Two in the Thistle

“They were in their element; a shining example of clock cogs that fit together and complemented one another. They were brothers, through and through. Neither of them would break that for the world.” If there’s one thing that’s off about Kian Bates, it’s that he doesn’t know when to stop searching. Most people are content with the way things are going at any one point in time. But not thirteen-year-old Kian. Kian wants to make things happen, and he wants to make them happen as soon as possible. He feels a sort of hunger in his bones--something that can’t be quenched by water or food, and so he ventures alongside his best friend Dylan to find what he has been searching for ever since he wound up at Saint Mark’s, his boarding school, in the first place. However, what Kian finds there aren’t just the answers he was searching for, but a plethora of new questions and pieces of advice to ponder over in the meantime. What all this means, and how he winds up processing it--where Kian Bates’ future will lead him, even--isn’t up to him at all. Rather, it’s up to destiny, a man in a train, a town made for squatters, a broken home, a soccer ball, and a nest of birds in the thistle.