Charles Lee

3. In Youth

West and I remained the best of friends, even after my Mother...

It hit me hard, but she had been hit - physically - harder. Perhaps we bonded further over our pain. We also both crumbled under our pain.

My father slowly assimilated West into the family. Sometimes I wondered if he did it because he felt like we needed a woman, no matter how young, in our lives, or if it was because I had bonded so closely with her, or simply because he understood the hardships she endured at her own 'home'. It was probably a mixture of all three.

Either way, she became something akin to sister. She was a friend before, but my father made her family, and I accepted it full heartedly.

She helped me through my grief, and I helped her best as I could. As far as children went, we had gone through too much and together was the only way we could cope.

West was the only person I managed to bond with for the next few years.

She was the only person with whom I could connect.

And I took that for granted far too often.