Lawrence was faltering. ‘I will not argue the Bible with you. You only have to look at Sodom and Gomorrah to—’
Kate threw open the Bible. ‘Oh yes, Sodom and Gomorrah —that old chestnut. Let’s see … Genesis …’ She flicked to the beginning of Lawrence’s Bible. ‘Two strangers come to Sodom to spend the night and a crowd of men gather outside Lot’s house and shout, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.” Know them? What does that mean, Lawrence?’ Lawrence started to reply but Kate didn’t give him a minute. ‘No, let me help you. The Hebrew word “to know” is yàdhá. It can mean to have sex. In fact the word appears in the Bible nine hundred and forty-three times but only ten times does it refer to shagging and always heterosexual shagging, except possibly this time.’ She looked straight up at Lawrence with anger burning through her. ‘So, let me get this clear. This would be the one time in the whole Bible the word gets used in this way?’
‘Why are you doing this?’ faltered Lawrence.
‘Because he is my God too and I absolutely believe that he would not, will not, turn me away. I will not let you make him something he is not,’ replied Kate quietly. There was a slight pause and then Kate cranked up the heat again. ‘Look at it, Lawrence, don’t you think it’s bizarre about Sodom and Gomorrah? The Old Testament has a perfectly good word for homosexual sex — shákhabh — but it isn’t used in the story.’ Kate turned to the rest of the group as a sort of aside. ‘Shákhabh also refers to bestiality, which, of course, we know is so close to the same thing. So we are supposed to believe that this one time the word “to know” means men wanting to have sex with complete strangers, is that right? How about if it just meant “get acquainted with”? You know … get to know? Couldn’t it? I think it’s possible.’
‘I don’t have to listen to this,’ stammered Lawrence.
‘Kate, please,’ pleaded Inge.
‘No. He came in here damning us and I won’t have it. Sodom and Gomorrah — it’s a famous story so you would think everyone in the Bible would agree about it. All those bum boys killed by God. It’s a great bit of gossip, except Luke says it’s about inhospitality, Ezekiel says it’s about failure to take care of the poor and St Paul, who hated poofs, never mentions it at all. Let me tell you the real sin of Sodom, Pastor Hansen. For thousands of years in the Christian West homosexuals have been the victims of inhospitable treatment. They have been condemned by the Church, been victims of persecution, torture and even death. Because no one understood the real crime of Sodom and Gomorrah — shunning those who are strange to you — that crime has been repeated every day to gay people across the world. If Sodom and Gomorrah is about gay people, then Jonah and the Whale is a treatise on fishing.’
Lawrence was wide-eyed by now. It was an impressive performance by Kate, and Eve could see that even in his grief Lawrence was having to think.
‘I didn’t come here to be bullied,’ he managed.
‘And I don’t want to bully you. I just don’t have any more time to be patient with this nonsense,’ replied Kate, surprisingly gently.
Inge tried to intervene. ‘Kate, that’s enough.’ But Kate turned on her.
‘You have no idea what is enough, Inge. I don’t want you to live like this when I am gone. I am trying to help you too.’
John murmured, ‘Like you helped Patrick?’ It was a mistake because Kate started up again.
‘Yes, like I tried to help Patrick. John, you’re a bit of a God botherer..
John blushed and clearly wished he had never opened his mouth to be drawn in to the fracas. ‘Well, I. .
Kate held open the Bible. ‘What happens to Lot after Sodom is destroyed?’
‘Well… uhm…’
‘Lot runs away with his wife and daughters while all that brimstone and fire rains down on Sodom. Then what?’
‘His wife looks back and gets turned to a pillar of salt,’ Eve said, pleased that she had remembered something.
Kate waved her hand at Eve as if to accept the contribution. ‘Then what?’ she persisted. ‘It’s been a bad day for Lot. His city’s been destroyed, his wife is a pillar of salt, he’s got two daughters, God’s in a horrible mood… what happens, John?’
‘I don’t remember,’ John replied.
‘Lawrence?’
