"'I need me an SUV,' Anne says, and I stifle a laugh, since people like Anne don't seem to know the difference between want and need. The people on her side of the freeway, they are dubbed the Miller Road mansions, can't really know anything about those of us who live on the other side. We live less that two miles from each other with this bridge as the connection, but our worlds are far apart. Our neighborhood was where factory workers lived during the good times; but there are no good times anymore, few factories and fewer workers. Flint's a ghost town full of living people, although day by day, shooting by shooting, the ghosts are taking over.

"'You'll get one, Dr. Williams,' I say. Anne loves when I rib her about becoming a doctor, like her father wants. Anne wants it too, but she hates agreeing with her dad.

"'You too, Speedy,' she says back. My tenth-grade English teacher, Ms. Chapman, thinks I should run track, but calling me speedy is like calling Mama tiny or calling me beautiful."