Lightning Song

Leroy Dearman, age twelve, lives on a llama farm, and life is pretty much perfect. It's true that his grandfather just died in the attic and wild dogs stalk the baby llamas. It's true that one little sister curses him and the other one wets her pants. Mostly, though, life is right out of Looney Tunes. No wonder the llamas greet each sunrise with a song. Enter Uncle Harris, roaring up in his new red sports car. He's separated, dressed to kill, full of jokes and new ideas. Romance itself. Harris sets himself up in the Dearman attic with a telephone, a TV, a tasseled lamp, and a stack of Playboys. The day Leroy avails himself of the centerfolds, life on the llama farm changes forever. It's like Leroy's been struck by lightning. Or love. He sees things he never noticed before - his daddy's embarrassing withered right arm, the way his mother blushes around Uncle Harris. (Leroy thinks he knows why Uncle Harris and his mother want him to go to baton twirling lessons with his sisters; he thinks he knows why they want the house to themselves.). That summer, the Dearman farmhouse fills right up with electricity. The atmospheric pressure of family life shifts and lightning indeed strikes. But the lightning also sings.