"Frankie believed in Heaven quite literally, as if it was another lovely world out past the stars. And when he spoke the word "love," it seemed to spring free and fly into the air like a beautiful balloon you wanted to run after. But I couldn't tell my parents about Frankie, not properly. I told them I'd made friends with the boy in the room next to mine, and how he'd come from this little town out west. I couldn't tell them how he was becoming the...