The whole trip in Spain, Gary wanted to finally reveal to his mother that he was gay. He was amazed that his mother hadn’t figured it out on her own but still, Gary now 20, he knew she had no idea.

“Who are you taking to the Prom?” She asked Gary when he was a sophomore at Millard Fillmore High School.

“I’m just going to go stag…with Kevin.”

“Anyone caught your eye in class?” She asked Gary when he was a freshman at U.C. Davis.

“I’m too busy studying…with Lance.”

“Maybe you’ll meet someone in Spain!” The trip was a birthday present to her son, now a junior at school. “Wouldn’t THAT be exciting?!”

“I’ll be too enthralled walking through the Prado,” he said, checking out the fine Spanish men, he thought.

And so they spent their time traveling through Spain. He could have told her on the train ride to Figueres where the went to see the Salvador Dali Museum. He didn’t. He could have told her at the tapas bar near the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. He didn’t. He could have told her after the flamenco concert in Toledo. He didn’t. So many opportunities but he didn’t and now they were landing in New York, back in the States, back to their normal lives.

They walked together through the airport to the customs agent.

“Wasn’t the trip simply marvelous?!”

“Yeah,” Gary said forlornly as they approached the customs agent.

“Do you have anything to declare?”

“I’M GAY!”