Henry's End by Julie Richman

been moved into an actual room when his old friend, Schooner Moore, arrived. Lightly dozing in a chair next to the bed, Edwin opened his eyes to the pained look on his handsome friend’s face. The man had grabbed the heavy plastic footboard at the end of the bed as if to stop himself from swaying and closed his eyes as he slowly exhaled a lungful of air.
    Edwin sat there silently watching the pain on his face turn to seething anger. Lion King, Edwin thought, this man is the king and no one hurts a member of his pride and gets away with it. He looked like he was ready to pounce. Henry had described Schooner as ‘larger-than-life’ and Edwin agreed with the assessment.
    The man was big, several inches over six feet with a strong athletic build. I’ll bet he could give that Marine a run for his money, was Edwin’s immediate thought. With his thick blonde hair, sky blue eyes, and beautifully photogenic features, Edwin couldn’t think of a single actor working in Hollywood better looking than this man.
    Schooner finally noticed he was being watched and looked over at Edwin. “The Marine?”
    “I think so,” Edwin sighed deeply.
    Nodding, Schooner’s eyes focused back in on his friend. “Don’t worry. He won’t get away with it.”
    Alarmed that Schooner would go after him and be hurt, Edwin opened his mouth to protest.
    As if sensing that, he shook his head, “Don’t worry, it won’t be anything physical, even though I would like to kill him, he deserves something much worse.”
    “Oh you’re evil, I like you.”
    And it was then that Edwin saw the beautiful All-American boy smile for the first time. A smile that almost made him gasp at its sheer beauty. The man was magnificent.
    “He really loves you.” Edwin looked solemnly at their sleeping friend.
    “I’m an only child and he’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother. He was there to pick me up in my lowest moments and he knows things about me other people don’t. That’s how much I trust him.” Schooner sat down in the chair next to Edwin and crossed his long legs.
    “You know it’s an odd thing for a straight guy to be close friends with a gay man.”
    Schooner shrugged. “It’s not really something I think about. We’ve been friends for a long time. A mutual friend introduced us and Henry and I just hit it off.” He thought for a moment before speaking again, “We love who we love. It may not make sense to anyone else. It doesn’t need to. It may not even make sense to you,” he paused, shrugging again. “It doesn’t need to.”
    Edwin had the sense that Schooner wasn’t just talking about his relationship with Henry, but also of someone else. He knew that he was married, yet he’d bet his last dollar that the love he was talking about wasn’t with his wife.
    The unlikely pair held a bedside vigil, Schooner taking on the role of primary contact with the doctors, meeting with the plastic surgeon and leaving the room to make phone calls that Edwin got the feeling had something to do with retribution for the Marine. The doctors wanted Henry stabilized prior to putting him under anesthesia for surgery, but didn’t want to miss a fine window to operate.
    With his jaw already wired and swelling still significant, Henry’s ability to communicate was limited when he awoke.
    “Squeeze my hand once for yes and twice for no,” Edwin spoke slowly to him as if he were talking to a small child. “Do you understand that?”
    His strength was limited, but both men could distinctly see the single squeeze.
    “Did Cody do this to you?” Edwin asked in a hushed tone.
    Again, a single squeeze.
    “Son of a bitch,” Schooner muttered.
    “Do you want to press charges?”
    Two squeezes came in rapid succession.
    “Are you afraid that he might come back and hurt you if you do, H?” Schooner asked, moving closer to where Edwin was seated.
    A single squeeze.
    “Hey, buddy, don’t worry about that. That motherfucker is going to be spending a