I just felt sad and lonely through most of the story.Īnd I tell ya! I wanted to smack Marco’s sisters upside the head! I longed for at least some kind of thank you from them-something! Ugh. My heart ached for Marco, but the snippets of time left too many emotional holes for me. I lose a lot of the story’s power and magic. My head tries to figure out what happened over the time they were apart, how old they are now and other details that changed over time. The technique pulls me out of the action. I am not a big fan of several jumps in time in a short story. Like this line-“He was tired and blank and empty.” Stark words that cut into me. She can express a mood and break my heart in so few words. Her simple, pure, honest words always seem to cut right through to the heart and pain of the matter. Kim Fielding’s writing fits right into my reading world. What an almost flawless little story (my only complained was I wish Scott gave Marco that first kiss, because it would be perfect!) and I already knew that it would be one of my holiday favorites this year. I wanted to hug these two men, and giving them all my best wishes that from now on, they would be happy, in love and in life. Then when Scott came to Marco's life 20 years later (after that promise on the rooftop), telling Marco that it was the thought of him who saved Scott all these years, who made Scott wanted to be a better man, a worthy man for Marco, well, that was when my tears started to fall. As a reader, you could put yourself in Marco's shoes - tired with his job, with his lack of social life, and still thinking about his best friend, praying that he would be okay. The lack of information about what happened to Scott also made it more achingly lovely, because you wonder how life treated Scott. You desperately wished that the next chapter would give something better for Marco. Each short chapter gave you a glimpse about what happened to Marco (each chapter was 5-years apart). Life was not easy and they drifted apart - at one point, Marco discovered that Scott was living as homeless guy - but that red thread of forever love was strong between them.įor a short story, this one packs a punch and hauntingly beautiful.

Scott was sent from foster home to foster home. Marco dealt with taking care of his grandmother and two younger sister, working multiple jobs just to get by. Marco and Scott were best friends - when he was 12-years-old, Marco was given a watch as a Christmas gift by Scott and in return, he made a promise that he would save Scott from his life and they would leave to Alaska.

Kim Fielding's Alaska is an example of story about true-and-forever-love, that when a person was the one for you, he/she would be in your heart and mind and soul, even if you're being apart for years.

Alaska by Kim Fielding