"Cross-dressing involves dressing as the other gender for entertainment or pleasure. Cross-dressing isn't necessarily a sign of a person's gender identity or sexual orientation."--Mayo Clinic
Seventeen-year-old Michael has a secret: he likes to cross-dress. For years, this Black star of the wrestling team has kept this to himself. When his twin sister Shah walks in on him trying on her clothes, he finally confides to her that he wants to wear dresses in public. Understandably, Michael is terrified how his suburban peers will treat him. No one besides Shah knows the truth--not even Michael's best friend, Jacob. Shah agrees to keep it a secret, but Michael's eagerness to express himself in dress becomes stronger each day.
Michael's desire becomes overbearing when he starts dating a girl named Bella. It's clear that he's only interested in her because of the way she dresses. In fact, when they go on a date, she wears a stunning black dress, and Michael is determined to wear it. When Bella spends the night in Michael's bedroom, he decides to put on Bella's dress while she's sleeping. Michael is amazed how good he looks in Bella's dress. When he steps out into the hallway, Shah discovers him in the dress and they fight--Shah demanding that he take off the dress. Michael comes up with what he thinks is an ingenious plan: Shah and Michael will buzz their hair and wear each other's clothes.
When Jacob decides to make fun of Michael, Michael can't comprehend how even his best friend turned on him. Together, they violently brawl in the cafeteria--with Michael repeatedly hitting Jacob with a lunch tray, displaying a dark side few people knew existed. Bella breaks up with Michael and he falls into a deep depression. He refuses to leave his room for weeks. Jacob eventually apologizes and presents Michael with a brand new dress. Even though Michael knows the road to acceptance will be long and difficult, he decides to try again to wear dresses. He figures it takes a real man to be strong enough to wear a dress in public, especially in that bastion of unforgiving in-crowds--HIGH SCHOOL.

Michael's Black Dress

Teen & Young Adult

Thibeault, James

Literature & Fiction

Sartoris Literary Group

Well-worn pathways wind through thickets as easily as they do our minds. Often, the unexpected happens when we diverge from the familiar. The world may turn upside down, strangeness creeps alongside us in the darkness, and a shiver at the back of our neck whispers a warning we often don’t heed.Join us as we explore 40 contributors from the Quabbin and New England region bringing all new works to explore just what makes us move beyond the intimate, time-worn pathways of life to discover what lies beyond the veil of the common.Quabbin Quills is a Massachusetts 501(c)(3) nonprofit group consisting of authors banded together by the common love of writing. Our goal is to share information and tools of the trade with other writers as well as providing a platform to display their talents. All profits will be used for future publications, workshops, and scholarships for local high school and college student contributors and participants.

Beyond The Pathway: A Quabbin Quills Anthology

Smith, Chele Pedersen

Michaels, Steven

Stolberg, Katelyn

Mawaka, Jillian

Masterson, Violet

McDonough, Jamie

Milka, Lauren

Sarnat, Gerard

Willemain, Dr. Thomas Reed

United States

Perpetual Imagination

Our Wild Winds: A Quabbin Quills Anthology

Michaels, Stephen

Winn, Skylar

Lefsyk, Olly

Januszewski, Sophia

Ray, Curly

Lindsay, Jayden

Whitaker, Donovan

Vosburgh, Barbara

"James Thibeault's The Deacon's Folly is a bleak but strangely engaging Brothers Grimm sort of fable, tottering precariously between both the reality and the dream-memory of young Devon, the story's hero. Devon is trapped in the terrifying landscape of his own uncertain perceptions and the cruel distortions imposed on him by those who should have been his caretakers. But once nudged to it by the story's obese and hapless Deacon, Devon enters onto a violent quest for the truth. He pursues that quest relentlessly, seeking both what is monstrously real and what might just possibly yield some small measure of hope and love...if he doesn't destroy it himself along the way."—Fr. Barry Bercier, Assumption College
 When a backwoods town has a barbecue, it's to mock a teenage boy who nailed himself to a tree house. While Devon’s not the brightest bulb and has no recollection of his childhood, he’s a kind soul who seems friendly enough. Still, the whole town despises him. Only the new deacon in town takes sympathy towards the boy and is determined to discover Devon’s forgotten past, and the reason why it is never discussed.
 Everything about Devon’s life is a mystery, from the whereabouts of his parents to Devon’s own memories. In the town, he is treated more like an animal than a person. Forced to live outside, Devon is looked after by his alcoholic guardian, Mr. Audette. Besides the deacon, the only person who takes pity on Devon is Mr. Audette’s daughter, Caroline, who has been running the household since her mother died years ago. Despite Caroline and Devon living next to each other, Mr. Audette forbids Caroline from socializing with him.
 Few want to be near Devon. He spends most of his time alone and talking to the moon. At night, he suffers from dreams of people screaming. He doesn’t understand what it means, but tries to ignore it as best he can. For years, all Devon has done is block the torments in his head, the mockery from the town, and even his own memories. The deacon is convinced it’s time to know the truth.
 At its core this book is about a young man who is forced by an entire town to come to terms with his disability and his efforts to learn to live in a community of individuals of lesser humanity than himself.

Deacon's Folly

Genre Fiction

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