“Means hope,” I tell him. “Back when I was on the grounds crew? I left my post one time and snuck down to the river out back. I used to listen to it on nights when it got quiet in here, but I wanted to see it, too. Watch it flow past this place. And before I snuck back, I pulled this little stone out of the water as a keepsake or whatever—a promise that one day I’d move past this place, too.”
