Son of Power

A restless eleven‑year‑old named Sanford—known on the streets as Skag—finds himself inexplicably drawn to the Lincoln Park Zoo, where he spends days staring at cages of tigers and monkeys, oblivious to school and home. A sudden, silent obsession isolates him, leading to a harsh beating from his fruit‑store father and a brief stint in reform school before he finally slips away, haunted by his dying mother’s scent of lilacs and the strange, blood‑tinged visions that surface when he recalls his father.

Freed from his cramped city life, Skag drifts westward, learning survival from a prospector in the mountains and later joining a traveling circus of animal handlers known as the Cloud Brothers. The circus becomes his new world, where his uncanny rapport with wild creatures offers both refuge and danger. As he navigates this rugged, nomadic existence, Skag’s bond with the beasts hints at a deeper, untamed power that may shape the path ahead.