“I know that no one inside Cornucopia could become a dentist because they choose your path for you. And most likely I would’ve gone into construction in one of Chiles’ concerns. If I was lucky I’d become a foreman. Or maybe help run the book binding business. But nothing like be a dentist.”
“Does Mr. Rockwell know your wishes?” I looked around at some titles of books on the walls. I frowned. Dostoevsky, Chaucer, Henry Miller, and even Anais Nin were a few of the literary titles I perused. What the…? Levon Rockwell was a man of letters? I also saw volumes by Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, and Jean-Paul Sartre. This man got around, intellectually. I tried not to be impressed because I loathed him so much. I started by taking bloods from the naked boy.
“I suppose he does. But how could I ever get the time off to attend dental school, what with having to work so many hours here?”
“And why not? I worked part-time while attending nursing school. Pretty much everyone does, unless you were born into money. Mr. Rockwell would be an ass and a bastard if he didn’t let you fulfill your goals. You just might have to work a few extra hours a week. I’ll tell you what. Go talk to my sister, Mahalia. She’s interested in saving some Lost Boys and bringing them down into her fold. I’ll bet you she can find some honest, upstanding part-time work for you while you go to dental school. I believe there’s one in St. George, which is just a hop skip and a jump from Avalanche.”
“Really?” Deloy perked up. Then just as quickly, he slumped. “I wouldn’t want to let Levon down. He literally pulled me up by my bootstraps when I was getting high off cough syrup I stole from CVS. Miss Warrior, I was lying in a gutter, just a bag of bones and piss. I wondered why I didn’t die at birth, why I caused problems for everyone, like they all told me. I was a worse mass murderer than Hitler. What in the world was I thinking when I tried to challenge God?”
“What got you kicked out of Cornucopia?”
Deloy fell silent. I’d done all the bloods and now it was time to get the penis swab. It sat in its little nest of hair, small and curled like a snail. I saw no sores. “You’re a medical person. I can tell you. I was found…making out.”
I snorted. “Oh, God forbid. You know, you’re better off without those people, Deloy.”
“I know that. I was kissing another boy.”
I paused, his penis between my gloved fingers, swab in the other hand. “Oh. Well, all the less reason to miss any of those twisted individuals. But you shouldn’t give Levon all the credit. You raised yourself up by your own bootstraps. And you can attend dental school. Down in Avalanche, we work with young people. We help make it possible for them.”
“Oh, you live down there too with your sister and Jonah?”
At first I didn’t know what he was talking about. “Oh. No, I don’t. I live in Provo where I work in a surgeon’s office. But I told my sister I’d go down to give her other—ah, men some physicals. I’m on vacation.” Actually, I’d had a real bang ’em up fight with my boyfriend Giovanni. I loved him passionately, but I couldn’t get him to stop partying late into the midnight hours. We fought and fought over the same thing, when he’d drag his sorry high ass home at six AM just as I was getting ready for work. Then I’d be upset at work all day. Someone recently asked me if Giovanni was cheating. I actually had no idea—I blamed everything on his meth addiction. Meth was making him stay out all night without calling me.
I said, “Maybe you could take a vacation from Liberty Temple too. You make good money. Surely you’ve got enough saved up.”
“Oh, sure, I could,” Deloy said cheerily. “Could I ride down with you?”
“Of course!” The idea of having the happy boy in my car was actually a nice one. He was only ten years younger than me, but I’d always wanted a kid, a boy.
So I examined a few more Lost Boys, none of whom wanted to leave the comfort of Levon Rockwell’s savior’s arms at the moment. I was just packing all the samples up when Levon himself came into his study, arms crossed defensively. He’d managed to put on a shirt, but it was such thin T-shirt material that his nipples stood out sharply. I tried to look at my bag.
“Deloy told me he’s going to Avalanche with you. It’s a free country, but I’m telling you you’re making a giant fucking mistake.”
“Mistake for who? Your bank account?”
“That’s not it at all.” He had a smooth yet gravelly voice that just dripped with either syrup or venom, depending what he was trying to manipulate someone to do. “I sincerely want what’s best for my men. I just want to know what makes you think Deloy is damned here. We bravely venture forth into this life, as I’m sure they’ve taught you in your church.”
“I don’t attend. But yes, I know what you mean.”
“And undergoing sin and mistakes, we learn to stay close to the noble and divine. Sin is an important aspect of the learning curve of life that God will forgive. It’s not an eternal hatred or grudge on our part that pisses God off. Sin and pain is the best teacher.”