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In the summer of 1960, thirteen-year-old Ben helps his father and grandfather at the family tavern in Twinsburg, their small Ohio town. Ben’s summer has all the hallmarks of a normal rural childhood until a murder rocks the community and changes Ben’s world forever. Faced with mortality for the first time, Ben starts to become more aware of the threat of death that constatnly surrounds him.
For example, the Cold War is in full swing, and Ben and his friends are accustomed to duck-and-cover drills in school. The drive-in movies are full of nuclear mutants. Just as Ben starts to question the way the adult world encourages constant fear and vigilance, he and his friends start noticing some strange occurrences around their little town. When they share dreams, they start to suspect that something from beyond the Earth has come to Twinsburg. The boys realize they might be the only ones to recognize—and take care of—this otherworldly threat.
In its serious treatment of boys forging lifelong bonds as they work together toward a common cause, this novella recalls Stephen King’s The Body (which became the movie Stand By Me). While the plot deals with some fantastical elements, the exciting premonitions and search for aliens almost pale in comparison to the poignancy of Ben’s coming-of-age story. Over this fateful summer, Ben starts to question the world that previous generations are leaving him and the decisions they made to create this world. When Ben and his friends make a pact to protect the ones they love, they also show a level of compassion and openness that gives insight into what kind of future they would like and eventually strive to create.