We're Working On It by Richard Norway Page A

words.
    Richard finally began, “Have you ever...?”
    No. That was too personal, and Richard had no right to ask that question.
    “Have I ever what?”
    “Never mind.”
    Cory stared out the window for a moment, and then slowly turned toward Richard.
    “I knew you might ask me that. But, no, not really. I mean, no, I haven’t really done that. Mike let me, well, touch him once, but that’s all I ever did.”
    Cory paused for a moment really thinking about this.
    “This is kind of hard to talk about. I kept asking myself about how I felt when it happened, with Mike. I felt like I was doing what was so natural and right. I didn’t feel it was wrong, but at the same time that I was in trouble for doing it. After a few minutes though, Mike asked me to stop. He said that it just wasn’t for him.”
    “Did he get mad at you?”
    “No. No, that was the weird part. Mike asked me not to be mad at him. He was apologizing to me. I was so embarrassed. It’s like he wanted to be my friend but he couldn’t be like I was. He felt sorry for that. I guess he felt bad because he thought that he couldn’t be the friend that he wanted to be. I told him that he already was a better friend then he’d even know. He liked that.”
    “But, you and Mike are still friends though?”
    “Oh, yeah. He told me that he would never tell anyone about me, and that he still wanted to be my friend no matter what. Until you, Mike was the only one I could talk to about this. I think Mike will always be my friend, even though we don’t see each other much.”
    “There will be others. You’ll meet new friends here, I’m sure. You’ll make some good friends, the kind who you can be honest with and they’ll be honest with you.”
    Richard paused again for a moment.
    “But you need to be careful who you talk to about being gay. Some people just don’t understand yet. Who you are IS who you are. And you can’t forget that. That’s what’s important. But you’ll see. Not everyone is going to understand you. Some people can’t understand that other people can be different than themselves. I guess I’m saying that you also need to be safe. You want to grow up and eventually be someone. If you get hurt somehow, you jeopardize those chances. You can come out and tell everyone who you really are, and I’m sure you’ll want to do that one day, but it has to be at your choosing. Just be in control when that day happens. You choose. One day the ignorance and hate will end. I believe that. And then it won’t matter anymore. Just be careful, Cory, and be sure.”
    “I hope you’re right about what’s out there ending some day.”

Eight
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    The New Friend
    It was now about 6:00 PM and Richard and Cory headed for home. As soon as they got in the house, Cory ran upstairs to his room carrying all of his shopping bags full of new clothes causing Richard to be a little curious as to what he was up to. Richard followed him upstairs and peeked around the door. Cory was taking his new clothes out of the plastic shopping bags and was putting them away in the empty dresser across from the bed.
    As Richard walked in, he said, “Think it’ll all fit in there?”
    Cory looked at Richard and laughingly said, “We didn’t buy that much.”
    Richard looked over at Cory and he seemed to be somewhere else. Cory’s eyes were focused in the center of the room. As Cory’s eyes began to play around the room, Richard knew that Cory was settling in – this was becoming his home.
    Richard looked back to last Thursday night when he and Cory met on that rainy night. It seemed so long ago. In just a few short days, Cory had moved into Richard’s house and by Tuesday afternoon, Cory was placed officially in Richard’s care as a foster child, at least on an emergency basis. Something inside was telling him that he needed this boy in his home. It made his idea of family seem complete once again. He wondered if the word he was thinking of would ever become a