Despite the mardy state of his thoughts, Will's mouth sketched a small smile as he listened to Alan speak. It was a hopeful picture his words painted – he always did know his way around words, their bard – Al and his guitar, bringing a scrap of possibility into the lives of kids who'd never known there was any path out there but the ones their dads and uncles and brothers had walked before 'em. Didn't fix all the ills of the world. Maybe it didn't do much at all in the big scheme. But then, how many lives did you have to change for something to be worthwhile? Couldn't one be enough?
"Huh," he said, glancing up from the ground. "That sounds real great, Al."