I must have looked confused because I had never heard the term before.
“Off the derech,” he explained.
I knew a decent amount of Hebrew, so I asked: “derech, meaning the path?”
“Uh-huh, I am considered off the righteous path. There’s a bunch of us, you know, a whole underground of us. Some are unhappy, some are angry, some—not me, although I’ve experimented—heavy d**g or booze addicted. Some are queer, given up on or abandoned by parents.”
Michael nodded toward the figure on the bed. “That’s how I met Dov. Like I said, we find each other in the OTD underground.”
Dov laughed and gave Michael a thumbs-up signal.
“So, are you really gay or was flaunting your propensity just an act to get you thrown out of MJA?”
“Propensity,” Michael shouted, with wildness in his eyes flaring. “Meaning
