For my son, Gene, and for my wife, Gracie, whose steady love lit our way. This book is for you, son. I'm setting down what I don't want time to scatter: the sound of your laugh coming a half beat after your own joke, the weight of your hand when you shook mine at the end of a long day, the way you'd look at a problem, breathe once, and get busy fixing it. I want your name to live on the page the way it lives in my prayers and in the stories I fondly tell our family and others about you, which I don't mind telling over and over.