‘It isn’t the point of the story. I didn’t come here to debate—’ Kate was not to be diverted. ‘I’ll tell you. Lot and his daughters go up in the mountains where he gets drunk and then what does he do? Lawrence?’
‘He sleeps with his daughters,’ faltered Lawrence.
Sleeps with his daughters! Eve thought. It was all mind-boggling. Like trying to catch up late in the day with a rather racy television soap.
‘Lot sleeps with his daughters,’ agreed Kate. ‘But, and here’s the nice part, he’s so drunk that it’s not his fault. “The first-born went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.” Not his fault but still not very nice, is it? And what does God do? More fire and brimstone? No, there isn’t even a rumble of thunder—’
John stood up. ‘I don’t think we should stay. I think it’s enough.’
Kate grabbed him by the arm and held him tight. ‘It is not enough. Is that the lesson? Is that what parents do?’
Lawrence shook his head. ‘I’m sure your parents—’
‘My parents haven’t spoken to me for twenty years. I might as well be dead to them, but a young boy, your son, is actually dead, and it didn’t have to happen. I will not stand by and let Inge take the blame, or worse, let it happen to someone else because that is supposedly the message from God. How can it be? Inge and I are a couple. We are an offence and what will happen to us? Are we going to be visited by divine wrath because we love each other? Are there going to be earthquakes in Edenford?
Floods, famines, outbreaks of pestilence? Or are we too refined for that? Maybe just a bad case of rose blight. Actually, maybe we’ll be all right. The Holiness code only condemns male homosexuals not female. Women are only condemned to death if they have sex with an animal and we haven’t done that for ages.’
Lawrence stared at her with desperation in his eyes. ‘St Paul said—’
‘Oh, St Paul didn’t want anyone to have a good time. All those bloody letters he wrote. Did you ever ask yourself why no one ever wrote back?’
‘Jesus said that we are commanded—’ Lawrence tried again but Kate wouldn’t let him.
‘Jesus said nothing about it. He never mentioned gays the whole time he was here. We are commanded to love, that’s all. It is an absolute divine command to live a life of love.’
Tears began to flow down Lawrence’s face. ‘I loved my son. I was doing what was right…’
Inge reached out and touched Lawrence on the arm. ‘I don’t doubt it. Maybe Patrick would have grown out of it. It’s possible. Maybe he would have just settled his feelings. Maybe if he had thought everyone was positive for him. That’s all Kate. .
Lawrence wiped his tears. ‘She told him to be gay.’
Now Kate had had enough. ‘No, I didn’t. I just tried to let him talk. To be himself. I loved your son. I gave him some of the last hours of my life as a present. I simply told him to live. Nobody was trying to get him to be a killer or a dope fiend. Nobody was trying to get him to be anything except himself.’
Things seemed to have calmed down when Lawrence suddenly snatched his Bible from Kate. ‘I will not be seduced by you. I will not listen to you. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to blame me. Well, you can’t. I did what was right. I did what I had to do and your.., lover… she killed my boy. I will see this put right. I will see that it never happens again.’
Lawrence was screaming now and Kate was fighting right back in his face.
‘What’s the worst that might have happened to your boy?’ she yelled.
‘You would have made him gay.’
‘He would have lived. He would have…’ At the height of the ba
ttle, Kate’s onslaught was spoiled by the slightest choking sound. A noise caught in her throat and she reached to clutch the mantelpiece but missed and grabbed Lawrence’s arm instead. He had no choice but to help her as she slowly sank to the ground.
‘Oh God, oh God…’ Inge leapt across the room to hold Kate’s head. ‘Kate, Katie, Katie…’ But there was no reply. Kate lay insensible on the floor. A tiny, pale figure with no fight in her whatsoever. For once John was useful.
‘I’ll get an ambulance,’ he said.
Eve ran and got a cold cloth while they waited. It wasn’t long before the siren wailed outside.
Lawrence had sunk down, motionless, into the armchair clutching his Bible. John patted his arm. ‘I’ll take you home,’ he said, and then turned to Eve. ‘I’m so sorry, I had no idea.’
John led Lawrence from the room and there was silence. Inge was crying and Kate was just lying there.
