The nurse knocked softly on the door of the examining room and wheeled in a shiny silver tray displaying neatly arranged instruments of torture.

The TV said you should ignore bullies and they would stop harassing you. In practice this worked about half the time. The other half, you ended up with two tall boys shadowing you through a trailer park, their fingers taking little nips at your clothes, like dogs.

But you are right, being stupid is not illegal. Otherwise half this town would be behind bars.

How did we get to this place where we had to be tough all the time and never said how much we loved each other?

It was better that we never apologized to each other. Then we'd be admitting that we were wrong and we owed each other something. That's where people got into trouble.

But you can’t live your life worried about dying all the time. If you do, you’re dead already.

No. I just don't want to be a detective. They figure out what happened after the fact, when it's too late. I want to prevent it from happening.