When they graduated from high school in 1962, best friends and secret lovers Jim McCutcheon and Ronnie Mayer had high expectations for the rest of their lives. Six years later, both are back in the small Nebraska town they called home, and worse, no longer together.<br><br>Once the golden boy, Jim now works on his grandfather's farm, away from the town's disappointment he didn't end up at NASA. Ronnie lives in his parents' basement, recovering from the blast that sent him home from Vietnam. Neither is where they want to be, but it takes a special request from Ronnie's mom for Jim to swallow his pride and visit.<br><br>Though it doesn't go well, it opens the door for the two young men to start communicating. One question haunts them, though. Have they changed too much to find their way back to each other again?

Silences of Fallen Stars

“Why’d you cut them down?” Ronnie asked.


“I didn’t.” Jim picked up the shovel he must’ve left behind when Grandpa called him. “Before Grandma died, she said she wanted to be able to watch the sunset from her bedroom window, but she couldn’t because the trees were in the way. Grandpa chopped them down the very next day.”


It was hard to begrudge something that had given Grandma Mac pleasure in her final days, but Ronnie still felt the loss like a hole in his heart. Another part of his childhood destroyed, never to be regained except from memories.


“Can you get down on your hands and knees?” Jim asked.


Ronnie cocked a brow at him. “Can you?”


Jim rolled his eyes. “I’ll dig, and you can use the pick to clear away the dirt from the roots for me.”


Chapter 8