Every Boy Should Have a Man

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Many thanks to my readers Ellen Milmed, Tiina Lombard, Edward Glenn, Jason Murray, William Durnell, and Kevin Eady, to my editor Ibrahim Ahmad, to my publisher Johnny Temple, to my agent Eleanor Jackson, and to the Earth Ethics Institute at Miami Dade College, whose class in the swamps inspired this book.

Much props, all.

He was not unusual because he had a man. In those days every boy had a man or wanted one.

He was not unusual because he had a man that talked. With the boom in mining and the approaching war, they were breeding more talking mans, and many boys — at least those born to well-to-do families — had mans that talked.

What made this boy unusual was that he was born to a poor family and he had a man that talked.

He was playing in the bramble after school one day when he spotted the man.

“A man!” the boy exclaimed.

The man said, “Hello there.”

“A man that talks!” squealed the delighted boy.

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