"This was the spot back in the day." I said, opening the door of the Life Cafe for her.

"Oh yeah!" she said. "I know this place. It's in that one video of yours--"Proof Positive", right?"

"Yup. Your mom and dad had their first kiss right outside that door." I told her, pointing to the door that led out to the alley.

"Don't be gross, Uncle Mark." She laughed. The waiter came to our table to take our orders.

"What will you have?" he asked.

"What are the day's specials?" I asked.

"Miso soup, seaweed salad, soy burger and a tofu dog platter. The chef's choice this afternoon is the pasta with meatless balls." he listed. Eva raised an eyebrow and made a look of disgust.

"Ew." she shuddered.

"It tastes the same." he assured her.

"Maybe if you close your eyes." she scoffed.

"Well, can I get you something to drink?" he asked me.

"I'll have a tea."

"And for the young lady?"

"Is your milk real?" she asked.

"We only have soy milk."

"I'll pass." I handed the menu back to the waiter and said,

"McDonald's it is then."

After a cheesburger each, I took Eva to Avenue A to visit a place I hadn't been to in almost a decade.

"This is where you guys lived?" she asked after I'd slid the door open.

"Uh-huh..." I sighed. "You did too for awhile." Roger's old band posters were still pasted all over the walls. The long metal table still stood, covered in a thick layer of dust. A few candle stubs were on the coffee table and my mom's hotplate rested in the very spot I'd left it the last time I used it, ten years earlier. I crossed the room and pushed the window open, then climbed out onto the fire escape.Benny's cyber-arts studio stood across the street, looking intimidating, yet barren and empty. It had been shut down three years after it had opened. I wondered how Allison, "Muffy" as Roger had always called her, was doing. Her family had gone bankrupt five years after the cyber studio had opened because of Benny's investments. From what I'd heard, he put a gun in his mouth that year. Allison and their little son, Max, had moved back in with her parents. The last time I saw her was at Benny's funeral. I guessed that if it hadn't been for Max, she would have followed him. Max had to be the same age as Eva by now.

"Oh wow!" I heard Eva gasp from inside. "Uncle Mark! Look what I found!" I looked one last time at the building that stood on what had at one time been the largest tent-city in New York City and shivered. I pulled my scarf around my neck tighter and blew into my hands. It was freezing. One thing hadn't changed in this place, that was for sure.

Eva sat on the edge of her parents' old bed, holding a Fender guitar lovingly and tuning it. After a few bad chords, she started playing a tune that was extremely familiar.

"Where did you learn that song?" I asked in awe, sitting down next to her.

"I don't know." she said dreamily. "I just know it from somewhere, that's all."

"Do you know what it is?" I asked her.

"Something waltz...Mozart's Waltz?" she tried.

"Musetta's waltz." I reminded her. "From the Puccini's opera "La Boheme". Your dad used to play that song all the time." I added. I had forgotten that Roger had left the Fender here when we moved.

"Hmm...maybe that's how I knew it...was this his guitar?"

"Yeah. The one he got back when he sold the car that took him to Santa Fe after Angel died."

"Why did he leave it behind?" she asked, looking the Fender over carefully.

"Because it was part of a past he didn't want to remember anymore I guess." I said. "He realized that his dream of being a rockstar was over. Of course he still loved music--"

"He used to sing to me." Eva remembered. "He sang to me the night he died, remember?"

"Eva..." Roger gasped, holding his daughter closer.

"Daddy, I love you." she cried, burying her head in his chest and curling up next to him. Maureen and Joanne held hands next to me and I leaned my head on the doorframe.

"I love you too honey."

"Daddy, don't go--please..."

"Don't cry Evita...shh...hey--" Roger wiped her tears away and began to sing. "Your eyes as we said our goodbyes. Can't get them out of my mind and I can't hide from your eyes. The ones that took me by surprise, the night you came into my life. Where there's moonlight I see your eyes." he started to cough, but Eva continued, having heard this song a million times.

"How'd I let you slip away when I'm longing so to hold you? Now I'd die for one more day, cause there's something I should have told you when I looked into your eyes. Why does distance make us wise?" Roger gave her a weak smile and took over again.

"You were the song all along, and before the song dies I should tell you I should tell you I have always loved you. You can see it in my eyes..." Maureen, Joanne and I exchanged looks and watched as Roger took one last breath and closed his eyes for the last time.

"He always loved music." I said. I listened to her pluck away on the guitar for a few more moments before she asked me,

"How did my parents get AIDS, Uncle Mark?" I winced. I knew the question would come up sooner or later, but I still wasn't quite sure how to answer it. "I mean, Dad must have given it to my mom, right?"

"No, they didn't get it from each other. They both had it before they even met."

"Oh. Well, how did they get it then?" I fumbled to find the words to tell her that her parents had been drug addicts without making them sound bad.

"Drugs, Eva." I sighed.

"Drugs?" she asked, confused.

"Heroin. Your dad shared a needle with someone, an old girlfriend. She died, her name was April. Suicide. Slit her wrists a few days after she found out she had AIDS. She couldn't wait for the virus to kill her. She left a note for him. All it said was "we have AIDS". I never knew where Mimi got it. Probably the same way."

"Oh." Eva said quietly, obviously disappointed. "My mom wasn't a ballet dancer either was she?" she asked. No. And Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny aren't real either. Did we cover everything?

"She danced ballet when she was younger, but when I knew her, no, she wasn't." Eva nodded and sighed. "We did what we had to to survive back then. She hated working at the Cat Scratch. But it was money."

"What was she like?" Eva asked.

"She looked like you do. I'd say you have more of Roger's personality though. But she loved dancing, like you do. We met her when she was nineteen. She was our downstairs neighbor and she met your dad when she came up to get a match for her candle. She was wild and crazy and just lived her life and loved it. 'No day but today' she always said. I think Roger was intimidated by her at first. After April I couldn't blame him for being afraid of women."

"I wish I could have known her."

"I wish you could have too..." I told her.

On the way home, she asked me to do the unthinkable.

"Do you think we could stop so I can get my girl stuff on the way home?" I just missed the car in front of me as I swerved a little. They honked and flipped me off.

"Yeah, sure." my voice cracked.

I stood nervously to the side while Eva looked at the array of colorful packages lining the shelves of Walgreens. I pulled at my scarf, fiddled with my glasses and wrung my hands, waiting for her to pick one.

"Uncle Mark, I don't know which ones I should get." she said. "Will you help me look?"

"Umm...sure...how about these?" I grabbed at a random package. She looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Those are diapers for old people, Uncle Mark." We finally decided to get three different ones and arrived at the checkout. The man at the counter got a smug look on his face as he rang up the items. The last one wouldn't scan.

"Price check on Kotex, aisle four." he paged over the intercom. I wanted to sink into the ground. What the fuck had I gotten myself into? A woman at the next counter came over and typed something into the computer and put the things in a bag. She smiled at Eva.

"What a nice dad you've got there.You're a lucky girl."

"Oh, I'm not--" I started, not wanting Eva to feel uncomfortable.

"I know." Eva said, giving me a quick hug. "He's the best."