text: Their eyes meet and he smiles, his face illuminated and bright. He has never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. She has plain features and limp drab hair, but to him she is perfect. Framed in shadow, she sees him and a look of shock transforms her face. The happiness in his face flickers; maybe he shouldn’t put his burdens on her. But no, it’s too late to go back. Thoughts race and build inside him, the noise around him bringing up latent memories. He is six years old, standing behind a door and quietly crying as his parents scream at each other. He remembers the heavy sting of alcohol filling his nostrils and the crack of his father’s hand across his mothers face. He is twelve, a failing test grade in one hand and a crumpled cigarette in the other as his mother tells him that he is the reason his father left. Fifteen, dropped out of high school, working two jobs just to eat, while his mother lies passed out on the couch, still clutching the syringe that she traded the food stamps for. This is all he knows of life, a hardness that grew up with him, grew inside him. He has never trusted anyone until now. As he gazes towards her, he knows that she can help, knows that she can erase the twenty-two years of hell. A tear trickles down his cheek, shining in the headlights of her pre-owned mid-size sedan as it hits him at 43 miles per hour and sets him free.