“ Not knowing what I needed to do or where I needed to go, I knew all the same that I was going in the right direction. J.D. Jordan
“ That got me to laughing too. His laughter, like his yelling, got into you until you was right soaked with it. So you couldn’t help yourself. But it felt good. Light. I tell you, I hadn’t felt like tha… J.D. Jordan
“ I tell you, mister, if there’s anything good about being a hot-tempered bitch, it’s knowing right well what buttons to push in others seeing as they’re the same ones what get your own back up. J.D. Jordan
“ Was still between Martha and Jane, then, I was. Between the girl I was and who I wanted to be. J.D. Jordan
“ Was like the Green Man said, some you got to put to the bullet. Some to the tongue. Often the latter, with me. But some, you just got to put behind you. J.D. Jordan
“ I was the luckiest girl. Don’t you think because I didn’t have no proper man or husband I was anything else. Wasn’t no place I’d rather be than right there. Even now, I pine for that uncomfortable roc… J.D. Jordan
“ But tell you true, I honestly didn’t think nothing about the Green Man beefing that posse. Was just men and the world’s full of them. J.D. Jordan
“ Maybe I’d lost something. Maybe I’d lost a lot—more, even, than I could suffer—but I still had my own self. And lonesome as I might be, wasn’t no force on Earth or from above what could make me less. J.D. Jordan
“ And in the silence what followed, I reckon our eyes had some long conversation our mouths could’ve never talked through. Some long, looking talk about things gone and long since said. About cries out… J.D. Jordan
“ Seems a lot of men never saw one such as me. A girl what could keep up and fight and ride and curse with the best of them. A girl what ain’t trapped in some dress or some house or some bed. A girl wha… J.D. Jordan