Page 14 of Shades of Henry
He and Lance got situated in Lance’s car—a used CR-V, colored silver like every other car on the road—and Henry sipped his coffee appreciatively from a Johnnies travel mug. He could admit to himself privately that he rather loved the stylized line drawing on the side.
Then he asked the real question of the morning. “So… Cotton.”
The boy had been sleeping when they’d left, but Henry hadn’t been able to resist pulling the blanket up to his chin and tousling his hair before he’d walked out the door. Cotton had smiled a little in his sleep and snuggled in deeper, and Henry’s heart had broken.
God, he looked about twelve.
Who said this kid got to fuck on camera for a living?
Henry couldn’t help thinking about him now as Lance made his way down Howe Avenue toward J Street.
“Yeah?” Lance said, turning the radio down.
“Cotton,” Henry said again. “What’s his deal?”
Lance made a sound. “It’s bad, Henry. Do you really want to know?”
“He’s fragile. He’s… I don’t know if he should be making porn. I don’t know why his parents let him out of the house.”
“His motherkickedhim out of the house,” Lance said, and Henry grunted.
“Of course.”
“His first boyfriend was three years older than he was—he was seventeen at the time. She had the guy arrested. The charges didn’t stick, but the guy didn’t want anything to do with him after that. I guess he slept on people’s couches through high school, but eventually he ended up on the streets. He was hustling in front of one of the clubs our guys go to for promotions. He hit on Reg—”
“The promotions guy?”
“Yeah. Reg did scenes before that. But Cotton hit on Reg, and Reg let him sleep on his couch for a night before taking him to John. Reg would probably have let him move in period, but his sister was living with him at the time, and that sitch was no good. Anyway, John was going to have him do lights and sound, sort of like Kane, but Cotton had been street hustling for a month by then and was like, ‘Hey, I can whore my ass and earn my keep,’ so John gave him a shot. Turns out, he’s dynamite on film. It’s just, you know, off camera….”
“He’s looking for love,” Henry said with a sigh. “We… we need to talk to him. I mean, we’re not going to kick him out, but he’s… he’s going to fall apart.”
Lance made a hurt sound. “We can’t save all of them, Henry. I mean, yeah, we’ll help Cotton, but you gotta know that right now. This flophouse thing, it’s not permanent. I mean,pornisn’t permanent. Some people stay in it for a while—they get houses, they get cars, they treat it like a profession. Some of these kids started porn because they wanted a new tattoo. Either way, for most of the guys who go through the flophouse, it’s like you. Not meant to last.”
Henry ruminated. “Look, it’s like when I was on deployment. You see a civilian on the road in a war zone—you help get them out of the way. Yeah, it’s a war zone. You don’t know what’s going to happen to them tomorrow. But fortoday,you get to be the good guy. I’ll talk to him tonight. That kid needs a good guy.” He took a sip of his coffee and brooded, because he’d gotten proficient at that. “How often do you really get to be the good guy in life, you think?”
Lance’s voice was sort of hurt. “Well, you know. I try to do it every day.”
Henry felt a laugh burble up, and he was caught off guard so he let it out.
“What?” Lance asked, and as Henry watched, a warm red crept up his cheeks. “Why’s that funny?”
“I don’t know!” Henry’s own cheeks felt warm. “I mean, you’re a doctor. It’s like you’re going to school for an incredibly long time so youcanbe the good guy every day. I think that’s awesome, by the way. But I’m just a grunt. Closest thing I ever get to being a hero is moving some poor family out of the road.”
“Or making sure Cotton’s okay,” Lance finished softly.
Henry let out a sigh. “Yeah, well, there’s that.”
Maybe.
Lance dropped him off at John’s house, and Henry thought for the umpteenth time that if Davy’s business partner and boss was going to be a porn mogul, he should live in a bigger, better place.
The tiny one-bedroom, one-bath structure apparently boasted a pool in the backyard, and the flowers in the front were already blooming. It looked so… ordinary. As Henry knocked on the solid oak door, he caught a scent of jasmine from the backyard and wondered if he would ever get his head screwed on straight about these people.
Cotton the porn star was like a puppy left in the rain.
John the porn mogul was a nice guy, and his boyfriend was giving Henry a job.
Lance, the med student, was treating porn like any other profession—waiting tables, working retail—and Henry was starting to agree with him.
