I just wanted you to be safe," my mother says. "Do you understand that? Safe, and happy. Anything I could do... even if it meant I couldn't be with you...

“Time becomes a stutter-the space between drumbeats, splintered into fragments, …”

“my wild, uncured, erratic, incomprehensible heart.”

“I was still looking for answers then. I still wanted to know why. As though som…”

“How can someone have the power to shatter you to dust--and also to make you fee…”