.... trying to build and protect a nest. I decided that I should look elsewhere and settled on a lovely little spider web. I dove toward it, feeling the thrum of my wings and hearing the whoosh of the wind flowing past. The web glowed gold in the morning sunlight and dew drops hanging from it shone like liquid fire. A gnat flew too close and I captured it with a snap of my long tongue. Snaring a long piece of the silk, I immediately ascended, looking for my tree. My mate was awaiting my return, and was soon rewarded as I pulled up to the carefully camouflaged nest. I passed the silken strand over to her and left to find some food. The humans are very good .....

.... to move to Virginia in November of 1987. After spending about 2 months in Pennsylvania with just my mother, and John, it was time for us to leave my family members who were like parents to me and my best friend Joey to come here to Virginia. Dad had gone to Virginia about 2 months before my Mom, John and I because he had to begin work right away and we didn’t have a place to stay in Virginia yet. In September of 1987 I began kindergarten at Waterloo Elementary school. On October 1st my Mom had a doctors appointment in York because my second baby brother was on his way. I went with my Mom because my Dad had to work and wouldn’t be able to take care o .....

.... again. This time my heart stared to thump. Was it going to bite me? No, it just licked my cheek. Even before it finished licking my cheek, I came to my senses. I didn't understand what I dreamt about. After thinking about the dream for about ten minutes a went back to sleep. By next morning I had forgotten all about the dream. That morning , I was late as usual. I ran to the bus stop with my briefcase. My tie flew in the morning wind. Only thing that I hoped was that I would not be late to work, I had been warned couple of times about me being late. Luckily the bus too was late as usual. As I was boarding the bus I looked up for a vacant seat. What I saw then .....

.... with my friends talking and laughing'. But I wasn't, I was in Rocklin, California. Id moved here at the begging of August. And I'd hated it ever since. But I was willing to give Rocklin a shot, even though ever kid I'd met in town so far had said ‘Rocklin is the worst school'. As I walked forward with the white scrunched up piece of paper that told me my classes, I tried to look like I fit in. As I looked around for my class, I noticed I was on the wrong side of the building. ‘At least I know where the main building is,' I said to myself. The main building looked bright and cheery, like the sun. I trudged over to the main building trying not to look at anyo .....

.... Unable to restart my car, we pushed it back to our pit area. My hopes were crushed as I went over the fact that my day of racing was already over. Drag racing is a big part of my life. All of my spare time is spent working on my 1996 Honda Accord. With a big import drag racing approaching quickly, I spent most of my waking hours for a week tuning my car. Sweat and hours of hard work finally prepared my car for racing. The interior was stripped down to the sheet metal and contained only the driver's seat to reduce weight. The whole exhaust system was removed to gain that little edge of power, which is essential for racing. My car was finally race read .....

.... really understand what he was trying to tell me. I just thought to myself, "yeah, whatever. Ross is okay, nothing bad happens to him. What could possibly be wrong -- after all, he's my brother." I still didn't realize what had happened, until I heard my Grandma on the phone saying Ross had passed away. As these words came out, I went into a horrifying shock. It was one of the worst feelings I have ever felt and probably will ever feel. I didn't know what to say to anyone, I didn't want to talk to anyone, especially my Mom. I imagined how my Mom was feeling and began to sob even more. "October 6, 1998 - - - a day of doom." I thought. Memories washed ove .....

.... more just to soften the constant hangover. The hearing were probably the worst part of whole ordeal. Three weeks of being put in the spotlight. Every inch of my life was put under a big magnifying glass. Every mistake I made in the last fourteen years was read bunch of know-nothings who sit and pretend to run a hospital. The mistakes weren't very frequent, at least, not until I started to drink. I suppose you want to know the reason I started to drink. Well, I mess up big time during a triple bypass and killed a patient. That's when the drinking started and the drinking lead to the death of another patient. Now I drink even more and remember even les .....

.... 'creative differences' and left it at that. We stayed friends, however, and tried to remain in touch. So I was surprised, rather pleasantly, the day I received an overseas long- distance call from Africa. It was Lyle, calling to see how I'd been, what I was doing, that sort of thing. Then suddenly his voice took on a more serious tone. "Niles, you have to come here. I may need your help." "What is it, Lyle? What's wrong?" "I can't tell you over the phone." He whispered. "It's too important. You have to be here." "In Africa?" I said in disbelief. "Yes, here. It's that important." "But Lyle--" "I'm an animal over here!" He hissed into the phone. .....