It Scares Me. But Then I Get

She Said That Her Father's Death Had Been The Hardest Thing In Her Life. "we Are All Children Until Our Fathers Die.

He Tells Me That The Best Man I Will Ever Find Will Be Attracted To Other Women. I Hear This As Another Fact I Am Too Old Not To Know. More Proof Of How Unprepared I Am To Love Anyone.

I Tried To Avoid Mimi. Her Presence Seemed To Call Forth Every Rejection I'd Ever Experienced-the Teachers Who'd Looked At Me As Though I Held No Promise, The Boys Who Didn't Like Me Back. Around Her, I Became Fourteen Again.

Nice,' I Say, Realizing Only Afterward That I've Mimicked Her, A Bad Habit Of Mine; I'm Like One Of Those Animals That Imitates Its Predators To Survive.

It Scares Me. But Then I Get This Big Feeling, Simple But Exalted: He's Like Me, Just With Different Details.