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s I ka,,n Vie, %(YlriA <br /> Sunshowers <br /> "My happiest childhood memory?"she repeats,smiling off into the distance-thinking. <br /> Aprill is in her early twenties-her hair worn long and natural,pulled away from her <br /> round, smiling face by two thickly coiled strands. Her face is bare of makeup,her nails <br /> unpolished. She wears comfortable and flattering casual office clothing- a beige short-sleeve <br /> sweater over a black shirt- and a few pieces of simple,yet beautiful jewelry. <br /> Bringing her eyes back to mine, she begins to tell me about learning how to ride a bike. It <br /> was a pink and purple with streamers, she tells me.A Waikiki, she laughs softly,"I remember <br /> because it was like Hawaii."For a girl who grew up in the colds of Dover, Delaware,it must <br /> have seemed like a piece of paradise. <br /> I had the same bike- as perhaps did every girl who grew up between the 1980's and 90's, <br /> and I tell her so. We share a moment of giddy joy over the banana seat and sparkly flowers on the <br /> frame-the childhood excitement unfaded. <br /> In the beginning,there were training wheels- but they were taken off at some point as she <br /> moved from her wobbly beginnings in the driveway of her house to the backyard and, finally, <br /> around the block.As she says this, she tilts her head up and back and lightly closes her eyes-and <br /> in this moment, I can see her 10-year-old coasting around on her two-wheeler with her face to <br /> the sun and the wind pushing back and through a tangled mass of happy curls. <br /> A young man with an oversized basketball jersey and dreadlocks walks in through the <br /> heavy glass doors. They swish silently closed behind him as he approaches her desk. She blinks <br /> at me kindly before turning to speak with him. <br /> As soon as she gets him directed to his destination, the telephone beside her issues a <br /> muted cluck- a red light flashes. Her voice is quiet and unhurried. She gives the caller the same <br /> undivided attention that she offered the visitor and to me. She switches the phone to her other ear <br /> and reaches up to touch her earring- a beautiful gold disk adorned with red and turquoise beads <br /> from which tiny gold chain loops dangle. <br /> y Respondent's self-chosen alias <br />