by Heinz Sladek

Created on: July 03, 2009

Novel Excerpt: The Diary of Leeland Wilkes McTavish

The Pass Off

Being alone is difficult for anyone at any age but for an eight year old boy it makes all the difference in the world. I had become practiced at this point in my life at picking up and moving at a moments notice. Father had left recently and I was now to settle in with my grandfather in Alexandria. I was being sent to the Episcopal Academy to go on with my studies.

Grandfather was a very stern man of 68 years. He had bulky gray hair which he wore long and an abundant beard and mustache that fell to his chest. He lived by the word and I was expected to fall into line and follow suit accordingly. From the very first days of my residence with him it was apparent that this association was not going to be an effortless one. I was made to understand that the household was a household of God and I was expected to respect and follow the order or I would be living elsewhere.

I began to walk to school each morning, I enjoyed watching mothers and children walking to school together. I wanted so much to know what it felt like to have someone care enough to walk with me to school or anywhere else for that matter. I was envious of the big bear hugs given to children as mothers released them to the head master.

My first year in Alexandria, I stayed for the most part in line with my grandfather's requirements though he never said anything to validate my thinking. I studied scripture with him before we would eat supper and attempted to be mindful of my actions in his home. Grandfather never took note and I began to realize that if I made trouble I would be in receipt of his attention. I longed to have someone pay attention to me, to focus on just me. I started to come home later and later and as a result I would often miss the long drawn out bible studies he held in his home. I no longer said grace audibly before meals. This practice often caused me to miss meals all together as reparation for this deed. In the beginning, it seemed that little things like this attracted the notice of my grandfather and I took advantage of this breakthrough.

As I began to find things to absorb my time so I would be late coming home, I began to familiarize myself with areas of town where my grandfather would never approach. The areas were filled with people of the street as he would call them, many of these people were alone like me some were down on their luck and without homes.

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