From the moment I met my son, blue as a cave troll, coated in vernix, gasping in the new air, my mission became to not undo all he was born with. To watch him develop habits was painful to me. I resented each neural pathway as it was blazed in his brain. These made him more familiar to me, and I wanted him to stay choose-your-own-adventure. We’d been given a perfect thing, a wild animal, ours to domesticate and diminish. He didn’t need our intervention.

But sometimes I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t stop myself from smoothing his eyebrow. I watched his tiny tucked-in face, his nose pressed on, the way that his nostrils curled in like parentheses, small gleams of oil in the corners, eyelashes rising and falling on his cheeks, crease of eyelids folding back toward his temples. I put my hand to his heart. I felt that steady unlikely rhythm. If I couldn’t believe in its reliability, then I couldn’t believe in anything.

“Rudy,” I said. “Can we borrow one of your shirts?”

Rudy stepped forward, red-faced and puffed up with generosity.

“This is a very good decision you’re making,” he said. He peeled off his T-shirt, and his wiry hair sprang forth. The shirt he handed me had possibly once been white. It gave off a smell of yeast, onions, pine needles, sawdust, beer, and sap. I draped it over my shoulder. “I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Rudy said, scratching his furry belly. “A boy needs a father. I’ve said it all along.”

“You’re not his father,” I said.

“A father figure, then,” he said.

“You’re not his father figure,” I said.

“I’m happy to do it,” he said. He leaned down into Perley’s face. “You and me, kid,” he said. “You and your old uncle Rudy. We’re going to be good pals. I’ll teach you how to use a chain saw. I’ll teach you how to drink.”

“He’s not your uncle,” I told Perley.

Perley said, “Ah!” and punched Rudy hard in the nose, sending him off-balance.

“Motherfucker!” Rudy said, holding his nose.

“No hitting, Perley,” I said.

Lily said, “But did you see that? My Velvet Piglet is incredibly strong!”

“You little scamp,” Rudy said to Perley, still holding his nose. “You think you’re stronger than your old uncle Rudy. But someday we’ll have a real fistfight, and then you’ll see.”

“Can we switch this shirt out for a fresh one next week?” Helen asked. “I mean a fresh dirty one?”

“Babysitting, diaper changing,” Rudy said. “Anything I can do, just let me know.”

“Let’s see this woodstove,” Mike said.