What came next is Kevin Clayton saw Mindy with her 400-horsepower, driving on her deluxe, chromed wire–rimmed wheels. So for his sixteenth birthday Kevin Clayton asked for a subscription to Elle Decor magazine. In September, he asked for a gerbil. Days later, when it went missing, he asked for a replacement. He was going on his fourth gerbil by Homecoming. His sixth by Halloween. He went to his mom’s grocery list stuck under a magnet on the fridge door, and he wrote, “We need more Vaseline.” Using squares of Kleenex, he’d scooped out the jar in the bathroom and flushed most of its greasy
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