One’s twenties are absurd like that. Encounters start out as games, and one gets to play her heart out in San Francisco. But novelty fades and dreamscapes unravel.

The past has been knocking on the psychic door of an ever-changing self and nudging me to come home.

Beneath the surface of grades, honor badges, and track and field medals hid these clumsy and tender moments of early childhood in Chengdu. But Fangtan, the boy who always played with girls, was never clumsy.

A very brief ode to an old home