Inge was rocking her and repeating over and over again, ‘Kate, you shouldn’t have, you shouldn’t have.’
Inge said she would call Eve and took Kate to the hospital on her own. They departed and left Eve bewildered and slightly breathless. Eve watched the ambulance leave and wondered if there was any mention of lesbians in the Bible. She didn’t think so but then there wasn’t much about women generally, apart from getting the blame for a few things. She thought about William and Pe Pe and how much humans all revere sperm and maybe that was something to do with it. Lesbians didn’t have sperm so they didn’t really count. The real miracle was that, despite everything, all the obstacles, Kate and Inge were happy together.
Eve ran, she ran back to her house and up the stairs to Tom’s room. She didn’t even knock. She burst in and found him sitting on his bed staring out of the window. He was crying and she ran to him and held him in her arms. Tom sobbed and sobbed. He cried for Patrick, he cried for the woods and the baby ducks and he cried because he was in his mother’s arms and it was okay. When at last he calmed he stayed where he was, nestled in Eve’s embrace. Eve sat in her own thoughts until at last she said, ‘Tom, do you know about Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you know what happened afterwards?’
Tom sat up and wiped his nose on his sleeve. A boy never fully grown. ‘I don’t really care,’ he said. ‘The real sodomites in our time are those whose greed and quest for power have brought war and poverty to millions of innocent people. They are destroying the planet and there is nothing I can do about it. Mum?’
‘Yes?’ said Eve, who could not help him.
‘Would you wash my hair for me?’
It was a simple task but so lovingly done. She washed and trimmed his hair and then put him to bed. Her boy, her beloved son.
Chapter Twenty-three
Inge couldn’t cope any more. Kate was dying and there was nothing she could do. She sat night and day by her partner’s bed until Kate finally thought of some trinket or other she wanted from the house. She sent Inge to get it. She sent Inge to get some air.
A silver Volkswagen Golf was sitting outside the house when Inge got home. A tall, blond woman and a photographer got out. Before Inge was halfway out of her car the photographer was snapping at her. Her instinct was to hide but perhaps for once in her life she had had enough.
‘I know you’ve been sitting here. I know. I’ve seen you,’ she said to the woman who stood notepad at the ready. ‘Why don’t you get a proper job? Write something useful?’
The woman reporter wasn’t listening. She eyed Inge and held up the article about her not being married.
‘I just wanted to follow this up. I just wanted to check a few things.’
‘Well, don’t,’ spat Inge. ‘I’m gay, okay? I didn’t marry because I don’t want to. I am a lesbian. Okay? Are you happy now?’
The woman shrugged. ‘Sure. That wasn’t what we came about.’
‘It wasn’t?’
‘No. Paul Roe’s statement.’ Inge looked blank. ‘The BBC have issued a statement saying they’re updating their image and no one who has presented for them in the past will have their contract renewed. We just wanted your comments.’
‘So why have you been watching me?’
‘We thought Mark Hinks might be here. The footballer. Everyone said you were secretly going out.’ The reporter suddenly felt with a rush that Christmas and Easter had arrived on the same day. ‘Is he gay too?’
Barry confirmed the news. Don’t Even Go There!, the new panel game where people taught their pets to perform impersonations, was about to be announced. As part of their New Talent search the BBC was releasing a thousand silver balloons from their premises across the country. The first person to catch one and phone in would be taking the chair. Jenny Wilson, Creative Controller of the BBC Talent Team, was waiting for the call. Inge’s contract would not be renewed.
It was Eve’s second trip to Edenford General in a year. She never went to the hospital. She didn’t even go when the babies were born. Both her children had been born at home. Kate was on Rachel Ward but in a private room. Eve brought some flowers. They had been for the church but now there didn’t seem any point. The little room was lovely. It had the standard hospital view over a graveyard but otherwise it was very calming. Inge sat in a small winged chair with a plastic covering in case of accidents. She looked dazed and did not speak.
‘You flash thing, Kate,’ Eve said, as she popped the flowers in an inappropriate vase. ‘Going private, eh?’
Perhaps Inge was just exhausted. She had slept at the hospital every night since Kate had been admitted. ‘Hardly,’ she said.
