Jonathan Messinger

To break the silence the old man said the first thing that came to his mind: "Loneliness is a type of violence.

The impulse to tell the truth was not as great as the fear of being left off the page.

How could you love something so destructive?" I ask."Because this wolf doesn't care if your heart is whole or not," you say. "It tastes just the same.

I don't think my moped could outrun a cheetah.""Hun," Claire says. "There are more important things you need to outrun, and a moped isn't going to help you with any of those.

How did it die?" he asked."Short circuit," I said. "Old and frayed wires."He looked at me like I was senile."Could have been disease. Violence. Or, sometimes, things die because we don't love them enough.