Prologue pt 2 I'm tied to this land, but they are not happy ties. When death comes for me, I'll gladly go even if there is nothing beyond it, even if I'll only sleep, as an old poet said, the sleep of the apples. My childhood home is gone now, collapsed into nothing but rotting lumber, and I'm sad for it- it was a good home, warm and roomy, and it was there that my family built a kennel.