Read Lie Down in Green Pastures for Free Online Page A

be a doctor someday and I think he'll make it. He hated Boy Scouts. He quit after six months. Me, I hate studying, but I loved Boy Scouts. I made Eagle Scout when I was fourteen."
    Though he had no experience himself with Boy Scouts Jeremiah still knew that was young to achieve the distinction."What did you like about it?" he asked.
    "Everything. It made sense to me. I knew where I stood, what I was doing, what I had to do to excel and achieve the next thing. I loved the outdoors aspects. And I felt like I was accomplishing something real."
    Jeremiah cleared his throat, aware that what he said next would likely have a huge impact on Noah with consequences that were as yet unforeseen to them both. "Some people do very well in the military. They like the structure; they like serving; they can both follow and lead. There's nothing wrong with choosing that for a career or even for a short-term experience. However, there are costs, even beyond the obvious physical dangers. It can isolate you from friends and family, even change you. It can become hard to relate to people who aren't in the military. And then, if you do see combat, you'll have to live with the knowledge that you've killed people. Some can and some can't."
    "I had thought about the danger, and that I might have to fight, but I didn't think that it could change me," Noah admitted soberly.
    "It will change the way you think, respond, react. The military is very good at creating fighting machines. Unfortunately, there is no offswitch for what you will become. It will be part of you for the rest of your life."
    "Thank you, sir, you've given me a lot to think about."Noah glanced across the room. "I think my mom wants me for pictures."
    Jeremiah stood. "Go be with your family. Days like this are precious."
    "I'll think about what you said."
    "I hope so," Jeremiah whispered to the boy's retreating back.

 
     
     
    4
     
     
     
     
    C INDY WAS TEN MINUTES EARLY FOR HER MEETING WITH GERALD WILSON. She sat down in a chair in the lobby of the Courtyard and waited nervously. A couple of minutes later a tall, thin man with thick glasses and steel gray hair entered the lobby, saw her, and walked straight over.
    "Miss Preston, it is wonderful to finally meet you," he said, extending his hand.
    She stood and shook it. "How did you know it was me?"
    "My dear, before I retired I worked thirty years in forensics.You are the right age to match the voice I spoke with on the phone. You have a tense air of uncertainty that says that not only are you nervous but also you don't know who it is you're meeting and what they look like. You're here in the lobby early and that very habit of arriving early at places was what caused you to stumble upon the body in the sanctuary when no one else was around except a stranger next door with the same proclivity toward being early."
    She was impressed. "Wow, you must have been very good at your job."
    "I was," he said with a bright smile. "But, in this case, I cheated."
    She tilted her head to the side.
    He pulled a newspaper clipping out of his pocket. It was an article about her and it had her picture.
    "Oh!" she said, laughing.
    "A word of caution, my dear. Now that you are so famous, please do not assume that everyone who can call you by name when they see you, knows you and is someone you have just forgotten. Rather it may be a complete stranger, possibly one who seeks to do you harm."
    She flushed. How many times had she forgotten someone's name after they had been introduced? Enough times that she always assumed she was the one in the wrong when someone she didn't know seemed to know her.
    "How do I know you're really Dr. Wilson?" she challenged.
    He laughed. "Very good."
    He pulled out his wallet and showed her his driver's license.Cindy stared at it, but realized she wouldn't know a fake driver's license if she saw one. She nodded finally and he put it away.
    "Since this is a Courtyard, should we adjourn to the courtyard?" he asked.
    She