The Men We Mistake For Ourselves

In memoriam of my friend Dave

[Image from 2023 on an Alabama Dove Hunt Weekend]

I was on my way back from the spiciest lamb korma in the Tennessee Valley when I crested the hill on Gunter Avenue and saw the blue lights.

They weren’t subtle. They never are. They pulsed across the lake town like something biblical—judgment by LED. A checkpoint. Easter Sunday. Eleven o’clock at night.

I h…