Now I moved into the ATD (After The Divorce) era.

I thought about the counselor I'd seen for a few months after the divorce. She really helped me. Not by being sympathetic or casting blame, mostly just listening. On our next-to-last session, she surprised me by lifting her blouse out of her skirt and pulling it down a little. There was a pretty big scar on the side of her hip. She straightened her clothes and sighed.

"We were young, sixteen and seventeen thereabouts, and my friend had gotten her older brother to get us some booze. It was mostly liquor, so it wasted us pretty fast. We had gone...