Text for each section by Susan Ouriou

Part I (Sue and Joel together): “I never knew being one of the chosen could hurt so much. Katie believed in the clouds. That from up on high we choose the people we love, the way we live, the time we die, Katie chose us.

Part II (Joel alone): “We form a family like never before. Our family – a puzzle to the outside world. A fill-in-the-blanks with no clues to the answers other than the ones in our heads and our hearts. How can we give up on each other when together we create who we are? Our inside world is one in which we bounce off each other, careen into the next, or sometimes, just sometimes, merge to form a whole”.

Part III (Sue alone): “I speak my daughter tongue” from, “A Capital Act” by Susan Ouriou published by Grain Magazine, Summer 2001 by The Saskatchewan Writers Guild.