Chapter 21Matthew dropped off to sleep quickly, but his remark kept me awake. How many times had he ridden into danger? Did facing peril make it easier to do? I doubt it. Not for me at any rate.
Still, you didn’t have to go back too many years before constant danger was the norm, not the exception. Otter and Billy and Cut Hand certainly lived in its shadow. The troubles had killed Cut Hand and most the rest of my people. Had taken Dew Drop and Standing Rock. Violence had taken Otter and James too, but it was a different prejudice that claimed them.
A darkness that had nothing to do with the black night swept over me. I was the “big kid” flaunting his nakedness in front of the two deviants. No matter I lived to Methuselah’s age, I would never be able to shake that guilt. Innocence of what
