They’re wedged in the backseat, grandfather and grandson, en route to theWay of Lights, because even after Christmas there is always the Way.

It’s a bring-your-book road trip, but magazines are okay, too. Scientific American this time, its cover a radiant brain floating in sapphire. Which is how I imagine the inside of his skull.

He flips the pages, squinting in the fading light. Grandpa exclaims, ‘What! But that’s an adult magazine!’ More from pride than skepticism: the subscription was a birthday present.

‘Well. I get by.’