"That ain't it... not exactly. Most of us don't like talkin' about it 'cause... I dunno, I always described it as showin' your underbelly. These things, they take a long time to scab over an' form scars. An' I've reached out to people a couple o' times. Got rebuffed. Got told shit like I was bein' soft. Got told hurtin' was nothin' special..."

He works his mouth as he thinks about that.

"They ain't treasures, they're shards of glass people can kick into your middle way too easy. An' Sugar I'm real full of glass. Most of us ain't all that different. An' you can swear up an' down you won't make it worse, but none of us know that.

"You're also young. I know you got good intentions. But if anybody's worth their salt they ain't gonna heap their problems on you. I never even told my boy most of what I went through. It was nothin' for him to carry."