Wow. I'm really speechless. I was going to bring in a quote from that story to show a point or something, but I would just use the entire story as a quote.
This story is powerful because it connects with a common problem in modern society. Rather than being about fanciful worlds, it's about a very REAL kid with a very REAL problem. He's frustrated by his parents, and by how apart they are, (they might be divorced soon, due to their differences,) so he goes up on the roof to draw as an escape from their conflicts.
He has drawn the mountains, not as they are, but as he wishes they were
Nice.
Um, back to my point.
He turns back east, to the lights of downtown. He has never drawn this view before; has felt it would be somehow wrong to mix his mother’s art with his father’s.
“Don’t you think they need to mix a little more?”
The cat on the roof represents the character's unconscious mind, ( obviously,
) and what he's been avoiding for all this time. He has this idea in his head that the world would be better if his parents were just SEPARATE, rather than fighting all the time.
But, he comes to realize that his parents' fighting is actually.....(wait, you're going a different direction with this.)
Er....ending, conclusion, what? You end with him drawing his "mother's and father's styles" together, and the cat (his unconscious!) departing. But what does this tell him to do? Stop trying to separate his parents? He seems to still dislike his parents' arguments.
Hm.....
Great story. The emotional content didn't feel at all weighed down by the imagery and scenery.
((As for your next story, my recommendation: He's a normal kid, but without warning he starts doing UNSPEAKABLE behaviors, such as
doing his chores, finishing his homework, and SHARING WITH HIS SIBLINGS. How will these acts of ANARCHY stand in his household?
))