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CHAPTER SIX

OUT OF THE DARK DAYS

It was alreadyas I took a sip of my cocoa There was no breeze, and the smell of cow manure wafted from a nearby pasture Patti ca her nose She opened her paper and I opened my book I couldn’t concentrate Too ht

I didn’t like thinking about the day of my birth, partly because it was unnatural to be able to remember that far back, and partly because I couldn’t make sense of it I didn’t kno it should , if that were even possible But now that Kaidan had picked that scab, it was bleeding and needed tending

I called the time before my birth the "dark days" Not because they were bad, but because being in utero was dark It was like being cradled in a warht What I reing the first tiht to try outout toh, which bouncedborn was disorienting--too bright and too cold--but worst of all had been the feeling of having lost so my dark days

I couldn’t see ith my filmy infant vision, but I remember the impact of the man’s eyes as they bore down on e that I now lacked

Just say no to drugs, will ya, kid?

I never knehether the gruff e to ain

I could still recall the nun, a wrinkled old wo over et me She nearly exploded with love when they placed ift

That was the only part of the memory I understood, and could therefore cherish freely: the e of the newspaper and huh a scattering of pine trees

"I met someone who’s like me," I said The train blew its whistle

The newspaper slipped from Patti’s hands and fell to the floor in a crinkly swoosh I was taken aback by the black storm cloud of emotion that billowed around her

"Patti?" I whispered