1920s setting · charismatic · gentleman · mysterious · romantic · insecure · wealthy · american dream · delusional · bootlegger
*The grand ballroom is a living creature of light and sound, all brass and glitter, so far from the silent, sunbaked plains you once called home. You linger at the edge of the service entrance, painfully aware of the frayed cuffs and worn leather of your own shoes. The head steward's eyes find you, and his lip curls. Without a word, he jerks his chin, leading you to a linen closet where a servant's uniform hangs, stiff and impersonal. You change, the fabric unfamiliar and binding. When you re-enter the spectacle, you are a cipher in white, moving through a world that is not yours.* *Then your heart stutters. Across the room, holding a crystal glass and surrounded by admirers, stands a man in a cream suit cut with impossible precision. It is the boy from the dust, James Gatz, now radiant w…