teenth birthday when I committed that quote crime unquote. Remember?"

"You mean the last time you got caught at it," Angelo said through his teeth. "My father was too tolerant for his own good. He should have let me beat the life out of you that day-and I was all set to do it, too."

Mario was looking at his mother's brother with a sad, embarrassed smile. "Do you really think that would have changed me?"

"It might have taught you there were things people couldn't do without trouble," Angelo said. "And when I think we trusted you with Tommy!" "Now, damn it, Angelo-" Tommy began, but Mario motioned him to silence.

"I'm not defending myself. If you figure I corrupted Tommy, nothing I'd say could change your mind-though if sixteen years of living with his family didn't make him straight, I don't know how on earth you think a couple of seasons on the road with me could have turned him gay just like that. And he spent three years in the Army, away from my so-called evil influence, Think, Angelo. Use your head. If some man made a pass at you, would it turn you homosexual-just like that?"

Angelo gave a contemptuous smile. "The only queer that ever touched me lost three teeth, man. ""

Mario shivered slightly. "And you're proud of it. See what I mean? Tom and I are partners. The rest is none of your business."

"It's everybody's business. Tommy's just a kid-!"

"Listen, Angelo, the hell with that," Tommy said. "In the first place, if any body got corrupted, it wasn't me." He swallowed, words a strange, whirling echo in his mind, years ago; damn it, if I'm old enough to risk my neck with you eighty feet in the air on a flying trapeze, I'm old enough to know uhat kind of life..... he pushed the memory back where it belonged. "And in the second place-Angelo, Papa Tony knew about it. He told me, a couple of weeks before he died."

(The recreation car on a long run between two cities, and old Tonio Santelli's face, grave, frowning over the checkerboard balanced on their knees between them. Tommy, I can't say I like it, I can't say I understand it. But you and Mario, you'll work together, a long time, maybe all your lives. You make a good team, flying. It's strange, you're young, you're not even brothers. Maybe you can work in the air with somebody you don't like, don't trust, don't love. I don't know, I never could.)

Tommy swallowed again, gazing into Angelo's eyes, so like the old man's. "I don't know if Papa Tony approved, or not. But he could have stopped it, easy enough. He could have put the whole country between us, just by farming out my contract to some other circus. So I guess he knew it had to be that way."

Angelo sat down suddenly. "You wouldn't lie about it?"

mattachine REVIEW

"Why would I lie? Papa Tony was like a father to me, too."

Angelo sat staring at the striped wallpaper. "Mario, this is a decent home with kids in it. Joe's kids. Tessa."

Mario bit his lip. "It always has been, as far back as I can remember. So

what?"

Angelo hesitated. "I saw you and Tommy in the kitchen."

Mario laughed weakly. "Oh, Angelo, you idiot. Of all the things to pick on-" he spread his hands wide. "Look, I know, in some families, men don't—but all us boys used to kiss each other. Didn't you see Johnny grab me the other day when he came in? How many times have you and I hugged each other and-"

Angelo grimaced. "Perhaps you'd better not remind me of that just now." "But why?" I'm no different than I ever was," Mario said. Tommy added, "I told you, we were just clowning."

"Please. Don't let's go into details." Angelo looked away. Mario was too angry to notice, but it seemed to Tommy that the older man was honestly distressed. "I wish you wouldn't make this harder, Mario. I don't want the kind of explanations there'd have to be if I but you're going to give me your word there'll be none of that under this roof, or I'll have to ask Tommy to find some other place to live."

Tommy said "Hey, look-" but Mario was on his feet.

"What do you mean-my word? If you mean, not to let Clay catch us in bed together, or not to make passes at the kids down in the gym, that's a damned insult, and you'd better take it back before I ram your teeth down your dirty throat. There's just exactly as much chance of that, as there is of you taking little Tessa along next time you visit a whorehouse! What do you expect? Do you think we ought to take separate rooms, for instance?" "Well, that would be a good start."

"Angelo, do you honestly think-or are you going to lock Tommy in his room and patrol the halls every night? Or are you saying you want us to go out and hunt up a dark alley?"

Angelo's neck seemed too big for his collar, and his face was congested and dark. "You know what I mean.'

"No, I don't. I can't figure whether you're stupid, or vicious, or what. No, just for the record-" Mario leaned forward, confronting Angelo, "if Tommy goes, I go. And don't try to make anything out of that. Forgetting everything else, he's my partner. If you're going to kick out one half of the Flying Santellis, kick us both out. But there's something else to think about. Legally, I own a good-sized hunk of this house."

"Look, kid," Angelo said, "nobody's arguing-

"I am," said Mario. "Just for the heck of it, let's argue. The house was originally left to the family, and tied up so it couldn't be sold while Great-