Read When the Stars Come Out Online
Authors: Rob Byrnes
When the Stars Come Out (48 page)
“You sound like you admire her.”
“Admire?” Noah thought about that. “I have come to have a
healthy respect for her, but I wouldn’t say I admire her.”
“So you don’t want to be like her?”
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Noah laughed. “I know you don’t quite get my type-A personal-
ity, baby, but I consider myself one of the good guys, and I use my energy for good, not evil.” Noah leaned closer and gave Bart a soft kiss on the lips. “I promise to never be like her, or admire her, or
. . .
well, if possible, I’d like to not think a whole lot about her anymore.”
Bart returned the kiss and said, “Deal.”
“You awake?”
There was no answer, so he asked again. “Noah, are you awake?”
Silence, followed by a mournful, “I am now.”
Bart didn’t answer, but Noah heard him move through the dark-
ened bedroom. Then he felt something land next to him in the
bed.
“What are you doing?” asked Noah.
“Your clothes. Get dressed.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s cold outside,” whispered Bart. “And keep your
voice down.”
Noah pulled the comforter off his body and struggled in the
darkness to pull himself into a sitting position. “Why are we going outside?”
In the moonlight he saw Bart’s smile. “Maybe a walk on the beach.
Maybe a trip into town. Maybe a special surprise.”
Noah glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s 2:47. That’s
AM, by the way. And it’s cold out.”
In response, a pair of his jeans fell into his lap.
“Christ,” said Noah, accepting his fate and climbing out of bed.
“I should have just gotten a pet. Even dogs don’t have to be walked in the middle of the night.”
When he was dressed, Bart took Noah by the hand and led him
through the quiet house. The stairs creaked slightly as they de-
scended, then walked through the kitchen to the back door.
“I know what you’re going to make me do,” said Noah, as they
walked onto the dewy lawn.
“I knew you’d figure it out. Now be quiet.” With that, he wrapped
one brawny arm around Noah’s shoulders and walked him to the
gazebo.
They climbed the two steps and Bart reached down to push the
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‘play’ button on the boom box. The lush opening strains of “When
the Stars Come Out” began to play, and Bart took Noah in his
arms.
“You know I don’t dance,” said Noah.
“I know you
say
you don’t dance. But no one is here except for us
. . .
and the stars
. . .
so you’ll dance.”
And under the stars on a cold Long Island night, they did.
And as their bodies moved slowly together, swaying to the
rhythm, Bart moved his mouth next to Noah’s ear and softly sang:
When the evening falls, my dear,
And when my dream time calls, my dear,
You’ll be with me,
Of that, no doubt,
I’ll see your face when the stars come out.
We have the moon, we have romance,
We have to take this one last chance,
So take my hand,
And take me out,
To somewhere where we’ll see the stars come out.
We’ll fly, so high,
But our feet will never leave the ground,
I’ll swoon, ’neath the moon,
And when our dance is done,
Under the morning sun,
You’ll hold me close, and turn the sun around . . .
In an upstairs window, Quinn and Jimmy—awakened by the
sound of bodies moving through the house—stood watching the
couple dance in the gazebo.
“I guess this means that they’ve caught us,” said Quinn.
“No doubt,” Jimmy agreed. “But imitation is the sincerest form
of flattery, isn’t it?”
“It is. Look at them. They look
. . .
cute.”
“ ‘Cute’? Why, Quinn Scott! I don’t think I’ve ever heard you use
that word before.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
They stared out at the gazebo for a few more minutes, lost in a
world that they had created, but which was no longer theirs alone.
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“You know,” said Quinn, when the dance was drawing to a close.
“I think we did a good job raising those kids.”
Jimmy leaned into his lover and kissed him.
Quinn looked back out the window. “Noah can’t dance.”
Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, he’s a bit stiff.”
“You’ll work with him, right?”
Jimmy nodded, and the two men stared out the window, watch-
ing the dancers and the dance and the stars.
Later that year . . .
Dan Rowell was nervous as he waited at the Clarendon station
for the Metro from Northern Virginia into downtown Washington,
D.C. But he knew what he had to do on that blustery day in late
November, and he was prepared to see it through.
The train came and he hesitated, only boarding seconds before
the doors closed. Turning around and going home would have
been too easy, and he had to fight doing things the easy way from
this point on. His long, personal journey had brought him to this
moment, and he couldn’t—he
wouldn’t
—let himself back out.
Today Dan Rowell was going to tell his employer, the conserva-
tive senior United States senator from the state of Ohio, that he was gay. And if that meant the termination of his employment, which is what it almost certainly meant, he would persevere and he would
survive.
After all, the famous actor Jason St. Clair had come out of the
closet, and he was still working. In fact, Dan had read a number of interviews in which Jason St. Clair said that he was happier than he had ever been in his life. And that other actor—the old guy who
had written that book; the one who had been married to Kitty
Randolph—he had done it, too. If Jason St. Clair and the old guy
could do it, so could Dan Rowell.
