Five minutes until five. Luke closes up shop on his desk. He decides to take a manuscript home to read for pleasure. The five hundred-plus pages is called Driver; a weak title that maybe needs some attention. The young author is fresh out of Temple, gay, and an expat from his Amish community in Lancaster County. The novel’s about being excommunicated from the Amish and learning how to struggle and live in everyday America. Luke has read and enjoyed the first two dozen pages and loves the kid’s writing: smooth, effortless, and with an edge of sweetness mixed with an understanding of being victimized by a community and himself. He has high hopes for the novel and for its writer, Henry Ichenbach. Luke can’t wait to dig into the next twenty-four pages over dinner, alone.
He meets Perrin at th
