aww, I feel for the little guy!

Great descriptive work for a great ficly.

Everything you write with such charm and detail – it’s a travesty if this goes un-noticed, as it’s a wonderful little story…

That first paragraph in particular is just so visual, you drew me straight in and kept the pace up brilliantly, well done! MH :)

I love these sort of post-apocalyptic stories. This entire challenge is geared towards this sort of Philip K. Dick stuff.

Um, I can’t help but wonder if Concerned Reader meant to put that on another story. Or maybe I should be flattered that my tale of boyhood confusion got across a feeling fo such tragedy as to relate to a post-apocalyptic story. To be clear, this isn’t supposed to be post-apocalyptic. It’s a kid making a play fort out of moving boxes.

The images and the emotion are very well wrought.

Haha, no, that’s just my perceptions and over-reactive imagination. When I saw this line: “A stately two-story home lumbered behind him, a mysterious giant to be explored like the twenty before it he’d explored in his ten years of life.”

I was imagining him living in a desolate town, full of houses, but no life. Like some sort of catastrophe had occurred, killing all life in the entire town, and he was the only one left.

I thought Jacob might be an alien after reading it, so the sci-fi angle isn’t a total stretch…

I just thought he was a loner, or lonely.

After reading Concerned Reader’s comments, I now think it is set in Cittagazze, a city where the adults have all fled. Aside from that, lovely story, really great descriptions.

Congratulations on the win, by the way.