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

Finally we came to the gaping mouth of a cave, which I hadn’t noticed from the other side of the river. The banks on this side of the river appeared eel-free—a fact I’m sure Duchess was happy about. As was I. Just inside the cave, Duchess baulked again, but this time no amount of coaxing from Reginald was going to make her advance one step further.


He climbed out of the saddle and, as had become the habit, helped me down.


“What about Duchess?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder as we walked deeper into the cave.


Reginald grinned. “She’ll be okay. Don’t worry about her.”


Chapter 13