my body is a cage

So, Oscar didn’t grow up in Havenport. He actually grew up in Fayetteville, NC. More accurately, he was conceived and left to fend for himself, till Child Services got involved. 

He grew up in the foster system, being passed around from home to home because of various conflicts; mostly stemming from the fact that Oscar was a difficult child to care for. He was moody and passive, had issues with his temper and overall, he was a certified Mess of a kid. 

The one thing he has always loved is books. Books were the only people who seemed to understand Oscar, and he devoured them as soon as he got his hands on them. To be lost in a book is to find himself, he would say. 

It was at the age of 12, that he found himself being fostered by a kind, older couple, the Faradays. They owned a little bookstore in town, had recently lost their kids to adulthood, and were looking for a helper and a surrogate son to love. And Oscar seemed to find himself at home with them. The bookstore had become his safe place, and as the months went on, Mister Faraday would let the kid work behind the counter and lock up after hours. 

At 14, he had been adopted by the Faradays, becoming their legal son and heir. 

At 23, after finishing community college in Fayetteville, Oscar had to come to face his one and true fear; the fear of loss. Something he had never felt before, he didn’t even realise that he had someone to lose, and that was Missus Faraday, and her lifelong battle with chronic pain and debilitating illnesses. And when she passed, the man realised that he did in fact have a heart. 

Being left with a sizeable inheritance, Oscar moved as far away from Fayetteville, hoping to leave North Carolina in particular. But a pitstop in a local beach town, the FOR SALE sign on the door of an old store, and somehow...it had become five years, and Oscar now owned Pageturner.

It’s his baby, his pet project, and with all the time he gives the store, you would wish he would give it to anyone else.