May 9, 2006:

On a city map I traced in black felt pen the outline of every street we rode.

There's an intrepidity in that. Two boys on inexpensive bicycles systematically explore a great city. Eight years old, ten years old. Forty miles from home on a back street in the days before cell phones, pockets empty but for cola change.

After thirty-five years he still signed his letter "Your friend."