Chapter 1
Colours
There is a beautiful moment in ones’ life. A second that changes everything forever. The moment when you see colour for the first time.
It is written about in children’s books, told as bedtime stories.
But Marvin did not believe in it. He had a wife and child yet he had never seen colour, he was stuck in black and white, and his wife was too. So he would go out almost every night, try to find the ‘one’ even though he did not believe.
He would make excuses to shake peoples hands, hug his wife’s friends, and try to do anything that would let him see colour.
That was how he found out he was a homosexual. Bars, meeting men who were much bolder than he was, men who were not afraid to have sex with other men, even though it was 1979.
He could not explain it to his wife, out of fear of her being shocked to her core, finding him disgusting, but she knew he was cheating on her. The neighbours would call her a clown behind her back, because they had seen the numerous men Marvin had brought back to his home, when his wife was out, only to see Trina wave them goodbye later after she came back, him kissing her cheek.
Marvin never really enjoyed being with Women, but he thought it was because of his age, or because he had not met ‘his soulmate’. When he first met Trina, he thought she was beautiful, he talked at her as they sat at a bus stop, she just sat there listening. It was the story of their whole relationship, she listened and he ‘accomplished’, as he would put it.
The first time they had sex was one of the only times they had sex, they had both been real ‘churchy’ growing up, was how they put it, and it really being the first relationship either of them had, nine months later, their son was born. It being 1969, they could not exactly have a bastard child, so Marvin begged Trina’s father to let them get married and at six months pregnant, Trina waddled down the isle.
It was not exactly Marvin’s ideal life, but it was comfortable. He was rich, and he considered himself smart, very smart.
He had a wife, child and white picket fence, and that was a version of what he wanted.
It was the brains and money that usually let him pickup people, or at least it was how he picked up whizzer. Unlike usual they did not have sex right away.
Marvin was out buying stuff for Jason, his son. His mind has drifted away to watch the man at the counter, hair perfect, tall, long legs that he would recognise for days. He was tan and his eyes were a dark colour that he assumed was brown due to how dark they were, almost black, filled with honesty. He would catch him taking glimpses at customers asses, watching him flirt with everyone. He was unapologetically himself, and Marvin had never seen someone like that, someone who did not care if people knew he was gay.
So Marvin would make excuses to go to the same shop, day after day and pretty soon, Whizzer noticed, there were only so many shirts a twelve year old boy would need.
Their eyes met across the room and Whizzer smirked at him.
“Dad-“ Jason pulled on Marvin’s jumper “- can I go buy and ice cream?”
Marvin opened his wallet, handing his son a ten dollar note, before the boy ran off. He took the stacks of graphic T-shirt’s to the counter and dumped them down at Whizzers bench. Whizzer had a piece of bubblegum in his mouth that he assumed was pink and blew large bubbles as he and Marvin conversed, now and again looking down to Marvin’s lips, eyes half closed and lusty. He scanned through all the clothes and printed the receipt, scrawling his name and number at the bottom, telling Marvin to call him.
So Marvin did call him.
Whizzer and him went out to a restaurant, Marvin bought him roses as he requested, handing them to him, confused as he saw whizzer still wearing gloves.
“Why do you wear gloves all the time?” He had asked
“I’m scared to find my soulmate.” Was Whizzers reply “, I see you’re married, is she your soulmate?”
Marvin had laughed at that,” do you think I’d be here if she was?”
The dinner was nice and different for a change to just sex, and he realised he had never been on a date with someone he was actually attracted to. It was summertime, and he enjoyed how light the setting of it was, and at the end of the evening, they walked to a park together, sitting over the chalk pits that whizzer said had been there for years. Sitting with Whizzer made Marvin feel young for once, letting him do the things he never got the chance to do before Jason was born.
Whizzer took his gloves off, complaining that his hands were getting sweaty, his long, dainty fingers tracing tiny patterns into the chalk on the floor as they watched the sunset, the different shades of grey beautiful to the pair of them.
“What do you think your favourite colour is?” Whizzer asked.
“Yellow, apparently the sun is yellow, and that’s the colour of dandelions. What about yours?”
Whizzer smiled sweetly,” mine is pink, the shade of grey of the one pink shirt I own is nice.”
Marvin moved the hand that he was leaning on slightly to the side and his pinkie entwined with Whizzers and suddenly he could see the sunset, the beautiful reds and oranges blending into yellows and pinks. The tiny purple flowers around the pair, and it brought tears to his eyes as he looked at whizzer wearing a mint green shirt, his brown eyes having tiny speckles of green. He basked in the beauty for a second, seeing all the new colours he had never seen, before he asked.
“Do you see it too?”
Whizzer replied, “What are you talking about?”