He gives a shake of his head--a gesture conveying all that he can't bring himself to say, all the objections he can't acknowledge. It's less out of fear than the fact that no good can come from dwelling on what he cannot change, the ugly details making up this lesser of two evils. It's a dangerous exercise, thinking and hoping and deluding oneself into suspecting those details might not be so immutable after all. And he wants nothing to do with delusion.

"I sure hope you're right," he says.