CAPTAIN ASTRO WAS A FRAUD (5/11)

“Brian we probably should go home and try to get some sleep.  I know that we aren’t going to do that; I’m just pointing out that we should.”

“Sunshine there's no way that I’m leaving this hospital without our son.”

“Then we'll have to try to get some rest in the waiting room.  We won’t be of any use to Gus, in the morning, if we're totally exhausted.”

“We can try but I doubt that I’ll be able to fall asleep.  God Justin the Strangler knew who Gus was.  That means we know who the Strangler is.”

“No it doesn’t, practically every fag in the community knows Gus Kinney, son of the King of Liberty Avenue.  We certainly didn’t keep him out of sight over the years.  We brought him to practically every event either or both of us ever attended over the years.  We even took him to Woody’s several times, what were we thinking?  Brian you are no more to blame for tonight than Gus is.  If you're going to blame yourself then we'll never be able to keep Gus from blaming himself.  Try to get to sleep.”

“I’ll try Sunshine.”

“That's all I can ask Brian.”

“Justin are you still awake?”

“Yes, what do you want?”

“I’ve been trying to think who we know who could be depraved enough to be the Strangler.  The only guy I can think of has been gone from Pittsburgh for years and years though I suppose he could come back just long enough to strangle someone once a year.”

“Brian you have to get over this hatred for David Cameron.  He was just as much a victim of Michael‘s greed as anyone else in the group.”

“No he was the cause of it.  Mikey was never money grubbing before he fell into the clutches of that manipulative chiropractor.”

“Brian he had been hiding how much he was making for years before he met David.  Michael has barely been in our lives since that whole mess so don’t bring him into it in this time of crisis.”

“I know I shouldn’t but Justin he was my best friend for over 16 years I still worry about him sometimes.  Then I get so mad I could just . . .”

“Just what?”

“I was going to say strangle him but that isn’t a good joke at this point in time.  While it hurt that Mikey lied to me all of those years what really hurt was how much he hurt Deb and Vic with his deceit.”

“I know, Deb dealt with him because she had to but I don’t think that Vic said a word to him up to the day that Vic died.”

“I don’t think Vic resented that Mikey wouldn’t spend the money so much as lying about earning it in the first place.  We all had our prejudices about the Big Q Mart so that we didn’t stop to think that the assistant managers, let alone the manager, of such a big successful store would make more money than Mikey led us to believe.”

“Just think if David hadn’t tried to get Michael to move to Portland with him we might have never known about Michael’s years of monetary deceit.”

“I know I did everything I could to get him to go with David. I was being so magnanimous; sending my best friend off to the ends of the world for his own romantic good no matter what it did to my emotional stability.  How could I have been so foolish as to trust that little pipsqueak?   When he finally admitted that he was making too much money as manager of the Big Q Mart to think about giving it all up just because David was having a mid-life crisis was mind blowing.  That certainly started the ending of our friendship but his behavior towards you kept putting it on thinner and thinner ice. He just couldn’t admit to himself that I didn’t and wouldn’t ever love him in the way he wanted me to.   But when he actually complained that I spent too much time with Gus I couldn't beleive what I was hearing; that was the end of our friendship.  He should have known what choice I would make between him and you without adding in Gus as well.”

“It didn’t bother me too much when we didn’t have to see him anymore.  He just couldn’t admit that you could change enough to love me and Gus when you could never change enough to fuck him.”

“Justin lets try to get to sleep again, tomorrow is going to be a horrible day.  I really don’t know how I’m going to deal with the media.”

“Just treat them like any target audience for one of your campaigns.  Decide what they need to know and how you are going to control how they get that limited information.”

“That's brilliant Justin, why didn’t I think of it.”

“Because I’m the brightest person in this relationship.”

“Sunshine I love you, your big ego included, of course that bubble butt you have doesn‘t hurt matters any.”

TBC