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Show Inside Out, 221 I had no idea what to say. I couldn't begin to imagine what it was like for her. A memory flashed into my mind of me saying to her, "At least you have a mother." Nobody ever really knows what another person's family life is like, I realized. Probably the people involved don't even know what's going on-not really. Even with my supposedly inside source, Joseph, reporting things to me, my information had been wrong. Everything I had thought about Terra's life had been wrong. Except that I still thought she was a pretty cool person. "What happened with Joseph?" I asked. "He smashed up his car and killed himself driving drunk," said Terra, not looking up from her nearly-empty fry box. "Before that, I mean. Before he died. You said he was acting funny before that." Terra sighed. "Yeah, he was," she said. "I guess he was mad at Dad. Maybe he started hanging out with the wrong people just to bug Dad. And then he got into the booze and other stuff-you know, that he bought from Denver. And then-he was gone." With a bang that startled me, she smashed her empty fry box flat on the table. "And before that-" "Before that he was my best friend. Always. We were always together. I thought our family was great. We went to church together, camped together, did everything. I thought everything was fine. But I guess it wasn't-for Dad, anyway." "Wow," I said again. "Yeah," she said again. "I really wish I could talk to Joseph now. I've been so mad at him. I want so much to be able to sit down with him and talk things out." |