“Mostly I avoided the Faire, with its teeming crowds that made me feel like I was being smothered. So much noise! So much forced merrymaking!
Often I would see children there, ones I recognized from my rare visits to school. They moved in packs, like wild dogs. After they passed, I could hear them howling with laughter.
I wondered sometimes what it would be like to have a friend. To be so comfortable with myself that I could be comfortable with someone else, too.”