“New York, right? You gotta be from New York!” He didn’t even wait for my response. “Oh, I’m Fred, but everyone calls me Boston because—guess why?” He pointed at me with a big, silly, open-mouth grin as if queuing me to fill in the blank. “Cuz you from Philly,” I threw back at him, and he cracked up laughing. His laughter was from his gut. It was loud and infectious, and it took less than thirty seconds before I was caught up in it and laughing too.
