(by Edward Zeusgany, copyright 2000, all rights reserved)

Invitations began arriving for Parmly and his Uncle Andrew to dine at the homes of Amherst faculty members and administrators. Prior to the intelligence, that their brilliant student was residing with his retired professor uncle, it would have seemed odd to be socializing with an undergraduate, regardless of his intellect, maturity and wealth and their desire to partake of his company. But it was entirely acceptable to offer hospitality to an emeritus professor from the University and his scholarly nephew, even though they were aware that the title of emeritus had been conferred, not for distinction, but to anyone who was not thrown out for improper conduct.

Tactful, as always, Parmly pressed Uncle Andrew to accept the gift of a new suit of clothes. “After all,” he insisted, “you wouldn’t have bought them for yourself. Except for your thoughtfulness in accompanying me, you wouldn’t need them.” So they went to Boston, the nearest place where goods of the proper quality could be found.

Two trips were necessary for measuring and fitting, and once more for a final check and to pick up the garments. Parmly had decided on three, one for winter, one for summer, and one for fall and spring. Then they had to shop for accessories; shoes, socks, ties, a hat, an overcoat, a raincoat, gloves and so on. Uncle Andrew was transformed, when he wore these suits, into the image of a prosperous and commanding personage.

The dinners, themselves, were quite pleasant, especially when compared to the experience in New York. The hosts and other guests, if any, generally ignored Uncle Andrew. That suited him well, but he enjoyed listening to their conversation and learned a great deal. He resisted the temptation to join in, waiting for later, when he could discuss with Parmly whatever thoughts he had on the various subjects that had been under consideration. He would observe Parmly, at some later event, advance some of these views, along with literary, artistic, and scholarly embellishments. He was amazed to see how people would then consider these ideas seriously and treat them with respect.

Prof. Heston, happier than he had been in years, was in the mood to celebrate the fact. This he did with food and drink, to the detriment of his diet and a re-expanding waistline. The clothes he had been so proud to be able to wear again had to be returned to the closet. The suits Parmly bought for him had to be let out.

When the fall semester came to an end, with Parmly’s last examination on December 20th, they removed to Prof. Heston’s house in the country for the Christmas season. Electric candles were put in the windows and a tree was placed in the parlor, in a corner between two large book cases. They decorated it with the ornaments that Prof. Heston and his parents had collected over many years. There were even some very old, colored lights in fruit, bird and other shapes, that continued to burn, albeit with diminished brightness, in old fashioned, series wiring.

A traditional Christmas dinner was prepared by Uncle Andrew and set out on the Queen Anne, tiger maple, drop leaf table in the keep room. Sitting in fan back, Windsor chairs, they dined, the two of them, from period, pewter plates, using the Dresden tableware with Meissen, blue and white porcelain handles and being careful with the sharp, two tined forks. They drank their wine from blown, 18th century, lead crystal goblets.

The following day, Parmly’s Uncle Frederick and Todd Winslow drove up from New York. They took over the second floor. Frederick occupied the southeast bedroom, containing the mushroom top, low post bed. The blanket chest with double arch molding and the tavern table with matching chair, having vase and ball turnings and Spanish feet. Todd was installed in the bedroom on the northeast corner where arches flanked the fireplace and framed the recessed windows. Jokingly referred to as the Queen’s bedroom, it was furnished with a Sheraton canopy top, four poster and a bureau of the same style, with cookie corner top and fluted columns. Both rooms had oriental carpets on the floors.

They also had the use of the one large bathroom and its huge, claw foot, white enameled tub, with afterthought shower. A sitting room, of the same size, completed the arrangement of two large and two smaller rooms, separated by a hall that ran from the front to the back of this floor. Originally, these had all been bedrooms.

