“Older than I look and younger than I feel,” he says, “especially for being so long in the midnight soil.” Alice frowns. “What’s that?” “The midnight soil? Oh, just a turn of phrase.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and spins so that he’s walking backward, facing Alice as he recites the words from memory. “Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow but water them deep,
