If you sneak a peak at this book, well, then you will know I meant every word when I said I love you.  I don’t like all that talk.  I don’t.  I never heard my old man ever say that to my mom.  I thought all those times I saved you, protected, you tended you out there after it all fell said it pretty clearly, but only when I fucked up and stumbled over the word girlfriend at the bar in this town did I realize, maybe I didn’t ever say it like I should.  So, yeah I thought you would be pleased when I said you were my wife then at the eights, but really I did it to protect you from the men with guns, yeah okay, claim you, but when I thought about it, isn’t that who you are? Sort of… Well, I said it to you didn’t I, that I loved you, when you were tending the corn. I meant it. I did. I just wish women came with an instruction manual. They had a manual for everything in the military — ought to be one for women too.