But, as is the way with many resentments, my mind would not let it go. By the time I had walked out of downtown, passed the library, and was headed toward the bus station, my chest was knotted again and my temperature was rising. I began to run to burn excess energy.

Hands in pockets, I trotted past the bus station, past Jane’s, feeling the cold air rasp at my throat as my breathing came harder from the unaccustomed exertion. It felt wonderful. I crossed the freeway into Lewis’s subdivision and turned left instead of right toward Lewis’s house. I wasn’t ready to go home yet, I wanted to continued to run, to run faster and harder, to wear out all the built-­up tensions, resentments, and anger. My feet pounding the pavement became the only sound, a hypnotizing rhythm, almost like my meditations, and softly the music came and my feet landed lightly, and the place of peace, it was there, just ahead, just out of reach; it glittered tantalizingly just ahead. Why not try it Boyd’s way for once, Angelina, the music said. Don’t be too spiteful until you’ve seen his entire point of view. Understanding lay just ahead.

Just ahead was a man walking his dog. He was in the middle of the field that bordered the outer row of houses. He had walked down a mown path, and without breaking stride, my feet light, my speed incredible, I ran, I almost flew down the path, and in slow motion, I saw him hesitate, and turn, saw the dog cower, the look on the man’s face, then I heard the wildcat scream, the scream of victory, of bravery, of competence, of exhultation.

And I brought down my kill.

The dog ran off, growling and snarling, and came back as I finished. I stood and backed away from the man and looked down on him—my first kill purely for pleasure. The dog licked the man’s cold, wrinkled face with sidelong glances at me, then found the leaking wound. The mutt’s brow furrowed and he began to whimper, forgetting all about me as he lapped at his owner’s flaccid neck. He worried the wound a bit with his teeth, chewing gingerly on the edges with his little ineffectual front teeth, and I chased him away, then brought the towel from across my shoulders and covered the man with it.

Then I put one boot atop the man’s chest and looked to the sky in a great dramatic urge. I brought my arms up as if to embrace the cold night sky with its zillion sparkling stars, and I shouted to them. “I see now, Boyd! I understand! You and I are two of a kind!” And then I laughed, because Boyd had yet to learn this. And I laughed again, knowing that the pleasures of the universe, the delights of eternity, belonged to me.