Feral Sephrian

Joshy grew up watching his Bible-thumping dad and his ballet-loving brother Leon argue and shout at each other for years, but never really knew why. When new neighbors move in down the street, suddenly Leon spends time with their son, Kalil. Once again, Joshy is completely in the dark about his brother’s actions and is taken by surprise when both Leon and Kalil run away together. The rest of his childhood and adolescence are spent wondering what became of the pair, until one day ...<br><br>Leon was different from day one, and even though it caused friction with his dad’s narrow-minded views, he never gave up on what he truly was. Exploring his sexuality generates little more than confusion and frustration, until he meets Kalil. They find out they have more in common than people expect, and Leon helps Kalil come to terms with that. Both yearning for freedom from the oppression of their parents, they hatch a plan to escape to New York, where a new life and new opportunities await.

Lost and Found

At first I continued practicing ballet or interpretive dance or the samba or whatever style I was interested in that month. Then I noticed I wasn’t the only kid wandering off from the adults. The older teens would smoke or share a flask or make out with each other. I tried to be cool and hang out with them, but the cigarette smoke burned my throat, the alcohol tasted awful, and girls made my insides crawl. The very thought of kissing one turned my stomach unpleasantly.


Unfortunately, I was at the age where thinking girls had cooties was going out of fashion. The other boys in my class started flirting with girls and talking about girls and some even made lewd comments that were more often than not just movie quotes they didn’t understand but they said anyway to seem worldly. The only interest I took in girls was sharing tips with the ones who took professional dance classes. My teacher brought this up with Dad once. It didn’t go over well.


Chapter 11