Street theater is a head game that Oz, 16, is not prepared for, but he wants to play because there's love at stake.
An innocent boy... who never set out to prove that the skills of innocence are any match for a streetwise opera.
Writer’s note
The avenue is a slow line that runs better than a mile. And if I could fit the entire contents of a story within that strip - plus the adjacent beach - then there's your setting. Almost every scene takes place at night - a narrow black line of plot, the urban beach. Of course, the tide comes and goes. It expands the plot when it's out. It must do things to the plot when it's in.
A shy boy fears that he won't make a friend, but then he does - unless the other boy is only acting. The street theater game the kids are playing swallows up everything on the avenue, from what is real to what is not. Oz can only hope that the boy he likes is for real - or else love tells the biggest lie of all.
Passage at Amazon This Russian Love Story
The beginning of the story…
I WAS never allowed to have friends because I might get hurt. My parents can explain it to you better than I can, but it's got something to do with how people may seem nice at first but a boy like me can't trust them. When I came to West Seattle, I don't think my aunt and uncle knew what the rules were because they even asked me, did I meet any nice kids over at the beach, which was across the street. I almost told them I wasn't allowed to, and then I just said not yet but I was looking forward to it.
Anyway, you can probably guess that this is the story of meeting someone on the beach. Of course, when you first meet them, you don't know who they are, or maybe I should say that you don't know if they will mean something to you later on down the line. Like if you will fall in love with them or not.
So, I guess you realize I am going to tell you that I did fall in love with one of them. It was this boy named Alex. This would be a simple love story if things didn't get so weird right after I met him. What happened was, him and some people were playing a game of street theater. Without trying to explain the rules, I will take you back to the night all of this got started.
The sun was going down. I wanted to get over to the beach and meet somebody, but I didn't know how to do it. It was pretty much my aunt and uncle's idea for me to get out there. They said that a boy who lives across the street from an amusement park needs to take advantage of it.
Luna Park would have its grand opening in a few days. If I could meet someone tonight, then I could ask him to go with me. You see, I was already holding two tickets. So the plan was great, at least on paper.
You could see lots of people over there from our balcony. They were on the avenue and around the beach. Yeah, it looked like fun. If only it wasn't so difficult for me to talk to them. But I did get myself out the front door, and I told myself to walk the 60 or so feet.
That was the distance from my aunt and uncle's place to the entrance of Luna Park. All you had to do was cross this street where the big white stripes mark your way and also stop the cars for you. The world just opens up when you've got a plan. My plan, which wasn't very well thought out, was to meet a total stranger.
I wanted to believe we would go to the grand opening, me and the stranger, and he would start to like me - me being Oz Phillips, 16. If he was waiting for me tonight on the other side of this avenue, I knew I would like him a whole lot.
I checked my shirt pocket, where my fingers brushed the tickets for the park, a playland with a ride that would swing you out over the water. We could even ride it together.