I’ve heard about parents billing their children for their upbringing. I thought that might be an interesting subject for a short story, so I invented a twelve-year-old who gets such a bill. He is in debt to his parents for his food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and so on and they are giving him fair warning that he will have to start making good on his debt beginning on his 18th birthday. Tom takes the news in stride, but what happens next makes him think even more cogently about the value of life. His own life in particular.
As usual, I started “Before the Birds” on Sunday morning and finished it in about four hours or so. Once again, I get to use one of Kim’s photos for the cover. The story’s called “Before the Birds.” It’s available at all the usual ebook outlets, and will be posted on my Free page until I write the next one. Hope you enjoy.
