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

The demon growled and began walking away from the forest.


“Let me go!” I shouted. “You can’t do this. I don’t belong in Hell!”


The beast moved with surprising speed through the grass, crushing it to slime beneath its clawed feet. I continued kicking and screaming and decided to do so until I ran out of energy. I was determined to make as big a nuisance of myself as I could, and if I helped Rosamond escape at the same time then all the better. Heavens knew what had become of Reginald.


We hadn’t gone more than a mile before I became aware of the sound of hoofs galloping after us. I twisted myself around in the demon’s hand and smiled when I saw Duchess and Reginald closing in on us. Knowing help was at hand renewed my energy and I commenced a more robust bout of struggling and kicking.


Finally, Duchess and Reginald were so close I could see Reginald’s smile and hear Duchess snorting.


Suddenly the demon stopped and turned to face its pursuers.


Chapter 21