Came Back to Show You I Could Fly
Robin Klein
 The novel begins with shy and lonely 11-year-old Seymour Kerley, staying at an acquaintance of his mother's for the summer holidays. Seymour's parents have broken up and arguing over custody of him. When Seymour was staying with his father, an alcoholic, the latter had drunkenly threatened to take Seymour away interstate. Although Seymour himself thought this was a shallow threat, as his father had little money and was often jobless, his mother took him away to stay at Victoria Road with Thelma. Thelma is a woman who Seymour's mother had formed a "casual and tenuous acquaintance". Thelma is meticulous and tart. At her house Seymour is bored and unhappy. During the day, while Thelma is at work, Seymour is not allowed to open the door, or leave the house, because of his mother's fear that his father might come and take him away. However, after a few days, Seymour climbs over the back gate and walks to the nearby shops. Seymour goes in a few shops then to the park. At the park a group of children tease him. Not knowing how to defend himself, Seymour runs away. The children chase him. Seymour gets lost, and can't find his back gate. He goes through a gate which he guesses is his, but it is not. Instead he meets a young girl: Angie. Angie is in her late teens, and Seymour describes her a beautiful angel. Seymour and Angie become friends, and Angie takes him on outings to the horse races, shops and a restaurant. Seymour has faint suspicions about Angie, but refuses to believe them. One day, Seymour finds Angie in her flat acting "peculiar" and looking sick. Seymour goes back to Thelma's house and calls Angie's sister, Lynne, whom he met previously. Lynne comes over and calls her father, who drives up to Angie's flat and takes Angie away. Several days later, Seymour decides to go to Angie's flat and clean it for when she comes home. However, Seymour finds that it has already been cleaned and almost everything is packed away. Lynne finds Seymour in the flat and tells Seymour Angie won't be coming back, and reveals that Angie has been taking drugs for nearly five years. Lynne describes how Angie has promised, many times, to her parents that she will go to rehab, and that Angie's boyfriend James, is in jail. Angie is going to Rankin House temporarily, a rehabilitation center nearby, then Lakeview, another center. While Angie is at Rankin House, Seymour decides to go see her to give her back her doll that that was left at the flat. Seymour gets to Rankin House and finds Angie, who desperately pretends she has been sick with Pleurisy and is going to be back soon. Angie and Seymour begin to fight, but Seymour, weary of her lies, gives her back her doll and leaves. The rest of the novel is a letter from Angie. In the letter Angie apologizes to Seymour and says that she is at Lakeview, pregnant and going to have her baby soon, and when she gets out she and the baby will live with her parents for a while. In the postscript there is a letter from Seymour in reply to Angie. He describes in the letter that he likes Carrucan, the place where he and his mother have moved to, and that his father came to visit him and got a job as a truck driver. Seymour says he has made a friend called Martin and is learning to swim, and that when Angie gets out of Lakeview and goes to live with her parents he suggests they go out to places with her baby.