Parker Owens

Tim - sad echoes of melancholy airs haunt my brain as I read this. How very sad to feel unworthy, unlovable. It only serves to create and widen the distance between yourself and the person you love, and the feelings just happen - they're so hard to put away. I know about that. This poem make me remember my own bitter moments of self-exile. Beautifully written. Thank you.

Tim: it is hard to read, but I appreciate how honest you are being. I try to read with the eyes of love and forgiveness, as you have surely loved, and perhaps forgiven. And I pray that if I ever have the need to forgive, or to be forgiven in the same measure, I will have the strength you have had, for your mother was surely right. You have been the strongest. Many thanks for this.

Thank you for reading and reviewing, as you have done so kindly. And yes, a change in schedule will mean some differences in his classes. I'll leave it to Andy to describe them for us. Hang on.

Oh, yes. Of course, there's quite a lot going on in both their lives, but the little house on the side street near the park is filed away in someone's memory for later. Sometimes it's fun being transparent. Thanks a lot for your review, and for reading.

The cloud banks of trouble are always on the horizon. Andy must be able to feel this. We'll have to wait and see.

Terry is certainly trying. If she can break through, then maybe there will be a bit of sunshine,

I'm glad you thought it was good stuff. These are shy ( and very shy) people. Andy has to negotiate living in hiding, which is a real problem, I think.

No spoilers. Both are essentially shy persons, for reasons of their own. And both have reasons to hide. Hang on.

The moment of connection. That was a significant moment, I agree. Andy hasn't hAd that with a contemporary in forever. But there is lots of danger, reefs to avoid, shallows to navigate, storms to weather, if Andy is to avoid getting caught. And overcoming his father's voice is a tremendous victory that nobody will see or recognize. But Andy will know. Thanks for your thoughtful review.

You hold me close and whisper that there's nothing more to fear. I take great comfort from these words. These are the words we all long to hear, at least at some point in our lives. You have given voice to the beloved, to the comforted. And in doing that, I, too, am comforted and loved. I thank you for this poem, not because I need the apology, but because it is beautiful.

September 14 So I’ve been busy. This is good. My homework is under control. I’m really finding it easier to keep up here. Mrs. Marjorie had plenty of yard work for me to do Saturday. More than that, she recommended me to another older couple who live about a block away from her – a Mr. and Mrs. Abbott. Like Mrs. M, the Abbotts have no children and need their grass cut and other stuff done. The Abbotts and Mrs. M are nicer about assigning me work than Dad ever was, and the work isn't as hard

Doctor Fletcher Jones, PhD., Professor of Ornithology, moved about his house like one of the small birds he studied. Never long in one place, a moment here, then a moment there, utterly unable to settle. Right now, he stood at the sink, absently washing a perfectly clean plate he'd taken out of the dish drain. A minute ago, he'd been sweeping the basement stairs. Two minutes earlier, he'd been straightening up the pencils next to the phone. Perhaps there were socks in the dryer to sort? His le

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.