Beggar of Love by Lee Lynch Page B

enjoy their relative innocence.
    It was a relief to spend time with her new friend Lily Ann Lee. They could talk for hours about anything in their still-young universes. Lily Ann was the one she went to when she felt too down to function. Lily Ann showed her a nearby playground. She taught her real handball, not the kid stuff she was used to in the Dutchess parking lot against the wall of a furniture store.
    The two of them were so different: Lily Ann in dresses and makeup when she wasn’t playing ball, Jefferson in slacks, tailored shirts, and snazzy vests; Jefferson well-off, Lily Ann poor; Jefferson from Dutchess County, Lily Ann from Harlem; Jefferson Caucasian, Lily Ann African American; Jefferson gay, Lily Ann straight, or so Lily Ann thought. Lily Ann hadn’t figured herself out yet. Jefferson teased Lily Ann about it, but the woman was steadfast in her attraction to guys. Something in Jefferson made her want to save Lily Ann from a het life. The very thought of her with a man seemed so wrong that she was tempted to bring Lily Ann out herself, but she feared losing her friendship by making a move.
    One fall Saturday night Margo was out of town, lecturing at a Canadian university again. She couldn’t help but wonder if Margo had a student in every port. As it happened, Lily Ann’s date was a no-show. They went downtown together through an autumn chill as crisp as a McIntosh apple, to see an old movie in a Fred Astaire retrospective.
    “Hey,” she said with some excitement as they exited the building, her fists in the pockets of her quilted down vest. “I had no idea you were an Astaire fan.”
    “One or two of you pink folks can dance pretty fairly.”
    “Kind of you to notice,” she replied, then, as they turned onto Greene Street, hunched against some lively breezes and spurred with enthusiasm brought on by the dancing in the film, she flung her arms out and swung around and around, singing “Isn’t This a Lovely Day?” She danced the short way to the corner, then back to Lily Ann and bowed.
    “Lovely day? I am freezing my ears off, you fool,” Lily Ann said, stamping her feet and breathing puffy clouds from her mouth as she spoke.
    Jefferson said, “I have a solution for that.”
    “What, a pair of earmuffs?”
    She put her always-hot hands over each of Lily Ann’s ears and sang “Dancing Cheek to Cheek.”
    Lily Ann laughed until Jefferson thought she was a bit hysterical, so she danced in front of her, leading her friend by her covered ears. Lily Ann laughed herself into Jefferson’s arms. It was only a minute before their cheeks really were pressed together, with one of Jefferson’s hands still warming Lily Ann’s free ear.
    “Ooh, you’re toasty,” Lily Ann exclaimed.
    Jefferson put her arms around her and swayed them to the music right there under the lamplight of Greene Street. When she let Lily Ann go, they hurried to the subway arm in arm.
    Jefferson had no plans, but she couldn’t think of anything to say to break their silence except, “You want to see our place in town?”
    “You have a place in town and you live at the dorm?” asked Lily Ann, who had been fascinated by Jefferson’s description of her parents’ and grandparents’ large homes in Dutchess.
    She felt guilty about her family’s financial comfort. “Really, the place is small and they don’t want me around when they come to town.”
    Lily Ann stretched out her long legs. “Sure. I’d love to see how the other half lives, J.”
    “We need to switch at Times Square to go up to the West Side.”
    “I was going to have to do that anyway to go on home. I’m surprised your place isn’t on the East Side.”
    “It’s my grandparents’ apartment. They got it before World War Two.”
    The train hummed beneath them. The subway stops were fluorescent possibilities. The intense anticipation that thinking of making love instilled in Jefferson was beginning to bud. Nothing brought her into focus more than a woman who