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“Wow,” he whispered as we drove farther and farther from the Cypress airport My home, like most houses there, was in the forest The as lined on both sides with thick, moss-covered Sitka spruce trees He stared up at them like we had traveled into a whole neorld, and in a e had The sun peeked through the tree line above us, and everything glowed It was a…

“A moment of peace in a life of chaos,” he said, his eyes still on the sky above us

“I was just going to say that How did you know?”

“You said it once, in an interview” He looked back atartists a while back They asked you how you liked it in New York, and you said it was nice, but you missed Cypress For you, it was a place of peace in a life of chaos I didn’t understand then, but I think I do now”

“Eli, that intervieas alo”

“It was” He s into it further

I squeezed his hand, se of you up late, researching me”

“That doesn’t sound like a stalker at all It was after our debate at NYU I sa all the students were in love with you, and I wanted to know allery, and I wanted to knohat other people thought, too”

“Oh no,” I groaned “I got a few really bad reviews”

“Screw Jeffery Carlyle from the New York Times Only a man with a defective heart could be such a critic of your work,” he said

I couldn’t help but laugh “That’s what Mr D’Amour said about you”

“I wasn’t a critic, I was just…” He tried to think of the word

“A critic?”

“Uneducated You can hardly blame me for that Once I knew a paintbrush from a canvas, I was able to realize you really are talented…stop s, and rested his head in h When I first saw it, I wasme”

“Why can’t I see his head?” my dad yelled