Billy nodded a little bit. He couldn't remember, in the moment, what Goodnight had gone to school for in the first place; he was sure Goodnight had told him at one point or another, a passing trivia point in the tapestry of a life Billy had only glimpsed in letters and memories and one Christmas spent at home.

"We're living history here, anyway," Billy said, and laughed a little. "Anything you might have learned, it's probably bygone."