LATER THAT NIGHT, I’m about to hit the sack when G-ma comes into my room.

“Did you feel pressured to say yes to that speech?” she asks me. “I didn’t mean for it to happen that way.”

“It’s okay, G-ma,” I tell her.

“Well, I’m proud of you,” she says.

“You shouldn’t be,” I say.

G-ma looks at me all squinty, the way she does sometimes. “Why not?” she says.

“Well…” I shrug at her. “I haven’t given the speech yet. Maybe I’ll still chicken out.”

“I doubt that,” G-ma says. “You’re a brave boy, Kenneth. You’re the bravest boy I’ve ever known.”

I can’t even touch that one. No way.

“Do you really think it will make any difference, though?” I ask her instead. “I’m just…me, you know? I don’t really see how—”

“Kenneth.” She cuts me off, and I already know what she’s going to say. “Have I ever told you the story about the starfish?”

“Yeah,” I say. She’s told me that one about a thousand times, but it never stops her. I don’t mind, either. I kind of like it. So she sits down on the bed and keeps talking.

“There was a young man once,” G-ma says. “And he came onto a beach that was covered in starfish.”