Robbie Ashton lay in bed, listening to distant night-sounds fade into morning darkness. The house was in low pulse; his parents had been asleep for some hours. Outside, the dawn was empty save for the weary drone of some long-distance driver vanishing down some far away highway. Robbie loved these deep, quiet hours. The world seemed to begin here, and the day was still waiting to be born. He waited out the long minutes, patiently marking the passage of the stars past his bedroom window...