What if you could skip the bad days in your life--go through them on autopilot with no memories left--and just experience and remember the good days? I imagine that could be tempting for even a reasonably happy, self confident adult. For an anxious, self conscious preteen for whom seventh grade is shaping up to be the worst year ever? Simply irresistible.
J.P., protagonist of Leah Stecher's The Things We Miss, feels like a real misfit at school. She's socially awkward. And she's taller and heavier than the other girls in her class, several of whom never let her forget it. After a bullying incident she reflects:
"When I opened my eyes, however, nothing had changed. I was still me, and Miranda was still Miranda, and middle school still sucked. And as much as I wished I could escape it and just jump ahead to some future time when I was less awkward and more confident...I was stuck here."
That is until she finds an unexpected door in a neighbor's tree house. She comes out on the other side three days in the future with no memory of those days. When things get worse--her beloved grandfather has a recurrence of cancer--the door becomes her default response to stress.
But it's not long until her grades are suffering and her relationship with her best friend is becoming very strained.
Is J.P.'s method of escape as harmless as she thinks it is? Can she even stop?
On a purrrsonal note, in May 2019 I received heart breaking news. My beloved Joey Cat had incurable cancer. Fortunately an appetite boosting drug and baby food let him have three good months and when he died I was the last thing he saw, my voice was the last thing he heard, and my touch was the last thing he felt. I am glad I was fully present for him during those months when he needed me most. And I have some precious memories from that time.
A great big shout out goes out to Joseph Jacob Hathaway, my best little cat in the world for sixteen wonderful years.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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