Bruce?s roommate, Kevin, was born on an Indiana farm to a large intelligent family of people raised in the manner of Victorians. From what he told me, it was typical in his household, when he grew up, for there to be regular fistfights and violent disputes. People would regularly hold conversations in the parlor for hours and hours on end. He often said that he missed that part of life and that me being younger, that these were things I will never experience, things completely gone from our culture. He was largely abused by his father when growing up. His father was a vicious man who tortured small animals and regularly took out his frustrations on Kevin. At one point he found himself homeless and had to survive by taking odd jobs and scrounging as much food as possible thrown away in the trash behind various restaurants. Bruce dated Kevin long before I met him (to my dismay), after they broke up after a few weeks, Bruce and Kevin still remained friends, and both Kevin, Ed, and Bruce got a house together. Kevin?s current husband, Ed, started dating Kevin in 1996. Unbeknownst to both Kevin and Ed, Kevin contacted the AIDS virus through a former lover long before Kevin dated Ed. Bruce didn?t receive the virus, but Kevin did. When Kevin came down with a bad case of Yellow Fever, both Bruce and Ed suspected that he needed to get tested. Kevin pushed it out of the way for the longest time, but eventually he went to a doctor and their fears were confirmed: Kevin had the virus?and?.so did Ed. Through his current employer, Ed was able to receive domestic partnership benefits that helped pay for the medication Kevin and Ed had to take. When Bruce borrowed off of Kevin and Ed?s equity to pay for bills, Bruce worked out a contract to pay Kevin and Ed off over time. Kevin is a person who believed firmly in the Bible, and he took such a firm belief in it he claimed to know more about it than anyone else, and claimed to have memorized almost all of it. He had a scary capacity for remembering the smallest details from years prior and remembering days and times to a T. He was a big aficionado of antiques, and studied regularly on their value. He also claimed to have had visions of events in the future. I was skeptical and naturally debated Kevin on several points (when I had the time for all those 2-3 hours conversations) but I was amazed to the extent to which he took his religious beliefs. I believe Kevin struggled with his homosexuality for a very long time. At one point he joined a church and took it into his heart that his lifestyle offended God. At one point he questioned his own relationship with Ed, and seriously considered leaving him. I always wondered how a gay person could simultaneously believe its wrong to be gay, but act accordingly. I never got that about Kevin.
This was long before I met Bruce. I give this introduction, because to completely understand my side of the story, you have to understand some background information about his roommates.
When Bruce?s friend Donna in Tucson (we lived in Phoenix) told him that she was giving away a $3,000.00 table, Bruce thought it would be nice to have for our house, even though we weren?t too crazy about going through the hassle of getting it. When Kevin found out about the table, he asked me to get it the next time Bruce and I visited Donna. Since I was the only person in the house with a truck, I was the only person who could move it. He promised to reimburse me for all the expenses (for gas and so on) and I was reluctant at first but eventually after much coaxing from Bruce I went to Tucson with him to get he table. On our way back I put the table in the back of my F-150 and secured it tightly, cushioned all of the chairs that came with it and took every little precaution to make sure it got back to our house securely. We did, and we also did all of the work getting it in the house, even though by the time we got back it was 11:00 pm and I had work the next day. I waited for several days, but Kevin?never?reimbursed me. When he was called on it he informed Bruce and I, that he didn?t like my attitude and that he was reluctant to reimburse me for the table. For a person that firmly believed in keeping his promises, I was aghast at the childish way an older man, claiming to have been brought up by Victorians, and I acknowledged I would never grant him another favor as long as I would live. Since the ?table incident? I started coming off as more rude to Bruce?s roommate. When I originally moved in I promised Bruce I would be polite per his request, but that ended soon after. I put Kevin on the spot for his behavior and when he would leave his dishes in the sink (one of his pet peeves). I put him on the spot for telling factual errors about little things that nobody cared about and when he called Bruce a name, I ordered Kevin ?DO??NOT?.CALL?..HIM?..THAT!? In other words, the peevishly Kevin acted, the more peevishly I acted toward him. Eventually the 3-hour conversations stopped. Methinks he wasn?t use to dealing with counter arguments.
As bad as this sounds, I truly hated the man and I wished he would die. Bruce took my anger seriously and created a Voodoo doll of Kevin. Even though Bruce was a Wiccan, I suspected with skepticism, the capacity for that degree of power. Kevin eventually started to have problems at work, and every once in a while a lift, or a car would cut across his path too closely. The more often it happened, the more I suspected if Bruce had a hand in it. One day when Kevin was at work he fell and had to go to the hospital and he was getting sicker because of the AIDS virus. He eventually shaved his head as a way to have his employees suspect that he had to go in for chemo because of cancer. It never ceased to amaze me that as much as he tried to go to great pains to make sure his employer viewed him favorably, he didn?t care much about how people viewed him at home. He knew he was an A?hole, and I thought the same of him.
Bruce and I planned our wedding a full year in advance. We did almost everything ourselves, the cake, the catering, the food, the decorations, etc? Random Task and Scarlett unselfishly agreed to come to our wedding from San Diego, and we looked forward to their visit. In the months before the wedding Kevin regularly told Bruce and I that the marriage would eventually fail, that we would split off, and that he had a vision that backed all of his predictions up. Kevin also wanted to come to the wedding. This puzzled me, and I told Bruce not to invite him. Bruce thought it was a good gesture, even though he didn?t deserve it. Truthfully?.we did not want Kevin to be at the wedding, we thought his deliberate lack of support was good enough for a ?no thanks?, and coincidentally, on the day of our wedding, Kevin and Ed got sick, and both couldn?t make it.
During the day of the wedding, Ed had to go to work. While Kevin was at home, nursing his sickness, he saw according to his words, ?a hooded figure, without a face, pass in front of him?.?
(To be continued?.next Monday)