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Show •221 beginnings.'" In the night she woke me up whispering in my ear in her little-girl voice. "Buck?" "What?" "You wouldn't just up and leave by yourself some day without telling me, would you?" I hugged her. "I'd never do that," I said. She appeared to go to sleep, but a few minutes later she poked me in the ribs. "What is it?" "Do you love me? Truly?" "Yes." "Stay with me forever." "I promise." The day we were supposed to leave we went to the delicatessen down the street for breakfast; while we waited for the food to come I pushed aside the water-glasses and ketchup bottles and unfolded a map of the United States. I drew a long line through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, then down along the East slope of the Rockies into Colorado, and West again across New Mexico and Arizona. "We'll cross the Colorado River at Yuma, where the Indians massacred Jedediah Smith," I said. "Then after a few hours of looking out through the window at the most |