Project Gus is a personal short story exploring how we see ourselves and the often inhibited guise brought out in social situations by how we believe others perceive us. It is also about friendship and lessons learned. For one middle-aged man, his memories of being bullied as an adolescent sometimes cause him to automatically modify his public behavior. While spending time with Gus, the young son of a close friend, his suppressed insecurities surface. But nine-year-old Gus sees things very clearly – and Gus just wants to play football. A new, personal essay from the author of the emotional nonfiction short My Father.