Yesterday, while cleaning out my closet, I dug up a tin box with Altoids mints - flavour : wintergreen. The kind that is native to the northeastern part of the US : gautheria procumbens.

USA, April 2001. I have just turned 26 and find myself in Minneapolis, hanging out with Tyler and friends. I'd met Tyler in Brussels in the fall of 2000. Nomen est omen. He tiled a roof over my head to shelter me from the stones falling from heaven while I was trying to cope with the loss of Luke. That spring by the lakes felt like someone had reset my days-in-a-live counter to 000000. Living without a past, free to make one up and start from scratch.

Ostend, October 2006. I have found a cure for the blues : Wintergreen mints.