That night his mother, his father, and his little sister sat in the living room and listened to him play the same two songs over and over until his sister said, “If I hear that same thing one more time I’ll die,” and his mother gave her a look that meant let the boy dream. His father smoked and tapped his foot. At the end, when Danny set the guitar down on the couch and said, “I’m gonna be big, you’ll see,” the old man smiled only with one corner of his mouth.

“Be right first,” he said. “Then be big.”