My mother just wanted me to forget it. So, of course, every word was immediately, irrevocably branded into my brain.

“The raw hunk of meat that used to be my enemy makes a sound, and I know where t…”

“We sit in silence awhile then I blurt out the thing that's on both our minds. "…”

“And how I watched my little sister become a human torch. Closing my eyes doesn'…”

“To set a precedent, I guess. So that if in the future she ever fell from grace,…”