Little Brother

He thought he was a superhero. He thought he was the only one who got the joke. He thought no one could see the truth. The author and her brother took different life paths and hadn’t spoken for years. When he dies suddenly, she flies across the country with her sister to tie up the loose ends of his interrupted life. Instead of a weekend spent in condolences and packing up memories for their father, they face suspicious friends, law enforcement, unkept promises and a desperate search for a trove of valuable celebrity photographs. The story’s tragic-comic ending is an explosion of family dysfunction, addiction, and society’s elastic cultural norms.

This is the story of a magical childhood, a man who lived on the edge, and a sister whose love proved greater than her judgment.

Magical thinking is a part of every childhood. It’s a little harder to do once you grow up.