It was good to be alone tonight, maybe Slim knew. He always just seemed to know. He hadn�t run across anyone quite like Slim, he was someone he was able to entrust part of his life to. With a deep heavy sigh he thought about his life, he remembered back...far back...we were just kids, Harper kids. And Francie...a scrawny little kid she was; in fact, he even called her his �kid� sister. As he studied the matter, he realized they were all born so close together that he never really knew who was older or younger. We all just felt about the same, like a pack of pups...coyote pups at that! Running around, playing rough, snip-snapping at each others heels, and rolling around in the grassy brush. Of course, coyote pups didn�t have to work all day, but evenings like this one tonight, that was our time. Yeah, I remember... chasing those fire flies and looking out for an occasional snake out on �evening patrol� and other evening critters too, like�.
He felt a slight shudder...yes...he remember other things just now, stuff he sometimes wished he could forget, but knew he never would...or could...even if he tried. Well, Bannister was dead now, he was finally able to see that matter settled. Even though he couldn�t do it personally, he knew it was meant to be. He always seemed to be prevented; or � hitting a �wound� deep inside just now� maybe he was really spared, spared from meeting up close with Bannister, face to face. A noise startled him and Jess looked up to see a jack rabbit running past the porch, up so close he could see its eyes. He snapped back to his childhood thoughts of Francie. He could almost feel the time they tripped each other running after rabbits near about dusk. He took her home and cleaned up that �kid� sis of his...HAH! ...now HE was the kid!
