Quincy

Part II

Arthur asked Quincy for a date during their second semester of classes together, although he barely got the words out because he was so nervous. Of course, Quincy agreed, and the first part of the date went fine. They had a nice dinner with a bottle of very good wine. The plan had been to attend an outdoor performance of “Hamilton,” a recently reimagined adaptation of the popular play from the beginning of the last century. As they stepped out of the restaurant a slight rain turned into a downpour. They decided to go dancing instead, and that’s when things went a little awry. Quincy, anxious to make a good impression on their first date, drank a little too much of the Petit Syrah at dinner. His coordination being affected, he fell after tripping on another dancer. Soon there was a pile of dancers on the floor, some laughing, some cursing, and Quincy apologizing profusely through it all. Arthur thought it a hilarious inside joke they would share. Whenever Quincy would drink a little too much, Arthur would inevitably ask if he was ready to go dancing, again. Arthur’s reaction to the whole incident sparked a romance that would last for years.

Quincy’s mother saw it, first. She always knew when something had changed for Quincy, good or bad. Of course, she had told his father. They had never put any boundaries on Quincy, in regards to dating, they simply wanted Quincy to find the person who would make him happy — no matter who that person turned out to be. On the other hand, Quincy was not welcome into the home of Arthur’s parents. They were pastors of a fundamentalist church and, in their eyes, Quincy had “turned Arthur gay.” They told Arthur he wasn’t welcome in their home until he had “repented of this terrible sin against God.” Their ignorant and long-outdated beliefs had caused a huge divide between parents and son. They never understood how much he despaired at the loss of his relationship with them.

Quincy and Arthur graduated, married, and started building a life together. They both took jobs at the ISA: Earth Division, where they were part of the team of engineers that designed the Martian habitats. After the initial failures of the atmospheric domes, it was Arthur that discovered the flaw in the design, and Arthur that came up with the innovation that finally made them a success. Arthur was a hero at the ISA, gaining international recognition by governments around the world, but he was still rejected by his parents. Arthur had hoped that his parents would eventually accept him, but his last attempt to visit them was disastrous. Arthur had gone to his parents’ home in Asheville, North Carolina, with the hope that the rift between them could be mended. Quincy had wanted to go with Arthur, but agreed, knowing how they felt, that he should make the attempt alone. Arthur never made it past the front gate. His father came to the front steps and asked Arthur if he had come to repent. When Arthur replied that he had not, his father looked hard and said, “Then, I have no son. You’re not welcome here,” before retreating into the house. Arthur’s mother, with a hand on the glass, stood crying in the window of the front room, but his father yanked the window dressings closed and refused to allow her to speak to their son. Arthur had returned to Quincy inconsolable. He had gained global recognition, but could not even walk into his parents’ home. Three days later, Quincy returned home to find Arthur in their bed, pill bottles empty on the nightstand. For the second time in his life, Quincy was devastated. Words can’t describe the depth of loss Quincy experienced. Worse was knowing the one person with whom he needed to share those feelings would never know the depth of the pain he caused. At the funeral, Arthur’s parents mourned the loss of his eternal soul, not his death. They did not understand how their complete rejection of Arthur, as a homosexual man, caused the heartache and depression he suffered — which was the reason for his suicide. Arthur had been deeply hurt by his father’s pronouncement, more even than Quincy had understood. Looking back, now, Quincy could see the signs he should have recognized. But, in those days, he had thought that their love was enough to overcome anything.

After Arthur’s funeral, Quincy took a three-month leave of absence from the ISA. When he returned to work, he was offered a position at the ISA’s research facility, located in Antarctica near Queen Alexandra Range on the Ross Ice Shelf. He would be joining a team developing the environmental suits that every resident on Mars would need to survive until the atmospheric domes were completed. Quincy jumped at the chance to leave everything and everyone behind, half-convincing himself that the distance would somehow ease the pain in his heart. Now, almost three years later, Quincy was alone, once again, waiting for the final moments to complete a task that could no longer be done by remote control.

“This chair is bloody uncomfortable,” Quincy told the empty room. He glanced around, half hoping and fearing someone would answer. Of course, there was no one there. He was alone.

Quincy had been accepted quickly by the group already stationed there. Janet Rodriguez, the team leader, and the rest of the scientists had welcomed Quincy with an informal little get-together. Mark Alexander was the administrative consultant for the station and led Quincy on a tour of the facility. Sari Khan was the medical doctor and offered a sympathetic ear if Quincy ever needed to talk. Leo Romanov was an expert in microcircuitry. He would be working with Quincy on streamlining the environmental suit. They were nice enough people, Quincy thought, but none of them were Arthur. He discovered that being far away from his friends and family made him feel more alone than he’d imagined. The memories were still there, too. Quincy found tears in his eyes at unexpected moments. Something someone said, or something would catch his eye, or some combination of scents would remind him of Arthur and he would feel the tears beginning to form. Sometimes a memory would flash past his mind’s eye. At night, he would lie down in his bunk and cry silently for what seemed like hours. He realized that being far from home didn’t make the loss of his love any easier; in fact, he realized being away from the life they had built made it seem as though he had abandoned Arthur. He wanted, more than anything, to see Arthur again, but knew that would never happen, which only made the pain of missing him worse. The daily work on the suits allowed Quincy to be distracted, but an irrational wave of guilt would wash over him when he realized that he had not thought of Arthur for some period. Still, the work was satisfying on a professional level.

A great deal of work had already gone into the environmental suit. Quincy and Leo worked well together. They quickly began streamlining the design so people on Mars would be able to work without the clumsiness of traditional spacesuits. By the end of the first year, they had managed to reduce the size of the suit by about twenty-five percent. The gloves were the biggest achievement. They had engineered a pair of working gloves that allowed a great deal of dexterity but still maintained suit integrity. Arthur would have been so proud, Quincy thought. By the end of the second year, the team had solved all the major problems with the suit and were putting it through extensive testing. By the middle of the third year, the suit was ready for mass production. The night that they had gotten the news from ISA that the suits had been approved for use on Mars, they drank the bottles of champagne that had been in storage awaiting the triumphal moment. Quincy had enjoyed himself and had laughed for the first time in a long time. Afterward, he realized that he was looking forward to going home. Janet announced that transports would arrive in two days to transport them back to the “real world.”