He had never done it before, and so he had no real understanding of how slow, and sad, and difficult it was to end a friendship.

It's a good story,' he said. He even grinned at me. 'I'll tell you.''Please,' I said.And then he did.

He will be someone who is defined, first and always, by what he is missing.

My phone rang, and although it wasn't a sinister time of night, and although nothing had happened that I would later see as foreshadowing, I knew, I knew.

They are bound to each other by their mutual disgust and discomfort: Caleb tolerates his body, and he tolerates Caleb's revulsion.

Now he drops his mouth open. Now he hops in a little circle. Now he drags his leg behind him. His moans fill the air in the quiet, still house.

They would never have demanded he be like them; they hardly wanted to be themselves.