He has never been much good at wanting things, Gene. It’s a foreign feeling to him. Hope? Hope is comfortable, well-worn. His favorite, most familiar feeling. But hope isn’t selfish; hope is so easy to turn in someone else’s direction. Wanting, though. Wanting has always felt presumptuous—to ask for something, something unlikely and rare, and then actually, really hope to get it? All for himself ? He doesn’t do that.
