Colby reported to Fort Benning in November. Idaho was in the middle of a rainstorm when he left, and his girlfriend drove him to the bus station. The station was in the next town over, and they drove past the farms, and past the town's faded welcome sign. Population: 1068. One thousand sixty-seven, Colby said, out loud. His girlfriend cried when they said goodbye. Her mascara ran, making tracks on her cheeks and leaving marks on his class twos when he hugged her.

"You scared, Col?"

Colby gave her a smile, and shook his head. Scared was the last thing he was.

Maybe that should have scared him the most.

“Now, don’t get me wrong,” Larry said. “I’m an avid supporter of both. However, I find myself quintessentially leaning towards the latkes side, and for reasons not perfunctorily dismissed. To quote the unimpeachable Ted Cohen: ‘A world without hamentaschen might be unbearable, but a world without latkes is unthinkable’. In the wake of such a ringing truth I can voice only assent.”

They had guns.

Charlie had gotten so used to people with guns that it didn't immediately strike him as strange--never mind threatening--and then the guns were pointed at him, and hard hands were yanking him off his bike.

"Charlie, I—" Again, the gesture is aborted. "I didn't—" This time, it's Charlie who has to wait. Finally, Colby turns to meet his eyes. "I never lied. Not really." "You never trusted."

Charlie assumed that every interesting problem he saw belonged to him (no matter who might mistakenly believe otherwise), and that problems which were not interesting (like mowing the lawn, for example, or dusting) belonged to people who were not Charlie.

Problem was, Don's math wasn't so good after all, and he'd guessed wrong about what their crazy would add up to.

Don knows that he will eventually cross the same path twice.

‘I never knew it would break,’ Charlie says, guilt almost twenty years old edging its way into his voice.

‘Mom thought it was my fault, anyway. She thought I provoked you.’

‘Did you?’

‘Probably.’

Ducking his head and shifting his steadying hand to gesture from the baby to Don, he says, "Rani, my brother, Don, second in wishful thinking only to my father."