Then the teacher handed him a small cloth shaker.

Oliver reached toward it with all the seriousness of someone making an important business decision.

For forty minutes, Warren shook a cloth toy, sang off-key, and smiled whenever Oliver smiled.

No one in the room cared who he was.

A toddler beside him borrowed his shoelace.

Another child crawled across his knee to retrieve a ball.

Afterward we went for coffee near the park.

Warren said he wished he’d known how happy a morning like that could make him when he was younger.