C. G.

He taught me how to juggle with a partner. I remember what his lips felt like on my forehead, and exactly where he kissed me, once. I can point to it: right here. He told me I was beautiful, and he ran. "You're beautiful, and I love you." I don't know if he meant anything by it. He was younger, and I was frightened. He never came back. I wonder what he's like now.

I saw him a few months ago, walking with a friend. He looked just the same, and he looked happy.

Bittersweet

My friend is falling in love with her dance partner. She's moving to Colorado in two weeks.

Ken

The overnight supervisor at the shelter was at least 70. I must have spent hours listening to him tell stories about his life.

He's the happiest person I've ever met. One of the ways his way of living differed from most younger people I know: he didn't seem to feel that he had to enjoy his job.

Fire

The wildfire I saw on the bus was just the beginning. By the time I got back from the trip there were dozens, and two weeks later there were thousands in the state. The week before July 4th a fire started in the hills above my house, and less than a week after that thousands of people had been evacuated. We're on the other side of the freeway, thank God, so we were never in any danger, but the sky was brown and it rained ash for days. On the 4th our asphalt parking lot was white with it.

I've been shadowing my endocrinologist, spending an afternoon or so a week following him around while he sees patients and does paperwork. He's a pleasant 40-something year old guy with a wife and two small children. He lives in the hills. On the afternoon of the 3rd, when I visited, he was worrying about his house, which at that point wasn't even under a warning. I woke up the morning of the 4th to discover he'd been evacuated in the night.

I spent the 4th of July in training classes at the local Red Cross. The next night I spent working at the shelter.

At that point there were only about 20 people still staying there. The sundowner winds had died down, and what had been a scarily-uncontrolled fire 48 hours before had turned into a much tamer beast. I played solitaire for most of the night. That Monday I went back, and halfway through the day we closed the shelter down.