Dylan

The 8-Shaded Rainbow –Part 17

A couple - Loraine and Matt, are my two newest friends.  Matt is Jeff’s brother so, that makes it a lot easier to explain how I get to know them, personally that is.

Loraine is eight months pregnant with her and Matt’s first child.  You guessed it right, the baby shower party we have had was for Loraine.  I used to see them around, I mean Loraine and Matt.  It’s just but a tiny town we are in, remember?  Back then however, we mutually feel like we have nothing but only Filipino blood which makes us civil whenever and wherever we may see each other around.  Jeff has been the bridge.  And since we were already familiar with each other’s faces in the past, no grand introductions had been necessary.  The first time I stepped into the couple’s house, it was a done deal.  Right then and there, formality questions followed amidst the air of warm welcome I already feel as I came in.  I thought to myself, it must be about my being Jeff’s friend to start; meaning, if I am in fact okay with Jeff, I should be okay with everyone.  That was sweet and rather easy.

And why am I talking about Loraine and Matt when I am not about to write about them yet?  Ah, I remember.  It is because the recent episodes of my “rainbow series” has had Loraine’s and Matt’s house as the setting. (An off-white duplex, 3-bedrooms upstairs, the living room which tells a whole bunch of stories; and the kitchen area where “food” floods most of the time.)  And why is that so?  Well, their house seems to be just as warm that, occasions, official or not, are held in that decent-sized dwelling most of the time.  For the many weekends I already spent in that place, (which is actually just about a minute away from my house) I just can tell how fun-loving, warm and compassionate these people are.  I witnessed gatherings there, big and small, birthday parties, some regular weekend “chillax” moments, the recent baby shower party, etc.  Also, I witnessed too much drama right down there; love, connection, sex trips, betrayals, pains and struggles.  As if to add flare to the household’s notion, Ethan rents one room while Alex has the other.  These two, living the rock star life, somehow overshadows that of Loraine and Matt’s.  Ethan and Alex’s lifestyles are rather scandalous - theirs and the many others’ who come and go as gatherings are held and done.  That may sound a little bit loud and nasty to some, but here is where I actually am able to get first hand access to all these actions.  It is not really my kind of life to live but I surely can make this into coming-together-of-words which many others can relate to.  Here is  a first rate scoop, which, although known to them that I am in fact writing about them, they actually don’t seem to care and just getting on with their lives which has been the way it is from long since.

From the very recent party we had for Loraine, while all the guests has gone home and just a handful is left, (of course, I am one of the few who’s left to stay until the wee hours) I somewhat get reunited with one “lost” friend so I thought.  Loraine happens to be friends with an old friend of mine whom I’ve lost contact for many months now, considering we are just running in circles in again, this meagre-sized town.

Dylan.  I met him at the church service last year around summertime.  He used to work in Taiwan before he applied for work and get hired in Canada.  How I met him is rather embarrassing.  We were both late for the service so we went in to the church together.  We just started as chitty-chatters.  The next time we saw each other in the church, we thought we could maybe talk about many other things and so much more.  And so we did.  Dylan invited me to have lunch (and I thought I will just join him in since I am at that time actually starving and as the SOP I knew, we could just maybe, pay individually.)  That didn’t get to be the case.  While I offered to place our order when I saw him heading to the washroom, he yelled back telling me to wait.  Well, guess what? I ended up belly bursting with finger-lickin’-good chicken, a pool of freshly-cooked French fries and some more of those chicken tornados.  Oh yes sir, your guess is as good as mine - Dylan is this fast food’s store manager!  I don’t know what to do first; close my mouth and put together my dropped jaws maybe? Wash off my very red face from embarrassment; or say Thank You for a free meal? I am deliberating! Oh I really am so dumbstruck.  Not to mention the teasing looks Dylan’s colleagues are giving us.  Back to the kitchen and the counters, I can see them whispering and gossiping,  Apparently, I am the first lady ever Dylan brought over there as if on a lunch date. Oh, those eyes...I can tell.  (Sigh!) If only they knew.

Dylan, from that first instance that I met him, left quite an impression in my mind.  A very kind-hearted person, very generous and gay!  (Noreen reacts to this most of the time.  She’d say: “that is so you, Jessie.  For you, every single guy is Gay!”)  But believe me, more often than not, I am soooooo.... right!  With Dylan however, the rarely “False” call of my intuition applies.

He impregnated his girlfriend while they were together in Taiwan. Two months after, his visa to Canada arrived and he sent her home to the Philippines to take care of her pregnancy and their baby.  He wasn’t there when the baby was born obviously.  A few months after his baby is born, his dad passed away.  He went home for a couple of weeks; paid respect to his dad; a few days after, he had the baby baptized and then, he is back to Canada.  The last time I saw of Dylan was in a bar.  Although he chose to be a bit distant so as not to give satisfaction to his colleagues who, until then, still has the air of gossiping and teasing as well as the nasty looks all for me and Dylan.

Anyway, going back.  Okay, so he got his girlfriend pregnant; He is a dad now.  I understand that.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I am entirely wrong.  I mean, gay guys are still guys anatomy-wise, right?  And since I have Jeff, all the more that my impression is justified when he stated the same opinion.  Mind you, it takes one, to know one.  Darn! Maybe, that makes me one of them as well. Hmmmmm.....

Oh well, gay or not, it should actually be out of the question.  For as long as he stays responsible as a partner to his girlfriend, as a dad to his child, as a child to his mother; I think those are credit enough for this person to be entitled of respect.  How many straight guys do I know who are not only irresponsible, who not only doesn’t know how to treat a girl right; but are also problems of the society. As my signature comment goes: We are not here to judge.  So?

Whatever, I love Dylan just the same.  I am glad that Matt went out at that unholy hour of the night to get Dylan.  I am glad that we were reunited that night through our common friends, in that common-looking living room of that off-white duplex; I am glad that we had cans of Coors to seal in the found-again comradeship; I am glad that we ate rice and beef stew at 1o’clock in the morning.  Oh, I am overjoyed.  Like Jeff, Dylan is one person who just sees me through.  I can tell that after the many months of not seeing each other, nothing has really changed.  Maybe just a little more of who we are, revealed and rediscovered.