There is nothing worse than silence, strung like heavy beads on too delicate a conversation.

What could you give me," I ask, my voice shaking, "to make me forget ... that you forgot about me?

Tutoring a four year old to get into an exclusive preschool made as much sense as hiring a swim coach for a guppy.

You figured that the only way I'd be happy is if I did the things you thought would be best for me.

Hope and reality lie in inverse proportions.

You are only as invincible as your smallest weakness, and those are tiny indeed - the length of a sleeping baby's eyelash, the span of a child's hand. Life turns on a dime, and - it turns out - so does one's conscience.

But mostly I wondered why the head could move so swiftly while the heart dragged its feet. I still loved him. It felt like anything else permanent that has gone missing; a lost tooth, a severed leg. You might know better, but that doesn’t keep your tongue from poling at the hole in your gum, or your phantom limb from aching.