Prince Hakeem stared at the letter that had just arrived. He hoped that the news would be good, yet he prepared for the worst. He opened the letter and gazed at the words under the glow of a candle and hope that whatever it said had the power to shine a light on the darkness that he had always known.

There was a promising glow hovering above the dark eastern horizon that morning as my brother Orville and I pushed our little skiff into the rippling current. We paddled upriver for an hour or more, in search of some cat-fishing. We dropped anchor near a stand of weeping willow trees and baited our hooks.