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

We were wafting along a cobbled lane in old Jerusalem when Reginald stopped in his tracks.


“I can’t go on,” he said, his whole being slumping forward. “I’m tired of this.”


Reginald sighed. “Of you. Of her.” He stuck his thumb out in Rosamond’s direction. “Of this aimless wandering. Of trying to find amusements. It’s a hollow existence and I’m so bored I could kill someone.”


Rosamond had a hand on her hip. Her nostrils were flaring.


“Well, no one’s asking you to stay. Go ahead and fuck off! Morgan and I can do quite nicely by ourselves.”


While initially offended, I couldn’t complain. I was feeling the same desire for something to change.


The voice came from in front of us. All three of us looked down simultaneously. The spirit was barely there. His body appeared as no more than a wisp of smoke. His face was so gaunt that his eyes bulged from their sockets.


Chapter 24