Chapter 79

“Maybe that’s why he didn’t like me,” Garner suggested.

“Possibly. But I don’t think so, dear. He was quite devoted to Janet. Very protective. And though he didn’t warm to your father, I think he didrespect him, in a way.”

“Why, then?” Garner asked.

His aunt said nothing for a long time. At last she sighed.

“I suppose it might have been that he had sensed your—nature.”

Garner started, and then felt his face flush as he realized she was talking about his being gay.

“Really?” he said. “When I was six years old?”

“Well, dear,” his aunt replied, clearly uncomfortable. “I—well, I read up about that sort of thing—after you got me hooked up on the internet. Apparently, parents of the same sex can sense certain things, and the traditional male nature is sometimes negatively reacting to the—gay nature in boys.”

“Oh.”

“And your uncle, he—well, he used to get into fistfights, sometimes, when he drank. In bars, I mean.”