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

“This is all well and good,” said Reginald, who up to that time had been content to sit and listen. “But now we no longer have to search for someone who never existed in the first place, we should be leaving.”


Rosamond lurched forward. “Take me with you. I won’t be any bother. Promise.”


“I told you how,” said Rosamond. “Distract the sentinels while I sneak out.”


I looked at Reginald and saw no evidence of him disliking the idea.


“Aren’t you worried what they’ll do if they have to keep sending demons out to bring you back?”


Rosamond smiled. “I’m already in Hell. What else could they possibly do to me?” Her smile turned into a laugh. “Send me to Heaven?”


Reginald climbed out of the lava pool and began dressing.


Chapter 16