Can You Spare a Quarter? is a drama Web Novel about a 12-year old boy named Jamie. He has run away from his Abusive Parents and is now living on the streets, feeding himself through theft, begging and prostitution. He meets a man named Graham, a negotiator for a computer company and close to retirement, who decides to take the kid in. After a few weeks and encounters - some good and some not so good - the man obtains legal guardianship for the boy and eventually adopts him.
The story can be found here
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Examples
- Abusive Parents: Jamie's parents call him unwanted, an idiot or good for nothing, only buy the bare minimum of clothing and regularly beat and rape him. During the climax his father almost rapes the boy to death.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Downplayed. In the Nifty version Graham is homosexual and that means it will be more difficult for him to obtain the guardianship for Jamie. In the ASSTR/PZA version his sexual orientation is never mentioned though he's not stated to be straight either.
- Affectionate Nickname: Jamie calls Graham "Pop", which the latter appreciates even though Jamie using this word often is a sign of something big about to happen.
- All Men Are Perverts: Due to previous bad experience, Jamie always assumes that any man who takes him in will eventually want sex with him and that this also applies to other children. Graham eventually succeeds in persuading him otherwise.
- Alone with the Psycho: As Jamie heads back home to gather a notebook he has written about all his abusers, he is confronted by his father who almost rapes him to death. He has explicitly refused to be accompanied by anyone.
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: Jamie at first isn't convinced that Jason knows an actual medicine man, thinking that they only exist in films.
- Always Know a Pilot: Graham knows Dave, the pilot who flies between the city and Valdez Island, personally and relies on him a couple of time to resolve an issue.
- Amoral Attorney: Scott's specialty is contract law, specifically the ways to exploit companies without landing in trouble.
- Archnemesis Dad: While his mother didn't help, in fact she's just as bad given how she was complicit in the emotional abuse and willingly filmed Jamie's rape, most of the abuse Jamie suffered from at home (including whipping, rape, belting etc.) was at the hands of his father who almost kills him during the climax of the story.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Jamie is initially surprised that Graham not only does not make sexual advances on him, but turns down all the attempts of the boy to flirt with him. Initially he assumes that Graham is merely bidding his time, but eventually realizes that the man is acting out of genuine concern and is not a wannabe rapist.
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Jamie once met a man who let him wash, but the encounter ended with the boy limping for the next week and not relishing the memory.
- Big Eater: Between having undernourished on the street and in the age where boys eat a lot, Jamie consumes a lot of food when he is with Graham. This is not unexpected by Graham, who knows from his neighbours on Valdez Island and their son how much growing up boys eat.
- Big Friendly Dog: Cindy is described as a large white dog, large enough to almost knock over Graham, but is totally friendly to Graham and Jamie.
- Break Them by Talking: Graham drives a security guard who is after Jamie away by claiming that the boy is his son and by implying that he can get the security guard sacked. Jamie is impressed that a small man like Graham can scare away a large security guard without any violence or threat thereof.
- Broken Bird: Due to his history of being abused at home and being used by most men he's encountered, Jamie is initially very cynical and distrusting and becomes trusting of other people only after some time with Graham.
- Broken Tears: When Graham tries to get soothe Jamie after the latter poured out his life experiences so far, the boy breaks out crying.
- Burn Baby Burn:
- Jamie burns a letter from his parentnote rather than reading it.
- When he is grown up he burns most of the clothes and the backpack he used as a street child, to definitively emphasize that this part of his life is over.
- Canine Companion: After a while, Cindy becomes Jamie's companion everywhere even though he sometimes kicks her during his nightmares. She - like Jamie himself - was rescued by Graham from abusive owners/parents and Graham hypothesizes that she is bonding to Jamie because of their common background.
- Cassandra Truth: The Department of Child Disservices and police never believed Jamie's claims that his parents abused him, even though they were, until Matty took up the case and Graham came to request guardianship rights.
- Cast Full of Gay: In the original Nifty version of the story, deuteragonist Graham is gay, though he never makes a big deal out of it and it only really comes into play when he has trouble trying to adopt Jamie. In both versions, the story's protagonist Jamie is queer, which made clear in the epilogue where he kisses and eventually gets into a relationship with his best friend Jason.
- The City vs. the Country: Jamie considers that going with Graham to Valdez Island brings him away from the city and his problems there. Jason also mentions that the island's wilderness is a different environment than the city.
