DON'T-GET-DRAFTED MOVEMENT? THAT'S THE ONLY 'MOVEMENT' I SEE,' said Owen Meany. We talked like the war itself, going nowhere. I moved out of the apartment, so that he could have some nights alone with Hester-I don't know if either of them appreciated it. I spent a few pleasant evenings with Dan and Grandmother. I had convinced Grandmother to take the train, with me, to Sawyer Depot for Christmas; Grandmother had decided, previously, that she no longer took trains. It was arranged that Dan would take the Christmas Eve train from Gravesend, following the closing performance of A Christmas Carol. And Aunt Martha and Uncle Alfred had prevailed upon Hester to bring Owen to Sawyer Depot for Christmas-that was how significantly Owen had managed to impress them. Hester kept threatening to back out of these lavish reunion plans; I believe it was only for Owen's sake that she was agreeing to go home at all-especially for Christmas. Then all these plans fell through. No one had noticed how severely the train service had been deteriorating; it turned out that it wasn't possible to take a train from Gravesend to Sawyer Depot-and on Christmas Eve, the stationmaster told Dan, it was impossible to take a train anywhere] And so we once more reverted to our isolated Christmases. On the day of Christmas Eve, Owen and I were practicing the shot in the Gravesend Academy gym and he told me he was simply spending a quiet Christmas with his parents; I was spending the day with Grandmother and Dan. Hester, according to Owen, had-on the spur of the moment-accepted an invitation to SOMEWHERE SUNNY.
'YOU OUGHT TO THINK ABOUT JOINING THE 'PEACE MOVEMENT,' OLD BOY,' he told me. I guess he had picked up the OLD BOY at Fort Huachuca. 'AS I UNDERSTAND IT, IT'S A GOOD WAY TO GET LAID. YOU JUST MAKE YOURSELF LOOK A LITTLE DISTRACTED-LOOKING ANGRY ALSO HELPS-AND YOU KEEP SAYING YOU'RE 'AGAINST THE WAR.' OF COURSE, I DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW ANYONE WHO'S FOR IT-BUT JUST KEEP SAYING YOU'RE 'AGAINST THE WAR,' AND LOOK AS IF THE WHOLE THING CAUSES YOU A LOT OF PERSONAL ANGUISH. NEXT THING YOU KNOW, YOU'LL GET LAID-YOU CAN COUNT ON IT!'
We just kept sinking the shot; it still takes my breath away to remember how good we were at it. I mean-zip!-he would pass me the ball. 'READY?' he would ask, and-zip!-I would pass it back to him and get ready to lift him. It was automatic; almost as soon as I passed him the ball, he was there-in my arms, and soaring. He didn't bother to yell 'TIME'-not anymore. We didn't bother to time ourselves; we were consistently under three seconds-we had no doubt about that-and sometimes I think we were faster.
'How many bodies a week are there?' I asked him.
'IN ARIZONA? I WOULD GUESS THAT WE AVERAGE TWO-AT THE MOST, THREE-CASUALTIES A WEEK. SOME WEEKS THERE AREN'T ANY, OR ONLY ONE. AND I WOULD ESTIMATE THAT ONLY HALF OF OUR CASUALTIES HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH VIETNAM-THERE ARE A LOT OF CAR ACCIDENTS, YOU KNOW, AND SOME SUICIDES.'
'What percentage of the bodies is not-how did you put it?-'suitable for viewing'?' I asked him.
'FORGET ABOUT THE BODIES,' Owen said. 'THEY'RE NOT YOUR PROBLEM-YOUR PROBLEM IS YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR STUDENT DEFERMENT? DO YOU HAVE A PLAN? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO-PROVIDED THERE'S A WAY TO DO IT? I DON'T SEE YOU BEING HAPPY IN THE ARMY. I KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO GO TO VIETNAM. BUT I DON'T SEE YOU IN THE PEACE CORPS, EITHER. ARE YOU PREPARED TO GO TO CANADA? YOU DON'T LOOK PREPARED-NOT TO ME. YOU DON'T EVEN LOOK LIKE MUCH OF A PROTESTER. YOU'RE PROBABLY THE ONE PERSON I KNOW WHO COULD JOIN WHAT HESTER CALLS THE 'PEACE MOVEMENT' AND MANAGE NOT TO GET LAID. I DON'T SEE YOU HANGING OUT WITH THOSE ASSHOLES-I DON'T SEE YOU HANGING OUT WITH ANYBODY. WHAT I'M TELLING YOU IS, IF YOU WANT TO DO THINGS YOUR OWN WAY, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION-YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO FIND A LITTLE COURAGE.'
'I want to go on being a student,' I told him. 'I want to be a teacher. I'm just a reader,' I said.
'DON'T SOUND SO ASHAMED,' he said. 'READING IS A GIFT.'
'I learned it from you,' I told him.
'IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU LEARNED IT-IT'S A GIFT. IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT-IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND A WAY OF LIFE YOU LOVE, YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT.'
'What do / need courage for?' I asked him.
'YOU WILL NEED IT,' he told me. 'WHEN YOU'RE NOTIFIED TO REPORT FOR YOUR PREINDUCTION PHYSICAL, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED SOME COURAGE THEN. AFTER YOUR PHYSICAL-WHEN THEY PRONOUNCE YOU 'FULLY ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUCTION'-IT WILL BE A LITTLE LATE TO MAKE A DECISION THEN. ONCE THEY CLASSIFY YOU ONE-A, A LOT OF GOOD A LITTLE COURAGE WILL DO YOU. BETTER THINK ABOUT IT, OLD BOY,' said Owen Meany. He reported back to Fort Huachuca before New Year's Eve; Hester stayed away, wherever she was, and I spent New Year's Eve alone-Grandmother said she was too old to stay up to welcome in the New Year. I didn't drink too much, but I drank a little. Hester's damage to the rose garden was surely of the stature of a tradition; her absence, and Owen's, seemed ominous to me. There were more than , Americans in Vietnam, and almost , Americans had been killed there; it seemed only proper to drink something for them. When Hester returned from SOMEWHERE SUNNY, I refrained from commenting on her lack of a tan. There were more protests, more demonstrations; she didn't ask me to accompany her when she went off to them.Yet no one was allowed to spend the night with her in our apartment; when we talked about Owen, we talked about how much we loved him.
'Between how much you love him and whatever it is that you think of me, I sometimes wonder if you'll ever get laid,' Hester told me.
'I could always join the 'Peace Movement,' ' I told her. 'You know, I could simply make myself look a little distracted-looking angry also helps-and I could keep saying I am 'against the