Parmly had arranged for a catered dinner for that evening. They began with hors d’oeurves in the parlor. This was the most elegant room in the house, with its beautifully carved arches similar to the room above. Todd and Frederick were seated on the Sheraton sofa facing the fire in its place. In front of them, the canapés were place on a bird cage, walnut tea table. To their left, Andrew was using the transitional Chippendale-Hepplewhite arm chair with flame stitch upholstery and Parmly was nearly lost in the great wing chair to the right. The room was illuminated by an ornate brass, double student’s lamp, by Shrieve, Crump and Low, that was itself on a burl mahogany game table, located between the two windows. These gave a view of the deep front lawn, that now had a light covering of snow.

Frederick Billings revised his opinion of Robert Heston, after Parmly, during their chat alone, insisted that he hadn’t brought in the furnishings along with the servants and that this really had been the Professor’s home for nearly twenty years. Todd, however, was unmoved, since he considered the area to be a wilderness and the accommodations, rustic. But the time passed pleasantly enough and the guest left the next morning to visit friends in Boston.

Parmly and Uncle Andrew remained there by themselves, until classes resumed at the end of January, going out only for groceries and newspapers. Parmly kept in touch with the world and its affairs by way of the telephone line, but much of their time was spend in physical intimacy.

Parmly would wear his silk pajamas nearly all day long. They were on and off repeatedly and, even when on, as often as not, Uncle Andrew’s hands were somewhere inside, actively caressing Parmly’s delicate body or quietly resting on him somewhere. They often listened to baroque music from the stereo or the classical FM station, while lying together on the coach in the back sitting room. The last room in the ell, it was the only new room to the house. The woodsheds that once had connected the ell to the barn had been torn down and this structure built in their place.

That winter, Uncle Andrew commenced to paint. He need something to fill the time, when Parmly was in classes or the library. Prof. Heston’s father had graduated from the Massachusetts School of Art in 1920 and a great grandmother on his mother’s side had been an accomplished, although amateur, artist working in water color, charcoal and pastels. So the inspiration to try came from his family heritage and a belief that some ability might lie dormant within him.

An artist’s supply store was conveniently located in the basement of a building directly across the common from the Inn. He bought a portable aluminum easel, four small canvasses mounted on cardboard and an oil painter’s kit that contained fifteen tubes of paint, four brushes, two tin cups for turpentine and linseed oil, two small glass jars containing those two fluids, a pallet knife, and a cardboard pallet. For this, he quickly substituted a piece of scrap board that he retrieved from his barn.

His first attempt was to copy a photograph from an issue of The National Geographic, of a Mexican riding a horse at night though a moonlit desert. Prof. Heston was pleased with the way the work turned out, but found tedious the painting of the ripples in the sand. He was artistically dissatisfied, because it was a reproduction of something rather than an original composition. Of course, the purpose had been to do this piece for practice, to see if he could paint at all. Otherwise, he never would have set out on that project.

His next effort was a portrait of Parmly, his head only. Uncle Andrew did not like the result, finding it too flat and failing to capture a real sense of his subject. It may have been due to poor lighting, or lack of experience, but Prof. Heston decided that portraiture was not his strength. So he returned to landscapes, with people often in the scene, but not close to. These featured buildings, because he had little interest in nature without the works of humans being part of it.

One of the effects of this new endeavor, he found, was that he became more aware of his surroundings. He looked at things differently and more closely, because everything he saw was potential for a picture. As a result, he derived greater satisfaction in being aware and in being alive. Wherever he went, he was looking for future subjects. He purchased a camera, so that he could take photographs of likely prospects, distance shots for composition and close-ups for detail.

His workday was short, from about ten to three, when he began to look for Parmly’s return. He might continue to think about the piece he was doing, but he did not put paint on the canvas, after that latter hour. He did the parsonage with the Katsura tree, giving the house more light than it really receives. This was followed by various scenes of the College. He preferred to render the older building that served as the focus of each painting. Sometimes he included newer structures with them, as a comment on aesthetics.

