A Ghost Unseen

In honor of National Coming Out Day (October 11), which also happens to be my birthday (go figure!) I wrote this short story after attending OutFest Philly which is billed as teh largest event celebrating National Coming Out Day in the world.




My life: I have been a model citizen; a good son; employee of the year, year after year after year. I have lived in the shadows, a ghost, unseen.

And now, as my life ebbs away, eternity like a black moon rising, I felt his hands on my body, efficient and cool. My chest was tight, and I was uncomfortable, but I didn’t mind, not really. I had endured worse, much worse. I wished I could scratch my nose. I wished I could move.

“Does he not have any family—anyone we should call?” someone else was in the room with us, then.

“No,” he said, his hands working. “I suspect he was gay,” he added, speaking of me as if I was already dead. “And you know,” he continued, his hands working, working, “He was of that generation that kept in the shadows.”

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