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The second Tucson excursion filled two chartered buses Soot into the act, and also my students I declared it a class project I told Rayive hio Loyd had asked for a week’s layoff and we set out on the trip he’d been planning forever

"Don’t you have to stop somewhere and check on your roosters?" I asked We were near Whiteriver

"I don’t have any roosters"

"You don’t?" I was incredulous I thought he’d just stop going to fights himself "What, you sold them?"

"Collie Bluestone kind of took over the business"

"So you could get back into it if you wanted to"

"Nope He’s hting the than if Loyd had presented"But I’m notWhat if you and I don’t work out, Loyd?"

He downshifted for a rutted stretch in the road "No offense, Codi, but I didn’t give up cockfighting to iht"

"I was right?"

"About what you said"

"What did I say?"

He didn’t answer I vaguely re about puncture wounds and internal he that a spectator sport "I can’t believe you’d do this thing all your life and then just quit one day after soive it up anyway"

"Maybe I was" We were both quiet for a while, passing through winter-killed fields of grass and sage Two black horses grazed on bristly shrubs in a field with no apparent fences

"You and your brother were twins, right?" I asked, apropos of nothing

He nodded "Identical Twins are bad luck"