I’m not surprised by any of this and yet it feels like a miracle. So I simply rejoice the healing happening here on these rented wheels between the black asphalt and the white lines.And to think that I thought we couldn’t be more bonded. She turns to me thoughtfully and says: “Mama, after this, we will never be the same. And we will be even better.”

I am out to dinner with my new friend James, the Physicist. It is Tuesday. We’re relaxed and chatty at a table laden with $2 tacos. Casually, he tells me that he understands how we came into existence. The “origin of the universe” is something he has studied with scientific rigor. I am always impressed and try to keep up while he explains things like The Drake Equation and The Law of Large Numbers. He knows how it all happened and how it works. He is also pretty sure how everything will end. I wipe the salsa from my lip and lean in with a smile. “You know how,” I offer willingly, “but do you know why?”