THE SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL. NORMAL. EXCEPT THAT after

school as I waited for my mom, this girl, Ileana, came up to me. She took out a marker and wrote her name on one of my casts.

She looked into my eyes. I wanted to look away. But I didn’t. Her eyes were like the night sky in the desert.

It felt like there was a whole world living inside her. I didn’t know anything about that world.