Physical imperfections have always offended him, but apparently my bad hygiene wasn’t repellent enough. Perhaps Ms. Mues’s full-blown adulthood will be.

My father’s release date was given to all the local cops, school administrators, and youth group leaders.

How can you make someone love you when they won’t? And what if that person happens to be your mother?

My mother plants her hands on her hips, peevish. “Is that the best welcome you can come up with? Why don’t you come over here and give your father a hug?” Hug him? Touch him? How can she even suggest it?

Being user friendly doesn’t mean you’re going to be loved.

It’s just that instead of erupting and annihilating our tormentors, we destroy ourselves instead.

It’s okay. Don’t push her, Sharon.

How can you make someone love you when they won’t? How long are you supposed to keep trying?

What’s the point of obsessing over cholesterol or bike helmets or even cigarettes when the biggest threats to our children are being released back into society every day?

You told us once not to be in such a hurry to grow up, but I don’t see any way we could have avoided it. There was always someone out there ready to carve away another chunk of our innocence. Maybe because theirs was already gone and they couldn’t stand the sight of our ignorant happiness. Because that’s what innocence is, you know. A blissful oblivion of what’s coming, of what you’ll lose and what you’ll gain, and what kind of person you’ll grow up to be.