'There are worse careers,' I said.
The afternoon was dwindling, and the sun was at our backs. Susan smiled and patted my hand.
'Far worse,' she said. 'Did you have a plan?'
'Not really,' I said.
'You were going to just plow along,' she said, 'and assume you could handle what came your way.'
'Pretty much,' I said.
'Like you've done all your life.'
'It's worked okay so far,' I said.
'Yes,' she said. 'Did your father and your uncles know?'
'Yes, I talked it over with them.'
'Even though they were adults,' Susan said.
'Not the same,' I said. 'There wasn't much adult-child stuff going on at my house. I was one member of a family of four. They were the other three.'
'No wonder,' Susan said, 'you're not quite like other men.'
'That a good thing?' I said.
'Yes,' Susan said. 'I think so.'
Chapter 36
'You feel like you gotta do this,' Cash said.
'Yes.'
'How you gonna go about it?' Patrick said.
'I'll walk with him to school and back home and see what happens,' I said.
We were in the kitchen, at the table, except my father, who was at the stove with a chicken stew.
'One thing,' my father said from the stove. 'No weapons.'
I nodded.
'Anybody flashes a weapon, you get the hell out of there and come tell us.'
I nodded.
'Your word?' my father said.
'My word,' I said.
'Okay,' my father said.
'Sounds like the kid's gonna be outnumbered, Sam,' Cash said.
'He wanted us to help him, he'd a asked us,' my father said. 'He knows how to fight. He don't seem to scare easy.'
'And we can't be going out and beating the hell out of fifteen-year-old kids,' Patrick said.
Cash nodded.
