The Long and Winding Road

TJ Klune

Chapters (31)

The Long and Winding Road

By TJ Klune

Sequel to The Art of Breathing

Family is not always defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole—those who make us who we are.

And here, at the end, Bear and Otter will be tested like they’ve never been before.

There’s a knock at the door from a little girl who has nowhere else to go.

There’s a phone ringing, bringing news they do not expect.

There’s a brother returning home after learning how to stand on his own.

As these moments converge, all of their lives will change forever.

Beginning in Bear, Otter, and the Kid and continuing in Who We Are and The Art of Breathing, TJ Klune has told a saga of family and brotherhood, of love and sacrifice. In this final chapter, the events of the past pave the long and winding road toward a future no one could have imagined.

Table of Contents

Blurb

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door

PAST

1. Where Bear Makes the Wrong Assumption

2. Where Bear Finds Out

3. Where Bear Makes a Decision

4. Where Bear Learns the Art of Breathing

5. Where Bear Has Bro-Time with Creed

PRESENT

6. Where Bear Attends the Most Awkward Homecoming Ever

7. Where Bear Tells Tyson Everything

8. Where Bear Makes a Promise

9. Where Bear Goes to Lamaze Class

10. Where Bear Gets Advice About His Sex Life

11. Where Bear and Otter Role-Play at a Hotel Bar

12. Where Bear Faces the Reality of Married Life

13. Where Bear Sees Everything Change

FUTURE

14. The Long and Winding Road

Epilogue: Or, Otter’s Perspective, As It Were

(So Long, My Old Friends)

Coda

No. Absolutely not. No way.

Dedication

For the readers. Thank you.

Epigraph

Everything has to come to an end, sometime.

—L. Frank Baum

Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door

DO YOU remember how it all began?

I do.

This is the way my world ended.

Bear,

I know this is going to be hard for yu to read, but I hope yull understand.

I have to leave, Bear. Tom got a job out of state and Im going with him. Im doing this becuz I think it will be easier on all of us if it is red rather then sed.

This is a chance for me to make something for myself. Tom sez there are a lot of jobs where we’re going which will be better then here in Seafare. Remember my last job? At the Pizza Shack? Remember how well that went? In case yu can’t tell from this just being a letter, I was being sarcastic. It didn’t go well at all. (At least we know my future is not in pizza!)