And in this moment, I realize one reason it’s so great to have a best friend is sometimes, like right now, Cal and I are thinking the very same thing.

It seems like our town has closed down these days leading up to the funeral. Old people still sit on their porches and talk, but their conversations aren’t sprinkled with laughter anymore. Since the new,...

The Mozart sonata Dad picked out begins to play. When we hear the first note, we open the sacks and the ladybugs escape through the opening, taking flight. It’s as if someone has dumped rubies...

Zachary smiles, and I wonder if he’s felling different. Because standing out here waist deep in Gossimer Lake, next to my best friend, I’m feeling different-light and good and maybe even holy.

…I decided I’d changed my mind about home. Home was not Pensacola San Diego Guam or any of the other places we might have lived. In fact home wasn’t any particular place at all. Home...