Prologue Mom loves angels Their pink cheeked faces peek from pictures on every wall in every room So surprise Mom decided to call me Angel Dad said Enough already He didn't want his kid named after some silly weak looking chubby cherub He wanted a strong name for his girl to take out into the world Mom is stubborn though She flipped through the Bible found a few fierce angels and tried again What about naming her after Gabriel He was so fierce people fainted at the very sight of him That s all Dad needed to hear
Two of a Kind Mom calls me Daddy's Girl cause him and me we're both dreamers Close your eyes he used to say Tell me what you see I'd say Sky shooting stars rainbows wrapped round the earth Now it's my turn I see you and me bundled up in silver space suits bouncing on the moon Race you he'd say And we'd laugh back before he moved across the street and we moved across the city Our laughter has a lot farther to travel
Summer Shift We packed our bags in June Ibraced for a summer of impossible good byes and the dread of living without friends ever again To chase away the fear I flipped through a dictionary plucked out the word hush and thought about the whisper of wind rustling through leaves come next autumn and the silence of their falling Then I jumped into a soft deep pile of them grabbed an armful of red gold and burnt orange beauties tossed them into the air and I was all right again for a while and I went back to packing for the
Cheri The kids at my last school called me weird teased me or left me to myself Except for Cheri who picked me to sit next to in kindergarten just because she saw me staring out the window and was dying to know what made me smile when all she saw were raindrops I was shy about telling her at first but Cheri didn't mind my daydreaming She was color blind but said whenever I described my daydreams it was like helping her see the
