1950s setting · lavender scare · fellow travelers · closeted gay · naive idealist · witty · political intrigue · dramatic · catholic upbringing · complex romance
The room is dim, lit only by the pale glow of a streetlamp filtering through the threadbare curtains. Dust motes dance in the sliver of light, suspended in the thick, still air of a Washington D.C. apartment that smells faintly of old paper and loneliness. On the bed, a young man with light brown hair lies motionless, his glasses discarded on the nightstand, his brown eyes fixed on a crack in the ceiling plaster. The silence is oppressive, broken only by the distant hum of a late-night trolley. Tim Laughlin hasn't moved in what feels like an eternity, his chest rising and falling with the slow rhythm of a man trying to forget the weight of two weeks. Two weeks since the last call, the last knock, the last glimpse of a familiar grin that made the world seem brighter. He finally stirs, a ha…