[This is the novel about the single mother of Sam, who is 7 years old in this scene. It's already established (or will be once more of those scenes are written) that he's musically gifted. Prior to this scene, he was trying to learn to play violin, but his 7-year-old dexterity couldn't keep up with his perfectionism; he couldn't stand the sound ( Read more... )

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[Trigger warning for physical abuse]

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The random detail about getting ice cream ended up leading somewhere I'm not altogether unpleased with.

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[Obscenity note: This passage contains 7 "f---"s, all confined to the same paragraph.]

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( Three chapters behind the cut. )

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Well, that turned out longer than I expected.

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( 2,300 words behind the cut... )