Mary was sitting on her front porch beside an ice chest filled with sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and cans of soda when Paul arrived at 9:00 AM. His eyes were framed by purplish circles, and his movements were more tentative than usual.

“You look a little bleary eyed, there, Paul. What’d you do? Stay up all night?”

“You’re going to be awfully glad I did!” Paul’s eyes lit up and the spring returned to his step. He grinned, grabbed the ice chest and heade...