Richard Parke-Taylor
None of the Above
(Richard Parke-Taylor Jan. 15, 2014)
In 1956 a Canadian family was stationed to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization air force base in France. They are put into the small "C" Block in Private Married Quarters for Flying Officers and Flight Lieutenants, about 8 miles from the base. No TVs or telephones are in the PMQs. Peace and order are not watched over by police. Gangs of teenagers are formed to take advantage of those their age or younger who should enter the basements of the PMQ units they live in. Rickey, an innocent eight-year-old, is the oldest child of the family who just moved into "C" Block. He is invited to join the gang in the block called the "Air Force Brats", not long after his family settles in "C" Block. The higher the rank in the block; the smaller its size. In no time he finds himself the subject of derogatory jokes and serves as a "go-fer" by other gang members. Rickey makes friends with a bully from "B" Block who he used to be at odds. They avoid the "Brats" by taking a long route to the Department of National Defense school rather than take a shortcut across the large field surrounded by other blocks. Just before his family leaves the PMQs for a camping holiday in England and Scotland, the bully Rickey befriended disappears. Rickey continues trying to locate his "bully" friend three weeks later after returning from the holiday. He tracks the "bully" friend to where his corpse is hidden. It looks like suicide, possibly murder. After that shocking discovery the family returns to Canada and Rickey has to contend with other let-downs in his life on his own.
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