The Bottom of the List

About the Book

This is a story of a boy growing up during some difficult times. It is his story as he saw it unfold and not as others told him it was. It is both the worst of times and the best of times. The characters in his story are all real and are as he saw them. It is quite possible others saw events much differently.

THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST

Life started for Billy in a very normal fashion but very shortly with the illness of his mother life started taking many different paths. He was moved to family member to family member to be cared for and then to living with a friend of the family. When his mother’s illness became acute, he moved again to live with grandparents. Here the household became crowded and he experienced the first of many lists. As the youngest, he was quite naturally at the bottom, the list. He struggles in this environment but always hoping that it will change and get better.

Finally it does change, and Billy looks forward to a normal life. A normal life being a Dad, a Mom, brothers and sisters and a home of their own. This happens but it is nothing like he expected. He was still at the bottom of the list and there were more lists. New and very different characters entered his life which now was to be a series of roller coaster rides and hard lessons. He is subjected to some bizarre happenings, some humorous and some not. To him it is like being in an asylum.

In the end he is still at the bottom of the list, the last of the children living there, and the last to leave or be exiled. The asylum called home is empty save one person—the keeper, Marie, his step mother.