Bixi was dead. There was no doubt about it, and we couldn't do anything to change what had happened.
...but while she was alive, the brief summer and fall she spent in the small town of East Cheery, Tennessee had a tremendous impact on everyone she met, and even some people she didn't meet. Nobody was as affected by her life as me and my brother Monty, however. To us, she was a goddess: a wannabe con-artist, a Sufi saint, a Socratic trickster, and the most beautiful girl in town. She brought us love, loss, rock and roll, and an addiction to Yoo-Hoo and offbeat movies, and left us to face down the challenges that come with growing up after she was gone. To some, she was just a girl, but to my brother and I, she was our Bixi Girl.