Fiction
Distance of Touch
Kristina Freeman
2009
Booklocker.com
ISBN: 978-1-60145-659-5
Pages: 244 

In Distance of Touch, author Kristin Freeman links an ordinary life with one that is irreparably damaged. She has created a story that testifies to the absolute necessity of love in the development of the human psyche. 

Celia Andres is a pre-kindergarten teacher who enjoys her job and the children she has worked with during her four year tenure. She is married to Joe, a once openly loving man, who becomes increasingly difficult to live with. And she is the mother of Lexie, Josh, and later Daniel. She is content with her life until issues at home and problems with a new student at work bring about drastic, violent changes to her life. 

Several weeks into the school year, Lucas is added to Celia’s class. He is nearly five, polite and mature, but also quiet and distant. He has a large scar on his face. It soon becomes apparent that touching Lucas is a no-no. And when this child who is taller and bigger than his classmates becomes angry, Lucas’ behavior grows dangerous. 

Lucas’ parents show little desire to be involved with their son, so Celia makes every effort to help the child adjust and become a part of the group. She encourages him to participate in activities and introduces the child to painting. But with every step forward, Lucas’ mysterious and unpredictable behavior rips apart all of the progress he makes in a matter of minutes.  

As in her first book, Loca (2007), Freeman shows she has a talent for developing stories with multi-layered characters. The people who exist in the author’s books are both familiar and strange. The reader will easily empathize with Celia as her life unravels while she attempts to help an obviously troubled boy. Lucas’ point-of-view is difficult to sympathize with once he becomes a tall, broadly built teenager who targets the one person who attempted to save him when he was five-years-old and again ten years later. 

When Lucas re-enters Celia’s life following her divorce and the death of his mother, their reunion becomes a nightmare. Celia is torn between protecting her own children and managing the empathy she feels for her former student.

Freeman has an excellent sense of pacing. The story moves at the appropriate pulse, especially as the climatic end is reached. Her tight, compact phrasings stir up a myriad of emotions; specifically, the human need to help others while also preserving self.

Distance of Touch is a story of emptiness, loss, and the desperate need to give and receive love. I highly recommend it.