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Show 3. Sometimes JD thought Stephanie had suppressed that earlier time, like the book in Psych II said people often did. Their lives were a lot softer after moving to Red Butte, anyway. Now Steph was growing up to be some woman, he could see that if he worked at it. Under the stubbornness, she was all heart, "What are you thinking about? And how far are we?" Stephanie asked, squirming to find a spot of comfort. She'd been reading for over an hour and now she tossed the paperback assignment on the floor of the car, "Oedipus Rex! Yuk!" It was a death pronouncement. "Which question do you want answered first?" "Number two, then numero uno," she smiled, pulling up her knees and hooking her chin over her hands, JD took his time. He liked to give considered answers. Judging from the red Sundance formation he saw in the road cuts, they were just beginning the ascent, so they wouldn't see timber for the better part of an hour, "It'll be uphill for forty minutes. Then we'll leave the road and camp back in the aspen a few miles where Dad and I always stayed." "Do you think he'll ever hunt again?" Stephanie asked abruptly. She'd already forgotten the second question, JD thought. "Is he just going to get worse? His coughing's terrible." She wouldn't let go. It was one of her traits. "I don't know, Steph. Emphysema's a killer, but dad's slowed down a lot. Maybe if he takes care of himself . . ." The conversation gave way to private thoughts as the VW carved through one geological formation after another along the lonely windswept highway. JD couldn't imagine not having his dad around. He heard again the elder John David's words with his mother when he'd come home from the hospital. "Hell, Addie, I'd rather be dead than have to give up hunting and fishing. What's left in life for a man? Running a laundromat, for Chrissake?" Then, finally, this year, giving up . . . or giving in. JD didn't know what to make of it, "I'm not planning a hunting trip," his dad said late one night in September, sitting at the kitchen with JD. "Go on up with some of the guys," |