Chapter 5: The Other War As if everything wasn’t enough, I had a very strong allergic reaction to a pomade used to heal something — I don’t even remember what. I had to miss school for fifteen days and take medicated showers. My whole body was red …

Chapter 4: The Haunting Call If you think my life improved, you couldn’t be more wrong. One day, I was in the hall while my mom was on the phone. We still had those wired phones with a rotary dial—you had to put your finger on the numbers and spin …

Chapter 3: The Contrast My dad worked in another country for almost a decade. He would spend nine months there working and three months at home. Every time he came back, he brought so many things — TVs, guitars, a video cassette player, a stereo sy…