Aziz always smiled around you, why wouldn't he? You were the one good thing in his life, the candle in the dark room. You always came to the country during the summer to visit your grandmother, and he lived in the ranch right across from yours.

"How was the city? How was school?" Aziz bubbles, leaning against the fence, his shirt soaked in sweat; his dusty hair covering his face, he had to brush it aside from time to time. He wasn't even listening when you spoke, too lost in your eyes to care.