Who: Bo and OPEN What: Bo deals with the Gossip column fallout Where: From Bo’s home to The Cellar Bar When: Sunday Evening Rating: TBD Status: Incomplete
“Bo! Bo, come up here!”, Norma Jorgensen called down into her finished basement where her 18 year old son, Bo, lived. “Come on, Bo, I know you’re up! I heard the shower about an hour ago!”, she called.
“Fuck”, Bo grumbled to himself and saved the video game he was playing, “Coming!” He slipped on a tee shirt and ascended the stairs into his mom’s kitchen.
His mom was standing there holding a folded up copy of the Babylon Weekly. Bo gave her a confused look. Certainly she didn’t call him upstairs to read the freakin’ newspaper to him. He hated the newspaper. He knew bad shit happened, but why torture yourself with reading about it?
“What’s up, Ma?”, he asked, after giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
“Bo, don’t lie to me, boy. Are you working as a male stripper?”, she asked him, straight and to the point, mama’s modus operandi.
“What? Who told you that?”, Bo asked, feeling the blood leave his face. He didn’t like the way he was feeling; Bo was used to having this town by the tail-feathers and right now, he felt like cornered prey.
Norma Jorgensen slapped the Babylon Weekly Gossip Column down on the table and pointed at it, “It’s all right there in black and white. Tell me it’s all lies and I’ll believe you.” She looked him right in his bright blue eyes and he couldn’t lie to her. He never could. “I’m a male exotic dancer, Ma, and I get paid a LOT of money!”
“How am I going to show my face in church…and what is your father going to say?!”, Norma spoke to the air, more than to her son, with her hand against her face.
“WHAT?!”, Bo threw his hands wide, “You’re acting like I killed someone! I haven’t broken any laws or hurt anyone! What I’m doing isn’t illegal! No one touches me…I just dance and I don’t strip completely naked!” He sat at the table and put his head in his hands for a moment, “I think I’ve done pretty damned well for myself since the accident. I make great money!” Bo would never tell her that, secretly, he does strip naked for select clients and he had agreed to become an escort for Mr. Navarro. He hadn’t been activated as an escort yet, but he was now on the list of escorts to those who inquired for that confidential service.
All that Norma could say was, “Bo…we didn’t raise you like that…”
Suddenly, the ex-football hero couldn’t take it anymore. He jumped up from the table and grabbed his keys from the key-caddy and took off in his truck. He had no idea where he was going until he got there. He jumped out of his truck and slammed the door and walked into The Cellar. Plopping down at the bar, he called out, “Boilermaker over here and don’t let me get dry!” He was so used to being accomodated, because of his town hero status, that he didn't even stop to think that he was only 18 years old and couldn't get served, at least openly, in a bar. Chance had spoiled him, giving him whatever he asked for.