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Show house/' 464 way at the dual casts before him. I thought no one had ever been so brave or so good-natured as Danny about something so t r a g i c . Would we ever develop the insight and optimism to feel similarly about Vietnam, about Brian's mother, about a l l the 'accidents' that had befallen us? Somehow I didn't believe I would ever regard Vietnam as 'a blessing in disguise.' At least twice a week Brian picked up Danny on our way to the University. Brian coaxed Danny's wheelchair up the basement steps, then l i f t e d my brother like a child and set him in the car. This scene l e f t me feeling awed and confused by the sudden reversal of roles - Danny being the dependent one, while I was strong and responsible, through Brian. 'While I attended classes, the two men drove through the surrounding countryside and shot quail and magpies. They laughed at me when I asked them not to shoot the tiny doves that hid in mud-caves. "We never h i t anything anyway," Brian said. Afterward, they would pick me up and we would go to my mother's house where we ate lunch and played pinochle with my father. It was strange, this routine of pinochle-playing. My father had always loved the game, but now played with fierce concentration that surpassed his usual will to win, as though something more depended upon the outcome of t h i s game where queens of spades and jacks of diamonds ruled a l l but double-royal families. % father took time off from his regular office schedule so that he could p^]/y with us (to Aunt Helga's f r u s t r a t i o n ). |