Tom Lake A Novel

Benny hadn’t missed the fact that other lives were available to him, it was just that the choice he liked best was the one that sprang to life beneath the tires of his bike, the one that might include Emily if she were interested. Emily’s ever-­helpful boyfriend, Benny Holzapfel, is no help at all since he is working sixteen-­hour days on his own family’s farm. Maybe it was part of the life he had imagined as a child: everlasting inclusion. When finally it was finished, the audience leapt to their feet to applaud and Sebastian pushed his way down the row and was gone.