When James came back in, he’d been crying. You could tell, even though there was still rain dripping off his now soggy hat and hair. Alan pointed it out to me, tugging at my sleeve and nodding. He cut his eyes at me and I could see the pain in his eyes. Of course I immediately went to James and took him aside to tell him it would be all right, that we’d manage.
“All my clothes are in my van. My money, everything. But you know what’s worse?”
By then I had led James over to some other hay bales, in the near privacy of an empty stall. We sat down, I with my arm around him. Wet and soggy, just like me.
“She said it was my fault that Candy was having identity issues. That somehow my being gay had poisoned her mind into thinking she was a boy. She said since that was the case then I should fi
