You went to your friend next door. I didn't have to go that far. The siblings in my family made a tight community. We didn't get along all the time, but we did most of the time. We knew we had each other's backs when it mattered. Stories of orphans and adoptions fascinated me. Horacio Alger, Dickens, and Robert Lewis Stevenson are hardly reliable source material. But the horrifying concept of being on your own as a kid trying to navigate a world of adults made me want to prepare for the worst. Even though, given the size of my clan, the worst would need to be biblical. I see how you found your way through as a marvel.