My mother was physically and emotionally abusive. My father was an extremely cold man.

You know a guy a longtime, and I mean really know him, you don't get used to the idea that he's dead just overnight.

Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.

You get tough like me and you don't get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothin' can touch you.

I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be.

Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.

... Hey, I didn't know you didn't like baloney." I went cold. "I don't like it. I never liked it." Soda just looked at me. "You used to eat it. That's why you wouldn't eat anything while you were sick. You kept saying you didn't like baloney, no matter what it was we were trying to get you to eat." "I don't like it," I repeated.