“The horse is great. Grazing out there. I guess that’s okay. As long as the authorities don’t notice.”
I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing with that horse, at all, but I just want to keep him.”
He nodded.
He shifted in his chair.
Opened and closed his mouth, then leaned forward. “At the risk of sounding like an ass?—”
“Uh oh.”
“Where was Torin sleeping all this time?”
I blinked.
He leaned back. “No, forget I asked, I don’t want to know.”
I chewed my lip.
He added, “Sorry, didn’t mean to come off as the jealous boyfriend.”
He looked really uncomfortable.
“Things got really life and death out there.”
“Yeah, I get that, and you’ll probably never see him again, right?”
“Yeah…” I exhaled. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“You had to do what you needed to do to survive, and I’m really grateful you got home, although I thought for sure you were going to die, and that was scary as hell, but we don’t really need to think about it, right?”
I nodded, picking at the blanket drawn over my legs. “Right.”
“You time traveled, I mean, we could write a book, go on a speaking tour, tell the world about it, but are they going to believe you?”
“Probably not. Better not to.”
“So no need to dwell, it’s just something that happened and now it’s over. Like alien abduction.”
“You don’t believe in aliens.”
“It’s not a perfectly aligned metaphor. I don’t really believe in time travel either, except I saw the results, people lying in puddles on our — I mean, your, lawn.”
I said, “I don’t really believe in it either, but I was there in the past, a hundred percent true. It was brutal, unrelenting.”
“I can imagine.”
“I’m not arguing, because yes, you can imagine, but it’s so much worse, Coop, it’s dark at night and there is no stopping it, just darkness, no light anywhere to turn on.”
“That sucks, kinda like camping, but for eternity.”
“Yeah, camping is awesome, but after the fun, you know how great it is to come home?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. You were always happier to come home than I was.”
“Yeah, true.”
He said, “So you learned to ride a horse?”
