But sometimes the best help a person can find is helping someone else.

Abenthy gave me an appraising look. I'd been waiting for it. It was the look that said, "You don't sound as young as you look." I hoped he'd come to grips with it fairly soon. It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.

Hours later the blank sheet still stared at me, and I beat my fist against the desk in fury and fustration, striking it so hard my hand bled. That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.

One reason we love fiction is because stories have a comforting shape. They provide a resolution that's lacking in our regular lives.

It wasn't even a good note. 'If you are reading this I am probably dead.' What sort of a note is that?

With his eyes and those hands there won't be a woman safe in all the world when he starts hunting after the ladies.' 'Courting, dear,' my father corrected gently. 'Semantics,' she shrugged.

That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.