Written on the Heart

In 2019, a grandmother in Louisville, Kentucky named Dorothy Carter sat at her kitchen table teaching her six-year-old grandson, Marcus, to read. Every afternoon, she traced letters on flashcards while he squirmed and fidgeted. He could recite the rules — "i before e," sound it out — but reading felt like a chore imposed from outside. Then one Saturday, Dorothy found Marcus curled up on the couch, sounding out words in a comic book all by himself.…