This is an LGBTQ+ YA work in progress. 1969 suburban Chicago. Teenaged brothers David and Billy are discovering who they are in the era of Woodstock, Vietnam, Apollo missions, roller rinks, and civil unrest. They struggle with a problem bigger than their world, a secret problem living under their roof, and they don’t dare tell their best friends.
When their father abandons them early on, their mother learns after years of turmoil that she can’t raise two boys alone. She befriends handsome, charismatic Scott and asks him to move in, thinking the Vietnam War hero would be a strongarm for her boys, but Scott is discharged from boot camp for reasons he keeps to himself.
David, who at five contracts a mild case of polio, can’t understand why Billy is so hostile with the man who makes his mother happy until one night David witnesses Billy accepting money and drugs for Scott’s sexual favors. Instead of being repulsed and outraged, David is tormented with jealousy.
The outcome is tragic.
