When her hands reached out and poured the tea, it was as if she also poured something into me while I sat there sweating in my cab. It was like she held a string and pulled on it just slightly to open me up. She got in, put a piece of herself inside me, and left again.

And I stop listening to me, because to put it bluntly, I tire me.

A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH I do not carry a sickle or scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold. And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.

The scrawled words of practice stood magnificently on the wall by the stairs, jagged and childlike and sweet. They looked on as both the hidden Jew and the girl slept, hand to shoulder. They breathed. German and Jewish lungs.

The best word shakers were the ones who understood the true power of words. They were the ones who could climb the highest.

Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.

But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it.