Vern didn't just mean being off limits inside the junkyard, or fudging on our folks, or going on a hike up the railroad to Harlow. He meant those things, but it seems to me now it was more and that we all knew it. Everything was there and around us. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.

[ stand by me ]

I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

[ stand by me ]

It was weird to me how, then, Teddy could care so much about his father, who practically tried to kill him, and I couldn't give a shit about my old man and he hadn't laid a hand on me since I was three!


[ stand by me ]