“So tell us,” says Connor, “in The World According to Hayden, when do we start to live?”

A long silence from Hayden, and then he says quietly, uneasily, “I don’t know.”

Emby razzes him. “That’s not an answer.”

But Connor reaches out and grabs Emby’s arm, to shut him up—because Emby’s wrong. Even though Connor can’t see Hayden’s face, he can hear the truth of it in his voice. There was no hint of evasion in Hayden’s words. This was raw-honesty, void of Hayden’s usual flip attitude. It was perhaps the first truly honest thing Connor had ever heard him say. “Yes, it is an answer,” Connor says. “Maybe it’s the best answer of all. If more people could admit they really don’t know, maybe there never would have been a Heartland War.”