Tardy Son, a novel

When a 13-year-old California boy’s attempt to run away from his abusive home is thwarted, he defies the police, and wages a war against his father. His first attempt to escape by jumping onto a freight train bound for San Francisco becomes an odyssey. He wants to start an imaginary baseball team, go to an imaginary school, and become a real writer. But when cornered by the police and angered by the lies his father tells the newspapers, he uses his wit and humor to fight back and publishes his own version of the runaway story which becomes infamous throughout California. He writes his real, day-to-day story for his teammates, his girlfriend, and his father to read. When he finally faces his father again, his anger draws blood, yet it also reveals a deeper story. He’s a polio survivor and a Mexican adopted by a white family in the 1950s, so his fight for his truth becomes more than a struggle to survive life on the street—it becomes a struggle to find his own identity.