Please don't let Daddy die Susie," he whispered. "I need him.

Learn a language of another country and then you can go to that country: a place where the problems of your family will not follow. A language they do not speak.

I couldn't help but think, as I watched him, of the barrels of toxic fluids that had accrued behind Hal's bike shop where the scrub lining the railroad tracks had offered local companies enough cover to dump a stray contaner or two. Everything had been sealed up, but things were beginning to leak out. I had come to both pity and respect Len in the years since my mother left. He followed the physical to try to understand things that were impossible to comphrehend. In that, I could see, he was like me.

The shadow of years was not as big on his small body. He knew I was away . But when people left they always came back.

Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.

You're not supposed to look back, you're supposed to keep going.

I left my mark on that man.