It was if I wanted credit for rescuing my mother from a fire that I had set and couldn’t put out. I wasn’t the man of the house; I was the kid who’d … - Saeed Jones

I began meeting people’s eyes, shaking their hands confidently, and introducing a person who I wasn’t exactly, all while smiling.

In that way we were both just like each other. We both allowed too deep of a contrast between our interiors and our exteriors. We both clung to self-assured masks that actually allowed us to cause ourselves more unseen harm.

How did other people concentrate with all these bodies just walking around all the time? So many men and boys, each with bodies to study and memorize.