📸 Photo

but my jeans snagged miraculously on a jagged rock, and I was saved. I had the book in my pants pocket. Maybe that was just chance too. Who knows? Still, it makes me feel safe. Sometimes I think that I’m indestructible as long as I have it with me. When my own son gets drafted, I’m not so sure that I’ll want to give it to him.’

‘Give it to him when you’re eighty-three,’ Kevin suggested.

Kevin had just as many stories to tell about himself. One year he had returned from a trip to Nepal, arriving home on Christmas Eve. His family wasn’t expecting him, as he had called only his sister to tell her he was on his way and made her promise to keep his arrival a secret. He went directly from the airport to her house, where she outfitted him in a Santa Claus costume. Then, all dressed up, with a sack of brightly wrapped presents slung over his shoulder, his face covered with a thick, woolly beard, he knocked on his parents’ door. His father answered, and Kevin went into a Santa Claus routine. He asked his father and brother if they had been good little children, if they had behaved themselves and thought they deserved a present. They answered that they had, never suspecting who was hiding behind the beard.

Finally Kevin couldn’t take it any longer and, choked with tears, cried out, ‘It’s me, Dad! Kevin!’

★   ★   ★

Marcus’s feet were still hurting since the rash had not cleared up. Karl told him that he should dry