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The Big Splash - by Cole Parker


Lugnutz

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You can never go wrong with a Cole Parker story. I have read and re-read all of his stories many times. They're just as good the third fourth or fifth time as they are the first. :icon_thumleft:

Actually, sometimes they're even better. I find nuances I missed during the first reading.

Another great story, Cole. Thanks. Well done, and good for Jeffrey for finding his self-confidence.

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"Courage" is a really fantastic story, one of my favorites.

I liked "The Big Splash" a lot.

The editor in me had a couple of points that nibbled at me, but there's always something. (This also accounts for why some things are sitting in my own ideas/drafts folder, I can't figure out what to do about them yet.)

The one thing that got me is, I still wonder if Jeffrey's hip was more than just bruised. The reporter could've had him get an X-ray, for instance. That it was still prone to problems a year later adds to that. Ouch. -- An actual break without treatment can be...bad. Even the treatment for a hip fracture is not any fun. (Went through that with my grandmother at one point. Yikes.)

But for Jeffrey's character and what he goes through in the story? Yes, very believable. Get a nice but unassertive boy who's trying to get by, and a series of things, together with how he reacts to them, and you have an at risk boy who needs to find a way to make his situation better. Funny thing, how that same unassertive boy, given the right tools and incentive, can be the mouse that roared. Very true there also.

Sometimes, as peaceful as we may be, we have to stick up for ourselves, for others, instead of continuing to take it, and instead of hurting ourselves. Push anyone too far, even the kindest, gentlest person, and you find they don't take kindly to being pushed, and they will do what's needed to defend themselves, as best they can. Sometimes, that can make a big, needed change.

Good story, Cole.

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  • 3 years later...

I view this story and "Tryouts" as falling in roughly the same thematic category, where a young person uses ingenuity and shrewdness -- nit to mention a lot of pluck -- to deal with with unfair and arbitrary treatment by the adult world. There is something very satisfying about their success.

R

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