Morgan Berry’s mother had always wanted a daughter and when she gives birth to a son, she simply dresses him as a girl and treats him as she would a daughter. When he’s picked on and teased at kindergarten, she homeschools him herself. Morgan is eight when his mother brings home a new beau, a no-nonsense man called Dennis O’Rourke. He compliments his new ‘daughter’ on how pretty she is and when his mother doesn’t correct the man, Morgan flees the room in embarrassment. Naturally, Dennis eventually discovers Morgan isn’t a girl. From that moment on, he barely acknowledges Morgan’s existence and is, in fact, openly hostile to his cross-dressing step-son. On the eve of Morgan’s eighteenth birthday, Dennis, now an alcoholic, bashes his stepson until Morgan loses consciousness. Morgan wakes up outside. He has no idea how he came to be under a tree on top of a small hill beneath a starry sky. He’s trying to work it out when he meets Reginald Batt, of the Big River Batts. Morgan and Reginald become inseparable and together they experience worlds of wonder and awe. Morgan is shown sights he could never have imagined and in the process he learns many things about the world, and about himself -- the most important of which is a revelation indeed.

Stranger Things

I felt a combination of pity, guilt and sadness. Whatever my mother’s crimes—her dressing me as a girl for all those years, for subjecting me to Dennis, for no doubt helping him to dispose of my body—she had a vulnerability I saw for the first time at that very moment. More than that, it was clear that the loss of her only child had devastated her.


I felt Reginald approach me from behind, felt his hand on my shoulder. I smiled, though I was facing away from him, and walked towards my bed.


“Hello, Mum,” I said as I knelt down beside her. “It’s me, Morgan.”


She stirred in her sleep, but did not wake.


“I want you to know I’m okay. Reginald here is looking after me.” I kissed her on the forehead. “I forgive you, Mum. I want you to be happy. Please…be happy.” I kissed her a second time, on the cheek, and brushed a lock of hair from her face. “Just…please be happy.”


I sat back on my heels and was glad to see a small smile appear on her lips.


Chapter 12