ALISTARE OWL

Really, a screech owl saved from a snowballing, tended until he regains his strength and a timid boy loses his fear of the dark, oughtn't to up and ask for a plug of tobacco. And their secret, mutually rewarding fellowship--owl Alistare (because owls stare) hinting he's superhuman, wised-up George telling him he's impressive enough as he is--oughtn't to be disrupted by a Keystone Cops contretemps triggered by George's father. Finally, with peace restored and Alistare presumably returned to the woods--where George now has the confidence to look for him--it's unfair that he turns out to be a phantom, and that, to save the reputation, of George's art dealer father, he has to cleave to, and leave with, the just-sold Haunted Painting. There are so many flipflops that it all becomes immaterial--and gruff; gregarious, heart-of-gold Alistare is not, a ghost to give up so easily.