--I WAS IN THE RIGHT PLACE, BUT IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE WRONG TIME

...If I never hear "Brave" or "Roar" again in my life, that will be a good thing.

...Here's something I wrote a while back:

                                                           Abundant Sunshine

            There was something wrong with the baby.  Sunlight could kill it.  My wife blamed herself, thinking it was payback from all the drugs she took in college.  When I said, “That’s crazy talk,” she reached up and slapped me.

            The baby had my nose already, but her forehead.  It looked like a normal newborn, squished and rashy. 

            Doctors said it was an extremely rare condition.  One said there were ways around it.  Another, “Things could be worse.”

            The baby’s mother and I fought about how to proceed, fought so much that we didn’t seem married anymore.

            And then we weren’t.

            Whenever I visited after that, there were always other women in the house.  They wore old-fashioned capes and matching bonnets, never smiled or spoke.

            My wife thought the child possessed, maybe even a vampire.  Canisters with burning incense tossed off a bonfire smell.

            I hired a lawyer.  I called the county.  They all said the same thing—everyone rears a child differently.

            So I gave up, made her happy, and moved to a country near the equator.  I found a new woman and got married.  Every day of the year we have sun, abundant sunshine, but no kids.