Midday/Early Afternoon, Wednesday, October 29, 2025 – Orlando, Florida
If you’ve been following along, you may recall that tomorrow, October 30, is the target completion date for the audiobook edition of Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen: A Jim Garraty Story. My producer and narrator, Bryan Haddock, let me know earlier this week that he’s wrapped the main narrative and is now recording the closing scene—a reprise of a key moment, this time from Kelly Moore’s perspective.
If all goes smoothly, the audiobook should land on Audible by Halloween or shortly thereafter. The other two titles in the production queue—Reunion: A Story and Reunion: Coda—are slated for early December 2025 and February 2026, respectively.
In the meantime, I’ve been reflecting on Comings and Goings—its themes, its quiet subversions, and the way it reframes the idea of a “first time.” Below are a few thoughts, annotated with reader echoes that remind me why this story matters.
🎶 This Night: How Comings and Goings Rewrites the “First Time” with Reverence and Realness
In most coming-of-age stories, the “first time” is a checkpoint—awkward, performative, or drenched in cinematic flourish. But here, I tried to offer something quieter: a moment of emotional communion, steeped in memory, music, and mutual care.
“It’s about the first time you didn’t have to explain yourself.” — Amazon
🚪 1. The Party Was Loud. The Beer Was Warm
Jim doesn’t enter the story in motion—he’s stationary, wedged against a wall at a party he never should’ve attended. The Budweiser is metallic and lukewarm. The music is Twisted Sister. The air smells like cheap beer and clashing perfumes. And Jim? He’s nursing his drink, scanning the crowd for an anchor that never comes—until Kelly steps into his orbit.
This is emotional geography before the journey begins. A reluctant observer. A warm beer. And the quiet miracle of being found.
“A night stitched together by mixtapes, quiet courage, and the ache of choosing to stay.”
🛋️ 2. Her Apartment as Emotional Architecture
The crooked lamp, the milk crate bookshelf, the dried lavender—these aren’t set dressing. They’re emotional anchors. The room doesn’t seduce. It welcomes.
🍺 3. A Beer, A Memory, A Motif
The Heineken is a portal. Jim’s memory of Mark, the ache of Marty, the flicker of growth—it’s all there in a single sip.
“Over cassette tapes and Heineken beer, conversations deepen, touch becomes language…”
🎵 4. Billy Joel and Beethoven: Scoring the Scene with Subtext
“This Night,” built on Beethoven’s Pathétique, becomes the emotional score—not for drama, but for vulnerability. A song trying not to fall apart.
💬 5. Dialogue That Honors Silence
Jim and Kelly speak sparingly. Even “Can I?” becomes a masterclass in emotional consent. This is intimacy without spectacle.
🧥 6. Buttons, Breath, and the Grace of Being Seen
Kelly’s calm presence, Jim’s awe—not of her body, but of her trust. This is emotional realism at its most tender.
“Intimacy feels less like performance and more like breath.”
📚 7. Echoes of Summer of ’42
Jim’s memory of Raucher’s novel isn’t homage—it’s evolution. A motif echo that honors emotional inheritance while offering quiet rebellion.
🌙 8. In the Still of the Night: Afterglow as Archive
The stereo is off, but the music lingers. Jim catalogs Kelly’s breath, her scent, her presence—not for nostalgia, but for survival.
🕰️ 9. The Return of the Past: Memory as Coda
Beethoven’s Adagio cantabile stirs Marty’s memory. Jim lets it in, then chooses West Side Story. Not to forget, but to carry differently.
🎤 10. Coda – Echoes
Kelly doesn’t return. No second act. Just a memory, a melody, and a kindness that lingers.
“A quietly luminous companion to the Reunion Duology.”
🧭 Why It Matters
Comings and Goings isn’t just emotionally resonant—it’s emotionally responsible. It honors mutual agency, emotional inheritance, and the quiet miracle of being truly seen.
“A story about the first time you didn’t have to explain yourself.”
A Certain Point of View, Too 
Comments
2 responses to “Not Just One Thing: Emotional Inheritance in ‘Comings and Goings’”
Congratulations on the audio book, Alex! And I like the way you analyze and explain your books.
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Thanks, Dawn!
I’m truly looking forward to hearing Comings and Goings come to life as an Audible production. I hope readers—and some of my fellow authors—will find this story just as compelling and emotionally resonant as the other chapters in Jim Garraty’s journey.
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