Fighting Words

Sometimes you've got a story you need to find the courage to tell.

This is to remind me of the best day of my life." She looks down at me. For a wonder, she smiles back. "When was that?" she asks. "Tomorrow," I say.

Broken bones take a long time to heal. Why shouldn't brains?

I’ve learned that some things are almost impossible to talk about because they’re things no one wants to know. ■ ■ ■ Not even me.

I told you, nobody goes into foster care for good reasons. Foster care might be better than anything you’ve ever had in your life so far, and it will still never be as good as what you should have had. If the family you were born into was what it should have been.

I was glad, you know, to read the book. To know it didn’t only happen to me.

I suggested we get some Mountain Dew. “Girl, that stuff turns your teeth green!” Teena said. “Does not—” “It’ll probably make you glow in the dark! Nothing that color is meant to go inside your mouth.

It’s called an ampersand. It also means union. Or going on a journey. Or”—I’d written this down because I liked it so much but knew I’d never remember it exactly. I read it out—“an expectation for something more to occur.

Dr. Penny said, “Della, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you this time?

Davonte doesn’t know my whole story, but she knows an awful lot of it. Especially given all that’s happened lately.