And still the brain continues to yearn, continues to burn, foolishly, with desire. My old man's brain is mocked by a body that still longs to stretch in the sun and form a beautiful shape in someone else's gaze, to lie under a blue sky and dream of helpless, selfless love, to behold itself, illuminated, in the golden light of another's eyes.

If there was ever a more perfect day in the history of time it isn't one I've heard about.

I frightened myself. I became the ghost Piper was so scared of.

I felt a momentary urge to leap into the sea and swim free of the present.

This was what happiness felt like - this wondrous, miraculous alternative to dread.

I noticed that once you realize someone's watching you it's pretty hard not to find yourself watching them back.

Now let's try to understand that falling into sexual and emotional thrall with an underage blood relative hadn't exactly been on my list of Things to Do while visiting England,but I was coming around to the belief that whether you liked it or not, Things Happen and once they start happening you pretty much just have to hold on for dear life and see where they drop you when they stop.