“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” Casey took a beat, a moment just to look at me. “Hope it all turns out like you want, Slick.”
I watched Casey walk away, and then went into the enclosure to have a coming out conversation a few days before the start of Pride Month 2014.
“Are you gay?” Eddie had come right over, and now sat on my hip.
He mimicked the sign. Sometimes he did that, even with words we didn’t use often. “Do you want a boyfriend?” My hand to my forehead first, followed by the tap of two index fingers, the left over right, then reversed, it was a complicated sign, too complex to immediately mimic.
“Love Eli.”
Was Eddie saying he wanted love, or he loved me? That I was his boyfriend? Hell if I knew. I leaned against a tree trunk and sighed. “A male chimp friend…a same s*x, sa
