"Secrets, Charley," my mother whispered. "They'll tear you apart." - Mitch Albom

EVERYONE JOINS A BAND IN THIS LIFE. You are born into your first one. Your mother plays the lead. She shares the stage with your father and siblings. Or perhaps your father is absent, an empty stool under a spotlight. But he is still a founding member, and if he surfaces one day, you will have to make room for him. As life goes on, you will join other bands, some through friendship, some through romance, some through neighborhoods, school, an army. Maybe you will all dress the same, or laugh at your own private vocabulary. Maybe you will flop on couches backstage, or share a boardroom table, or crowd around a galley inside a ship. But in each band you join, you will play a distinct part, and it will affect you as much as you affect it. And, as is usually the fate with bands, most of them will break up — through distance, differences, divorce, or death.

"He cried that night for all that he had lost, but he would say it taught him a valuable lesson: that holding on to things "will only break your heart.

"You're not getting it," Eddie gently replied. "I needed to save you. It let me make up for the life I took. That's how salvation works. The wrongs we do open doors to do right."