Unknown (main narrator, possibly Aaron Tracy)

The manuscript tucked under his arm feels like evidence of failure.

Dahl thinks of himself as a sophisticated author of smart, suspenseful short stories for an elite, literature-loving audience.

But now, he's about to submit a children's story.

How could this have happened?

He's a guy who sells his stories to the New Yorker and dates movie stars.

Now he's trying to become the next Dr. Seuss?

And that's best case scenario.

He's basically about to pitch an expanded bedtime story to the same editor who worked with T.S.

Eliot, Albert Camus, and James Baldwin.

There's a gnawing pit in Dahl's stomach.

He hates himself right now.

No confident stride, no casual lean against the doorframe with a clever quip.

Today, his throat is tight, his palms damp.

A single thought plays on repeat in his mind.

Will everyone see this as what it is?

A desperate attempt to salvage his writing career?

And then another thought.

What if Olivia and Theo and his other kids are the only ones who find his stories charming and magical?

But what choice does Dahl have?

His adult fiction just isn't selling anymore.