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The risk has always been clear to me

To Akara too Strongly, he says, “I’ this to someone else, Ryke”

Her dad turns to me

“Respectfully, sir, I’d rather be there for Sulli”

We’re all living on the edge of death And Ryke nods in acceptance of the road we’re driving doith his daughter

If only he knew about the funhouse My brain is trying to crack a joke, and it lands flatter than a fucking pancake

6

AKARA KITSUWON

I love you like a son, but I love her more

Ryke’s words stay with me as we exit one state and enter another Miles and miles away from the REI, from Philly, they still sit inside as station in the Ohio, Midwest countryside

Fathers

I used to have one He was the kind of father that would watchcartoons with me That would pick out all the oat pieces in the Lucky Char me with a bowl of colorful s before school and then in the late evenings after long hours at his office

He was the kind of father that deh he barely had the tiht by ht into a trashcan on hed

After his death, relatives would come up to me and tell me that I was lucky He passed ahen I was seventeen I made memories with him that I’ll remember forever But it was a load of shit In those e that I can’t quite make out

What good is re, if I can’t even have the full picture?

I’m twenty-seven now

No one can replace my dad

But I can’t deny how much Ryke’s words have crashed into me I’ve been on Sulli’s detail since I enty-two I’ve traveled the world with the Meadows faions of children like the Cobalts They’re not rooted to Philly like the Hales I was the youngest bodyguard to be on a Meadows detail

Ever