We chose the fourteenth.
Not for the human significance of the date, I was not particularly interested in the date's significance. We chose it because it fell on a clear day with no packing obligations, and because when Damon suggested it, I looked at the calendar and said yes before I had thought about it very much, and that seemed like the right way to decide on something like this.
Eli asked what was happening on the fourteenth.
We told him.
He was quiet for a moment in the way he was quiet when he was taking something large into himself and finding where it fit.
Then he said, "Is it like the first time?"
"No," I said. "It is different from the first time."
"Better," he said. Not a question.
"Different," I said again. "The first time, we did not know what it would cost. This tim
