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He protects the details at first, telling her only what he feels he
cannot say, sensing she does not yet understand that the moments
when something really happens, when a person is transformed by
danger or grief are the ones that do not share themselves like
the others, real fear no cocktail banter, the kind of knowledge
he wishes he could just give back. They are at work, a small
movie theater in a small town in the California overcast between
the Redwoods and the sea. He is the new guy, two weeks, and he
does a lot of sideways smiling, allowing only one corner to light
up, always the right. And at first she thinks it’s about
him being younger or flirtatious, but after she knows him and
he tells her the story, she understands all that smiling is really
about him being alive.
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