Follow Carmen, a young and deeply closeted gay teenager as he navigates the 1980's and 1990's yearning for love and trying to find where he fits in.
This story is rated M because it contains elements of death (including children), homophobia, religi...
***CONTENT WARNING: DEPICTS THE DEATH OF A YOUTH***
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The following day at school everything was going along as normal, which is to say that while the teachers were droning away at the blackboard I was daydreaming about David. Would he bring a dildo along with him after school? Would today be the day I tried it?
As the day wore on, shortly after first break, there started to be a funny smell in the air, something burning. Smoke in the air was common around here in late March – people often burned away old grass and leaves to get ready for summer growth, and often those fires got out of control and got into the woods. This smoke was different though. It had a sour smell to it, like burning chemicals. The smell was quickly getting stronger in the school and was even starting to burn our eyes. Everyone in the classroom was talking about it, and the teacher started looking around nervously. Suddenly the fire alarm went off, and at the same time a voice came over the P.A. speaker. It was the principal.
"Attention students. This is not a drill. All students are to evacuate the school immediately. Students are to proceed to the main entrance of the building. Do not leave by the back doors. Students must follow normal fire evacuation procedure. The building is not on fire, you are not in any danger, but you must leave the school."
For a brief moment everyone was just looking around at each other. What was happening? The teacher soon took control.
"Ok, everyone, you heard the principal. Everyone out. Front entrance. Single file. Stay calm."
We all made our way out the front door and arranged ourselves into classroom groups so teachers could take attendance and make sure everyone was accounted for, just as we always did for fire drills. As we were doing so we could see a thick cloud of yellowish smoke coming up the hill from the football field area and enveloping the whole back end of the building. It was so thick you could hardly see the school.
After attendance was taken we all milled around talking and wondering what was on fire. Last year somebody had lit the grassy hill beside the football field on fire and they had to evacuate the school then too, but that was just a white, puffy smoke. This was thick and poisonous looking.
As the fire trucks got closer a few students, myself included, walked out to the edge of the parking lot where we could see down the road. The trucks came up the road and turned into the Met Field. They stopped at the gate for a few minutes as one of them went to work with what looked like a big pair of pliers. Finally the gate swung open, the fireman got back into the truck, and it went inside with the rest of the trucks following it. We could hear more sirens coming, so we stayed out to watch.
First an ambulance. Then a couple of cop cars. One of the cop cars was about to turn into the field, but the cop must have changed his mind because he drove straight up to the school. We got out of his way as he pulled into the parking lot. He got out of his car and walked up to a group of teachers. The principal was there with them. They talked for a few minutes, then the cop and the principal walked over to the cop car. The cop reached into his car and switched on the siren for a second to quiet us all down, then handed a microphone to the principal.
