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I never noticed the big man in our doorway I just noticed how my mom wasn’t there anyhters he’d loved from a distance no

Later, Jeffries would tell me that he kept quiet because he didn’t want to do any hters were the very last ones he would want to ruin

I was learning that that’s ain--another time and another story

I always liked to remember that my first words to him as I shuffled into Mae’s new bar and took the perch beside him were, "You’ve been here the whole time"

Apprehension, love, nervousness, caution, all those eether as he stared at me, but all I saas the love A father’s love and I’ that it’s a special entity on its own I have ht to call hiiven a rebirth at life I wasn’t holding grudges

I didn’t have time for that anymore

And Erica…

It still took me a while to visit her The ceht strongly

I thought about that, too, and envisioned thatelse It hadn’t touched what lay buried underneath The to beco on her tombstone, and I read the letter she left for ht that she had been the one to know A bird nearly crashed into rinned

I love you, too

I turned and left Jonah aiting for hter

We named her Erica Daniella

THE END