When he was sixteen, Harlan"s father gave him two gifts on the same day: a summer job stomping trailers at a Louisiana cotton farm run by a family friend and a mechanical alarm clock that required winding each night before bed. He remembered fondly the mornings spent in the cabin by the pond. Rising early, the farmer"s wife served a stout breakfast and stouter coffee. After a day in the fields, Harlan would return to the cabin, where he would bathe, eat the dinner the farmer"s wife had left him, and wind the clock before turning in for the night.
In the years since, Harlan"s routine at bed had never varied. He would wind the clock, set the alarm for six, kiss Noreen before rolling over, and sleep until rising the next morning, making sure to be awake before the alarm could rouse him. Not
