filling her glass with a Chilean Merlot which he had ordered for the table. ‘It’s hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn’t heard about any of this before. I’d been ignorant of these theories for decades, which I wish I still was in a way. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. I feel like I’ve lost my hero, like I’ve lost a family member.’
‘I hear you. A few years ago, when my dad turned around and threw my sister out for bringing a girl home, I truly lost all respect for him.’ Vanessa took a sip of her wine before continuing. ‘He didn’t just break her heart, he broke mine too. He was my hero. He always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. Unfortunately I didn’t realise that would be restricted to my career alone.’
‘I thought you were close with your father?’ Darnell asked, conscious of the impact he’d made on her career.
‘I am. I’ll always be a daddy’s girl. But the fact is he really crushed me that day. Suddenly I realised that unconditional love doesn’t really exist, well not when it comes to him. He loved us as long as we were, in his eyes, normal. I was fortunate enough to be straight, but I’d like to think if I was gay, he’d be still there for me. I’ve tried many times since to urge him to reconsider his feelings towards my sister but he’s a strong-willed man. I think he worries it would damage his credibility in Washington. It’s a shame, it really is, and it breaks my heart.’
‘What about your mother? What does she make of all this?’ Darnell sipped his wine and curiously stared at his date for the evening. His own wife had very different views to him regarding their child’s sexuality, and he wondered whether Vanessa’s mother was the same.
‘My mom died when I was a teenager. She had Motor Neuron disease. She died within months of being diagnosed. My sister didn’t come out until much later. I hope to God she’d have been more understanding. But we’ll never know now. She loved Ellen Degeneres though so maybe that’s something I can hold on to.’
‘I’m sorry to hear about your mom’s illness. Is that the disease which Stephen Hawkins has?’
‘The very same.’ Vanessa nodded. ‘It’s a miracle he’s still going. That’s very rare. It usually consumes you quite quickly. You’re lucky if you live a year once you’ve been diagnosed.’
‘Apart from your father’s intolerance towards her life…’ Darnell changed the subject. ‘…tell me, is your sister happy?’
‘Oh my God, yes! She’s so happy. She has a wonderful wife and they have an amazing life out in California, great careers and they travel everywhere! They have everything they could ever want. A big beautiful house, sports cars and, when they do travel, they travel first class. I can’t help but be a little jealous.’
‘Does it not upset you that you won’t be an aunt?’
‘No not really. It saves me a fortune at Christmas. But who says they won’t have kids? They might decide one day to adopt or look at surrogacy. There’s so many options these days and the President has ensured a lot of rights for gay people, so much so that there’s very little they can’t do today that straight people can.’
‘That’s really interesting. I always had this image in my head that gay people were unhappy and their life was full of issues, that they couldn’t settle down or have monogamous relationships.’
‘Well the only thing that makes them unhappy is people not accepting them for who they are,’ Vanessa replied and shot a judgemental stare at her colleague. He nodded and took another sip of his wine.
The silence hovering over their table was interrupted by a bleeping from Vanessa’s purse. She lifted out her phone and answered. She stepped away from the table and Darnell watched as she mouthed an ‘oh my God’ before peering up at Darnell with a tremor of worry in her eyes.
‘What is it?’ Darnell asked when she returned to the table.
‘We have to go.’ Vanessa downed the rest of her glass and grabbed her jacket.
‘But we’ve only just finished the main course, I was hoping to get a dessert. Have you seen them? They look amazing.’ He eyed up the cakes on a stand in the corner of the room.
‘There’s been more vandalism. The same symbol.’
‘Where?’ Darnell dabbed the red moisture from his lips and shot up.
‘Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated.’
‘We’re reaching the end of Lincoln’s story.’
*
Ford’s Theatre on Tenth Street was originally opened as a Baptist Church in 1883. In the same year as Abraham Lincoln’s accession into The White House, John T. Ford bought the church and refurbished the entire building into an entertainment complex. Despite the thousands of award-winning performances which had taken
