I Am Alone

"Bobby died of leukemia. He got it two years ago, but had such a strong body. He was always the best at sports that he kept

biding it off. They gave him six months at first, then he turned to trick and got better, even got out for a while. Though it

was a different person when you saw him. Then he went back in a year ago. Like his brother was telling me the line on his

hospital chart had felt straight down, in a perfect angle. I looked at his body and it was death for the first time in my

life. His face was thin and wrinkled, almost apelike. His hair just grey patches on his skull. He looked sixty years old and

he was sixteen. I couldn't believe how skinny his arms were. It was like having the skeleton of someone you know put in front

of you. I felt dazed out in the streets like I had just come out of a 4-hour movie I didn't understand. I thought about that

face all night, and death."