This was the hour when Prof. Heston would take a glass of red wine while he relaxed from his labors. Sipping it slowly, savoring the flavor and enjoying the warm glow that gradually suffused throughout his body, the first glass would last an hour. The second took thirty minutes and any that followed were dispatched in fifteen each. Then there were before dinner drinks and more wine with the meal.

Uncle Andrew was aware that his liquor consumption was on the increase. Often he told himself that he would drink just the one glass at three and then wait for dinner time before having anything else. But by the time the one glass was finished, thought of stopping there had almost vanished from his mind. After all what difference did it make anyway? He wasn’t about to drive a car anywhere.

And he had been a year without more than his once a week bourbon on the rocks. Surely that proved that he didn’t have a problem. True, he had been a heavy drinker for some years before that. But he had never had an accident with the car or even nearly had one, much less been so much as stopped for a sobriety check or for any other reason. His drinking now didn’t seem to him to be so different from the past.

The evening meal cut off his desire for more alcohol, provided that he didn’t get started on liquors after the meal. Parmly often wanted one, but most nights Prof. Heston managed not to indulge. On those occasions when he did partake, only going to bed was effective at quelling his craving for more. His concern about this was deflected by the pleasure he was experiencing in his newly revitalized life.

The semester seemed to pass in a whirlwind and soon it was time to make plans for the summer. Prof. Heston had expected that they would spend it at his own home, but Parmly wanted to travel in Europe. By suggesting Spain, France and Italy and pointing out the great art that could be seen there, he succeeded in persuading Uncle Andrew to his plan. Parmly invited Walter DeForrest and Erica Lyon to join them. So, they would be a party of four.

When they returned from Rome at the end of July, Prof. Heston put his house on the real estate market. It was clear to him that they were not going to use it much. Probably in another year, Parmly would graduate or decide he had had enough of college and they would not be remaining in the Pioneer Valley. Because the house needed constant attention to its maintenance, keeping it made no sense. It would be better to be free of all such responsibilities.

Uncle Andrew had not been made aware of the episode between Parmly and Bill Matthews, but an occurrence that fall, brought it to his attention. Early one Sunday morning, a female University of Massachusetts student told the campus police that she had gone out on a date with Bill and that he had raped her. When Prof. Heston was party to discussions of this event with Parmly’s friends, the history was related.

Bill admitted to having sex with the woman, but claimed that it was consensual. When he was asked how she got a large bruise on the side of her face, he insisted that she must have done that to herself, later, in order to support her outrageous contention. Assuming that his family was wealthy, she had demanded money from him, after the sexual act. When he refused, she had threatened him, he alleged. There was no evidence of vaginal intercourse, the woman explained, because he had forced her to perform fellatio. She had not bit him, because she was afraid that he would kill her. He might not have been convicted if it hadn’t been for the bruise.

Character witnesses for Bill Matthews testified that he was a clean cut, all-American boy, a scholar-athlete, from a good home, who had never been in trouble before. The judge sentenced him to five years in prison, but suspended the penalty, provided that he leave the area, as his father had promised that he would do should leniency be shown. It was learned later that he had enrolled at the University of Florida for the spring semester.

But the big news of that fall and winter was Parmly’s success in the stock market. The previous year he had done well enough, but the accomplishment was to position himself for dramatic moves in stock prices that took place in this latter period. He was then able to take profits from one company and buy into another at an advantageous price. He was making so much money, that he wanted to diversify into investments in real estate and startup companies with growth potential. This required setting up his own venture capital operation. This he chose to do with his friend Walter, as Billings DeForrest Associates, Inc.

Of course, they needed an office as well. Space was found on the third floor of the same building that houses the artists’ supply store. Prof. Heston, in one of his nice suits, acted as the front man to avoid the problem of businessmen not taking two college students seriously, especially Parmly, who looked more like a high school sophomore. Executive furnishings were purchased and a permanent secretary was finally found. The first two had to be let go because they could not accustom themselves to taking orders from such young people.