‘It’s the rumours,’ explained Kate.
‘Rumours?’
‘Yes, apparently it’s sweeping the town… Inge, could you provide a drum roll please?’ Inge smiled a little and banged on the end of the bed with her hands as Kate announced, ‘I have Aids.’
Eve felt panicked for a second but was too polite to leave. ‘I thought you had.., cancer,’ she faltered.
‘Relax, Eve, I do, but that doesn’t stop a good rumour. It’s been doing the rounds ever since that article came out with Inge’s rather bold statement. I killed Patrick and now God is killing me with Aids.’ Kate smiled at her partner who sighed.
‘It’s God’s punishment on gay people. It’s what we all get, all gay people, except, irritatingly, lesbians.’ Inge poured Kate some juice as she spoke. ‘So either God is a lesbian or he just doesn’t care.’ She gently lifted her lover’s head and helped her to drink.
There was that word again. Lesbian. Eve didn’t like it but she did like Kate. She didn’t know why. She just did. She watched them together. It was kind. It was love, and that was all that mattered.
Kate lay back on her pillow as Inge wiped her mouth. ‘I’m glad you came, Eve,’ she said. ‘I need to ask you something. I need you to be Inge’s friend. There won’t be anyone else.’
Inge tried to shush her but they both already knew that Kate on a roll was unstoppable.
‘I want you to help her organise the funeral.’
‘What about your family?’ Eve asked.
‘They won’t come. I want something simple and my mother is very ‘High Church’ — you know, Catholic without the pope, that kind of thing. She’s a warden in her parish and there’s a constant whiff of candles and incense about her. She wouldn’t approve. Anyway, she doesn’t see me. Not since she found out about Inge.’
‘That’s sad,’ Eve said.
Inge laughed. ‘Sad but not surprising. This is a woman who refused to visit for two months after Kate decided not to have velveteen curtains in the lounge.’
Kate nodded. ‘Despite all the guarantees of them wearing well.’
It was another world to Eve. People abandoning their children like this. ‘What did she say to you? About Inge?’ she asked.
‘She said I must choose between her and “that dyke”. You wonder how a woman from Surbiton knows a word like that.’ Kate looked at Eve. Inge was holding Kate’s hand and stroking her face when the nurse came in. Eve th
ought something had happened because in an instant Inge let go and moved away from the bed to look out of the window.
Eve didn’t understand. ‘Why did you tell your mother? I mean, she didn’t need to know. I didn’t know.’
Kate smiled. ‘It mattered to me that my parents knew how much I love Inge. That they approved, that they understood.’
Inge sat down and shut her eyes. ‘There was no excuse for them taking it so harshly. They didn’t even know me,’ she murmured.
Kate smiled at Eve. ‘I do think perhaps it was a mistake to tell them on the day of the Royal Wedding.’
‘Which one?’ Eve asked, as if it mattered. She had watched them all with her own mother.
‘Fergie and what’s-his-name. You should have seen the palaver. Mother had decorated the whole front room with bunting made of red, white and blue napkins from Tesco’s, hung over strings from the tomato plants in the garden. I hadn’t really wanted to go but Inge was away working and… anyway, we were watching telly — me, Mum and Dad in total silence. Mum’s very royal. It was a great event. The presenter was droning on…’
‘And there she is. The golden carriage at last coming into view of the cathedral, bearing the fairy-tale bride to meet her prince. She goes in plain Sarah Ferguson and will emerge in the sunlight a duchess.’
‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ Mrs Andrews said, brushing crumbs of sausage roll from her husband’s front. ‘True love.’
Kate coughed. ‘Mum. I wanted to have a word about me and Inge. You know, Inge, my flatmate. The thing is…’
Kate thought at first that her mother hadn’t heard. The organ music swelled so loud as she explained how she felt about Inge, how happy she was and how wonderful it was, that she felt sure only the progress of the virgin bride had taken her mother’s attention. Nothing was said until well after the final wave on the balcony. The fairy-tale couple went off to live happily ever after.
Flying Under Bridges Page 25