- Composite Character: The story is Very Loosely Based on a True Story and the characters are composite characters of Real Life people.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Graham leaves Jamie behind at the mall because of his job and is haunted by his conscience for his entire workday. He thus decides to go back to find Jamie and is visibly in distress until he find the boy again.
- Cool Old Guy: Pony is a medicine man, a Scarily Competent Tracker and can carry a child with no difficulty whatsoever.
- Covered with Scars: Jamie is covered with bruises and scars which disturb Graham, who compares the scars to these from slave films during a phone conversation with Frank.
- Crusading Lawyer: Timothy is willing to do his lawyer job for Graham and Jamie without expecting payment, having been moved by the sight of the scars on Jamie's back.
- Cry into Chest: Jamie suffers a complete breakdown when Graham asks him how he ended up in the streets and cries out his history on Graham's shoulder.
- Cut Himself Shaving: What Frank claims when policemen question him about the bruises on his hands. In reality, he just paid a visit to Jamie's father who had just almost raped the boy to death and had him thoroughly beaten up. The police suspects that he's lying but they don't feel sufficiently sympathetic to Jamie's father to follow up and one officer accidentally (or "accidentally") messed up the evidence, anyway, so they can't follow up at any rate.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Jamie began to run away from home after his uncle died; he had been the only relative to treat him well and until then Jamie thought he might be taken by his uncle.
- Department of Child Disservices: The Department of Child Welfare is understaffed, overworked and underfunded. Jamie's parents successfully manipulate it into not believing his complaints and sending him back home with only counselling proposed as a solution. His caseworkers do not really care about their charges and just take the parents' claims at face value with no investigation at all.
- Description Porn: The environment around Graham's house on Valdez Island is described in a lot of detail, as is the repair of his car.
- Determinator: "Nothing short of wild animals" is going to stop Graham from going back to Jamie after their second encounter.
- Disposable Vagrant: Mike complains that police don't care about missing street boys and thus are making no progress in catching the Serial Killer.
- The Dog Bites Back: Jamie has kept a list of all his abusers and goes back home to fetch it. The police uses this evidence to arrest his parents and other abusers.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Jamie used to get belted by his father, for example every time he forgot manners.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Graham remarks on the association between police and doughnuts when he sees a police member consuming one in a hospital.
- Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Defied. Anyone who cared about Jamie considered what he went through by his father a horrific act. The police even went as far as to arrest those who sexually abused him, when he was living in the streets, during the story's climax.
- Dramatis Personae: Like all stories hosted by PZA/ASSTR this one has a like before the beginning describing the main characters, their genders and ages.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The night before Graham and Jamie go to the city to mert the Department of Child Welfare, Jason has a bad dream about Jamie. That day, Jamie is caught by his father and almost raped to death.
- Dropping the Bombshell: Graham has for some time avoided telling Jamie that Graham's injuries are due to Jamie hitting him when he's thrashing around in a nightmare. When he finally does, despite Graham's attempt to soften the impact Jamie panicks and runs away.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Jamie tells Graham how other street children take drugs and alcohol to handle this miserable lifestyle.
- Escort Distraction: Jason takes Jamie on a hike so that Graham can have a phone conversation about Jamie without the boy noticing. Graham is concerned that the boy might get the wrong idea from the conversation.
- Establishing Character Moment: Graham's first few scenes see him offering a street boy a meal, deciding that the boy needs further help and thus eventually inviting him over, and having a conflict with himself whether to stay with him or going to his workplace first. Later Graham quits his job and adopts the boy.
- Family Versus Career: Graham decides to request extra vacation time, and eventually retires from his job. He needs the time to take care of Jamie.
- Firing Day: Graham has to think about what will happen to the IT employees of companies that have concluded contracts with his company NCS. Some will be hired over by NCS - as happened to Graham in the past - but others will end up without a job.
- Food Porn: Food is repeatedly described in great detail, including its layering, components, associated cutlery and the cooking process. There are entire paragraphs focussed on cooking.
- Foster Kid: Graham gets legal guardianship of Jamie, so that he can get help for the boy's nightmares and so that he can be kept away from his Abusive Parents.
- Fridge Horror: In-Universe, street boys tend to go amiss after some time and Jamie tries to not think too much about what happened to them.
- Friendship Trinket: Jason has made a bracelet made out of beads that he gifts to Jamie as a sign and symbol of their friendship. He says that Jamie should make a wish when it comes off, and that when that happens the wish will be realized. Jamie loses the bracelet during his fight with his father but survives, which according to Jason is the wish coming true
- Ghibli Hills: Valdez Island features a pristine old-growth forest with wild but tame animals, which distracts Jamie from the problems in his life.
