Parker Owens

Thank you for an honest and forthright review. I appreciate it. Perhaps you are right that A to Z is long winded and repetitious. I shall have to work on this if I complete another story. I can only say that the patterns of Andy's existence condition him and preclude fast-paced developments. Again, thank you for your comments.

How beautiful. This is near poetry. What a splendid way to remember a dear friend. Thank you.

Mrs. Marjorie is a wonderful character to consider and write for. I am so glad you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading and taking the time to review!

You're absolutely right: it was thought experiment I ran a whole bunch of times. To replicate the results, you have to achieve a number of pretty specific conditions first - small school with ingenuous people willing to believe you are exactly who you say you are; limited counseling staff; harried administrative assistants, and so on. And even then, just a few tough probing questions could send Andy fleeing away. Thank you for reading this chapter and for your insight!

Some impressions and questions - Creepy, creepy Mr. Burch - will it be David or the teacher who makes the wrong move?; Ginny being evasive - since when does she practice not telling the truth?; David moving further away from his stepmother - what does his father see in her? ; Matty and Biggy as friends - how close can Matty get before David freaks? This was an excellent chapter, and continues to leave me with plenty of questions. Waiting for Twoey to move to a new unit and start learning the truth...

Oh man, the shoe drops and blindfold comes off. And now four of them know. How long before lots more people can see it? How long before the tough and panicky questions start? Or how long before the next disappearance? Great story, and it gets more deeply interesting with every chapter.

This story makes me want to cry, to weep with rage. I want to hold your hand and lead you away from that life, change the story somehow, and spare you the pain. Honesty makes me tell you that I recoil from what happened to you, that I hate the evil that was done to you. As hard as it is for me to read, I know it was harder for you to write. And for that, my heart bleeds, too. You wrote your story with simplicity and brutal eloquence that makes it enormously powerful. If it offers you even a shred of comfort to know that there are many of us who would befriend you now, who would offer encouragement and support, then know you have these from me. And if what you wrote convinces even one of us to reach out to a broken, unhappy kid, out alone in an unfriendly world, then this story was worth writing.

Marjorie may look more closely, but she only sees Andy once a week, not like Eustace who saw him every day. And in both cases, he was supposed to get dirty, so the occasional day in which he shows up that way won't glare. The biggest danger will be from anyone who asks too many probing questions, who tries to get much below the surface. Andy is still a very guarded, wary guy, likely to bolt at the first sign of trouble. And yes, Blackburn is a small town; security is minimal - indeed, not worth writing about, really.

What a great story. The end-of-chapter snuggle had me sighing. Sam is such a good friend to both James and Casey; now let us hope their friendship can be enlarged and grown so that both boys are made whole.

I'm left so sad for James. How long can he bear the heartache until he just gives up? You tell this well; have coached my share of kids who played reluctantly, and only learned later that the game was fun.

This is a wonderful chapter, and I eagerly gobbled up every bit. How wonderful for James that he finally gets that his mom - and his granddad - love him for who he is. And now, maybe, he feels a little freer to make friends with Casey again.

Did Mrs. Marjorie ever listen to Click and Clack? Now there's a question I never even thought of. This could all go very badly wrong in a very big hurry, and Andy knows this. The most important thing for him to do (in his mind) is to try to be as normal as possible, so that nobody asks any pesky questions. He needs to do the expected thing at the expected time, and in the expected place. But you are right to hope that if it all goes bad, there will be some kindness at the end of it all. Not that our boy's track record suggests that will happen. Many thanks for your review, and even more for reading this story.

Yes, the whole structure of Andy's (I guess we have to call him Andy now) is really pretty fragile. The whole art to his existence is to project a normal enough image that nobody will ask any serious questions. The check cashing thing is unlikely to bite him unless he tries something more ambitious. As long as the checks are good, he ought to be fine.

Eric faced a combination of being tired of running, and the pull of the familiar routine, as you put it. He's clearly wrestling with going to school. Possibly the clincher in his mind might be the invisibility issue - the person doing the expected thing is the most camouflaged.

Right now, Andy is being very watchful. Despite his resiliency, he's still pretty hurt from having to flee the farm. He felt safe there, too, and look what happened. For Andy, the problem is that he hasn't ever felt safe for the past decade. Mrs. Marjorie and Eustace Whitley were safe people; Toby was a question mark. You may be right (no spoilers) about Terry P becoming a safe person, but that's gotta be a long way off, in Andy's eyes.

Tumbles qualifies as good news. Thanks for the post, Graeme.

Chapter Twenty Eight September 4 I forgot about the long weekend. There there’s no school tomorrow. Monday is Labor Day. Yesterday and today, the school was as silent as a tomb. I don’t expect tomorrow will be any different. At least for the past two days, living was easier, in a weird way. I got up way early Saturday and got out of the school library simply by turning the twist lock on the door. Done. I found three exits from this maze of a school that didn’t look like they got much use,

Any Day Now.

Oh, how lovely. The kiss, wonderfully described. You nailed that. Thank you for leaving it there; it lets the reader imagine more. And Andrew believes, which is better still. Great writing, and a grand story going here. Will be looking for more....please?

Am I first again? Wonderful. Loved this chapter, seeing Micah and Finn go at it. The museum scenes were fun, and enjoyed Max as the adoring student. great chapter. Thanks a million.

Thank you for your review! Andy needs to be safe in one place long enough for the walls to come down a little. His trust in the world is very low, so any interaction and contact is good. We'll have to wait and see what happens - no spoilers here - but I agree that Andy is just plain tired of running. But he's not sure the rest of the world is going to let him stop. It's a big secret he's got to keep.

Wow. How wonderful to see their connection rekindled. Perhaps the spark can be allowed to burn a little longer this time? How wonderful to see Casey becoming the person he so richly deserves to be.

So we can breathe now. What a relief that Jim and Carol appear to be interesting, kind and caring people. And that you can convey that in such a short space is a testament to how well you have written this. Great chapter. Thank you!

Up in flames is a perfect name for this chapter. So much of the good things starting in Casey's life just disintegrated. Now he goes to CPS; uncertain as to how that will work out. Let's hope it goes well.

This story is turning out beautifully. The connection between Casey and James is growing, and it's fun to read about. Your descriptions of archery are quite good. Wonder why Casey's sister hasn't found a way to institute a search for missing dad - suppose Casey will have to do that soon.