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 sobbed and sobbed until I’d exhausted myself then I lay down in the leaf litter and closed my eyes. I didn’t sleep, because the sounds of Nocturne, of the river, and of the creatures of the night were too loud. But a sense of peace came over me. I felt as though my moment of self-pity had purged me of the horrors of my past for good, and for that I was grateful.


By the time I returned to Nocturne things were starting to wind down. Those remaining were speaking in whispers now that they didn’t have to shout. The luminescence of the flowers had all but died and even that of my fellow spirits was beginning to fade. As I noticed the faint, powdery light of a new morning sprinkling down over the forest canopy, I heard someone call my name.


“There you are!” said Rosamond. “Where have you been? We’ve been so worried, darling boy.”


“I’m sorry. I was down by the river.”


Chapter 19