- Goal in Life: Graham has been missing something in his life before the encounter. He eventually realizes that having someone to care about is what he was missing, and Jamie happily accepts that function.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Jamie's parents would blow up at the most trivial things and beat him up.
- Hanging Judge: Matty assures Graham that the judge who will try Jamie's parents will throw the book at them.
- Hates Their Parent: When Graham muses to the street child Jamie that it must be bad to lose one's parents, the boy responds angrily that "nothing happened to them" and thinks to himself that his situation would be much better if he did in fact lose them. Graham realizes that Jamie is running from Abusive Parents.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Graham pretends to not notice or turns down all of Jamie's attempts to flirt with him. Graham understands that the kid has survived on the street, in part, by selling himself for sex and is thus not surprised, but he does not reciprocate.
- Imagined Innuendo: Jamie originally assumes that Jason is Graham's boy (in the sense of Sex Slave or at least sex partner) and wonders whether Graham will still want him, but Graham assures him that he (Jason) isn't.
- Implied Rape: The story seldom uses the word "rape" to refer to the acts that men do with the boy but words like "violated" are used to refer to what happens to Jamie at home.
- Informed Attractiveness: Non-sexual version. Graham remarks to Jamie that he looks handsome after getting clean(er) clothing and washing himself and Jamie has also noticed his change of appearance.
- In Harmony with Nature: Pony has told Jason that one should never take too much from naturr, which is why he takes only five fish they have angled.
- In-Series Nickname: Jason refers to Graham as "Mr. M", since his real name is "Graham Martin".note
- I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: When Graham brings Jamie to a clothing store to find better clothing rather than the worn-out clothes that Jamie wears, the boy initially suspects that Graham just wants him to look more attractive when Graham begins with underwear. Subverted when Graham next asks him about shoes and the boy realizes that Graham is actually looking for proper clothing and not merely for an excuse to make the kid look more attractive to him.
- Jerkass at Your Discretion: Jamie's parents got away with their abuse by playing the role of innocent worried parents whenever they were called to the Department of Child Welfare, but once they had the boy back home they would beat him up until he was a wreck.
- Let Off by the Detective: The police apparently suspect that Frank beat Jamie's father up but they choose to not follow it up, since he's an Asshole Victim who almost raped his son to death.
- Loophole Abuse: When Matty is ordered by the court to deliver Jamie a letter from his mother, she's quick to imply that it doesn't mean that Jamie has to read it. She goes as far as giving Jamie matches when he asks.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Graham initially does not tell Jamie that the boy is hitting him during his nightmares when Graham tries to comfort him, instead claiming that he's hit the furniture when Jamie notices the bruises. He is concerned that Jamie might freak out if he were to know. Indeed, when Graham eventually tells Jamie the truth, the latter freaks out and runs away.
- Magical Native American: Pony Twofeathers is a medicine man and Jason's friend who has taught him the ways of nature. He has a vision of Jamie having a "long day" on the day he is caught and almost killed by his parents.
- Meaningful Appearance: In the restaurant, patrons notice the poor state of Jamie's clothes and the bruises on his face, and start watching and whispering with each other about this.
- Mentor Archetype: Pony is a medicine man who is teaching Jason in various nature skills such as respect for nature and how to track someone in the snow.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: It turns out that Jamie's parents are part of a much larger group of people who abuse children. And the investigation in the case of Jamie leads to the arrest of a number of people in high positions.
- Misery Trigger: When Frank mentions the possibility that Jamie might become his apprentice at the car repair shop, Jamie is reminded of what he had to do to make a living and breaks out crying.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Graham is haunted by his conscience after he has left Jamie alone in the food court in order to get to his workplace, and is constantly distracted and feels physically ill as a consequence.
- No Communities Were Harmed: While the geographic position of Valdez Islandnote is never explicitly stated, the terminology such as "Salish Bay" implies it is a place in British Columbia, Canada.
- No Full Name Given: We never get to know what Jamie's family name is.
- Obfuscating Disability: Graham's lawyer pretends that Jamie is blind in order to allow him to bring the dog Cindy into the meeting with the Department of Child Welfare.
- Offscreen Karma: Frank goes to confront Jamie's father shortly after the father almost raped his son Jamie to death, but the story cuts away moments before the confrontation. Later police say that when they were about to arrest the father they found him brutally beaten up.
