I’ve had it ever since.

I am a liar, remember? I told you that, way back on page one. It’s not my fault you didn’t listen. You should trust people when they tell you what they are. You should believe them when they are admitting their own smallness.

19

Once upon a time, there was a brilliant scientist named Dr. Leo Lacamoire.

Leo found new planets and studied the ones we already knew. He made maps of the stars. He knew everything about the moon. He once went to the White House to advocate for the space program.

This scientific genius was madly in love with a woman named Trish. Trish was from Wisconsin, and she was a journalist. She interviewed Dr. Leo Lacamoire for Time magazine, and he told her that her eyes were more beautiful than all the stars in the sky combined. (Simone rolled her eyes at that part, but I thought it was nice.)

Dr. Leo Lacamoire and Trish didn’t get married, though, because they traveled too much. Leo was always giving talks in places like Beijing and Venice and London, and Trish was busy traveling around the world to write stories for publications. But whenever they could meet up, they did. Leo wrote her love poems and sent her roses, and Trish said that if he stopped traveling and settled down, she would, too. But the only thing Leo loved more than Trish was space, and you couldn’t study space in one place. You had to go find it.

Trish and Leo ended up having a baby. Trish pleaded for him to quit traveling the world and spending time looking up at the stars and instead just take care of her and the baby. But the truth was, even though Leo loved Trish and the baby very much, he was blinded by his work. (“Like you can be blinded by the sun,” I said. “Exactly,” Simone smiled back.)

Over time, that baby grew and grew. Dr. Leo Lacamoire always sent her nice birthday presents and called her on Christmas and saw her when he could, but he was becoming more and more famous. Then MIT asked him to be a professor. Trish thought finally, she and the baby could move out to Massachusetts and they could be a family. But the world-renowned scientist told her not to. He wasn’t in love with her anymore, even though he still loved her. (“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” I sighed. “You’re telling me,” said Simone.)

Trish was heartbroken, but so was the baby, who was now not a baby at all but actually a little girl. Trish pointed Dr. Leo Lacamoire out to the girl when he would be on TV, but slowly he called less and less, and he never went to visit them anymore. He still sent presents on her birthday, but that little girl started to not like her dad so much. Because what kind of dad has time to find new planets but doesn’t have time to find McFarland, Wisconsin? No kind of dad.