“I smash the green rake into his leg, and he returns the blow. We battle like gods on a mountain. The sun is raging and I feel like licking that bright ball like a lolly.” 

“It was late and Aaron was drinking too much wine, and he was trying to remember what it was Keith had said about goodness that hot day decades ago when they were kids, the same day their father threatened to smack them both.” 

“I’d been huffing model airplane glue for two years before I met Beef Gilbert, but he was the first person to make me feel stupid for it.” 

“Already he was planning his approach to meaningful and direct conversation, the kind only comrades in misery could appreciate.”