He picked up a plate. He put two pancakes on it. Then a third. He poured syrup over all of them.
He walked back to our table with his plate. He sat down. He started eating.
Part Nine: The Speaker
At 7:45, a man in a dark suit walked up to the podium.
The chair of the board. A tall man with silver hair. He tapped the microphone.
“Good morning, fathers and sons,” he said. “Welcome to the fifty-third annual Hampton Roads Preparatory Academy Father-Son Breakfast.”
Polite applause.
He talked for a few minutes. About tradition. About the importance of fathers. About the academy’s proud history of producing leaders.
Then he introduced the guest speaker.
“It is my great honor,” he said, “to introduce a man who embodies leadership and service. Admiral James R. Carrick.”
A man stood up from the head table.
He was tall. Broad-shouldered. Gray hair cut short. He was wearing a dark civilian suit, but he walked like a man who’d worn a uniform for most of his life. Back straight. Chin up. Every step
