Loud Awake and Lost, page 24
“Ember.” Hatch has bounded over. He is taller than I, finally, and filled out—there is substance to him. A junior this year; next year he will be the same age as I was when I met Anthony. And then a year older. And so it goes.
“What’s up?” I don’t need to look to know that Anthony is gone.
I give Hatch my full attention.
He smiles his brother’s smile. “A few of us are heading out for dinner at this Moroccan joint in Bensonhurst. Supposed to be great. If you want to join up?”
“Fez.”
“Yeah. That’s it. How’d you know?” He looks surprised. “You ever been?”
“No,” I say. “Not yet.”
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank everyone who has encouraged and assisted me with this book. Special thanks to my first readers—Mackenzie Brady, Meredith Kaffel, Charlotte Sheedy, and Courtney Sheinmel—who believed so fiercely in the manuscript from its earliest days. I am always indebted to team Knopf/Random House: Stephen Brown, Lauren Donovan, Sarah Hokanson, Adrienne Waintraub, and particularly my editor, Nancy Hinkel, who brings such grace and insight to every moment of our process. A big thanks to my husband, Erich Mauff, for ever respecting my “room of one’s own,” even as we expanded our family and doubled our chaos this year. And finally, I am especially indebted to my brother Robert Watson for speaking with such candor about his own neurological trauma and recovery after the nearly fatal car accident of his youth. I never could have told Ember’s story without knowing the reality of Robert’s survival, as well as the strength it took for him to get there.
ADELE GRIFFIN is the author of Tighter and All You Never Wanted. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Find her on the Web at adelegriffin.com.
Adele Griffin, Loud Awake and Lost
