Charlie laughed. “I was institutionalized a few times.”

“Insane asylum.”

“A hospital. They say that I was wired wrong. They put me on different drugs trying to set me right. Sometimes they worked. For a while. Sometimes they didn’t work at all.”

They were silent for some time.

“What’s it like to be crazy?”

Charlie glanced at the boy. “It’s scary. One day you feel like Napoleon. Like you could conquer the world. Then you wake up. On the battlefield. After the armies have left. And all you can smell is dead bodies. And you’re one of them.”

Mackenzie nodded. “I know the feeling.”

“You remind me of someone I knew when I was a kid, kid.”

“And who would that be?”

“Me.” Charlie put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and squeezed. “Why don’t we go over and bowl a game?”