I say nothing, draw a line in the sand, make it into a cross, then, quickly, an asterisk.

“Hey, Myra, are there really sixty thousand miles in the circulatory system?”

“Yup.”

He sighs. “I don’t know so much. I won’t have a chance to learn about so much. That’s one of the things that’s just driving me crazy. That and … Well, okay, I’m not going to bounce any grandchildren on my knee, but I’ve got some time left. And what should I do with it? I think I should do what I really love. But, you know, I’m not sure what I love. Honest to God, Myra. I feel like I’ve lived my life in a beekeeper’s suit.

“I do know, though, that I love being surprised by things like that amazing number. By being shown what’s right before me that I never knew. I mean, did you ever take a look at all the shelves in … in that room in the library? Where you look things up? Did you ever see all those books? Tomes dedicated to the life of the alligator!”

“I guess I haven’t. I’ve used a reference room, but I’ve never browsed there.”

Chip stands, brushes the sand off himself. “Okay. Let’s go. I want to show you.” He’s wide awake now.

“You really want to?”

“Yeah.”

“The library closes at nine.”

“What time is it?”

I squint at my watch. “Eight twenty-three.”

“Well. It’s no problem for you to get somewhere fast, is it?”

I throw my keys up in the air, catch them.

• • •

The library is almost empty when we arrive. There is no one, not even a librarian, in the reference room. From the children’s room, though, we hear the sound of laughter. “Bedtime story hour,” I tell Chip, as we stroll past the low bookcases.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, the kids come in their pajamas and hear a story.”

“Cute.”

“Yeah, it is. I go, sometimes.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Well …” I’m embarrassed now. “I like to watch them.”

“Ever talk to them?”

“Talk to them? … No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I like to just watch them.”

“I have to say, I never much liked it when my parents read to me,” Chip says. “It was never just for pleasure—I always had to learn something. I’d hear a story and then I’d have to take a little quiz. Were your parents like that?”