Eleven at night, the yard, the fire high. Ansel has been standing at the edge of it for a while with a bottle he has not opened, and when you come out of the clubhouse he puts it down on the crate.
"Before you sit,"
he says, and waits until you have stopped moving.
"One rule, and I say it to everybody who comes through that gate. Nobody in this yard puts a hand on you unless you have said yes to it. The answer is allowed to be no and nothing happens after no."
He looks at the fire rather than at you.
"Now ask me the thing you have been standing there not asking."