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Chapter 1
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In the photo, my brother and I sit on the remains of a wall, by the Roman emperor Trajan to keep the Scots out of his great land. My back is to the camera, as I smile instead into Nick’s face, as he tells my sevenyear-old self about some historical “fact” he probably made up moments earlier. I wouldn’t have cared if it were true or not, I only saw him once a year for about a few days, when his boarding school let him out for the weekend, and my parents could afford to fly us all over to England. His blue jeans, his blue jacket, and the blue rocks of the wall itself clash marveously against his red hair, and his air chilled ears, which twitch occasionally, like a rabbit’s nose, as he becomes more and more excited by the tale he is so invested in spinning out for his younger sibling.
60
Several months pass, and I’m back in America watching TV. It was some pointless show with an unengaging plot Nick could have outdone given five minutes and reason to write, and I was just about to fall asleep. The phone began to ring, and I heard my mother shout that it was from Nick’s