My Never Ending List

Lucca is determined not to become an orphan, so determined that when his Mama does not wake up, he continues to go about his life, as if she was in a deep sleep.  His strange behavior does not go on for just a few days but weeks later, as her body begins to stiffen and strange odors overtake the apartment.   Lucca’s mama was a lonely individual which she often talked to Lucca about and it was sad that she had to dump her isolation on such a young child.  Lucca knew that his mama was his lifeline and he feared for the worse when his mama did not awaken, for “I go into Mama’s room: she is still turned off.”  Lucca fears if he calls the authorities, he will become an orphan and he knows what direction his life will take.  If he pretends like everything is okay, he believes that no one will ever know.  Some things become automatic in his fight for survival but there are only so many things a child can cope with when faced under so much pressure. So much pressure, yet so much has been lifted off his shoulders as Lucca realizes he now has the freedom of no adult supervision and he is finally living alone.  There is also the fear of being detected and of living alone, so along with the good, Lucca has to face the facts that he has a lot of responsibilities to make his cover realistic.  Listening to Lucca’s mind as he contemplates life and as he reminiscences about his past, you wonder just how long his clock will keep ticking.

The isolation of Lucca was the scary part of this story.  Grandma was around for a while and there is a friend of mama’s but no one in the apartment complex was concerned about not seeing mama for an extended amount of time.  After Lucca starts to come to school in soiled clothing, I would have hoped that his teacher would have said something.  I just thought this was so sad; there were no connections to anyone outside of their apartment that were nearby. Total isolation.  Reading the words from Lucca’s mind, it led me to think about how much children really grasp at what they hear.  It’s like the saying, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.  Lucca learned so much by people teaching him or him watching others so when he was left  alone he knew how to survive with certain things and with other things, he struggled.  I have to believe that his life ended on a happy note as Lucca had so much potential.