As his ride continued into the center of the federal government,
the memory of the old actor’s book made Dan Rowell think of an-
other book, one he hadn’t thought about in quite some time. What
had ever happened to that project? Dan couldn’t even remember
the writer’s name anymore; only that he was fairly arrogant, and
clearly couldn’t understand why a gay man in Dan’s position would
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stay in the closet. The way he seemed so puzzled when Dan had
told him that he chose to be asexual, rather than risk his job . . .
Maybe that guy wasn’t altogether wrong, he thought, as the train
approached the Foggy Bottom station. But, for Dan, there was a
right time and a wrong time. And a few years earlier had been the
wrong time. Hell, he didn’t even want to use his real initials during that interview. What initials had he asked the writer to use? G. C.?
Yes, that was it. He had used the senator’s initials, which, he supposed, was subversive in its own way.
In any event, he was fairly certain that the book had never been
written. Too bad, too, because the new Dan Rowell—the man who
was about to come out to his United States senator—would have
been amused to read his words again from today’s perspective.
The doors finally opened at the Capitol South station and he
took a deep breath.
QUINN SCOTT
Filmography
b. October 18, 1934, in Pittsburgh, PA
m. Kitty Randolph (1966; divorced, 1970)
Movies
1958:
The Fresh Kill
1958:
Port Richmond
1959:
Mariner’s Harbor
1960:
The Outerbridge Crossing
1961:
Attack on Tottenville
1961:
The Glory of St. George
1963:
Father Cappadanno
1964:
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (cameo)
1964:
The New Brighton Story
1968:
Darling, I’m Darling
1969:
Sweet Svetlana
1970:
When the Stars Come Out
Television
1966–1969 Philly Cop
1978:
The Love Boat (guest appearance)
1980:
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (guest appearance)
1990:
Murder, She Wrote (guest appearance)
2006:
The Brothers-In-Law (guest appearance)
KATHERINE (“KITTY”) RANDOLPH
Filmography
b. June 14, 1936, in Millville, NJ
m. Bert Cooper (1957; divorced, 1958)
m. Quinn Scott (1966; divorced 1970)
m. Dean Henry (1989)
Movies
1957:
Charmed, I’m Sure
1957:
Passport to Bermuda
1958:
She’s Our Doll!
1958:
Betty and the Pirate
1959:
Penelope Van Buren & Her Secrets
1959:
Hello, Cowboy; Hello, Cowgirl
1959:
The East River Story
1960:
Fort Lee Love Song
1961:
That Gal & That Guy
1962:
The Mabel Normand Story
1964:
Sister Helen
1966:
Phone Book!
1968:
Darling, I’m Darling
1969:
Sweet Svetlana
1970:
When the Stars Come Out
1980:
Disco Trade School!
1992:
National Lampoon’s Milwaukee Vacation
1996:
Gramma
1999:
The Family Dunnigan
2000:
The Family Dunnigan II: Beyond Rehab
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2002:
Intervention
2004:
Marriage Penalty
Television
1972–1974:
The Kitty Randolph Show
1979:
The Carol Burnett Show (guest appearance)
1980:
Fantasy Island (guest appearance)
1996:
Stephen King’s The Clown in the Scary
Lighthouse in Maine (miniseries)
2002–2006:
The Brothers-in-Law (recurring guest
appearance)
Featuring
Ron Palillo
Joseph Lee Gramm
Edward Henzel
And, as the Stooges,
Greg Crane
Craig McKenzie
Steven Seegers
Andrew Westlake
With
Camille as “Camille”
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Edited by
John Scognamiglio
Written by
Rob Byrnes
based on his original story
Represented by
Katherine Fausset
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Executive Producers
Lynette Kelly
Mark Siemens
Shaun Terry
& Michael Rao
Associate Producers
Wayne Chang
Greg Crane
Patrick Doyle
Byrne Harrison
Douglas A. Mendini
Jeffrey Ricker
Title Sequences by
James Daubs
Casting by
Paul Donelan
Costume Design by
Wayne Chang
Original Score by
Michael Holland & Karen Mack
Los Angeles Location Scouting by
Scott Schmidt
& Byrne Harrison
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Stunts
Rabih Alameddine
Margaret Campbell
Becky Cochrane
Matthew Crawford
Diana Gabaldon
Kim Hogg
Bob Iovino
Illyse Kaplan
Timothy J. Lambert
Bob Liberio
Denise Murphy McGraw
Paul Parrott
Pam Paulding
OFR
Chris Shoolis
Brian Scribner
Candace Taylor
Robert Widmaier
Mark Zeller
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Catering by
Posh
The Townhouse
O.W.
Freddie’s Beach Bar
JR’s
& Michael Rao
Mr. Byrnes’s Hair by
Tim Vermillion
***
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Dedicated to
the Best Boy & Key Grip,
Brady Allen
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A
Kensington Publishing Corporation
Production
(c) MMVI by Rob Byrnes
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No animals were harmed during the writing of this novel.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
850 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Copyright © 2006 by Rob Byrnes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2005934156
0-7582-1324-7
ISBN: 0-7582-2089-8