Henry and Lyman were two free-spirited people, in the beginning. “Then, before we had thought it over at all, the car belonged to us and our pockets were empty. We had just enough money for gas back home.” The two made a major purchase on an impulse. “We went places in that car, me and Henry. We took off driving all one whole summer.” Only uninhibited people would just up and take off driving for no reason. “Some people hang on to details when they travel, but we didn’t let them bother us and just lived our everyday lives from here to there.” It was almost as if the two brothers went wherever the wind blew them to. “We were somewhere in Montana, or maybe on the Blood Reserve – it could have been anywhere. Anyway it was where we met the girl.” T

This short story is a perfect example of how war can alter anyone’s mind state. Henry was a fun loving person who was changed into almost a heartless beast of sorts. There was a point where he did come back to his normal self, but it took practically destroying a car that he cherished. Even that was not permanent.

hese two brothers picked up a perfect stranger! She asked them for a ride to Alaska and they happily obliged. When they got up there, they made themselves at home and got to know the girl more. “You couldn’t tell how much hair she had when it was rolled up so neatly. Then my brother Henry did something funny. He went up to the chair and said, ‘Jump on my shoulders.’ So she did that, and her hair reached down past his waist, and he started twirling, this way and that, so her hair was flung out from side to side.” Both Henry and Lyman were happy people; happy that is, until Henry was sent for to go into the army.

When Henry returned from the army, he was definitely a changed person. “But he was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere but always up and moving around.” This is not the happy-go-lucky Henry we became accustomed to. “They got to leaving him alone most of the time, and I didn’t blame them. It was a fact: Henry was jumpy and mean.” Henry’s character seemed to be that of a pleasant one before he was sent off to war; h

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