And Silas Thorne said, “Okay,” and picked the pen back up, and wrote unknown — requesting information in the box, and that is what went to the Department of Education, and it is the only honest answer either of us had.

Part Twenty-Two: Helen

David Pulaski teaches the automotive bay next to my shop at the high school and has done since 2011, and I told him about the form over a cup of coffee at half past seven in the morning on the ninth of October, which is the only reason any of this happened.

He brought Helen Bowersock into my classroom three days later.

She was seventy-four.