“Ah guess you're gettin' the dolefuls, Andy. Look... let's go in swimmin'. There's a lake down the road.”
“I've got my soap in my pocket. We can wash a few cooties off.”
“Don't walk so goddam fast...Andy, you got more learnin' than I have. You ought to be able to tell what it is makes a feller go crazy like that.... Ah guess Ah got a bit o' the devil in me.”
Andrews was brushing the soft silk of a poppy petal against his face.
“I wonder if it'ld have any effect if I ate some of these,” he said.
“Why?”
“They say you go to sleep if you lie down in a poppy-field. Wouldn't you like to do that, Chris, an' not wake up till the war was over and you could be a human being again.”
Andrews bit into the green seed capsule he held in his hand. A milky juice came out.
“It's bitter...I guess it's the opium,” he said.
“What's that?”