I. Rattlesnakes
The trails were unfamiliar — I barely knew what continent I was on — and fear was gnawing at me as I ran through the craggy, tree-lined trails of Tilden Regional Park. By mile four, my thoughts were filled with bears, snakes, danger. Are there even bears in Berkeley, Calif.?
Four days earlier, my brother Jesse had been riding his bike home from these woods. At the intersection of Allston and Sacramento, an elderly driver failed to notice that the light had turned red. When I got the phone call, I was at home in Jerusalem, puttering around my kitchen.
The Leftern Wall 