I met him one summer when we were seventeen, outside a diner that served coffee like boiled oil and apple pie good enough to deserve forgiveness for everything. I was already more closed off, more gloomy, one of those boys who carry a permanent sense that something big is going to go wrong and it is best not to get too excited. Jimmy was the opposite. He spoke to you as if he had known you for years. If you were having a bad day, he could pull it right off you with two sentences and one ridiculous imitation of some teacher or uncle. If you were having a good day, he could make it a little better.