Chapter 6Today
Now it was December again. Thanksgiving had passed, and there was snow on the ground. Not enough snow to call it a storm, but enough to remind Julian of the storm he and his mother drove in to pick up that first book, Parrotfish. Christmas would be in a few more weeks, school would close, and Julian would be left alone with his parents over the holidays. For once he couldn’t just hide in his room and pretend things were okay. In order for any of what he was feeling to become real, he needed to tell three people.
At first Julian thought he could tell his dad. Sitting at the kitchen table, it had all seemed so easy and natural. The Black Sabbath shirt Julian wore used to be his father’s—something Julian had stolen out of the laundry room two years ago and his father hadn’t a
