When Man Judges For God

John L. Forrest

Zach came to the station house to find Mrs. Edith Mennes waiting for him. She had already been to the morgue and identified what was left of Galvin. Zach gave her his condolences. Edith agreed to sit down and talk with Zach.

"Galvin never bothered anyone." Edith said when asked if she knew of any enemies that Galvin might have made. "I know what people say he was, it was true, most of it. Only Galvin, he never tried to annoy people, it just seemed to happen. I suppose his Father was right, I coddled him too much and that was why he turned out the way he did."

"Tell me about Galvin's Father." Zach was sitting in his office on the side of the desk while Edith sat in the chair in front of the desk.

"Well, he wasn't a bad man." Edith had been crying, but was managing to keep it together. "His Daddy never did take to Galvin. Said he was too effeminate. Said he needed to play in more sports, toughen up as he said. He hated that Galvin took to acting, said he should do man's work. That it would make him more of a man."

"Did Galvin embarrass your husband?" Zach asked.

"Galvin was always embarrassing us with his actions. Fussing, walking, acting like a woman. Galvin Sr. he said his son was a disgrace to act that way. Blamed me for all of it." Edith began to cry a little. "Well, maybe he could have been a little kinder to the boy, a little understanding goes a long way. Not always criticizing the boy. He died cursing the boy."

After Mrs. Mennes left Zach was no further than he had been before. Galven Mennes was a immoral homosexual with effeminate attributes. People didn't like him because he was a fag, but not enough to kill him. Most people described him as a gossip, but not particularly offensive. Women tended to describe him as 'sweet'. Men called him a 'fag'.

Galvin didn't seem to have many male friends, but plenty of women called him a friend. Most of the Colored folk and the immigrants had pretty much ignored him. Zach told Edith Mennes that she could go to Galvin's apartment and retrieve his stuff at any time. Remembering to mention to the Mother that he had a dog. He sent an officer in a patrol car to give Mrs. Mennes a ride and escort her to the apartment. He would take Mrs. Mennes, anything she could put in the patrol car and the dog home when she was ready.

Rae replaced Galvin with his understudy. A man who responded with Rae's constant flirting. Not that the young man had any real interest in the middle-aged matron. John L. Forrest was a slim, handsome man, with a dark complexion, black hair and brown eyes. He sported a handsome mustache that was pencil thin and goatee. There was nothing homosexual about this man and he was a heart breaker.

He had to shave his goatee and mustache for the part in the play. John was a sport about it. Rae decided to annoy the critics with a play called 'Swishy' which the audience loved, but the critics had forced out of every other theater and play house in New York. It was about a homosexual man who decided to run for Governor of New York. The actual Governor was not pleased.

John left the theater after the rehearsals for that evening. They would open in a week, if everything continued to go well. They wouldn't. John in his tweed suit silk shirt, bowler hat, walked down the street towards his apartment. It was the last time that anyone saw him alive.

He was found in a poor white neighborhood where he had a apartment. His face and body so badly beaten that no one had known who the man was at first. It wasn't until John had failed to come in for rehearsals the next morning that Rae had become suspicious. One of the actresses who was living with John had not been surprised when he hadn't come home. He was a known philanderer, of course so was she.

Rae managed to identify John by the torn remnants of his tweed suit. Rae didn't cry for John the way she did for Galvin, she hadn't known him that well. Rae was angry, instead. This was the second actor that her theater had lost, and it was also one of her best. It would delay the opening again. Ellen would make up the losses for Rae until she could open, but this couldn't continue.