‘I never thought of that. I figured I had to do the whole thing, every inch.’
‘Maybe you won’t have to, maybe you will, but the bridge will be easy to cross when you’ve covered everything else. Maybe there’s nothing of value on the bridge and maybe there is, but you can’t get near it till you’ve looked everywhere else.’
‘Let’s go.’ I was real eager, somehow.
‘Mind a suggestion?’
‘No.’
‘Just talk,’ he said. ‘Don’t try to get too far into what you’re saying. That first stretch, when you were eight—you really lived it. The second one, all about the kids, you just talked about. Then, the visit when you were eleven, you felt that. Now just talk again.’
‘All right.’
He waited, then said quietly, ‘In the library. You told her about the other kids.’
I told her about… and then she said… and something happened, and I screamed. She comforted me and I cussed at her.
But we’re not thinking about that now. We’re going on.