She is always experimenting, always attempting the coup declat. Who do you like now? she asks without looking up. You mean at twenty? Or at thirty-six? Both. I try to remember being twenty. Its just a blur of women, breasts, legs, skin, hair. All the...
You will. When you and I meet in my present that will happen fairly frequently. More often than Id like, Clare. So who did you like in 1975? Nobody, really. At twelve I had other stuff to think about. But when I was thirteen I had this huge crush on...
（You can still be cool ）when youre dead. In fact, its much easier, because you arent getting old and fat and losing your hair. Clare hums the beginning of When Im 64. She moves her rook forward five spaces. I can checkmate her now, and I point th...
Everyone is weirded out. Im very weirded out. Husband? Husband? Thursday, April 12, 1984 (Henry is 36, Clare is 12) HENRY: Clare and I are playing chess in the fire circle in the woods. Its a beautiful spring day, and the woods are alive with birds c...
Then it starts to move, slow. It goes in circles, and then stops on H. Then it speeds up. E, N, R, Y. Henry, says Mary Christina, whos Henry? Helen says, I dont know, but youre blushing, Clare. Who is Henry? I just shake my head, like its a mystery t...
Francie asks Gayle what she was doing with Michael Planner at the Dairy Queen last Saturday. (Answer: eating ice cream. Well, duh.) After a while we all get bored with Truth or Dare, mainly because its hard to think of good dares that any of us will...
I laugh and laugh. I have escaped again! Houdini, Prospero, behold me! for I am a magician, too. Nausea overcomes me, and I heave bile onto Kimys mums. Saturday, May 14, 1983 (Clare is 11 almost 12) CLARE: Its Mary Christina Heppworths birthday and a...
Im very hungry. Im very tired. Im supposed to be in Dr. Quarries Shakespeare seminar, but Im sure Ive managed to miss it. Too bad. Were doing Midsummer Nights Dream.The upside of this police car is: its warm and Im not in Chicago. Chicagos Finest hat...
Right, no problem. Anything else? Vivian Teska. Vivian is this girl in Geometry whom I lust after. Ive never said a word to her. After class tomorrow, go up to her and ask her out. I dont even know her. Trust me. Hes smirking at me in a way that make...
If I hadnt said something, you wouldnt have gotten up.... Then why did you say anything? Because I did. You will, just wait. He shrugs. Its like with Mom. The accident. Immer wieder. Always again, always the same. Free will? He gets up, walks to the...
Jesus, Henry. He shuts the door and I hear him walking back to his room. I throw my self a reproachful glare as I pull on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I walk down the hall to Dads bedroom. His door is shut. I knock. No answer. I wait. Dad? Silence....
As the show ends I look over at him and hes gone, vanished back to my old room in my dads apartment, standing sleep-addled beside my old bed, falling into it, gratefully. I turn off the TV and the bedside lamp. 1973 street noises drift in the open wi...
we sport exact replicas of each others ears. Im taller and more muscular and shave. Hes slender and ungainly and is all knees and elbows. I reach up and pull my hair back from my face, show him the scar from the accident. Unconsciously, he mimics my...
Hmm, my, you should take this to the security guards, hmm, theres quite a bit of cash in here, yes, the man wears thick glasses and peers at Henry through them as he speaks and Henry reaches around under the mans jacket and steals his wallet. Since H...
He strolls on, braying, blissfully unaware, with his wallet in his left back pocket. He has a large gut but almost no backside, and his wallet is pretty much aching for me to take it. I amble along behind them. Henry has a clear view as I deftly inse...
