She'll understand what I already know - that death surrounds us all. And it tastes like metal between your teeth.

It was strange how words meant something when they came out of your mouth. Inside your head they were safe and silent, but once they were outside, people grabbed hold of them.

It's really going to happen. I really won't ever go back to school. Not ever. I'll never be famous or leave anything worthwhile behind. I'll never go to college or have a job. I won't see my brother grow up. I won't travel, never earn money, never drive, never fall in love or leave home or get my own house. It's really, really true. A thought stabs up, growing from my toes and ripping through me, until it stifles everything else and becomes the only thing I'm thinking. It fills me up like a silent scream.

And now he's down this for me. He's made me famous. He's put my name on the world.

I want the people I love to get up and speak about me, and even if you cry it'll be OK. I want you to say honest things.

I want you to be with me in the dark. To hold me. To keep loving me. To help me when I get scared. To come right to the edge and see what's there.

Parents don't know their children at all. No one knows anyone, in fact.