I’ve mentioned there are some characters that I thought were a mistake, or at least maybe potentially so.  One is Jack.  The other is David.

Maybe it is no coincidence that they are two of the male characters.

David is Lily’s little brother.  He starts out at around 8, and is around 11 or 12 when the story ends.  And the truth is that I never actually knew what to do with him.

I don’t know how to relate to young boys.

Yes, I was one, in the past, but I kinda didn’t know how to relate to them even then.  I was the kinda kid who would sit on the front porch reading a book about microprocessors (the 68000 was kind of amazing) while other kids were climbing trees and peeing into jars with rose petals in them…  to see if they could.  (Yes, that happened).  I mean, I did “play” with the neighborhood kids sometimes, but… that was something of a disaster best left for another time.

Point is, I didn’t know what to do with him.

Lily and her sisters, well…  I had a pretty good idea what to do with them.  I’m pretty comfortable with that world for some godforsaken unexplained reason that I still don’t entirely understand.  But David…  he was a complete mystery to me.

So, I basically relegated him to comic relief.  He’s the young troublemaker who liked to play video games and get into trouble (and MAN did he get himself into some trouble).  At one point in the story he went to summer camp, killed a couple of pigs, and got two girls to fall for him.  Then he walked in on Ai in the shower and got a little ramped up…  basically, he was just comic relief.

And I’m not too happy with that, to be honest.

But the problem is, that I can’t think of a better way to use him.  It’s not that I really regret not doing more with him, because I don’t actually know what more I could do with him.

But a family without a younger brother just didn’t seem right either.

But, let’s be fair.  This story is told from Lily’s eyes.  Lily was a fourteen year old girl when she was found, and was fifteen or so when this story started.  She didn’t really know what to do with David any more than I did.  I mean, I’m sure there are families where the older sister and younger brother get along well and love each other – but I never really saw one.  Lily didn’t really know what to do with David any more than I did, and the feeling seems to have been kinda mutual.  He has the emotional range of a teaspoon, so he’d just rather sit in his room and play video games than interact with Lily in any meaningful way.

Towards the end, he did see Lily as a sister.  It was even mentioned that he would defend her when he was playing his games and one of his little team mates got a bit mouthy.  But…  he saw Beth as a sister too, and they barely got along any better.

So, was David a mistake?  Mixed feelings on that.  He added a little to the story.  And I guess he was necessary for some reasons.  But all in all… he was always destined for the sidelines – in the same way that little brothers tend to be destined for the sidelines with real older sisters and their friend groups.

So…  I guess I accidentally went for reality.

Maybe he’ll grow up.  He probably will.  Hopefully before he gets his “girlfriend” pregnant.

(giving a kid that young a “girlfriend”… or even two… wasn’t necessarily the greatest idea.  But it sure did lead to some comedy.)