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

Upon our arrival, Reginald registered our case with a tall, willowy spirit standing at the edge of the gathering. When he’d finished with the particulars, we went to the front of the group and found a spot on the grass.


“Imagine how I feel,” said Rosamond, without any of her usual devil-may-care zeal.


Reginald put his arm around me and kissed me quickly on the lips. “You don’t have anything to worry about, Rosamond.” He redirected his attention to her. “What’s the worst that can happen? They send you back to Hell. You’ll just escape again.”


There were three hours of appeals and grievances before Rosamond was finally called to approach the bench.


The tall spirit Reginald had registered Rosamond’s case with stepped forward. “Are you Rosamond LeSeur?”


“I am.” Rosamond shifted uncomfortably on the spot.


“And please tell the court why you are here.”


Chapter 22