Strong Foundations

"You must build your houses in brick. Strong foundations!" she said. "Every friend you make is a brick in your house.

Choose wisely."

I'd only ever lived in clapboard houses. Easy enough to fix a broken bit of siding, a sloping porch, a sagging roof. You can patch the holes with waxed canvas, in a pinch.

People are too fragile to be bricks, I thought when I saw her shot to pieces and bleeding out.

It's better to build a clapboard house. You can always find a bit of twine to tie things down. Or laminated cardboard, if you're lucky.