Whispers in the Dark

Ptolemy Bent--"Popo"--is different. At an age when most babies are cooing "Mama, " Popo was speaking in complete sentences. He was reading college textbooks when he was still too young for nursery school. Popo may just be the smartest human being on Earth. And he spends all his time listening to the radio . . . to white noise that comes drifting down from the sky like stardust.

Chill Bent is a two-time loser with a hair-trigger temper. After the death of Popo's mother, the ex-con assumes re...