12/02/2026 02:15

---

in this habit my mother was simply ahead of her time-because it's true, the men she dated were often a little younger than she was. As Colonel Eiger and the young first lieutenant approached the casket from the center aisle, the honor guard came stiffly to attention. LET'S HEAR SOMETHING FROM YOUR BOOK, he said, closing his field manual. He was so          muffled up in a long, dark-green scarf that I couldn't see his face at all-but who could ever mistake Ow

I looked up at the black hole, where I'd last seen him clinging. WAKE UP! BUT BE QUIET! he whispered. There was an unfamiliar smell in the shop-he had already   opened a beer for me, and he was drinking one himself; maybe the beer was the unfamiliar smell. 'We Three Kings of Ory and R,' Harold said.