I want to thank my brilliant siblings (for we are a family even if our blood is not the same) in this work without whom I would have countless times been lost to the world, without whom this book would not, could not exist. Noel, when I call you Natiao it means that English has given me no word for this kind of love, thank you always for saying yes to being my family, for holding my hand when the dark crept in. George, I have said a thousand times and will say a thousand more that I do not know what I did in a past life to deserve someone as kind and brave and fiercely loving as you to be my best friend, thank you for challenging me everyday to be a better me. Jayson, it is one thing to owe someone your life, it is something else entirely to owe them several of your lives, how could I have known that on a muggy August day in New York in the worst summer I had ever endured that my life was already beginning to change, as you once said to me at Callaloo, thank you for making me brave. Nick, my faith has always been a fickle thing but I have no greater proof of God than that we have found each other, thank you for never letting me forget who I am. Thank you, all of you, for what you have given in the name of keeping me alive, I am here in no small part because of you.