Chapter 35
The pink bedroom had changed since he stayed there as a child. It had been white back then. He wondered if his mother’s re-styling the small room into a confection of pink walls, a flower petal floor board trim, a window seat covered in a pattern of salmon colored swirls, was a subtle nod to his gayness. The smallest bedroom in the house, it bordered his father’s. Dad had taken over the master suite, his mother had taken a third bedroom a few years back to get away from Dad’s snoring. It was near dawn, and Neal was only half dozing, having slept fitfully, his father’s guttural roar pulsing through the wall. He thought at one point, deep in the center of sleep, that he heard his father cry out with anger. Neal got up and crept into his father’s room. It was silent, his father ly
