I knew how much it hurt to be the daughter of people who can't see you, not even if you are standing in front of them stomping your feet.

Emma hears me come up the stairs and asks me to watch a movie with her. I stick Band-Aids on my weeping cuts, put on pink pajamas so we match, and snuggle with her under her rainbow comforter. She arranges all of her stuffed animals around us in a circle, everyone facing the TV, then presses play...Ghosts dare not enter here.

You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.

I understood what triggered her earthquakes, most of them.

I knew how much it hurt to be the daughter of people who can't see you, not even if you are standing in front of them stomping your feet.

I am not going to think about it. It was ugly, but it’s over, and I’m not going to think about it.

They're on their way to the foreign-language wing. That's no surprise. The foreign kids are always here, like they need to breathe air scented with their native language a couple times a day or they'll choke to death on too much American.