I don’t recall what I said when she asked me if I liked it. I was terrified to answer any questions about the book when I gave it back to her. He helped a woman save a child from some nefarious evil plot – and did so while being gay. He was a marine, actually, if my memory serves. What mattered, however, was that there was a capable and strong male character who happened to be gay. I’m not entirely sure she intended it to be the event that it was and I’m a little embarrassed to say I can’t recall the title or author of the book. She had an uncanny sense of what we’d enjoy. She loaned students books from her personal library, and recommended titles she thought we’d like. She was also the teacher who handed me my first gay character. In those days I was still using my full first name but when I decided to drop the first two letters – that’s a clue – I put the apostrophe where it belonged, mostly as an homage to the woman who had opened my eyes to the joy of language.
She was the first English teacher to really catch my attention and introduce me to new authors and genres. The answer is my grade eleven English teacher. You might be wondering “What’s with the apostrophe?” I get that a lot. Mickelson will be played by ‘Nathan Burgoine. He has two more upcoming short stories appearing in BLOOD SACRAMENTS (Bold Stroke Books), edited by Todd Gregory and TENTED (Lethe Press), edited by Jerry Wheeler. Lambert I LIKE IT LIKE THAT (Arsenal Pulp Press), edited by Lawrence Schimel and Richard Labonte 5×5 Literary Magazine and I DO TWO (MLR Press) edited by Kris Jacen. His works appear in FOOL FOR LOVE (Cleis Press), edited by R.D. ‘Nathan Burgoine is an ex-pat Brit living in Ottawa, Canada with his husband.
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