Chasing the Bear

Jeannie was outraged.

'You think my mother was a slut?'

'Just asking,' I said. 'Patrick says you don't ask questions, you don't get answers.'

'The hell with him,' Jeannie said.

I shrugged.

'Well, my mother wasn't sexing around, if that's what you're thinking.'

'I wasn't thinking,' I said. 'I was just wondering. I mean, wouldn't you be glad to find out he wasn't your father?'

She started to cry.

Chapter 9

'Not what you had hoped for,' Susan said.

'In those days,' I said, 'I knew less about why women cried.'

'And now?'

'I understand why men and women cry,' I said.

'The advantage of maturity,' Susan said.

'Being young is hard,' I said.

'Being grown is not so easy either,' Susan said.

'But it's easier,' I said.

She nodded. We were quiet for a moment.

Then Susan said, 'You hunted.'

'Sure,' I said. 'We all did.'

'You don't hunt now,' Susan said.

'No,' I said.

'Because you disapprove?'

I shrugged.

'When we hunted, we hunted for meat,' I said. 'It was a way to feed ourselves. Had a vegetable garden too, and in the fall we'd preserve stuff for the winter. We were pretty self-sufficient.'

Susan smiled.

'How surprising,' she said.

'I liked self-sufficient,' I said.

Susan smiled again, wider.

'I've always suspected that,' she said.

'Are you making sport of me?' I said.

'Yes.'