How could this happen in reality?

At school we also made a project about the novel that we should present at class one day. So I decided to ask myself how this story of Jess and her dying grandfather can be put in reality. So is there a possibility that such a story happens in our life? To my mind that is possible, if you'll erase some too fictitious points in the story. Therefore, in order to show what I actually mean, I wrote this letter from the point of view of Jess.

Dear Reader,

I hope that you enjoyed the novel “River Boy“ of Tim Bowler. It is written in an unbelievable way of describing surroundings, especially the nature, and the whole story seems to happen in a place full of mystery, isn’t it? However, to be honest, such a boy living somehow in a river, wild and only depending on the nature around him is only able to exist in a fictitious¹ story or novel. That’s what we all know, but although Tim Bowler wrote a fictitious novel, there’s some truth in it.

And that’s what I want to tell you with this letter:

I’m Jess, Jess Baker and today I’m 21 years old. I live in Canada in Ottawa. My big passion is swimming and I won lots of medals until now.

7 years ago, there was an incident in my life that you, if you read the book, might know. My grandpa was the man who was my biggest friend ever in childhood (because I haven’t any siblings). It seemed always like I was the only one who understood his stubborn thoughts and doings and sometimes I think that he also was the only one who understood my thoughts and problems.

Nevertheless, he got a heart attack. I really remember this day. It was very hard for me to see my grandpa fallen in the pool. In all of a sudden I felt empty. My whole thoughts were erased in a minute by this view. I’ll never forget it. Until now it’s hard for me to say that I couldn’t guess what would happen and that I couldn’t protect him from this attack.

As Mr Bowler wrote, we, my mother, my dad, my grandfather and me, went on holiday a short time later to the place where my grandpa lived in his childhood. However this place was near South Baymouth² and not near “Braymouth”. There we lived in a cottage of Mr and Mrs White (in the book they’re called Mr and Mrs Grey). And the father of Mrs White called George (Alfred) was a good friend of my granddad from old times.

So despite all his weak of having had a heart attack my grandfather began there a painting which was really called “River Boy”, like in the novel. Awesome that this is true? J

Well, that didn’t change that my grandpa died caused by a second hard heart attack and that he didn’t want to go into a hospital, until he finished the picture. I helped him at last to finish it.

Nevertheless, I missed the time when my granddad got his second I attack because I was out for a walk in the morning. So, as you know, I swam really the whole river down (but it past only 4 hours) and reached South Baymouth at the end to see my grandpa for the last time. I failed. But no matter, this 4-hours-swim gave me that unbelievable strength to know and to understand that he had to go. Also I have the picture that helped me to keep on going. When I look deeper in it, I can see really grandpa’s face.

Today the painting is in my apartment and I have an unbelievable relationship to it. On one hand, when I look at it, it seems to me like my grandfather never died, like he’s still alive. On the other hand it tells me what it means to lose someone you really love. The body of my grandfather might be dead and might disappear, but the memories I have with him of the time that we spent together, they’ll stay, stay in that painting.

Nevertheless, I have to desperate you with the river boy in the novel. As you may think he wasn’t true. That was an invention of Mr Bowler to make the story more interesting and to draw his novel more to the mystery I feel at least by thinking about the relationship and the doings I do with my grandpa, because a person who won’t even be in my situation couldn’t feel this mystery as strong as I did and do.

That’s not a question of empathy³ and not at all a question of concentration. It is the human mind:

You can think whatever you want, but your thoughts can’t be put with the same association, with the same pictures, with the same strength in the brain of your neighbour.

Best regards and thank you for reading the book,

Jess Baker

fictitious¹= fiktiv; South Baymouth²=Dorf an der Grenze von USA und Kanada; empathy³= Eifühlungsvermögen

So to put it in a nutshell, I erased the very mysterious personage of the "River Boy" and therefore I put the painting of the grandpa more in the foreground of the plot. For the place of action I chose a real little town with a name that is mostly similar with the name of "Braymouth". I changed even the time Jess spent in the river while swimming to its end from 11 to 4 hours. Otherwise I didn't chnage the fact that Jess helped her grandfather to fulfil his painting. However, why did I decide to do so?

I think, the River Boy couldn't exist in reality because he's too wild, too metaphoric and too unexplainable. How could a teenager boy live on his own in wilderness? Without sleeping (because the River Boy is often walking through the river at night)? Without eating (There won't be any animals or great fruits outside he's able to eat without any tool of hunt? Without a house, where he lives at a cold winter? Without any clothes, except these black trousers?
I couldn't imagine that such a boy is able to exist.
Otherwise I know that such inhabited areas exist in America and Canada, where rivers flow from hills up to the sea without any city around them. So I chose such a place: South Baymouth, a town in the south of Canada near America where a lot of hills, forests, lakes and rivers without any human beings exist.
However, look at these pictures to convince yourself ;)





(Click on them for enlarging)

Nevertheless, it's my opinion that a human being isn't able to swim for 11 hours. I think that's really impossible. However, I chose 4 because that's a good time for making a marathon and I mean that's comparable with Jess swimming a "swim-marathon".
Otherwise it's also my opinion at least that it is possible to draw a painting with the advisory of an experienced painter. The painting won't be as nice as he could paint it, but with the will to do so it will be possible.