I'll Meet You There

I'll Meet You There

YA fiction
"...I imagine him sitting at home by himself and seeing shit
that isn't really there and just wondering what the point of things
is. I can picture him trying to mow the lawn or fill his gas tank
because the milk in the fridge is expired and him thinking, Why the
hell am I doing this? He's tired and the nightmares won't stop and
nobody understands, they just want him to be like he was before he
left but he can't be, he can't ever go back because you can't unsee
what you saw..."
Josh, quoted above, is contemplating the suicide of his boss'
son, a veteran who had seen too much on a tour of duty. He has
returned from overseas minus a leg, plus a serious case of PTSD, and
carrying a major guilt secret. He's unsure what kind of life he can
have and exhausted from the pressure to morph back into his popular
high self.
"Why is it that some people in the world get to wake up in
beautiful houses with fairly normal parents and enough food in the
fridge while the rest of us have to get by on the scraps the universe
throws us?..."
When Skylar was very young her father died. She's had to take
on a lot of the adult responsibilities of her grief stricken mother.
Fear of mom being unable to manage without her has shadowed her
passionate desire to go away to college. The summer before her escape
things go from bad to worse. Mom loses her job and, instead of
looking for another, starts drinking way too much and cultivating a
relationship with a guy who is bad news.
Josh and Skylar, protagonists of Heather Demetrios' I'll Meet
You There, are working at the same run down motel. Could this
unlikely pair somehow provide salvation for one another?
Read the book and see.
A key topic of this book, returning, traumatized soldiers, is a
very personal one for Demetrios. She comes from a military family.
When she was a child her father served in the Persian Gulf and came
home. "...He was only thirty-one, but he'd lost most of his hair, his
teeth, his weight, and his hearing. He drank too much. Started doing
drugs. He was sad..."
Demetrios wrote I'll Meet You There for her father and other
wounded warriors and for the kids like Skylar who are pushed by life
circumstances into growing up much too fast.
On a purrrsonal note, I hope you had a good week. I did. Actually it
was an eventful week. Eugene went to camp Wednesday morning. He just
got back and went on an errand. Tobago and I partied while he was
out. Statistics was good. I'm gonna miss it over break. I got a
visit from my manager and super cool friend, Anna. (Recall she was
the kind person who brought Tobago and me together last year?) It was
wonderful to have a chance to talk to her. Taking precautions of
course. Then yesterday I got lost in the forest. After awhile it got
scary when I recalled that Eugene wasn't due home for one more night.
Recent bear sightings among other things. To a fattening up for
hibernation bear I might look mmm mmm good. I was so happy to
rediscover the path. A usually 1 hour walk stretched out to nearly
3. I hope you have a great weekend. I know I will Emily just
brought me over a full dozen awesome looking books from Orono Public
Library. Mmm mmm good. (Jules)
My boy hooman is home!!! Finally!!! I missed him. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene, Anna, Emily, and the
wonderful Orono Public Library staff.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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