Only I was also the kid who put firecrackers in mailboxes, blowing up what might have been somebody’s important mail. I was the kid who smeared dogshit on the windshield of Mr. Dowdy’s car and squeezed Elmer’s Glue in the ignition slot of Mrs. Kendrick’s old Ford wagon when Bertie and I found it unlocked. I pushed over gravestones. I shoplifted.
