The last scene of the story calls back to the opening scene of the novel. I couldn’t resist the symmetry. I also reveal the boy’s name for the first time. I didn’t want to name him at all, just leave him as an archetype, but verisimilitude won out. There isn’t a father on the planet that won’t call out his son’s name in this circumstance.
I prefer to do the whole novel without naming the protagonist, just have him as an entity set apart from his world, involved only as required to keep body and spirit connected. But that’s a heavy lift for the writer and a heavier ask for the readers, especially for commercial fiction. So far I’ve settled on Jack. We shall see if it survives to publication.
The Icebox: Session 4, on the deck
Dictation recording (45 min)