[snapshot - open post, a.k.a. bother the boy]

[illgotten]

He's standing at the edge of the encircling woods, leaning sideways against a tree with his arms folded, still in the scuffed-up jeans and outsize, old-fashioned shirt he wears to work on or around the house; watching the Mansion from, as it were, a safe distance.

There is, for once in his life, no hint of a smile.