Jimmy, at ten, was on the edge of one world and just a gap away from another. He no longer believed in Santa Claus but God was still real. The house at the end of the street wasn't haunted, but teachers had eyes in the back of their head. Reality and fantasy were daily more clearly defined.

But as summer shriveled in the dry heat of August and neared the school days of September, he was at the threshhold of leaving the real world behind him forever.