Page 10 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
Jun let out a slow sigh. “We can go back to Seattle, if you like. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to point out. I remember some things, like the pink trees on the university campus and the otters in the aquarium, but I don’t know how to get from one place to the other.”
“That’s what the internet is for.”
Jun nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, uh, for the phone. With internet and all.”
Damian paused, then nodded. “Of course.”
Both of them carefully said nothing about Jun not having the internet reliably for years. Instead, Jun dug into his eggs, and Damian dipped his croissant into his coffee.
Jun blinked at the dripping bakery good. “Are you supposed to eat it that way?”
Damian blushed. “Er, no. Don’t tell Émeric.”
Jun giggled. Damian looked so dang sheepish. His lawyer boyfriend wasn’t always prim and proper after all.
Jun followed Damian down the elevator to the underground garage, accompanied by a new bodyguard who Damian had introduced as Cedric. Cedric was almost as dark as Damian, but with a thicker neck. Actually, he was thicker everywhere. Jun tried not to stare. He hadn’t seen very many people who looked like Cedric in his life.
There was a black SUV and a driver who greeted Jun, Damian, and Cedric with a “Hiya!” He had floppy dark hair. They eased out onto the city streets and then onto what Damian called Lake Shore Drive heading south. It made sense that it was called Lake Shore except for one hard fact.
Jun pointed at the dark expanse of water. “That’s not a lake; that’s a sea.”
Damian chuckled. “Lake. It’s freshwater.”
“I don’t care. It’s the size of a sea.”
Damian pulled Jun in against him. “Believe me, it might be the size of a sea, but everyone calls it a lake.”
Unfair. People should use their language properly so everyone else could understand.
Damian pointed out the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum and pointed vaguely in the direction of more landmarks Jun couldn’t see, including Millennium Park and the Art Institute that seemed to be mostly hidden behind trees opposite the lake. At some point after, they left the large road and entered surface streets again. Some neighborhoods looked well kept, others not so much. They slowed down and made a few turns into an increasingly depressed area. There were houses, storefronts, and warehouses that had once been gorgeous, but all were in states of disrepair. The SUV took one more turn and slowed to a stop.
Taking up an entire city block were the ruins of a church. There was a tree stump near the front doors, and the sign in front had half fallen down, leaving the name hanging at a forty-five-degree angle. A second board had been removed from below, only marks left to show it had been there. Some of the stained-glass windows were busted in, and the windows, stone surfaces, flying buttresses, doors, and statuary along the roof were gray with pollution and age. Parts of the roof had suffered damage.
Jun pressed his fingers to the window of the SUV. “What happened?”
Damian looked over Jun’s shoulder and wrapped his arms around Jun’s waist. “Death. Disease.”
Cedric climbed out of the car and opened the door on Jun’s side. Jun slid out, and Damian followed. Down the street, a man hunched over a cart filled with plastic bags, dragging it along with him. Going the opposite way was another man, walking with a limp. They were both eyeing the SUV and the people getting out with open assessment.
Not curiosity.
Damian took Jun’s hand. “I’ll show you inside.”
“We’re allowed to go in?”
“I own it.”
“You own it?”
Damian nodded. He looked up at the bell tower above the front doors. “A fuck you to someone from a long time ago.”
He produced a key and unlocked the front door. Cedric stuck his nose inside first and then signaled that he was going around the outside. Jun followed Damian inside. The first area was a foyer: low ceiling, doors in all directions, ruined red carpet underfoot. It smelled musty with a hint of dirt and damp. The internal temperature was even lower than the outer, which was saying something. It was late December, after all.
All thoughts of temperature disappeared as soon as Jun looked up. Parts of the ceiling directly overhead were missing as if people had scavenged materials or simply taken their anger out on the upper floor. Hints of what was above drew Jun forward toward the doors, all six of which were thrown open to sanctuary. Jun let go of Damian’s hand and stepped forward, crossing the generous foyer and onto the nave. The ceiling in the sanctuary soared high, a true cathedral. The altar space stood at the end of the long expanse, wisps of cloth still draped over a high table. A life-size figure of a man with his arms spread wide hung on the back wall above an alcove, the purpose of which Jun could not gather. He stepped between the pews. Half of them were scattered and overturned. Here and there, plants had started to grow.
“It feels like it’s been abandoned forever.”
“This section has only been let go for about ten years, but repairs were ignored for a couple decades before that. Church membership couldn’t afford the upkeep. Then a storm damaged the roof, and they had to give up on the sanctuary.”
