Three young men from very different homes, just coming into their own sexuality, bond at a time when information about homosexuality is scarce to the average teen. Their strong connection cannot survive high school and heartache, however, and their triangle collapses under the weight of prejudice and a need to escape.<br><br>Ten years later, Tucker is bitter and hurt by all the tragedy in his life since those long ago happier days. Reclusive, somewhat animalistic, and completely content to stay that way, he’s brought up short by an unexpected confrontation with the past and feelings that won't stay buried.

Fur, Feathers, and Claws

Tucker Wade walked home as slowly as possible that day. Perhaps he should have rushed, but as young as he had been, he knew there’d be nothing he could do, and no one he could save. He opened the unlocked door, and there was his mother in bed in the living room, where she’d normally been for the last several weeks. Tucker had gotten used to seeing her there, to hearing her heavy breaths. He’d grown accustomed to the rattle and the wheezing that always made him sad. Not hearing those sounds was even sadder.


And there was Toby. Tucker could still see it in his mind some twenty years later: the yellow Lab curled up at his mother’s side. His mother’s. Both of theirs. Elvis sang melancholy rock in the background, a 45 on the changer, the last in a stack, “Heartbreak Hotel,” which restarted itself fifteen times—Tucker counted—before his father got home and finally shut the frigging thing off.


Chapter 7