For Anne and Nic

Dad always said a person must have a magnificent reason for writing out his or her Life Story and expecting anyone to read it.
"Unless your name is something along the lines of Mozart, Matisse, Churchill, or Bond--James Bond--you best spend your free time finger painting or playing shuffleboard, for no one, with the exception of your flabby-armed mother with stiff hair and a mashed-potato way of looking at you, will want to hear the particulars of your pitiable existence, which doubtlessly will end as it began--with a wheeze."

By the time we reached the top of the stairs and the Volvo, and the trees crowding the road danced, but only very slightly - they were extras after all, not wanting to distract from the leads - not a new drop of rain had touched me.