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"If I stayed, you and I couldn’t remain friends" Samuel’s voice was measured and he id, attesting to his own inner tu at my cheeks, e difference is a probleoodbyebecause the truth is, you are the best friend I have ever had too, and best friends don’t leave without saying goodbye"

Sa down, offered athered Yazzie tohim pull me to my feet beside hi the nu to shield me from the finality of the moment

"I hope so," Sas will be different"

I studiedfor a reason to delay hioodbye I felt his sudden nearness, and I looked up into his face, which was now mere inches froht, and his breath arm on my wet cheeks He leaned down cautiously, his eyes never leaving mine, until our faces became so close that shape and color blurred He tipped his face slightly to the right, and I lifted my mouth to his in the briefest hint of a kiss that never was His lips fluttered lightly by and caered there as h slipped out And there we re seconds And then he stood apart froifts in his aret you, Josie" His voice was low, his face devoid of e The horse whinnied in greeting, and Sa the reins He prodded the horse with his heels and rode away, a black outline against the dying violet dusk I followed slowly behind hiainst ot home, I told ed to Don and Nettie’s grandson as going into the Marine Corps, and he had given him to me because he couldn’t keep hiue that it was slightly abbreviated My dad didn’t seeetting a dog around here" My dad cooed as well as a gravely cowboy can "He’s a good boy, oh yes he is! He’s a little beauty!"

What was it about babies and puppies that made everyone talk with their lips pushed out in that kissy-faced way? I left Yazzie in my dad’s enthusiastic care and climbed up to my room I untied Samuel’s necklace fro the turquoise stone sway gently from the thin leather strip My dad hadn’t cared about the puppy, but he would eventually notice if I earing the big turquoise rock The pup and the rock together h, even at thirteen, to grasp how others ainstof our ‘al Samuel weren’t so careful and so honorable I would have liked a real kiss fro to him Almost immediately, I felt ashamed of my wistful criticism If Jane Eyre could walk away froh nobody would be harmed, and no one would really care, and do it out of principle, then I should expect no less of ht at Sleepy Hollow

I tucked his necklace into the little jewelry box I kept onwith silver hearts that had been ivenfrom Sunday School crowded around ed down the stairs, back to ato

I couldn’t write to Samuel at first He didn’t have an address yet He had promised to write me and let me know as soon as he could It was about teeks after he left that his first letter arrived

June 7, 1997

Dear Josie,

The first couple days here have been a blur They loaded us on a bus, and it was pretty late around 1:00 in theout the bus s as ere taken to what they called receiving When we pulled up, this guy in full uniforet our ‘trash’ together and line up out on the yellow footprints that were on the pavey and it was hard to even see where the footprints were This guy is shouting "Any day!" the whole tiot control of himself, but I think everyone felt a little syht in his face and told hiot a chance to make a 15 second call, and I called ain I wrote her to let her know I’m here and what my address is, but now it’s up to her I don’t know if she’ll write or not My grandmother would if she could - she doesn’t expect letters because she can’t read them and she can’t write back She knoill coet boot leave at the end of the 12 weeks

We didn’t sleep at all the first night After we made our calls ent to a roo information at us - like the floor isn’t the floor, it’s the ‘deck,’ and the door is a ‘hatch’ A hat is called a cover and running shoes are called go-fasters When I’lish, Navajo, and Marine Then they gave us our platoon number and we had to write it on our left hand in black permanent marker My platoon is 4044, 1st Battalion After that they collected all of our ‘civilian’ clothes, all jewelry, all knives, personal iteu a candy bar in his eant made him spit it out on top of his stuff