It wasn’t the first time Chance and I had walked the long trail down. We followed the slope east and then switchbacked through the trees, coming out a quarter mile later on the far side of the quarry, where people parked their cars. Walking to the edge of the field, we stood and looked down. Chance nudged me. “She’s on the beach to your left.”

“I wasn’t looking for her.”

“Yeah, right.”

Becky saw me and waved. A squad of guys surrounded her, football players, mostly. One of them saw me looking, and spit on the cracked, granite ledge that passed for a beach.

Chance said, “Come on. Let’s find a beer.”

We turned for the trail that would take us to the water, but saw movement in a shaded place beneath the pines. A man was squatting with his back against the trunk, and his head shifted as he ground a cigarette into the dirt. “I caught your performance. Thought for a minute you might actually do it.” He stood, and moved into the light: black hair and denim and prison-pale skin. “Hello, little brother.”

Jason was five years older, but my size and shape. The same hair brushed the collar of his shirt. The same eyes stared out from a face that was similar in every way but the hard edges of it. “You’re out,” I said, and he shrugged. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, believe it or not.”

A pint bottle appeared from his back pocket. He unscrewed the cap and offered me a sip. When I shook my head, he shrugged and tipped the bottle back.

“You remember Chance,” I said.

“Hello, little man.” Chance bridled at the mocking tone, and Jason stood there looking unconcerned and dangerous and bored. “Why didn’t you make the dive?” I shrugged stupidly, and Jason nodded as if he understood. “It was something to see, though, wasn’t it?”

He was talking about the day our brother dove. Robert had been the kindest and my favorite. “Have you been home?” He shook his head. “You going?”

“After last time? I don’t think so.”

His grin, then, was the first truly familiar thing I’d seen. It had a sharp edge on one side, and the eye above it dipped in a quick wink. If Jason liked you, the wink said, Life is good, I’ve got your back. For others, it was different. Even in high school, grown men would back away from the wink and the grin, and that was before war and death and whatever devil Vietnam put inside my brother. He was calm at the moment, but that could change on a dime. Indian summer. Killing frost. Jason had both of those things inside, and they could trade places plenty fast.