He chased me. I ran out of the
house and jumped over the gate,
and I ran and I ran and I ran. The
last time I turned around he was
rounding the gate, coming out of
the yard after me. Until I turned
twenty-five years old, I had a
recurring nightmare of the look on
his face as he came around that
corner.
The moment I saw him I put
my head down and ran. I ran like
the Devil was chasing me. Abel was
bigger and faster, but this was my
neighborhood. You couldn’t catch
me in my neighborhood. I knew
every alley and every street, every