- Oh, Crap!: Despite Graham's attempts at softening the impact of the revelation, when he tells Jamie that the boy has been hitting him during his nightmares Jamie freaks out out of fear that Graham will beat him up like his father used to and runs away.
- Parental Incest: Jamie was sexually abused/raped by his father, to the point that he elected to run away. When the boy meets him again at the climax of the story, his father almost rapes him to death.
- Past Experience Nightmare: Jamie has nightmares about being abused at home, during which he violently thrashes around while still asleep. Both Graham and his dog Cindy have been hit a number of times during these nightmares, giving Graham bruises. Graham is trying to get something done about Jamie's nightmares, which involve the boy's father abusing him, and seeks temporary guardianship so that he can bring Jamie to a psychiatrist.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: After Jamie's father almost rapes the boy to death, Frank goes to him and beats him senseless. The police who came to arrest Jamie's father realize that Frank did this but decide to look the other way.
- Puppy Love: Jamie and Jason's friendship slowly grows romantic undertones, though this isn't made clear until the final chapter.
- Quaking with Fear: Jamie trembles from fear when Graham extends his arm to him, and when he first meets Frank who reminds him of his father.
- Questionable Consent: Jamie has tolerated sexual advances of men because otherwise he receives no food and no place to sleep in.
- Rape and Revenge: Jamie has kept a list of all his abusers at home he could identify, and went back to his home to get it to Graham. During the attempt he is caught by his father and almost killed, but manages to get back to Graham. Later, police use the list to arrest and charge a number of people in the community of child abuse.
- Rape as Backstory: Jamie was used as a Sex Slave by his Abusive Parents and had to trade sex in exchange for food and a bed before meeting Graham. Because of this he has a cynical approach to men and is constantly worried about what Graham might do to him if he displeases him.
- Rape as Drama: Jamie suffers life-threatening internal injuries after being caught and raped by his father, and only barely survives.
- Rape Discretion Shot: None of the rape/sex scenes actually happen within the confines of the story; they are only alluded to. For example, the story cuts away from the moment where Jamie is caught by his father to the moment where Graham find the bleeding boy in front of his door.
- Relatively Flimsy Excuse:
- The men that Jamie had been with excused his presence by claiming that the boy was a distant relative of sorts. The fact that Graham uses the same excuse but claiming that he's a close relative pleasantly surprises Jamie.
- Frank claims to be Jamie's uncle in order to visit him in the ICU. The duty nurses understands that this is a lie but they understand the reasons and let him.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Jamie's father almost rapes his son to death, Frank goes to his home and thoroughly beats him up.
- The Runaway: After his uncle died, Jamie lost hope that his family would ever become better and decided to run away from his Abusive Parents. He was caught the first few times but at the time Graham finds him he has been on the street for nine months and counting. Even after meeting Graham, he is still ready to run away again if his situation deteriorates.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Pony manages to find Jamie by following footsteps in the snow, broken twigs and can even diagnose his injuries on the basis of the traces of blood. He recommends to Jason that careful observation is more effective than merely running after someone.
- Security Cling: When Jamie encounters the mall security guard, he tightly clings on to Graham, begging him to not let the guard take him.
- Serial Killer: A serial killer appears to be targetting street boys, who have nicknamed him "The Blade". He has nine victims so far and the police have no idea who it might be.
- Sex for Services: Jamie has let men use him for sex in exchange for getting food, a warm bed and occasionally a bath, when he couldn't find either on the street.
- Sex Slave: Alluded to when Jamie mentions that his mother was "too busy holding the camera" to stop his father from doing things with him.
- Sexual Euphemism: Jamie never uses the words "rape" or "sex" but uses terms like "...doing things with me", and Jason adopts the same terminology.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Graham remarks on the change in Jamie's appearance from a dirty street kid to a gorgeous lad after the boy has showered and changed into better clothes.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Pony told Jason about a happy man who upon returning from military service spent hours staring into nothing after seeing too many evil things. Jason reasons that Jamie's occasional absent-minded staring is the same situation.
- Ship Tease: Jamie and Jason are stated to be more than just friends, and the epilogue implies they are a couple after they grow up.
- Shout-Out:
- The Nifty version of the story says that the detective series that Jamie watches at Graham's house is Columbo, the ASSTR version drops the explicit reference to the name but still refers to a detective with a raincoat.
- In the Nifty version, the name Tails for Jason's squirrel is based on Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Sleep Cute: When Jamie becomes a little overwhelmed at Frank's Christmas Barbecue, Jason takes him up to his bed and they have an afternoon nap together. They do this again during the night after the Barbecue.
