Chris Offutt - The Haunted Laughter lyrics

The following day, I called in sick to the warehouse and stayed in the tub all day. When the water cooled, I refilled it, still hearing that laughter throbbing in my head. I was sure I'd found a circus freak, a hermaphrodite, the only one in the city and perhaps the entire country. At nineteen, it was beyond my understanding that a grown man would impersonate a female. Not all transvestites are gay, I later learned, but mine was. This seemed a crucial difference between the city and the hills-Appalachian men could acceptable fornicate with daughters, sisters, and livestock, but carnal knowledge of a man was a hanging offense.