To J.

The other night at Quail Ridge Books, a woman waited until the signing line was empty and then came over to me. She'd been in the store to pick up some CDs, heard me start talking, and stayed. When I finished, she bought a copy of Children No More.

She asked if I had ever served.

I said no. Nixon canceled the draft a few weeks before I would have had to decide what to do.

She nodded. Would I, given all the bad things that happened to me in the Young Marines, have gone into the Marines? Sh...