Click cover to enlarge it
For every young person there comes a time when he must confront new ideas and lifestyles, and adapt them to his own personal code. The young man enlisting in the army and meeting people of varied economic backgrounds from all over the country; the young man going off to college for the first time — all must face different and sometimes shocking ideas, and dealing with them is part of what makes an adult.
COMING OUT is about a young man confronted with the fact that he is homosexual. His decision to accept that lifestyle means an introduction to casual sexual encounters and bondage and discipline. And, like everyone — whether homosexual or heterosexual — he must learn the meaning of commitment, of totally giving himself to another. For growing up does not merely mean learning about sex and sexuality, but learning to give, to accept, to share.
A lot of questions really hit home and shook me up when the little man with the yellow teeth smiled and said, “I’m very sorry, Mister Johnson, but the management of the Crafts Bazaar has had to close your booth and holds your, uh, tools as a security against the rent that you owe for the past months.” He wasn’t at all sorry, the bastard, and he just had to rub the “Mister” in. I was eighteen years old.
“If you need a few bucks to tide you over, why don’t you come up to my office, and we’ll, uh, discuss it.” He put his fingers on my arm in a way that made me feel all crawly and unclean. I felt like knocking his damned dirty teeth down his fuckin’ throat. I wasn’t going to put out for a creep like him for any lousy couple of bucks, no matter how bad off the situation seemed. I turned around and left.
Fictional reading for entertainment purposes only.