On Suicide, Ray-Ban Sunglasses & Leaving Middle-Earth

“Mom. Could you get me a pair of Ray-Bans for Christmas?”

Sebastian sounded happier on the phone, more like his usual self. He had been in rehab for seven weeks. I thought he was going to make it this time.

“Not the aviator kind. I want the black Wayfarers. All the guys here have them.”

“I could do that,” I told him during our weekly hour-long phone visit. Sebastian, at twenty-two, had entered Teen Challenge, a twelve-month Christian inpatient drug rehabilitation program in Phoenix, hoping to avoid prison.

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