Beauty Queen

around a long time," said Jewel. "It's just a coincidence."
    Danny was adamant. "Sure, they could have been planning to lay people off. But when this Colter thing blew up, they got the idea to lay off any suspected gay people at the same time. This way, nobody would know but them. It's a brilliant idea, really brilliant."
    Sam, shy at the new place and the new company he found himself in, drank a beer and didn't have much to say.
    The next morning, at her father's breakfast table on the penthouse roof, Jeannie opened up the New York Times and said, "O-ho!"
    "What?" said her father, from behind a copy of a book called Lost New York, with a photograph of the old Penn Station on the cover.
    Her father was really in a mood this morning. Jeannie felt lucky to get his attention at all. She wondered if she could get him to talk to Reverend Irving. The trouble was, her father didn't like Reverend Irving much.
    "The Police Department has laid off five hundred officers," she said.
    "More crime on the streets," said her father, not taking his eyes off the book. "Not a very smart decision."
    "I wonder," said Jeannie, "if any of them were homosexuals. They couldn't all be homosexuals, could they? People say there are ten percent homosexuals in the population. The police force is around twenty thousand now, right? Five hundred would be something like two percent homosexuals. They'd have to lay off two thousand . . ."
    "I doubt if any of them are," said her father, looking a little far away, as if he were sad about all the beautiful old buildings that had vanished in the city. "Al was saying there are rumors of layoffs. The city is going to be laying off a lot of other people, not just police officers."
    "But it's kind of strange, isn't it?"
    "What?" he said shortly.
    "I mean, it's coming just a couple of days after the council voted down the bill." she grinned. "Now if I were Police Commissioner Manuella, and I knew about some homosexuals in my department, and I'd been letting them just go along and do their jobs, and if suddenly I was scared of what Jeannie Colter might say, and they were going to lay off police officers anyway—why, I'd . . ."
    Her father didn't answer, turning the pages of his book as if searching for one particular photograph.
    "Dad," said Jeannie, "you are in a mood. In fact, you've been in a funny mood for days. I've never seen you like this."
    Her father put the book down, and looked her straight in the eyes.
    "I am a little overworked," he said, "and I am also tired of hearing about homosexuals. For a month now, I have heard nothing but homosexuals at the breakfast table. I think it's high time we found a more uplifting subject for conversation."
    Jeannie felt wounded, and a little contrite.
    "I suppose you're right," she said. "I do tend to get carried away sometimes."
    The days after the police layoff were strange ones. Mary Ellen felt dazed by the loss of her job. It still wasn't real yet. Later on, she knew, would come the deep depression and the feeling of being adrift. She got sympathy calls from Captain Bader, and from several men and women on the force.
    "Cuffs, I can't believe it," said Bader. "I can't believe they'd let you go. The decision came from higher up."
    The PBA was angry, a shrill last-ditch anger after so many layoffs, and it was lobbying on behalf of the laid-off people and their families. Mary Ellen wondered if it would now come out that a few of those laid off were the dreaded "homosexualists," who were therefore not entitled to share in the benefits of the PBA's lobbying. But nothing was said. She was still not sure why the force had laid off the NYPD Four, as they now called themselves, or that they even knew any of the Four were gay. Still, it was odd. She, and all three of the only other gays she knew in the department, no longer had jobs, and the Colter vote in the city council was just a few days past.
    Meanwhile, she and Liv were still worrying about Liv's status in the post office. Moreover, none of the Four had been offered jobs as corrections officers, while other laid-off cops had.
    However, the days passed, and Liv was not harassed or fired.
    Finally Liv said, "Mary Ellen, I cannot believe this, but Mrs. Whalen hasn't said anything to my boss. I'm sure of it."
    "That figures," said Mary Ellen. "She thinks you are so young and beautiful, why is she going to get you fired?"
    Mary Ellen did not sign up for unemployment. Her father had despised the welfare system and had