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...

My eyes widened in surprise. There was someone standing at the door of the rumpus room. Someone I'd never seen before. A boy around my age, maybe a year older. Tall; taller than me, and much wider across the shoulders. He was wearing a bright red varsity jacket and holding something in his right hand, although neither fact registered with me at the time. He was staring at me slack-jawed and speechless, astonishment stamped all over his face in capital letters...