Chapter 65

“That’s a lot to take in. Whatever happened to him? He finally left home—and the neighborhood.”

“He moved to San Francisco after college, and got careless.”

“I don’t know what that means,” she said.

“He got totally involved in the ‘scene’ out there but didn’t always play safe. Last I heard, he was HIV positive but didn’t have full-blown AIDS.”

“If he’s told his family about that, it’s news to me.”

“I don’t think he’s had any contact with them for a very long time. Sound familiar?”

She let out a huge sigh. “Yeah, it does.”

“There’s more,” I said. “Remember Ray Cacci?”

“Sure. You don’t mean that you and he….”

“Sure.”

“But he got married… had kids….”

“Some guys never have what it takes to face up to who they are, so they do what they think is expected of them. Do people think that he’s happy?”

“There’s a lot of talk about trouble in that house. And it’s known that he insists on going out ‘with the boys’, as they say, on Fridays or Saturdays.”