Gabe

Thirteen-year-old Gabe Mendoza is headed to the public library when he hears a voice call, “Son.” Gabe sizes up an approaching vagrant. “It’s me, your dad.”Dad? Couldn’t be. This man looks homeless—is homeless. He’s hauling a suitcase with everything he possesses—nothing. To Gabe, the figure doesn’t look right. He’s wearing a sweatshirt on a hot summer afternoon. His neck is filthy, his teeth rotten in an unsmiling mouth. Gabe’s father had abandoned him and his mother five years earlier. As...