Tell the Wolves I'm Home

My 3 highlights

• In my lap was the small gift, wrapped in blue butterfly paper. I didn’t open it right away, because it was frightening to open something from a dead person. Especially a dead person you loved. Opening a present from a live person was scary enough. There was always the chance that the gift might be so wrong, so completely not the kind of thing you liked, that you’d realize they didn’t really know you at all. I knew it wouldn’t be like that with this present from Finn.

• “Thanks,” he said. “You know, thanks for coming.” “It’s no big deal,” I said, even though in the scheme of my life it was a huge deal to be going down to the city without anybody in my family knowing about it.

• For a long time, all the way through to the end of elementary school, Beans was my only friend. Because that’s how I’ve always been. I only need one good friend to see me through. Most people aren’t like that. Most people are always looking out for more people to know.