“Of course.”
“Let’s walk so we make even the backs of our legs look dangerous.”
“I’ll try. But I don’t think I can.”
“Well, let’s just walk then.”
“But didn’t they hit you?”
“One pretty good right behind the ear. The second boy when he came in.”
“Is that what fighting’s like?”
“When you’re lucky.”
“And when you’re not lucky?”
“Your knees bend too. Either forward or backward.”
“Do you still care for me after you have fought?”
“I love you much more than before if it were possible.”
“Can’t it be possible? It would be nice. I love you more since I saw that thing. Am I walking slowly enough?”
“You walk like a deer in the forest, and sometimes you walk as well as a wolf, or an old, big coyote when he is not hurried.”
“I’m not sure I wish to be an old big coyote.”
“Wait till you see one,” the Colonel said. “You’ll wish. You walk like all the great predators, when they walk softly. And you are not a predator.”
“That I can promise.”
“Walk a little ahead so I can see.”
She walked ahead and the Colonel said, “You walk like a champion before he is the champion. If you were a horse I would buy you if I had to borrow the money at twenty percent a month.”
