First Sentence

"Persimmons tasted first in stories brought to me from China were taken back in nightmares, those lines drawn between dreams . . . fear that the quarter saved from nickels left under pillows by tooth-fairies, pennies paid for carpets hung over clotheslines and beaten on Saturdays to buy my first real red persimmon, as costly as a boy's shirt at that time, would be taken by some phantom neighbor bully while my faithful white dog stood by."