The Paperboy and The Spinster

When Leonard turns eleven, he gets a paper route. It's the 1950s. Witney is a small town, where everyone seems to know everyone else's business. He now gets a peek behind closed doors. It isn't his fault that he meets Miss Simpson, a 39-year-old spinster who always wanted a son. He's without a father, and his mother is too busy to give him attention. They bond immediately and for two years this mismatched pair share colorful adventures: swimming, gardening, dining, movies, and fishing (at low tide, we tread the flats and dug in the muck with our toes for clams.) Then puberty changes his world. Girls in school ridicule him for his relationship with her; his friends urge him to take advantage of her, leading to one tragic night that changes the trajectory of their lives.