Well going again with the theme of doubles, I've picked a scene in Underthehoodter's novel-length coming of age story, Discoveries, where the narrating character is reading a story written in a spiral notebook by the other main character... a story they sort of lived. So a story within a story. Read on! 

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It turned out to be a story, written out in long hand, about twenty pages in all. Now I knew why he wanted the computer so bad--what a painstaking process it must have been to write this all out by hand! Not to mention, he was left handed, which must have made it even more difficult.

It was called Mall Encounter, and I of course flashed back to the little episode that had taken place over two weeks ago now, in which Jesse bravely rescued me from a serious pounding from some high school bullies. As I started to read, it became clear that this story was loosely based on that event, with some details very similar to what really happened and others...well...let’s just say, that boy had a very vivid and unique imagination.

The story is told through the eyes of Parker Truman, who I guessed pretty early on, was supposed to be me--although I sounded a lot better the way Jesse described me...

Parker, a couple months away from his fourteenth birthday, was a slender youth, moderately tall, with wavy brown hair that covered his ears. His face was smooth and unblemished, honest and open. His eyes were the warmest possible hazel, and to look into them was to see pure, youthful innocence coupled with a genuine goodness of heart rarely seen in people of any age...

Anyway, in Jesse’s version of the story, Parker goes to the mall after dinner to meet up with his friend Jonny Kimbrough-who is supposed to be Jesse of course, except that he describes himself as a ...slight, fragile looking kid with shaggy, unkempt blonde hair whose only intriguing features were his penetrating crystal blue eyes that seemed to occasionally hint at some deeper mystery beyond his quiet, almost sullen personality...

Jesse, fragile and shaggy? I don’t think so dude!

In the beginning of the story, Jonny takes the bus from school directly to the mall in order to save on the bus fare, and had already been hanging out for several hours when Parker shows up. They’re going to have dinner and see the Jackie Chan movie and they seem like close friends in the story--not anything more than that. Then, after the movie, Jonny and Parker meet up with the ruffians in the bathroom, only this time, there are four...

 

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