Burning Second Street Park

A Novel

by Tom Bessette

Copyright 2009 BessetteBooks

The Narrators

Bobby Nolette – 10 years old. Called ‘Baby’ by some friends.  Average adventurous, sometimes quiet, but generally respected by the boys his age.  Stable family, but some trouble is brewing. Bobby is thoughtful and often goes along with things he knows are wrong, getting caught up with being with his friends.

Gilly Beauchamp – 10 years old, but his life has given him knowledge beyond his years, though he behaves young.  His father is a brutal drunk and wife beater.  His mother is beaten down by her husband and life and has given up on making things better for her family.  Gilly hates his father with passion and constantly strives to defy him.

Dicky Boulerice – 9 years old, called Doodles.  Quiet, shy and nervous, he lives in the shadow of his older, more worldly brother, Pauly, also known as Moose.  Pauly and Bobby Nolette are best friends, the same age, but Dicky considers Bobby his best friend, too.  He is often successful at getting Bobby to play his games rather than Pauly’s total devotion to baseball and the Beach Boys.

Nicky Molinari – 9 years old, older brother Joey, who hangs out with Pauly Boulerice and a few older kids.  One of 8 children living meanly in a tiny house near the rail road tracks, he is thoughtful about his family and has befriended Mrs. Galarneau, proprietress of the neighborhood corner grocery.

Jimmy Yoder – 12 years old, so people think, and new to town this summer of 1964.  He is terribly angry and violent.  He got in ‘trouble’ with little boys in Albany and feels unfairly treated because of it.  His father feels betrayed by Jimmy’s transgressions and is being a taskmaster.  Jimmy’s father is especially angry that he had to sell a good home and leave a good job in Albany to get his son away, taking two very low paying jobs and living in an apartment.  Jimmy rightly feels blamed. He wants to ‘do business’ with the little boys, like in Albany.  He is convinced it is his right to do so.

Emil Rainville - 8 years old, as close to homeless and abandoned as a kid can get but still have a home with family.  Mom and dad are gone, we strongly suspect they are in prison, or dad is and perhaps mom just took off.  Emil, known as Frecks, for his freckles and red hair, lives with Gramma, his dad’s mother, and her son, Uncle Pete.  Gramma considers him a burden and shows it; Uncle Pete sees him as an opportunity to satisfy his degenerate desires.  Frecks experience tells him that life is torture until you are killed.

Ricky Kozinski – 12 years old, called Nutso, for his nutty behavior.  He flicks in and out of what we think of as reality, never remembering what he has been doing when ‘playing army’.  He has a younger brother, Matty, AKA Slug, who has withdrawn this summer, possibly because of doing ‘business’ with Yoder. Nutso, in fact has become more crazy since Yoder’s arrival.

Petie Paulsen – 8 years old, he serves as the bridge between the two weekend days, seeing things that others don’t know.