Brendan takes a shower to clean away the blood still seeping from his wounds. Is mesmerized by the raw imprints of the rope around his wrists. He finally comes out to find Everett in the pool house. The B-Girls had told him to enter, and he sees the injuries on Brendan's back and legs. Vangie is close behind so Everett goes to send her away. Brendan loses control and starts throwing things around in a rage, until he's exhausted. Everett comes back in and helps him up, then he tells him what happened, in detail, as he tends to his still bleeding injuries.
Everett agrees Brendan was right not to call the cops. He reveals he was raped, when he was 19. In San Antonio. The cops talked him out of filing a report by saying he would go to jail for being gay. Messed him up, so soon as he could he left San Antonio, forever. That's why he helped Brendan with Scott that night at the drag show. He convinces Brendan to speak with Vangie.
She finally comes to the pool house and is horrified at what happened. She reveals Rene also talked with her and she's irritated he didn't trust her. She never held feelings deep enough for Brendan to consider marriage, and suggests if he'd come to the movie and they're talked, he'd had found that out and none of this would have happened. Rejected, Brendan hints that Lon was behind his beating, just to hurt her. She slaps him, leaves and never returns.
Changes
Brendan quits Trujillo's, stops taking on projects to repair and finds a room to rent in an old house surrounded by pecan trees just south of downtown. The owner is Mrs. Glendon, is past 70 and lives in one side of the downstairs. The other tenants are Elton, unknown age, on disability and keeps to himself; Myron, 20, who has cerebral palsy yet is very independent; Rick, very kosher and waiting to see if his job will be permanent; Mrs. Kendall, on social security, who cooks; and Miss Savage, of indeterminate age who works in a fabrics shop. In an apartment over the garage is Sonja, Mrs. Glendon's granddaughter, on the surly dumpy side. He moves there in the middle of the night, taking only his clothes, bike and tools, saying good-bye to no one but Angus, the family dog.
He finds part time repair work for a small shop on Fannin and tells no one he knows where he is. No relationships, either; just jacking off when he's in need. Reading a lot. Sliding into drugs. Licking his wounds...but the gentleness of his new environment calms him. Tuesdays and Fridays, everyone supplies a bit of food, and Mrs. Kendall cooks up massive meals. Myron handles his cerebral-palsy without complaint. Sonja plays the piano like a pro. He begins fixing junk in the garage and sells it, splitting the proceeds with Mrs. Glendon. They become like a family, and finally he rebuilds his Montesa, re-centering himself.
Then the beginning of July, Everett appears and tells him Mairead's in town with her family. He scolds Brendan for disappearing, but admits he's known where Bren was for several months. Brendan returns to Aunt Mari's house with no explanation.
Understanding
Brendan is happily swept back into the family by everyone, save Uncle Sean. It's 4th of July weekend, the Bicentennial. He learns Mai is having twins, Rhuari married his girlfriend and has a job in a Belfast off-licence, to Brenda's horror. He says that makes Rhuari a target for a Protestant group but Mairead says the UVF and IRA have a deal, suggesting the two sides are working together to maintain their protection rackets. Also. Danny was killed when a bomb he was setting went off, prematurely. The B-girls still pepper him with questions, which he refuses to give direct answers to, and Scott is interning at a bank in Dallas.
Brendan stays the night, on the couch. Not long after midnight, Uncle Sean comes downstairs and quietly berates him for the trouble he's caused. Trujillo's was raided, Hugo and Tomas were deported, Rene has quit and returned to New Orleans, and the FBI have come looking for Bren. Fortunately, no one knew where he was, but the Feds didn't believe that and kept returning. Brendan reveals he knows Uncle Sean was at his beating.
Uncle Sean gets cold and hard in his responses to Brendan. No cursing, just solid verbal punches. He never wanted to hide him but got talked into it. His business was suffering from Brendan's involvement with Evangelyne. He's spent more on lawyers in the last three years than the previous thirty. He demands Brendan return to live in the pool house, under the name Brennan McGabbhin. If he does, he'll see to it Brendan is made legal, using that name, and if the Feds return that will settle the matter. Then he can go and do whatever he wants. If he doesn't, he'll spread word about Rhuari's job and get him killed. And there is nothing Brendan can do to stop it.
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