'Pretty good,' I said.
Chapter 26
'Why do you suppose you did that?' Susan asked.
'Should I lie back on this bench, Dr. Silverman?'
'Professional reflex, I suppose,' Susan said. 'On the other hand, my interest in you is not entirely professional.'
'I've noticed that,' I said.
'I love you and I want to know about you,' she said.
'Anything in particular?' I said.
'Everything,' she said. 'And now that I have you rolling, it's hard not to keep pushing.'
'I read someplace that wanting to know everything about a person is wanting to possess them.'
'I believe that is probably true,' Susan said.
'You want to possess me?' I said.
'Entirely,' Susan said.
'Isn't that dangerous for my ego?' I said.
Susan smiled.
'If I may say so, your ego is entirely impregnable.'
'Only child of a loving family,' I said.
'Buttressed by accomplishment,' Susan said.
'My father and my uncles were pretty impregnable too,' I said.
'And to grow up,' Susan said, 'sooner or later, you had to separate from them.'
'You think that's what I was doing?'
'When you went to the police?' Susan said. 'Yes.'
As one of the swan boats made its leisurely turn in front of us, a little boy was leaning out, trying to trail his hand in the water. His mother took hold of the back of his shirt and hauled him back in.
'Why then?' I said.
Susan waited. I thought about it.
'Because I had just done an adult thing,' I said, answering my own question. 'And I needed to what? Confirm it?'
'What happened when you had that trouble, with the men from the barroom?' Susan said.
'My father and my uncles came down and . . . fixed it,' I said.
'And the bear?'
I nodded.
'My father came along and fixed it,' I said.
'And the business on the river?'
