“When I came out
to my father, he beat me up. Locked me
in my bedroom. Told me he wouldn’t let
me out until I promised I would be straight.
Well, I couldn’t see very well—he’d hit me on one eye—and there was
blood dripping down my face. My bedroom
was on the second floor, so I suppose he thought I wouldn’t try to escape. But I tied together the sheets on my bed and
dragged the bed up to just under the window and tied the end of the sheet to
one leg of the bed. I didn’t know
whether it would hold me or how long but, you know, I was beyond caring by
then. I thought … well I thought if I
died it might be a good thing. Best for
everyone.”
He didn’t speak
for many seconds. Cody leant his head
against Luigi’s shoulder.
“Go on,” he said.
“Yeah. Well, just as well my ma has an obsession
with quality. The sheets were thick and
they held and so did the bed. I abseiled
down the wall.”
“Abseiled?”
“You know, where
you let yourself down bit by bit, using the wall and the rope or in this case
the sheets.”
“Abseiled?”
Luigi turned to
look at Cody, who was grinning slyly at him.
“Just because I’m a swishy queen doesn’t mean I’m not good at
gymnastics.” He grinned back then pulled
Cody closer before going on. “It helps
to have a rope and a harness, but you can do it with two sheets. Just.
They’re not as long as you think.
And the first floor is higher than you think, too. I had to drop the last half a metre.”
“Then what did you
do?”
“I walked to my
grandmother’s. I didn’t know for sure
what she would do but she’s always been on my side. She’s always loved me. So I walked there. 10 k’s.”
“How long did that
take you?”
“Nearly two
hours.”
“Yeah, I think
that’s how far I walked. Yesterday. Maybe longer, even.”
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