"I guess I'll just have to find out. Bound to learn something, either way."
"A drop more?"
"Sure."
"Fathers, then," Arlen toasted. "I remember when I told mine that I was gay. I was pretty nervous."
"What happened?"
"He rubbed his chin with both hands in a way he had when he was thinking. He said: 'They say people are wired that way or they choose that way. I think you're wired that way.'
"'I am,' I said. 'But I choose it, too.' I didn't want him thinking I was sorry for myself. My father pointed across the valley.
"'Louis, over there—he's got six boys been chasing everything in skirts since they were big enough to sit on a tractor. I wouldn't trade you for two of them.'
"'Two!' I said. 'Three, anyway.'
"'He'd be getting a deal at three,' my father said." Arlen smiled and lifted his glass in the general direction of his father.