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I sos that e overnight

She still sat with s but she rarely set lines around her mouth and eyes Her lips pulled down h the bars to push her cheeks into a smile

I was six and a half years old when she fell in love

She told me about him, how kind he was and howto marry her Us That she would tell hiht

He took her on trips every weekend, and the first night she left me alone, I cried every time I woke up But when she came back she was like she used to be when I was little, before I ever freeze-fra about plans for our future again

Then one night, a week beforewet, and just walked right pastat me, went into her bedroom and closed the door

Her expression was so terrible as I’d stared up, excited to see her, that I hadn’t said any of the interesting, funny things I’d planned all day to say

I just curled up and listened to her cry all night

I was pretty sure he’d decided not to marry us

I think he broke her heart

My seventh birthday came and went but she didn’t notice For the first time, there was no Irish stew and ice cream and no shared stories of One Day

I celebrated anyway, having an i, Robin, that lived in e with me and could talk and told the funniest jokes and ere always cracking ourselves up!

One day ere going to both be OLDER and go OUTSIDE and ere going to zooo, and ere going to fix other people’s proble you could do for anyone was notice them and fix their problems and sometioing away on weekends For a while we didn’t have very er wore the work uniform she used to wear Then one day she dressed up so pretty and went to work in the afternoon and ca bottles of wine horoceries or carryout

She’d slide a Heat ’N Serve intowithat late night TV while I tried desperately to say so that wouldho, and when she did, she was slurring and stu and sometimes she was so very, very nice and sometimes she was…really not So up all kinds of new gaer to see her, and tell her about the things I learned on TV that day, and what life was going to be like when I was OLDER and could go OUTSIDE with her I was sure if we could just go OUTSIDE together, everything would be all right again