“Thank you.” “For?” “I can’t yell when I go out on the floor. I want to. I want to scream and gnash my teeth. So thank you for giving me a place where I can be awful, and find my way back again.”

The light of the rocket reflected off her bright eyes as if the fire of her soul were coming out to push the rocket into the sky.

Afterward, being six and full of belief in my own infallibility, I announced that I wouldn’t make that sort of mistake when it was time for my bar mitzvah. He didn’t laugh at me like a lot of boys would. I remember him, balanced on his crutches, looking with pain at our father. That distress, on what was a happy day, is the part of my memory that

Funny how seeing your goal made manifest can change things.