As we drove, on the roadside alternated vast corn fields and dry, barren desert, in the middle of which stood factories, drilling sites and nuclear power plants. Eventually we arrived at the trailer village. The villagers watched us from a distance, wary, until finally one of the men came to talk to us. "What are you here for?" he asked, sounding suspicious and harsh. At first I thought he was old, as he was stooping and tired-looking, but looking more closely I saw that his skin was not wrinkled - he could not be older than forty yet.
When I told I had helped Arya and therefore fled the police, the villagers welcomed us. They were still watching us warily, but invited us to eat around the campfire. Arya cut off the silence with a laugh: "I came with you here in the middle of the desert, but I know hardly anything about you. Could you tell me your secret? " We were glancing at each other, until finally I started. "Well, I was homeschooled for eight years. And I`m also a trans man." I was a little bit nervous to say the last sentence, Echelon and Frank were the only ones who knew it. Everyone, however, viewed it casually; as Arya said, "It does not matter what you have in your pants, but what you have in your heart. And you're the bravest person I know. "
"I am a former professional video game player, but I stopped competing a couple of years ago when I got tired of being a celebrity. I`m also genderfluid and I have dyspraxia." Frank said, smiling shyly. “Dyspraxia? What it means?” Arya asked. "It`s a neurological disorder that affects cross and fine motor coordination, and sometimes also speech. Daniel Radcliffe has it too." Frank explained.
Echelon told that she worked as a teacher in Unschooling Center, which was far from an ordinary teaching job. “Well, my secret you already know”, Janus said tensely. “Jan..You don`t have to talk about it if you don`t want, they will surely understand.”
“I don`t want to be afraid that they will find out about it and turn their backs to me. Besides, these incidents have made me who I am, how anyone could ever truly know me unless I talk about it?” After the story was over, a long silence fell; no one could find the right words, even though we were empathetic. It was cut off when Nika said, looking straight into our eyes: “And my secret is that I love him, as more than a brother, despite what he has done.”
