Stony imitated the action, searching the day room. "An' way off in the distance, he sees some hills."

Stony peered over their bodies. Tyrone looked behind him to see what Stony found.

"So he gets his rear in gear an' starts trekkin' off to the hills an' he walks ten more miles before he gets there an' he finds himself a nice cool cave an' that boy just plain passed out for two days he was so tired."

Derek exhaled wearily.

"Anyways, he wakes up two days later an' he's hungry an' he's thirsty, but he still don't got no food or water an' he got so damn angry he just started kickin' and screamin' an' yellin' just like a baby."

Tyrone laughed.

"But that don't get him no food. An' then he remembers that water hole ten miles out into the desert. Well, he tries kickin' and screamin' for a couple a more hours, then he realizes he better save up his energy for that ten-mile hike he gotta make an' off he goes, ten miles to the water hole an' ten miles back to his cave. He does this for a couple of days an' realizes he's ain't eaten. A man gotta have more than water. Well, he knows he seen some desert rabbits hoppin' aroun' but how can he catch them?"

"With a bow an' arrow," Derek said.

"He don't got no bow an' arrow," Tyrone said.

"Shut up," Derek said in annoyance.

"Nah, Tyrone's right, but you know what he does? He tears off some material from his buckskin shirt an' he takes the lace out of one a his moccasins and he makes himself a sling. An' he takes some rocks out a the cave an' he goes off into the desert huntin' rabbits just like David and Goliath."

"My aunt told me that story," Derek said. "It's in the Bible."

"Yeah, well, he goes, an' he's flingin' them rocks right and left but he ain't hittin' no rabbits because they are fast little mothers, an' they ain't just gonna sit there waitin' to be bonked, an' he's goin' at it for days until finally he beans one right on the noggin', an' De Coco's so damn hungry he wolfs it down raw fur an' all."

They both made faces of disgust.

"Man, you get hungry enough you don't care," Stony impressed upon them. "Anyways, so now he's truckin' out twenny miles a day for water an' he's runnin' aroun' the desert with his sling beanin' rabbits an' he's gettin' pretty damn good at that too now, an' this goes on for two years until one day he's at the water hole an' he looks at his reflection in the water."

Stony peered at the floor. Derek and Tyrone stared between Stony's feet. "You know what he saw?"

"He got skinny!" Tyrone shouted.

"Skinny! That boy made Bruce Lee look like Humpty Dumpty. He was all muscle an'rawhide! He was lean an'tough! He made Shaft look like Fat Albert!"