I Know I'm Smarter Than An Armadillo

I Wanted Readers To Be Genuinely Unsure As To Whether She's Telling The Truth Or Lying. It Meant Making Her Partly Sympathetic, And Partly Unsympathetic, Which Wasn't Easy.

People Spend Thousands Of Dollars On Stereos. Sometimes Tens Of Thousands. There Is A Specialist Industry Right Here In The States Which Builds Stereo Gear To A Standard You Wouldn't Believe. Tubed Amplifiers Which Cost More Than A House. Speakers Taller Than Me. Cables Thicker Than A Garden Hose. Some Army Guys Had That Stuff. I'd Heard It On Bases Around The World. Wonderful. But They Were Wasting Their Money. Because The Best Stereo In The World Is Free. Inside Your Head. It Sounds As Good As You Want It To. As Loud As You Want It To Be.

A Person Less Fortunate Than Yourself Deserves The Best You Can Give. Because Of Duty, And Honor, And Service. You Understand Those Words? You Should Do Your Job Right, And You Should Do It Well, Simply Because You Can, Without Looking For Notice Or Reward.

I Had A Teacher Once, Grade School Somewhere. Philippines, I Think, Because She Always Wore A Big White Hat. So It Was Somewhere Hot. I Was Always Twice The Size Of The Other Kids, And She Used To Say To Me: Count To Ten Before You Get Mad, Reacher. And I've Counted Way Past Ten On This One. Way Past.

I Had Been Coming To America Very Frequently For Many, Many Years, So I Had Plenty Of Exposure - And Maybe The Best Kind Of Exposure, Because I Think First Impressions Are Very Important. Maybe I Notice Stuff That Is Just Subliminal To People Who Live Here All The Time.