-Then there was this time by the beach. He wheezed cooly in the darkness. -Must have been going on 20 ought years now. There were six or seven of them, all flying in a row, single-file like. They was too high up to make out a distinct breed, I bet nothing more than seagulls or what have you. To me, I remember them as a synchronized set of black crosses on a blue sky, a silent, flapping mass. A dirge en route to the sun.

He didn’t say anything else for a good while. He studied the fire like an office and he grunted contentedly into the mug of coffee.

-I guess it ain’t anything at all like what you was initially talking about, but it was the first thing I thought of the moment you mentioned charity.