Yonatan’s sleepy, bloodshot eyes narrowed, like those of a small animal sensing the approach of hunters. Stop it. Stop it. Don’t fall into it, pal. It’s a trap. The cunning of nets fine as a spider’s. Just because I sat singing here on this lawn all night long, propped against a friend or a girl. Just because here I was loved and kissed and scolded and taught to drive a cow and a tractor. Just because here good people live who will come to my aid if any harm befalls me, who, even if I steal or commit murder, even if I were a quadruple amputee, would take turns standing watch in the jail or hospital to guard me day and night. Don’t fall into it, pal. The posse is already hot on your heels and you’ve not yet flown the coop.

How many minutes have passed? I’m still stuck here. What if someone sees me? The light on those hills is strange—blue, pink, and gray all at once. And nothings coming but that freight train traveling south, its engine bleating for dear life. Those barking dogs inside the fence must think I’m the enemy. I am. One burst, tak-tak-tak, and they’ve had it.

But something was coming down the road. A truck. An old Dodge. And stopping. The driver was a portly, middle-aged man with cherubic cheeks and amiably glittering glasses.

“Hop in, young fellow. Where to?”

“It doesn’t matter. Anywhere will do.”

“But which way are you heading?”

“More or less south.”

“Good! Just shut the door tight. Slam it. And press down that button next to you. Maybe you got hit with a reserve call-up, eh?”

“You could say that.”

“Okay, okay, I’m not asking you to give away any secrets. Might you be a paratrooper?”

“Something like that. In reconnaissance.”

“And you’ve got some little operation in the works, huh?”

“I couldn’t tell you. Maybe. Why not?”

“Did you say you were heading south?”

“More or less.”

“Right you are! You don’t have to tell me a thing. Why risk it? Although let me tell you, I’ve been a Labor Party member for twenty years and a regional defense head for two, and I know how to button my lip. I also happen to know secrets I bet you’ve never dreamed of. That was south you said?”

“If it isn’t going out of your way.”

“May I ask your final destination?”

“I have no idea.”