"Well, it comes down to this, Candace."
"What's that?"
"What do you want more than anything in the world?"
Candace stared off into the horizon for a few moments and a smile spread across her lips. The answer to that was easy.
"I want my boys," she said. "And I want to take them with me on the road. Their lives will be amazing. We'll have the freedom of the road and make it...somehow."
"Then do what you have to do."
Candace nodded and slapped her hands against her knees, then got up and brushed the dust off her jeans.

My mother meant it. And her life makes a good story, all the way up until the end. She told me and my brother our lives were special. Not just because we were two of a kind and one of a kind in the pair, but because we were hers. We were hers and lucky, too, because she made us American down to the bone. There wasn't an inch of this country we didn't run through. And there wasn't a good moment or a bad circumstance we never saw.

It was hard, I guess. Especially in the beginning. But I couldn't settle for it. Not ever. And by the time I grew up, I guess you could say I was glad for it. I didn't want to settle and couldn't see eye to eye with anyone who could.