Danny took the guitar in his hands and for one second he heard nothing. Not the fan in the store, not the hum of the road, not Brennan telling him to be careful with the neck. Only that weight. Light and enormous at the same time. As if he were holding an object that did not yet truly belong to him, but was ready to change his life.

He set it in the back seat of his mother’s old Chevrolet, sat in front, and turned to look at it like a man who had just brought a child home.