Chapter 2: TommyFinally! Tommy called me today and asked me out. He had his own car too and drove me to a beach party a few miles out of town on the shore of lake Michigan. There was beer and pot and we danced barefoot in the sand to loud rock music on somebody’s portable stereo. I got very loaded: stoned on pot and drunk on beer. When one of the other girls took her top and bra off, not to be outdone, I took mine off too...

Chapter 1: ClaudeThe summer of 1991 came late in Manistique, a small town at the top of Lake Michigan in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was June but still quite chilly in the North Country. School was out and I had just arrived and was picked up by my Uncle Heit at the Escanaba airport. I visited him and my Aunt Ellen (my namesake) every summer from the time my parents left Manistique when I was two until I went away to c...