When I was seven, there was a girl named Julie Lovato who lived up the hill and across the dirt road in my neighborhood. I liked her and I wanted her to like me. She wouldn't give me the time of day. I would take my Schwinn Stingray and ride it past her house on the dirt road. I would wait till I thought maybe she might be looking out the window and I would wipe out on purpose hoping she would come to nurse me and be worried about me. I got a lot of skinned knees and bruises that summer. She never did come out and sometimes I wonder if I ever really did quit trying.