One Last Stop

Even after the party ends, August stays with Jane, listening to her as she recounts her life. Jane feels guilty, realizing that she left her two sisters in San Francisco. She’d run away when she was 18 because her parents wanted her to take over the restaurant and she didn’t want to be tied down. She traveled through the country, and “Jane,” at first a longer nickname, quickly became her identity.

Jane participated in protests and riots. She experienced anti-gay bias within the anti-war movement and racism within the lesbian community. To avoid all the hate, she moved on quickly. Eventually, she landed in New York, where she remembers the earliest days of what would become the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. She never called her parents, even when she wanted to, feeling like they were better off without her. August relates to the feeling of not knowing what a home is.

Despite the rush of memories, however, Jane doesn’t know how she came to be stuck on the Q.

A few days later, August tells Jane that Billy’s is closing. Jane is grateful that some things don’t change, but she still feels stuck, especially now that she can remember her life.