Cal said sharply, “He didn’t tell you!”

“Oh, yes—yes, he did. He told me this morning.”

“He didn’t know this morning,” said Cal, and he got up and went out.

He walked very fast in the gathering darkness, out Central Avenue, past the park and past Stonewall Jackson Smart’s house clear to the place beyond the streetlights where the street became a county road and angled to avoid Tollot’s farm house.

At ten o’clock Lee, going out to mail a letter, found Cal sitting on the lowest step of the front porch. “What happened to you?” he asked.

“I went for a walk.”

“What’s the matter with Aron?”

“I don’t know.”

“He seems to have some kind of grudge. Want to walk to the post office with me?”

“No.”

“What are you sitting out here for?”

“I’m going to beat the hell out of him.”

“Don’t do it,” said Lee.

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t think you can. He’d slaughter you.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Cal. “The son of a bitch!”

“Watch your language.”

Cal laughed. “I guess I’ll walk along with you.”

“Did you ever read von Clausewitz?”

“I never even heard of him.”

When Aron came home it was Lee who was waiting for him on the lowest step of the front porch. “I saved you from a licking,” Lee said. “Sit down.”

“I’m going to bed.”

“Sit down! I want to talk to you. Why didn’t you tell your father you passed the tests?”

“He wouldn’t understand.”

“You’ve got a bug up your ass.”

“I don’t like that kind of language.”

“Why do you think I used it? I am not profane by accident. Aron, your father has been living for this.”

“How did he know about it?”

“You should have told him yourself.”

“This is none of your business.”

“I want you to go in and wake him up if he’s asleep, but I don’t think he’ll be asleep. I want you to tell him.”

“I won’t do it.”

Lee said softly, “Aron, did you ever have to fight a little man, a man half your size?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s one of the most embarrassing things in the world. He won’t stop and pretty soon you have to hit him and that’s worse. Then you’re really in trouble all around.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If you don’t do as I tell you, Aron, I’m going to fight you. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

Aron tried to pass. Lee stood up in front of him, his tiny fists doubled ineffectually, his stance and position so silly that he began to laugh. “I don’t know how to do it, but I’m going to try,” he said.

Aron nervously backed away from him. And when finally he sat down on the steps Lee sighed deeply. “Thank heaven that’s over,” he said. “It would have been awful. Look, Aron, can’t you tell me what’s the matter with you? You always used to tell me.”

Suddenly Aron broke down. “I want to go away. It’s a dirty town.”