- So Proud of You: Frank is proud that his son Jason both managed to find Jamie after the latter ran away and to direct people after they have found the boy.
- Standard Office Setting: Graham remarks on how his workplace is a maze of cubicles. His boss gets his own office, however.
- Straight Gay:
- Graham in the original Nifty version of the story is gay but acts like an average old businessman throughout most.
- Jason is gay or at least queer given how he develops a crush on Jamie, the latter of which eventually reciprocates, and he's your average teenage boy into video games, fishing, and botany.
- Street Urchin: Jamie has run away from home several times and has been on the street for at least nine months after the last instance before Graham finds him. Over this time he has fed himself though theft, begging and selling himself for sex.
- A Taste of the Lash: Jamie has scars on his back resulting from intense whipping, a product of his Abusive Parents which disturb Graham when he first notices. He compares them to the marks that slaves in slave films bear.
- There Is Only One Bed: Subverted because while there is only one bed at Graham's department and Jamie offers to share it with Graham - implying that sex is on the table too - Graham instead sleeps on his desk.
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Jamie decides to go alone to his former home, without telling Graham and Frank where he is heading to and insisting that he has to go alone. It almost gets him killed.
- Through His Stomach: Jamie has had mixed experiences with men offering him food. Sometimes it's merely the prelude to sex, but he takes from Graham's efforts at buying and preparing him food that the man cares ar least a little about him.
- Time Skip: The epilogue plays out eight years after the rest of the story, and it is the moment when Jamie - who is now an adult - finally breaks with the last vestiges of his past.
- Timmy in a Well: When Jamie gets a nightmare during his second night with Graham and begins thrashing around in his bed, Cindy comes down to alert Graham that something is wrong. Likewise, when Jamie becomes overwhelmed with all the people at Frank's Christmas Barbecue, she goes to fetch Jason.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky: Jamie eats food discarded in dumpsters and tells Graham that he'll eat anything. Graham infers that this is because the street boy has no dependable food source.
- Too Hungry to Be Polite: When Graham brings Jamie into the food court, Jamie immediately takes the food and only after a few moments thanks Graham for paying for the food. Later played with as when Graham brings Jamie into a restaurant the boy is briefly conflicted between the desire to immediately grab the food and decorum.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: When Graham first met Jamie, the boy was very reserved and almost afraid to speak. Since then and thanks to the company with Graham, Jason and the latter's family he has become much more outgoing and happy.
- Trauma Button: When Jamie first meets Frank, the latter's resemblance to Jamie's father causes the boy to get a panic attack.
- Troubled Child: Jamie breaks down crying when he is with Graham, overwhelmed by the accumulated pain from being abused at home and having to prostitute himself in the street, a pain that he has bottled up for a long time.
- Twisted Ankle: When Jamie runs away from Graham, he eventually slips on a rock and twists his ankle, putting an end to the flight and allowing Graham's dog Cindy, Jamie's friend Jason and Jason's friend Pony to catch up with him.
- The Un-Hug: Upon hearing Jamie's story of abuse at home Graham reaches out to hug him, but upon noticing that the boy is trembling from fear he instead holds Jamie's hand.
- Unnamed Parent: Jamie's parents are never referred to by name during the course of the story, instead always being called "father" and "mother".
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The story is apparently loosely based on a real person, but with names etc. changed.
- Wake Up Fighting: Without the wake-up, during his nightmares Jamie violently thrashes around and has injured Graham, Jason and the dog Cindy several times. Graham eventually decides that he has to do something about them.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Jamie's Abusive Parents used to claim that he was an unwanted child and that he was supposed to pay them back for feeding him.
- Windows of the Soul:
- Jamie does look at peoples' eyes to tell if they are a threat to him. And this suggests to him Graham is harmless.
- Pony says that he can tell that Jamie was hurt in the past by looking into his eyes.
- The Woobie: In-Universe, Graham perceives Jamie as this, given the state the boy was in when Graham first met him and his backstory.
- Workplace-Acquired Abilities: When Jamie asks Graham how he knew how to handle the security guard at the mall, Graham explains that as part of his job he has learned how to size people up. One has to identify their weakness - in the security guard's case, that he can be fired for mistreating customers - and exploit it.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Jamie has never been outside of his city and is impressed by the landscape of Valdez Island when the airplane that is bringing him and Graham over and he marvels at the view of the island and the surrounding sea.
- Your Door Was Open: Neither Graham nor the other people on Valdez Island lock their houses, as it's an isolated island.
