Once upon a time… (And a story would begin here, as always) I met Andy, in the middle of Forbes Street, on our new neighborhood, beside an old oak tree with its long wide branches hanging low by the side of our new front yard, as the little drops of the afternoon rain of September slowly came to a stop, and I was standing slyly behind my mom’s SUV carrying a big brown box full of my brother’s intimate possessions—really intimate possessions (as in rated SPG). And for that instant, I knew a whole new surprise was coming for me. “Hi.” I remember her saying to me, this silly grin at her face and this silly Persian cat yawning lazily beside her with a smug look, as I stared back at them, impassive and indifferent—just completely deadpanned with all the events happening in my life, with all t

