You start out thinking everybody needs to be saved, and then you end up fighting to save yourself.

En memoria de Pedro.

Late Sunday afternoon and the dogs are barking. Winter is over, just like that, and Summer is suddenly a fireball. Spring is the sort of thing children will one day ask about and it will fall into the same category as the crying lady who walks in the desert calling for her drowned children. Stories will revolve around those pleasant Spring days, now gone for good.

Roberto is sitting on the curb with Guero and Canella. The little one, Canella, should be dead, but Roberto is slowly bringing her to life. She had a very bad case of mange that left her with only raw skin, but it also got into her eyes.

A man opens the gate and looks out and says in Spanish, hey, Roberto, what’s…