Hidden in a toolbox, in the rafters of his four-car garage, was an envelope full of pictures taken by a private detective...They were pictures of a scrawny, boyish looking nine year old with a wide mouth and a tangle of brown hair...Her eyes were oblong and deep set, their color hidden from the camera by the slant of the sun. The angles and planes of her face were oddly beautiful just then, in that moment, frozen on Kodak paper. A hint of the woman she would someday become.
The next morning I told Mom I couldn't go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, __he same thing that__ always wrong._ __ou__e sick?_ __'m sad._ __bout Dad?_ __bout everything._ She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. __hat's everything?_ I started counting on my fingers: __he meat and dairy products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry__ __ho's Larry?_ __he homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says __ promise it__ for food_ after he asks for money._ She turned around and I zipped her dress while I kept counting. __ow you don__ know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eats and goes to the bathroom and has no __aison d__tre_, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theater, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it__ cheaper_ That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn't leave while I was still going. __domesticated animals, how I have a domesticated animal, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time with them and they__e embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there__ nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity in school, Grandma__ coupons, storage facilities, people who don__ know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won__ be humans in fifty years__ __ho said there won't be humans in fifty years?_ I asked her, __re you an optimist or a pessimist?_ She looked at her watch and said, __'m optimistic._ __hen I have some bed news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon._ __hy do beautiful songs make you sad?_ __ecause they aren't true._ __ever?_ __othing is beautiful and true.
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The next morning I told Mom I couldn't go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, __he same thing that__ always wrong._ __ou__e sick?_ __'m sad._ __bout Dad?_ __bout everything._ She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. __hat's everything?_ I started counting on my fingers: __he meat and dairy products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry__ __ho's Larry?_ __he homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says __ promise it__ for food_ after he asks for money._ She turned around and I zipped her dress while I kept counting. __ow you don__ know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eats and goes to the bathroom and has no __aison d__tre_, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theater, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it__ cheaper_ That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn't leave while I was still going. __domesticated animals, how I have a domesticated animal, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time with them and they__e embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there__ nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity in school, Grandma__ coupons, storage facilities, people who don__ know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won__ be humans in fifty years__ __ho said there won't be humans in fifty years?_ I asked her, __re you an optimist or a pessimist?_ She looked at her watch and said, __'m optimistic._ __hen I have some bed news for you, because humans are going to destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough to, which will be very soon._ __hy do beautiful songs make you sad?_ __ecause they aren't true._ __ever?_ __othing is beautiful and true.
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