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"I'm crazy," said Ender "But I think I'm OK"

"When did you decide that?" asked Alai

"When I thought you were about to kill uess I'm just a killer to the core But I'd rather be alive than dead"

They laughed and agreed with hian to cry and embraced Bean and Petra, ere closest "I missed you," he said "I wanted to see you so bad"

"You saw us pretty bad," Petra answered She kissed his cheek

"I saw you nificent," said Ender "The ones I neededon my part"

"Everybody's OK now," said Dink "Nothing rong with any of us that five days of cowering in blacked-out rooms in the middle of a war couldn't cure"

"I don't have to be your commander anyain"

"You don't have to command anybody," said Dink, "but you're always our commander"

Then they were silent for a while

"So what do we do now?" asked Alai "The bugger war's over, and so's the war down there on Earth, and even the war here What do we do now?"

"We're kids," said Petra "They'll probably o to school till you're seventeen"

They all laughed at that Laughed until tears streamed down their faces

15

SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD