Now I’ve been making you carry me as well.”

“You haven’t made me do anything.”

“That’s not what I mean.

I don’t want the story of what happened to me to become another assignment you have to finish before you can go home.”

The river moved below us, indifferent to our attempts to understand the year.

“I was scared when you walked into that living room in uniform,” she admitted.

“Not because I thought Wendell would hurt you.