ALL

She had been watching this boy since the beginning of the story — since before it was even a story, when it was still just a mother's quiet conviction that her son had something worth pursuing. She had watched him try out for the local football team. She had watched him fail. She had watched him not be disheartened, which is the hardest thing to watch in a child because it requires the parent to be equally undisheartened, which is harder than it sounds. She had watched him go