"Starwatcher"

by Grant Carrington

"Starwatcher" was published in THE CRESCENT (June 1959), the literary magazine of New Haven State Teachers College. I was on the literary staff. It was a thinly-disguised story about a nonexistent James Dean.

Don Kennedy squinted his eyes as he walked into Cromwell's. After the harsh glare of the autumn sun that bounced off the gray Manhattan sidewalks, he found the cool glow of the neon lights dark. He gazed through the smoke and activity of the drugstore, looking for Carol. Finally he spotted her, sitting in a booth halfway back with two actors whom Don knew by sight, though not personally. He nudged his way through the crowd and sat glumly down opposite her.