“How do you do it then, sir?” he asked, pleading. “How do you keep them out of your head?” I considered that, maybe for the first time, and I answered him honestly, as the answer came to me. “They’re never gone from your head, Vince. They never will be. But they don’t have to haunt you. Every one of them took something from you and left something behind, and it wouldn’t be right to forget them. But you keep making friends, keep letting people close, and the new memories help keep the old ones from taking over your head. You get what I’m saying?” He nodded. “I think so, sir.”
