“Your father is Hiram Stratton?” Archibald Lightner was astonished. He had perceived the camera boy as a servant, just above the natives who toted rubble. Hiram Stratton was one of those astonishing Americans who had achieved inconceivable wealth, and now, bored by wives and mansions, was giving it away. People were lined up, hoping their museum or hospital or library might be handed a vast sum.

Archibald Lightner considered how he might spend a vast sum. Quickly and enjoyably, he decided.

“How is it that the son of Hiram Stratton has no possessions except a change of clothing and a camera?” asked Dr. Lightner. “Are you being fully honest in this matter?”

“My father and I are estranged,” said the boy stiffly. “I do not possess a dime of his, nor do I anticipate a return to his household.”

“You will pardon the insult implied by my next remark, Mr. Stratton.” (For he could not continue to address the youth as if he were mere staff.) “But when a young son is so deeply estranged, one must wonder if the son committed misdeeds so great that he dare not return to the bosom of his family.”

The French, who were always committing misdeeds so great that they dare not return to the bosom of their families, liked Strat better now.

Strat flushed deeply. “I ask you, sir. Is it not possible that the misdeeds were committed by the father? Perhaps the son has chosen a life in which he and his father's misdeeds will not collide.”

The French were satisfied. Not only was the young man from a fine family, he cast off wealth as if it mattered not. He was morally above his own parent, refusing to be stained by his father. It was worthy of an opera.

The attaché said, “We accept, monsieur, that our two citizens were careless and caused their own deaths. We regret this unfortunate episode here in Cairo, Mr. Stratton.” There was bowing and nodding and stroking of mustaches.

They patted the Stratton heir on the shoulder as he left.

Dr. Lightner was not so quick to believe in the boy. All America knew that Hiram Stratton, Sr., had done evil things en route to becoming rich.

The apple, thought Archibald Lightner, does not fall far from the tree. Hiram Stratton, Jr., might travel halfway around the world to escape being his father's son, but he is still his father's son. And that means he has the capacity for evil.

ANNIE: 1999

In the center of each table in the museum restaurant were folding paper pyramids describing the exhibit. Annie yearned to keep one. Should she ask the waitress and risk being refused, or just quietly fold it up and slip it into her purse?

The tables were jammed next to one another. Inches away, an elderly couple argued hotly about the same problem. “Fine,” said the husband testily, “steal one.”