" He wants to be everything to Simon his own father was not, but already Simon runs to Vonny for comfort. When Simon is with Andre it’s as though he doesn’t think his father can recognize pain. If Simon falls when they’re together, he picks himself up and keeps running and Andre never finds out until later, when Simon sits on Vonny’s lap and shows her the scrape, that his son has been hurt. Andre doesn’t want to believe that his own father’s indifference was anything other than what it seemed. And yet, when he thinks of his father getting up long before dawn, maneuvering his Ford down snow-blocked roads he would later plow, Andre wishes that just once, instead of lying in bed until he heard the car start, he had gotten up and made a Thermos full of black coffee. "

― Alice Hoffman , Illumination Night