Background Information for
Dale Neibaur's David
This is at least the fourth iteration of David. The roots of the story reach to my sophomore year of high school. Mrs. Beattie assigned us to write a story, and I had a notion to write a tale about a boy who could ride shooting stars. I imagined he could sort of project himself astrally and hitch a ride on the sparkling incandescent streak of a dying meteor. I didn't know much about autism, but I imagined the boy was withdrawn from others, considered "special" or "slow". Farmington used to be a major center for special education (perhaps it still is), and my elementary school playground was shared by a school for retarded and special needs kids. So I imagined someone who would overhear difficult conversations, but only dimly perceive their true importance. The tension between David's parents in the first version of this tale was only a device to give David a reason for wishing to escape.
In college I revisited this tale. The shooting stars and astral projection got weeded out, and the tension between David's parents ratcheted up a notch. David became much brighter, but was still a troubled kid. I reworked the story a final time when I was putting together a collection of old poems and articles for Steve and Thane. I don't remember the year exactly, but I know it was while we lived in Pleasant Grove.
I could not write this story now. While typing it in I itched to deconstruct it and rebuild it from the ground up. What are David's motivations? Who is he really? What in his background would lead him to choose this kind of solution to his problems? What would cause his mom to react this way at the end of the story? I considered major revisions, but decided to let it stand. This is a grim little tale, and really I'd rather try my hand at something humorous if I'm going to do that much work. But it is still probably the most carefully built story I've written so far, and so I decided to share it here.
A few final notes are in order on names. I have an older brother named David, and an illustrious ancestor named Alexander. My brother named his oldest son David Alexander. This tale has nothing to do with any of those people! I chose the name of my protagonist for the obvious reason (i.e. David vs. Goliath). Naming him "Oedipus" just didn't seem like it would work for a modern suburban tale. But I really like the strength of the names David and Alexander. I used the variant "Alexis" to give myself a little distance. And I don't know anyone named Montgomery; it seemed like a nice generic name when I wrote this 20 years ago.
This is a strange tale. If you don't like it, I won't be offended. But thanks for taking time to consider it. Let me know what you think!
Dale Neibaur, April 2003