Beaten and thrown out of his home by his father, Guy ends up on the streets. A few days later he's 'adopted' by two strays, a German shepherd mix and a gray kitten. Later that night, when he returns to a vacant house he'd found the previous day, he meets three other homeless teens -- Mack, Tone, and Dani. After a false start, because they think he's a punk looking for trouble, they become friends. Dani insists the animals need names, and she decides to call the kitten Ghost, while the dog becomes Shadow. When Mack and Guy are threatened by two real punks in the alley behind the house, Shadow defends them, with Mack's help. This leads to their decision that it isn’t safe to remain where they are. As they move on, the quartet's friendship deepens, and Guy eventually trusts them enough to tell them he's gay ... which they accept with no problem, as it turns out so are Mack and Tone. Now they have to continue dealing with life on the streets while COVID ravages the country, making being homeless a fight for their very survival.

Strays in the Time of COVID

It wasn’t where he used to live—that was on the other side of the city—but it could have been. It had the same kind of small houses with trees out front, well-kept lawns, and flowers by the sidewalk or in front of the porch. For a moment he felt a twinge of homesickness. Then he remembered what had happened that last night, and the scorn his father felt for him, and it vanished. “I sort of miss Mom, though.”


Shadow looked up at him, as if questioning his words.


“Well, I do. She cared about me. The trouble was, she cared more for him and so she overlooked how he treated me, which wasn’t really that bad until the end. He just…” Guy shrugged, getting an indignant hiss from Ghost, who had climbed out of the backpack onto his shoulder somewhere along the way. “Sorry.” He patted her head. “I’ll be more careful.”


“You have quite a menagerie there.”


Chapter 8