I wanted to tell him that he was my best friend and I loved him like crazy, but boys didn't say such things to other boys, and nobody said such things to Rowdy.

I was on a one-way bridge. There was no way to turn around, even if I wanted to.

So what was I doing in racist Reardan, where more than half of every graduating class went to college? Nobody in my family had ever gone near a college.

I wasn't just defending myself. I was defending Indians, black people, and buffalo.