HedonicusOver Christmas break, university towns became dreary places. In Bloomington, the exodus of students started weeks ago. Now the campus was largely empty and the holiday buntings, instead of lifting up his spirits, only depressed him. So when Randy called and invited him to spend New Year’s eve in New York (“Come on over. We’re having a wild party! And you’ll have a great time”), Leo did not even think twice before accepting, though it meant sitting in a crowded train for nearly fifteen hours.
Randy was an American black who lived in Brooklyn but worked in Manhattan as a department store decorator. He was also gay. They had been lovers, ages ago, but their relationship had mellowed and settled, comfortably, into a platonic closeness. Now they were good friends.
They understood eac
