Not biting anyone's ear off.

That's already been done.

Spitting in anyone's face.

God forbid.

You are interested in getting out of here, aren't you?

The outside is the same as the inside.

You can't be serious.

Try me.

Well, I was hoping we might come to some understanding.

Hope is for politicians.

I remember Paul very clearly. When he knew he was dying and you could see it in his eyes. Invited me into his tiny room. No more than eight by ten. Asked me to sit there with him. Just sit. And he sat very straight, in a straight-backed chair, hands on his knees; eyes calmly cast toward the floor. Asked me about my horses. That was the first thing. Wanted to know all about my horses. Said it was a good thing to follow your "passions," as he put it. "Passions." Said he remembered one day, riding. One day, years ago, sitting in some saddle. One moment when he felt himself to be. The subtle touch. The horse responding. The sensation of it. The power. Four days later Paul was dead. I counted them. Each and every one.

Things You Learn from Others

How to stop tucking your T-shirt into your underpants. How to drink from a cup without drooling. How to eat with a fork and not your hands. How to dry yourself off inside the shower so you don't get the floor wet. How to tie a half-hitch. How to make sure the disc plow overlaps the tire tread. How to tell when a colt is back at the knee. How to drive with one eye shut when you're skunk drunk. How to sleep all night in a ditch. How to sharpen a knife with a stone. How to gut a deer. How to read the flight of hawks and owls. How to release a greyhound in tall grass when you see the seed heads move in a silken wave. How to blindfold a spooky horse with burlap. How to do nothing but listen when someone wants to do nothing but talk.

What you don't learn, though, is how to protect others from your own manifestations of cruelty and malice which you've learned so insidiously through skin and blood and find impossible to shake free from no matter how much you'd like to be thought of as a decent, wholesome person.

Rape and Pillage

Let's go rape and pillage. You want to?

What? Have you lost your mind?

No, come on. One last time. What do you say?

Absolutely not! We gave that up. What's become of your short-term memory?

What? When?

Promises. Pledges. Resolutions.

Oh-those.

It was only day before yesterday-We swore on a stack of Bibles.

You swore.

So did you! I was your witness.

That wasn't me.

I was right there, holding your skinny hand as you wept for mercy and forgiveness. Don't lie to me.

That's all in the past.

Two days ago!

So?

Don't be a fucking idiot! You want to start all that up again? All that-torment.

It was fun! Come on.

No! It wasn't fun. It was torture.

It was fun torturing others. You have to admit.

Don't make me sick.

Poking their eyeballs with fiery sticks.

Stop it!

Drawing and quartering.

Get away from me! Go walk on the other side of the field. I don't want to be anywhere near you.

You'll miss me.

Ha!

You will. You'll be walking over here and I'll be walking over there and you'll look across the wide field and yearn for my company. Wait and see.

Don't be stupid.

You will. You know you will. All the fun we've had over the years.

It wasn't fun! Get that out of your thick head. Fun is-Ferris wheels and cotton candy. I know what fun is.

All the dizzying ecstasy of absolute power. The debauchery. Looting things you'll never use.

All right! That's it. I'm going to go walk on the other side of the field and you stay here. You stay right here in your reverie and I'm going over there.

It'll be just the same.

What will?

The same as if I walked over there and you stayed over here. You'll still miss me. You'll still look across the field and yearn for my company.

Stop following me! You're worse than a dog.

I am a dog.

You're insane is what you are. Out of your tree! Doesn't that give you any kind of pause? The slightest little twinge of remorse?

What?

That you're nuts! That once in the long-ago you might have had a glimmer of hope, a quick stab in the dark at sanity and self-respect. But no! You turned your back on it and walked away toward the roaring furnace. Never to return. Doesn't that make you wonder a little bit?

About what?

About what you've become!

I'm exactly where I want to be. Right by your side.

Stop following me!

Well, what're we going to do; stand around like a couple of fence-posts? I thought you wanted to take a walk.

I wanted to take a walk in peace! By myself. Alone with my thoughts.

How can you be alone with your thoughts?

Never mind. You're impossible. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to tie you to that sycamore with my belt. That's what I'm going to do. I'll hang you from the thickest limb.

Oh, so now you're going to do me in? Is that it?

No, I'll hang you so your feet just barely touch the ground. Just enough so you can get periodic relief.

Oh, thanks very much.

Maybe I'll stone you like the good old days. Rocks and walnuts.

See? You can't give it up.

I'll keep you just barely alive. Hanging on by a thread.

What's the purpose of that?

Until you beg and twitch for mercy!

That'll never happen.

You'll see.

I'm tougher than I look.

You'll see. After three days your stomach will be eating your backbone.

I'm not buying into this transparent repentance of yours.

Of mine?

Of yours.

We confessed together!

Confessed? What am I now, Catholic or something?

Stop following me! Get away! Go somewhere else.

Now you're hurting my feelings.

What feelings?

See?

I'm not talking to you anymore. I'm going to continue on my walk. You're going to continue to follow me. You're going to continue to hound and harangue me, like you always have, but I'm going to completely ignore you.

That's not possible.

You'll see.

What will you do for inspiration?

You'll see.

Wait up!