“Here.” Jim lay down a folded map. Leo opened it. It was brand new and took up the whole table.

“Our old one didn’t make it.” Jim leaned closer. “Look at this.”

“The Arch of Triumph, Young Buddy.”

“We were going to play under that, this one too.” Jim pointed to a tiny sketch of the Eiffel Tower on the other side of the river. He was shaking his head, smiling again, though now his eyes had lost something.

Leo cleared his throat. “What do you want me to play when I get there?”

“Every damn thing we taught you.”

“Whatever you want, son.” Jim stood up and got the bottle of Jim Beam from the top of the fridge. He took three water glasses from the cabinet and poured four capfuls into each. He set them on the table in front of Ryder and Leo and sat down. Ryder raised his glass, but Jim looked away as he pulled a small brown jewelry box from his pants pocket. Ryder put his glass back down, and Leo watched his fingertips rest on the case of Allie’s harmonica.

“I know I don’t have to tell you not to lose these on your way over.”

“Plenty of pickpockets in the barracks, Jimmy. You ought to mail it on over after his training.”

Jim shook his head, opened the box, and pushed it over to Leo. Inside, on folded white toilet paper, were two wooden pink star earrings. “I don’t know if you’ll get time away before you go over or not, but I’d like you to take these with you, son, and leave them there somewhere. In a park or something. But don’t bury them. She wouldn’t like that. Leave them where a woman might find them and take them home to wear all over town.”

Ryder let out a short laugh. “I’m laughing, Young Buddy, ’cause your mama sure loved to tip a canoe. What’s that saying, Jim?”

Leo’s father shrugged, and his face looked pained, like he wasn’t up to hearing Ryder talk.

“You know, ‘Something old, something new—’”

“‘Something borrowed, something blue,’” Leo said, though he had no idea how he knew those words or where he’d heard them before.

“Right, well, day before the wedding, Kate went on down to San Antone to get those earrings. From that Mexican on Texarkana, wasn’t it Jimmy?”

Leo’s father nodded, and he took one of the stars from the box.

“She wore her mama’s wedding dress–”

“A new pair of ladies shoes,” Jim said.

“And she borrowed some costume pearls from her gramaw. Thing is,” Ryder picked up the other earring. “These were blue when she bought ’em.”

Jim looked at Leo, his eyes warm again. “She went home and painted them pink.”

“Why?”

Ryder laughed again. He put the star back in the box and Leo picked it up. It felt as light as the balsam wing of a model glider. Jim gave him the other, and lifted his glass. “To my son.”