Dave Casler
PO Box 98
Ridgway, Colorado 81432
Young Adult Novels by Dave Casler...
I've been told by publisher after publisher that there's no market for Young Adult novels. I think they're wrong! So I'm putting my novels on-line for you. Forget the publisher! Read to your heart's content--it's free! And, I'd like to hear from you, too! Contact Page.
You're reading About Phillip. Be sure to check out About Dan here.
Phillip is a computer nerd who suddenly discovers a liking for track. Everything would be fine except for his father.
About Series Home
About the About Series
Index to All Chapters
Here are all the chapters, disguised as asterisks. Hover your mouse over an asterisk to see the title of the chapter. Click on the asterisk to go straight to that chapter.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
(About Phillip Home) (Last) (Next)
Confiding
"Father in Heaven, I don’t know what to think. You know all about the accident and what really happened. I wish I did. I truly didn’t see the other car. I guess you already know this, but mom’s staying overnight at the hospital. Martin’s home now. His arm’s broken and in a cast. Grams is fine. Everyone’s going to be fine. Except me.
"It’s really Dad I’m worried about, Father. You saw how he treated me today. Heavenly Father, I just don’t like it here. He hates me, I know it. I think I’m beginning to hate him—I know we’re supposed to honor our parents, so it’s not good to feel that way, is it? But now I don’t trust him. He was so contrite at the hospital but he never apologized and wouldn’t even look at me. I know what’s going to happen. This contrite stuff will last about a day and then he’ll be all over me again. I think things are totally outta control.
"Richard said to go along to get along. I can’t just create some fake Phillip that pretends to love everything Dad wants and just ignore the real Phillip! Maybe it worked for Richard, but not for me. Now I wonder what the real Richard is like.
"Father, what am I supposed to do? I can’t even be around Dad without horrible things happening and now I’ve had an accident and I hafta go to court and it’s just all horrible. Can’t we just start the day over again? Can you just fix it so we can replay that part and do it differently?
"Father, I don’t think I’ve ever felt worse. I just wanna cry and cry and cry but I really don’t know how to cry and anyway it just gets Dad upset.
"Father, how come I gotta go through this?"
Tolerance Campaign SucceedingMelanie pulled Phillip aside while they were waiting for English class to begin.
"Did you see this?" she asked in a disgusted whisper.
Phillip looked at the classroom bulletin board to see why Melanie was upset.
TOLERANCE CAMPAIGN SUCCEEDING
Your school administration is pleased at the rate at which our tolerance campaign is succeeding. We’ve had over fifty student volunteers to fill positions on our Tolerance Committee. The ones that we’ve selected are the best and the brightest and are more than capable of representing all the many and diverse communities that make up our wonderful Park student body. To all those who were not selected, please be assured that your voices will be heard! The first meeting of the Tolerance Committee will be held this coming Friday.
By now all of you will have had a chance to become personally involved in tolerance in your course curriculum. There has been a groundswell of support for this not only throughout our teaching community but also our student body. I’m grateful for everyone’s active support as we meet this important goal.
Yours sincerely, Patsy Spinellas, Principal
Phillip and Melanie scanned the list of the twenty students and the communities they represented.
"Black women," said Phillip.
"Gay alliance," read Melanie.
"Lesbian," said Phillip.
"Astrologers?" puzzled Melanie.
"Look, one solitary religious member," said Phillip.
"And its…" said a surprised Melanie
"Luke!" rejoined Phillip.
They stared at each other.
"I can’t believe it!" exclaimed Phillip.
"The fox guarding the hen house!" exclaimed Melanie.
"Oh, Matthew’s going to love this," said Phillip.
"Speaking of Matthew," warned Melanie.
Bracing himself, Phillip watched as Matthew approached. Instinctively he moved to the side so Matthew wouldn’t see the administration’s latest tolerance blurb.
"I hear you just about killed your brother," said Matthew derisively.
"Shame it wasn’t you," retorted Melanie.
Phillip ignored her. He faced Matthew. "Martin broke his arm. He’s fine. He’ll be at school later this week."
"Are you ever going to learn to drive properly? You’re going to run out of brothers soon."
"He could practice on you," said Melanie.
"If I have my way I’ll never drive again. I didn’t want to drive, Sunday or any day."
"Huh?" Matthew was surprised.
"You should be able to understand this, Matthew. The Lord gave us a beautiful green planet and here we are mucking it up with pollution and traffic and making an abomination of everything because we want individual private cars. We can save our planet and extend our energy resources by using plentiful public transportation and not getting hooked on automobiles. Or maybe your religion doesn’t teach respect for the planet?"