I remember the chill in the air as I and Ruth Lee stepped out of the building, the neon-splashed night hugging us like a shroud. I gripped her hand so tightly that it was as if I were holding on to a frightened child—always on guard that she could vanish into the dark streets of this strange city. Ruth never once protested my overprotectiveness; I knew she held her silence in no submission, but a muted recognition that the rough outside shell, tough as it occasionally felt, had under it a genuine concern for her welfare.