He barely nodded, his eyes on the tree. I got up and turned off the lamp so we could better see all the tiny lights. I curled my feet up underneath me and rested my head on Jimmy’s shoulder. We sat and stared at that tree like it was a crackling fire.

“I won’t be talking about it much, Kate. It’d be like kicking a bruise.”

I said I understood but I felt scared about him having had such a big thing happen to him and me not knowing a whit about it.

“Remember I wrote you that a GI let me use his guitar south of Kaesong? He lost both hands under a tank tread he was cleaning, so he let me have the guitar. You can’t believe how many dumb accidents happened over there.” Jim was sitting up straight and tight. I began to knead his arm and shoulder muscles. I was working my way to his neck.

“I think Ryder was at Heartbreak Ridge. We needed everything north of Yanggu, and I think that’s where he went, Katie Faye.”

“I guess you’ll be talking about this more than you thought.”

Jimmy smiled, then stopped just as fast. I asked him if he wanted me to bring him his guitars. He turned and kissed me on the lips and said a Korean word that he told me meant tomorrow. We made love on the couch, and as Jimmy let go inside me I opened my eyes and saw the bright angel looking out across the room from the top of the tree, and I remember offering her a prayer of thanks for my husband and I believe I asked for Ryder’s safe return too.

Jim soon got a job building fences with a small company from La Vernia. A truck came for him every morning at seven and he wouldn’t get home some days till after dark. It was only a three-man outfit he worked on and cattlemen’s acreage went on for miles. That work and the widows’ cooking gave Jim back his twenty pounds, plus another five. At night he’d play his guitars. More and more he was favoring his Dobro, and he just loved hearing how that was sort of the first word Leo ever said. Jim had only been gone to war a month then. I was feeding Leo oatmeal and milk one morning when he grabbed the spoon, splashed the oatmeal on the floor, and screamed “Bobro!” then laughed himself silly. I do believe that story alone got Jim favoring the steel slide over that pricey rosewood.