One had tried to mother them and take control. A second simply would not get the work done, although she had been considered capable in her previous employment. The last was a much older, well educated woman, with many years of business experience, who did not want to commute anymore to Springfield. She did their term papers, along with the correspondence for the entrepreneurial venture.

In the early spring, the administrators in the Chancellor’s office at the University speculate about what the students will find as a cause to stage their annual revolt. Last year it had been research contracts with the defense department and the issue the year before had been new, more restrictive rules pertaining to drinking on campus. That had been thought necessary to implement because of a fall riot, with racial overtones, that occurred at the conclusion of the last game of the Wold Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets.

Calls from the Governor’s office were more frequent, but no less alarming. This one was at last transferred to an assistant vice-chancellor for academic affairs. An aide to the Governor was inquiring about a former professor, Andrew Heston. It took a while to figure out that it was Robert A. Heston, who was of interest and that they were more concerned about his character than with his academic abilities. The Assistant V-C, not knowing Prof. Heston from Adam’s house cat, promised to get back to the aide within a few days. This she did, after reviewing the file and checking with colleagues in the central administration and the School of Education.

Since the caller would not say, people were perplexed as to why the Governor would be asking about Professor Heston. The thought of his being considered for a high level position in the Department of Education, gave then chills. So her report included the following characterizations; resentful of authority, terse to the point of rudeness, stubborn, undignified, and the information that his service as grievance officer for the faculty union and in organizing a faculty gay rights group had been much appreciated.

On Tuesday, April 4th, Mr. and Mrs. Everett A. Billings names appeared on the guest register of the Hotel Northampton, a few miles from Amherst. That evening, Parmly received a call from his father, asking for a private meeting the next day. Parmly agreed to come to the hotel at 3 p.m.

Shortly after that hour, Uncle Andrew, in his painting clothes and with a brush in his hand, answered a knock at the door to the suite and found himself facing an elegantly, if severely, dressed woman. “I’m Parmly’s mother,” she said. “I suppose you must be the man who has been posing as my brother. Parmly’s underage, you know.”

Prof. Heston stood there, speechless.

“Shall I come in, or would you rather discuss this in the hall?” she continued.

Prof. Heston moved aside and Amanda Putnam Billings entered and proceeded, uninvited, to examine the two rooms. Recovering somewhat, he called room service and ordered tea. “I suppose my son is paying for that, too,” Amanda spat out.

“I’m sure he’d want you to have it,” he countered, quietly. “Although, you might prefer something stronger.”

“Tea’s fine. But have a drink yourself, if you need one.” She took a seat by the window, and asked, “What do you want from Parmly, anyway?”

Prof. Heston blushed, put down the paint brush, but remained standing. “Just another day like yesterday. I love him,” he gently asserted, “and I think he loves me.”

“But are you being fair to him. Haven’t you thought about death?”

“We’ve discussed it. If he dies, he wants me to find someone else.” Prof. Heston smiled at his own jest. “Parmly is too sensible not to get on with his life, when I’m gone, or sooner, if his feelings change.”

“You could get sick. Do you want him dragged down, attending to a long illness.”

“Well, I’ve tested negative for exposure to the HIV virus and most of my family have big heart attacks in their early seventies and don’t last a day. I’m hoping for twenty more years, but it could be less. And if I did have a lingering disease, I’m sure Parmly would arrange for proper care. As a retired state employee, I have health insurance. Then he would go about his own affairs as close to normally as possible. I would certainly tell him that was what I wanted him to do.”

The tea arrived and Prof. Heston poured. Mrs. Billings took hers black.

“An earlier departure could be arranged,” she stated.

“What?”

“An accident, hit and run, for example, or a mugging that you resisted.”

“Parmly’s not one to turn the other cheek. Perhaps, you know that,” Prof. Heston warned in turn.

And with that, they changed the subject. Parmly’s mother looked at Prof. Heston’s canvasses. She said that they looked like pretty good folk art and asked if he had considered studying. Prof. Heston replied that he had been in school for the last fifty years and did not care to have any more of it for a while.