Tiny Love Stories: ‘I Felt Like a Particle of Light’
The Cusp of Adolescence In the 11th summer of my life, I befriended a local boy on Ocracoke Island. Tall, soft-spoken, with a mop of red-blonde hair that sometimes hid his blue eyes, he was one of the few people who showed me sweet-tempered kindness while my family dissolved into alcoholism.
I remember holding hands, the whooping calls of tree frogs and humid, inky-black evenings at the ocean’s edge — bioluminescent sand sparking as we kicked it up.
On the cusp of adolescence, I felt like a particle of light, suspended in a love as platonic and gentle as the moon those summer nights. — Marie Koltchak My Selfish Selfless Man We met in January 1994 on a gay chat line.
I wasn’t supposed to spend the night. In April, I had a key to his apartment and we had our first fight. After showering one night, he said he needed antiperspirant.
