So I caught up with him this one night and I was already half a dozen drinks behind.

So we had a few more.

And after a while he tells me he wants to drive me back to the apartment.

I said no thanks.

We were all still living there then.

I just stood there and watched him drive off.

Makes it through the whole goddamn war and I let him drive.

Later that night, Ines was typing whatever it is they type on, and you know what she

tells me?

She tells me how much my book meant to her.

My brother's getting cold in the next room and all she can talk about is a book.

Well, everything changed from then on.

Within five months, I buried him, my ma, my father, all of them here in the Bronx.

We spent our summers here and if we were lucky, the fall.

A lot of falls with those teams.

Not enough.

The rest of those who have gone before us cannot steady the unrest of those to follow.

You wrote that in your book.