Then he grinned, and the adults found the right volume.

When he blew out the candles, one stayed lit.

“Again,” Ethan said gently.

Noah took an enormous breath and finished the job.

He was seven, his mother was beside him, and for those few minutes nobody asked him to settle anything else.

PART 7 — The Second Page

Noah wanted to make the first cut himself.

I guided his hand on the cake knife, and he instructed me to be careful with the tower because the tower was the best part.