asking inane questions.
 
 As for me, I was less than contrite.
 
 Picking up trash wasn’t so bad. There
 
 were ways around GUFN.
 
 And I now had a direct in with a
 
 monster manufacturer.
 
 Back in My Room
 
 My life closed in
 
 around me. I was
 
 no longer my own.
 
 Mom had poured
 
 through all
 
 my stuff, scoured
 
 my journal, letters,
 
 and address book.
 
 She did find a bit
 
 of evidence—a
 
 crumpled Marlboro
 
 wrapper and a new
 
 lighter. Hey, it made
 
 her day to discover
 
 I was a hard-core
 
 tobacco user. More
 
 lectures, more useless
 
 promises on my
 
 end. She went off
 
 to work on her book.
 
 A sudden wave of
 
 exhaustion swallowed
 
 me. I’d walked through