Assumption

I'm four or five years old. Faces, moments, feelings. I'm meeting the world for the first time. Uncle Tomás says, just wait until you see Jenny. I think that's a pretty name because it rhymes with Penny, which is my favorite coin because it's the name of my…

I'm 13 years old. I stole my pop's old truck, and now I'm driving to see Uncle Tomás. I didn't plan for Ben to come along. And I didn't plan to run out of gas. "'Why don't you put some lead in your foot?'" Ben says, his voice high and mocking. He walks…

I'm 20 years old, and I've just been shot down. I can't really move. My webbing is tangled, hooked on every possible surface inside the cockpit. My left arm is pinned, but my right is free, and I can turn my head. I'm listing to the right and a little down,…

I'm 29 years old, and I'm freezing cold, mucking up from the surf off a rain-swept beach into the woods near Peenemünde, an old V-2 launch site. It's nighttime. The Company likes to send me out at night. The boys call me Orlok; the sunlight hurts my eyes. I…

I'm 35 years old and sweltering. It's summer in South Dakota. The sun hangs in the sky like a man in the gallows. I stand on the deck of an aircraft carrier that has manifested in a lonely ravine. A major greets me. "Director Moffat sent you?" she asks.…

I'm 37 years old, and my hands are cold. I'm beginning to know what to expect. Pop's dead and we've got to settle accounts. I've got to let my brother Ben know about everything. All of it. See if that doesn't make an anchor we can both hang on to. I loiter…

I'm back. I know when this is: I'm thirty trillion years old. Hey, Ben. Welcome back. I missed you too. I found you. I'm sorry it took so long. I lost myself there for a bit, but I felt you out here. I'm stretched between epiphany and confusion, but at…