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The passing years were kind to them all. No lights winked on in Troy’s room that he or his mom hadn’t turned on. Neither did a tick-tock behind his walls disturb the silence of midnight. Their new “Touch-Tone” phone no longer trilled with a wrong number. Rocker Patch kept the mice at bay, or must have, because there was no scratching behind the walls. Only occasionally did the lights flicker and then after a thunderstorm, when John Aguila from the corner store would arrive with chocolate milk and sweets.
John remained a good friend to Charles, Scarlett, and Troy. He married late in life, after his mother died. Rocker Patch slept as usual with Troy in their house in Calder, in the boy’s newly decorated bedroom with the movie posters, his General Electric boombox, and the Atari 2600 Cha
