“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.”

– Paulo Coelho, Brazilian poet and writer

“That’s tough,” he said. “But not unusual around here.”

I had knelt down to inspect a broken door handle on my car.

“That’s why I don’t keep nothing of value in the vehicle,” he added.

For almost a year while our new home was being built, we lived in a small townhouse in a less than desirable neighbourhood of the city. My wife’s car had been broken into shortly after our arrival and now mine had fallen victim to the same violation. As I inspected the damage, my neighbour from the adjoining townhouse had wandered outside. He was wearing an old T-shirt, pajama bottoms and carrying a...

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