Work in progress meme

Via Ms. Bond, a work in progress meme:

Turn to page 123 in your work-in-progress. (If you haven’t gotten to page 123 yet, then turn to page 23. If you haven’t gotten there yet, then get busy and write page 23.) Count down four sentences and then instead of just the fifth sentence, give us the whole paragraph (that it comes from).

From my third novel, “Yesterday’s Child”:

I was on my way to joining the world it seemed everyone else lived in. It turned out I could pull it off, this human thing. By the time we reached my house, I felt like I’d figured something out. This was how people were, I thought. I felt the glow of hope spread through me, a hope that I wouldn’t always be at the edge of things because of who I was. As Jerrod’s mother backed the car onto the road, as Jerrod gave me a wave as they drove off, I thought the world I was becoming a part of right then was far better than the world’s shadow, where my mother dwelled.