lol the beginning of a young and brilliant anthropologist
cute

out of your usual style, but good. I really think you did a good job handling the differences.

You are fantastic. I love the insight into Zach. He's seriously underrated. You haven't written in a while. It's nice to have you back.

Thansk for submitting a story for the July Challenge. Good luck and I'll see you at the finish line.

Goldpiece

For something out of your comfort zone, I think you really a very nice job on this piece.

It was an interesting view into what Zach's childhood might have been like. I think it's quite likely that a child that intelligent would not only frustrate his parents, but would be mistreated by his siblings. Or as you so aptly put it: "maybe if you stopped talking like a thirty year old they would be able to relate to you."

I thought that having the children find a body in a field was an inventive take on what might have pushed Zach into the forensic anthropology field. It would be just the sort of thing to light a fire under such an intelligent and intuitive young person.

Excellent writing as always; a very enjoyable one shot!

This was a very good, very interesting look into Zach's character. I could see it happening; the way you wrote it was believable. He had a child's curiosity, but applied it in a direction that interested him.

Another thing that I liked was the way you wrote his vocabulary. It wasn't normal, but it wasn't extremely, over-the-top advanced. It was a very good middle.

I'm glad you had his mother rifle his hair as he went outside; those small hints of affection made it seem as if she wasn't too hard. She simply wanted Zach to be happy, but was battling with the part of her that wanted him to be normal.

To sum it up, I enjoyed this. Great job!

I am really glad you decided to post your entry. That must be one good friend if she persuaded you to post. ;) lol

I like the title. It portrays how many people think about Zach. (I'd like to thank you btw for using "Zach" instead of "Zack". Zack hurts my eyes. lol) You mentioned you stepped out of your comfort zone. I'm A) glad and B) proud you did. It shows that you're growing as a writer, even though you have already submitted close to 60 stories on this site. I can't wait to see what you are going to come up with next.

Anyway, I'm digressing...

I believe you did an excellent job on portraying a young Zach. He's a difficult character to capture, but you did a good job--especially with the whole "talking like a 30 year old" line.

You also did a good job on capturing Zach's mother. We have hardly seen or heard anything about her on the show so I can imagine it must've been a challenge to create her. Zach's siblings were also captured well.

As for my favourite lines...

- "As child after child zoomed past her and down the porch steps, Mrs Addy sighed with relief."

- "He scuffed his shoe in the dirt and thrust his hands into the pockets of his pants, wondering just how long he had to stay here to appease his mother."

- “I just want you to be happy Zach.” Zach looked up at her as she raised a hand to ruffle the hair on his head in her usual gesture of affection. (because in the end, all a mother wants is for her kids to be happy)

And the book Zach was reading in the end? Cool! Sounds like a book young Zach would certainly read.

As always I could easily follow your story. Pacing was great, descriptions were good, characterisations were more than alright (already mentioned that before) and the length of the entire story was just right. Good job on this one, Jemb! I hope you place this month.

Zach is hard to nail down. I think you did an admirable job of demonstrating why he is the way he is as well as incorporating the isolation he feels even within his own family. I also like how you depicted his mother. Having a genius child has got to be a challenge, especially considering the rest of the Addy brood. The injured farmer was a good device to get us from Zach of the past to Zach of the future. All-in-all, you did an excellent job incorporating the elements of the challenge, while stepping out of your comfort zone. Nicely done.