Contents ( 42)
- The Art of Breathing
- Part One: How We Became Who We Are
- Prologue: Or, Where the Kid Hears the Word of the Day
- 1. Where Tyson Learns to Breathe
- 2. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
- 3. Where Tyson Graduates and Bear Freaks Out
- 4. Where Tyson Says Good-Bye
- 5. Where Tyson Gets the Mail
- Part Two: Coming Home
- 6. Where Tyson Comes Home
- 7. Where Tyson Gives a History Lesson
- 8. Where Tyson Attends the Most Awkward Party Ever
- 9. Where Tyson Plans Attends a Protest
- 10. Where Tyson Gets Arrested
- 11. Where Tyson Gets His Ass Handed to Him
- 12. Where Tyson Writes Bad Poetry and Gawks at Frat Boys
- 13. Where Tyson Decides to Man the Fuck Up
- 14. Where Tyson Asks Some Questions
- 15. Where Tyson Remembers Theresa Jean Paquinn
- 16. Where Tyson Learns the Benefit of Therapy
- 17. Where Tyson Meets the Man Who Becomes Helena Handbasket
- 18. Where Tyson Gets Screwed at His Own Birthday Party (And Not in a Good Way)
- Part Three: Just Breathe
- 19. Where Tyson Goes to Helena Handbasket’s Sex Dungeon
- 20. Where Tyson Beholds the Awesome Wonder That Is Paul Auster
- 21. Where Tyson Receives Advice from the Six Sages
- 22. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
- 23. Where Tyson Hears the Inevitable
- 24. Where Tyson Meets His Match
- 25. Where Tyson Says Hello, Where Tyson Says Good-bye
- 26. Where Tyson Touches upon the Inevitable
- 27. Where Tyson Faces the Music
- 28. Where Tyson Breathes
- 29. Tyson And Dominic
- 30. The Art Of Breathing
- Epilogue: Or, Bear’s Perspective, As It Were (Yeah, He’s Gonna Freak)
- Author’s Note
- Excerpt
- Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door
- More from TJ Klune
- Readers love the Bear, Otter, and the Kid Chronicles by TJ Klune
- By TJ Klune
And when I found this out, I did the worst thing of all.
I ran away.
But that’s not all, Doc. That’s not all it is. It’s unfair to put this all on him. I may have mommy issues too, but that’s another story for another time. Suffice to say, Doc, I may have a hard time trusting people. I am, after all, a product of my environment.
Just give me the pills, Doc. Make it all go away.
Wouldn’t you know? The doctor did.
And it did go away. For a time. I didn’t need the bathtub because I didn’t need anything.
Dominic tried to call me. I ignored him.
He came to New Hampshire. He was sent away.
“I know what you want,” I heard Bear say to him once. “Believe me, I do. I probably know better than anyone else. But you can’t, Dom. Not now. He may not be a kid anymore, but he’s my Kid. He’s hurting right now, and even though you didn’t do anything wrong, I find myself having to stop from reaching over and bashing your head in. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. You’re family, big guy, but right now, you’re not what he needs.”
I took more drugs and drifted away. Benzodiazepines are great when you don’t want to care.
Then came the day when Bear and Otter sat me down, and I noticed, for the first time in a long time, the tightness around Bear’s eyes, lines that hadn’t been there before. The thin stretch of his lips. The anger and the worry warring in his eyes. I hadn’t seen that in such a long time. Not since Julie came again to the hospital where Mrs. Paquinn died, where Otter almost died.
And I’d put it there.
“I think I need to stop taking the pills,” I said.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Otter said.
“You better fucking believe it is,” Bear said. “Can you do it?”
It turned out I could. It was hard, but I could. The panic disorder reared its ugly head after a while, and I’d be sitting in class, the youngest person there by two years, when I’d think of the most random thing. It wouldn’t even need to have any weight, any meaning, or be anything bad.
Once, I thought about how Dom and I had once sat on the hood of his car after Bear and Otter’s wedding on the beach. The sun was setting, and we watched as Bear and Otter danced in the sand to a song only they could hear.
Another time, I wondered (though I tried to stop myself) what life would have been like had Julie taken me like she said she was going to.
That one was bad. That one was all-encompassing.
That one brought me to Corey.
I’d been sitting on a bench outside the science library at the start of my second year, taking in the fall air, the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, and I thought, What a gorgeous day. What a gorgeous day, and what if she’d taken me away? What if she’d taken me away and I never saw Bear again, and I never saw Otter again, and I never got to meet Dominic and I lived with her in a shitty apartment with people I didn’t know with a life I didn’t know, and what if?