8> item 8 — response 8:87 view: /

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response 8:87 — the 81st of 212 that survive. Forward and back walk every number, 8:0 to 8:240; the missing have pages of their own.

8:87) Hope O'Keeffe 25-JAN-98 21:37

"And this one?" she asks, and idly traces the faint white mark on his forehead, with the gentlest of fingertips. "I ran into a wall when I was a baby. Really freaked my mom and my big brother out, but I don't even remember it. Now, where were we?"

I hold him down in the emergency room, pinning his trunk and legs with my body. His arms are wrapped in a sheet so that he can't flail, but his small fists are clenched. The nurse holds his head while the doctor slowly, so slowly ties those precise black knots, five of them, one after the other. And he screams, and screams, and screams, his face purple, and the doctor blots the blood.

"I don't even remember it. Now, where were we?"

listen — Hope O'Keeffe, in the voice cast for this edition