Pandemic. Plague. Call it what you will, but it spelled stay-at-home isolation for Leo and his neighbors. Except the new neighbor. Interesting looking but probably not gay and already hauled off to the hospital. That’s how Leo ended up with his cat, and mail, and food packages. A caretaker now, and he doesn’t even know the guy.<br><br>A major storm blows up, and people start piling in: the sick neighbor’s grandson and some other kid. The old lady neighbor with a tree through her roof and her long-lost flame. So much for social distancing, particularly when sex gets into the act.<br><br>Except for poor Leo. Odd man out. Until they decide to spring the sick guy from the hospital. What could possibly go wrong?

Love in Strange Times

Leland sat on a stool and stirred the pot, which was starting to smell good, in a garbage soup leftover-mix kind of way. “You know, I had this move planned months ago and didn’t want to do it once things got bad, but it was this or living out of my car. That would be stupid, with this just sitting here. But I’d heard it was bad here, plus the fourteen-day quarantine, and, well, then the ankle and the cancer scare. Sheesh. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t even know how I’d have gotten back here from the hospital. And what if I got it there? And I’m putting you all at risk? I’m really sorry man. But, oh my God, you’ve taken in my grandson and my cat and the puppy I got for him…I’m gonna cry in a minute!”


Chapter 12