title: The Absent Traveler: A Novella and Other Stories
author:  Randall DeVallance 
description: Randall DeVallance is the author of the short novel, <em>Dive</em> (Authorhouse, 2004), the short-story collection, <em>Sketches of Invalids</em> (Xlibris, 2007), and the novella and short story collection, THE ABSENT TRAVELER (Atticus Books, 2010). His stories have appeared in several anthologies and more than 30 print and online publications including <em>McSweeney's</em>, <em>Pindeldyboz</em>, <em>Eyeshot</em>, <em>Vestal Review</em>, and <em>Word Riot</em>. He lives in New York City.
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  > The Impossible Boy
  
  > by Anna Martin
  
    
  
  www.annamartin-fiction.com
  
  © 2020 Anna Martin
  
  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form
  without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright
  law.
  
  First edition January 2017 (Dreamspinner Press)
  
  Second (revised) edition January 2020
  
  Cover art by Garrett Leigh www.blackjazzdesign.com
  
  Characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real
  persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any
  person depicted on the cover of this book is a model and is not affiliated
  with, nor do they endorse, this story.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > Chapter One
  
  There were few places in the world where Stan could blend in. He’d travelled a
  lot in his twenty-two years, and yet this little corner of north London seemed
  to be the spot for him. It felt right.
  
  He’d taken the Northern line to Camden Town on the recommendation of a friend
  and spent hours wandering