The person I know better than anybody is Ji. At least, I used to. But by the time we decided to do this ESP project, I was surprised that she thought we were on the same wavelength anymore—about anything. Now that Ji has so many new friends, I spend a lot of time wondering what she wants to do with me. When I ask her, she says I'm crazy to worry that things have changed. But her not admitting it to me—that's definitely part of the change. What is our friendship about to her? If I could read her mind, that's what I'd want to know. But I can't do it. I've tried and tried. That's when Ben pointed out to me that I've tried and tried with Ji, and who knows how long we'll be friends? With Kathleen, who's my sister for life, I've never tried. *** I am older than Kathleen by four minutes, although sometimes it seems like four years. My father held me during those four minutes, and my mother gave me a name—Claire Catherine, after her two favorite saints. The first thing I did in this world was to almost kill my sister (not very saintlike) by using all our oxygen when we were being born.
