ack into focus with

the next I was standing in the exact same spot, but a cold dread washed over

en I s

e farmhouse. He looked thin and worn out, his clothes w

usband. The man who had d

w remembered with perfect, horrif

turned to a cold, hard stone in my chest. Be

of hardship and failure in Silicon Valley. We took him in. We believed him. My in-laws, his own pa

ity, out of the foolish belief that

tried to sell the farm out from under us. When his parents refused, he grew violent. He burned down the barn with all our livestock inside. I

ve it that time

practiced look of exhaustion and pain on his face. It was a performance,

e crumpled into a mas

ice thick with fake emotio

eached for me with his good arm, ex

. I remembered the cold feeling of starving in the winter th

different. I woul

The movement was slight, but it stopped him cold.

d calm, betraying none of the stor