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beautiful women in the world, I'd say."
    She blushed a little, her eyes falling as she reached up and swirled a lock of her straw-colored hair around her finger. "It's very kind of you to say so, Elgin, if you ain't just saying it, that is. But I ain't no young gal anymore. You should have seen me when I was though. I reckon you would have really liked what you seen back then."
    "Aw, you ain't old, Gitty. You're still a fine looking woman and I'm right lucky to have you. Hell, how old are you supposed to be anyway? I'd say no more than thirty-two."
    She laughed and told me I was making it up just to make her happy, though it was plain that she were real flattered too. And maybe I was stretching the truth a bit, but she still looked real good to me and there was a funny feeling in my chest from just being next to her and staring into them big blue eyes. Ain't nothing wrong with a man saying that kind of thing neither, because most fellas might have thought themselves too tough but I weren't afraid to feel tender things and say it like it were, especially for a woman like Gitty.
    Sure enough we was kissing again, and then before we knew it—well, I guess I don't need to go into all that. Afterward we laid near the fire under our shelter of dead branches and aluminum siding that did good in keeping the wind off of us and looked up at the stars, just me and my Gitty, all alone, and though I kept my pistol close as I always did, it seemed there weren't nothing to worry about no more. The desert was peaceful and had been real kind to us lately. It would take care of us, I knew. And if not, well then I vowed that there weren't nothing that were going to hurt Gitty ever again, not without getting through me, that is, me and my .357 Magnum revolver: Smith and Wesson, nickel-plated, black rubber grip, without a doubt one of the best goddamn six-shooters known to man.

Chapter 7
     
    How many times me and Gitty got to know each other like a man and woman I couldn't say, or won't at least, though we sure as heck found ourselves with a hearty appetite. For eating I mean. We was burning a lot more cal-o-ries , you could say. I weren't no doctor but I remember old Pete telling me about things like that, about conserving our strength when our food was low, and eating as much as we could when it was plenty so that we'd have more cal-o-ries to use up when the going got rough and there weren't enough to eat again.
    It was hard to say just who was needing more to eat because Gitty weren't too shy when it came to lovemaking, if you get my meaning. I mean she weren't the type to just lay there like she was napping, if that ain't getting too personal about it.
    "Elgin," she said to me one day, "I don't know how quite to say it but I think you and me are something special."
    "Well, I'd say we are," I told her. "I mean, hell, I ain't ever felt… Well, I mean, you know, Gitty."
    "No, Elgin. Tell me."
    "Ah, hell, I'm just saying."
    "Saying what?"
    "That you're something special."
    "Like how?"
    Weren't no way around it, and truthfully I would have said it right then if she hadn't interrupted me.
    "You know, you keep making love to me so much and you're going put a baby inside. Not that I would mind that too much, because, well, I've never quite felt like you're saying you feel either, because I never had a man who was so good to me like you."
    It got quiet. I wanted to say it, but hell if it weren't a hard thing to do.
    "That is what you're doing to me, ain't it? Making love ?"
    "Ain't nothing else," I said. "You know how I feel. Ain't no secret I'm keeping. I just haven't had the chance to say it, I guess."
    "Tell me, Elgin."
    "I love you, Gitty."
    Were nothing I could have given her that would have pleased her more than that, and it weren't no lie and she knew it and I did too, and that night she never once stopped holding onto me, even as we slept. After that, things was even more different, like each one of us might have had a rope tying us to the