“Teacher Thorne said we get to sit in the very front row because you’re speaking.”

“She told me that,” I said.

I picked up the Little Creek squad schedule and laid it flat next to his homework folder.

The Sandbridge bomb extraction was logged for 0900 Friday.

The middle school assembly started at 1100, and my talk at the Navy table was set for 1130 sharp.

If the fuse jammed under the dunes, or if Range Control held up the perimeter clearance by twenty minutes, I wouldn’t get to Shoreline Middle School until noon.

Wyler was waiting for any crack in my paperwork, and missing the opening bell would hand him every excuse he needed to cross Matty’s name off the schedule.