Santa Clawed

out of jail in Arizona. Money led him down the garden path. I am going over to the Christmas tree farm later, and maybe he’ll be there.” Harry was looking forward to picking out a tree.
    Susan spoke to Alicia, Racquel, and Jean, who did not go to Crozet High School. “Christopher was a year behind Harry and me. He was handsome. And he was always elected treasurer of whatever group he was in.”
    “Good training.” BoomBoom laughed.
    “That comes back to my question,” said Harry. “Can a leopard change his spots? I don’t know all of the details, but Christopher was a stockbroker, became involved in insider trading, losing millions of clients’ money. I just wonder.”
    “Well, I changed my spots.” BoomBoom laughed again, at herself this time.
    “Oh, you were never that bad.” Susan liked her school chum, although she sided with Harry during the affair, which was natural.
    “Bad enough.” Harry laughed, too. “But isn’t it funny how things turn out? All three of us have grown closer.”
    BoomBoom became serious. “The truth is I didn’t know what love was until I met Alicia. I was running on empty and running from man to man.”
    “You sweet thing,” Alicia said.
    Racquel, not one to hold back, asked, “Think you were always gay?”
    “No. Not for a second. I don’t even know if I am now, but I love Alicia. If that makes me gay, I’m happy to claim it. But, Racquel, I never once thought about another woman that way.” She turned to Jean. “Which reminds me, I’m surprised Bill allows you to work with Alicia and me.”
    Jean rolled her eyes. “He’s gotten worse. He’s not as bad about two women as two men, but he’s really become a bigot. The other thing that sets him off is illegal immigration.” She looked around at the others. “The man I married was purposeful but fun. I don’t know—he entered his forties and now he’s such a crab. I hasten to add that he’s good to me. But he really loathes anything and everything about gay men. I just don’t know what to do about it, because there are gay men in our social groups. He avoids them.”
    “Not a thing you can do.” Racquel shrugged, then tossed a rosebud at Harry. “The leopard and his spots. I worry about Bryson. He says he’s changed, but I don’t know. These last few months I kind of get the feeling he’s slipping back. I’ve checked the new nurses. None is his type.”
    “Racquel, there hasn’t been a whiff of gossip, and you know that the hospital is a hotbed of it. If he were sleeping with a nurse, we’d know.” Jean wanted Racquel to be happy.
    “I’d have heard.” Susan did hear a lot, plus her husband—a lawyer—served as a representative in the Virginia legislature and was on the hospital board.
    “I don’t know.” Racquel appeared glum for a minute. “I swear to you, if he is fooling around and I catch him, that is one man who will be singing soprano in the choir.”
    All the women laughed at this, each knowing, however fleetingly, that thought of revenge.
    Pewter and the others had been listening.
“I’m not changing my spots.”
    “You don’t have any spots.”
Tucker laughed at her.
    “You know what I mean.”
Pewter stared crossly at the dog.
    “That you think you’re perfect,”
Tucker said.
    “I’m glad you recognize that.”
Pewter beamed as the other cats laughed.

A string of red and green lightbulbs, supported by four poles, formed a square shining down on rows of freshly cut Christmas trees. The Brothers of Love kept a tight grasp on the wallet. No need to squander funds on fancy lights or even a crèche. The Christmas tree farm provided the brothers with half their annual income.
    The square rows of Scotch pines undulated, roots balled and in large pots. Other trees, still planted, would be dug up after the shopper selected one. A forklift put the pots of freshly dug trees into truck beds. Sliding a potted tree into a station wagon proved more difficult, since the root balls were quite heavy, but after ten years the brothers had it down to a science.
    People flocked to the tree farm because the trees were symmetrical and the prices fair. One also left the farm feeling smugly virtuous, since the money did fund their hospice. Back in the early 1980s, when even some medical personnel wouldn’t touch AIDS patients because the transmission of the disease was not fully understood, the brothers formed to nurse the sick and comfort the dying. Their commitment to all patients