spirit that had matured him into the man that he had become. Patricia felt her heart exploding as she embraced Seven. She held her emotions in check as she had done her entire life and allowed the Colonel’s truck to clear the dirt path that led to the paved road before she broke down and fell apart.
The Colonel drove the bulk of the drive at a slower-than-usual pace. He felt like a condemned prisoner taking his final walk. Above all he feared the return drive home with nothing to occupy him but his thoughts. He feared the guilt and loneliness that would surely engulf him on the long ride back to Thomasville. He put on his best face for the boy, smiled, and participated in all the nervous chatter and ideology that Seven was spewing in the cab of the truck.