I watched the tree house from my old deer blind for three days before I decided it was empty and safe. Before my foot left the bottom rung of the ladder, he had a knife up under my chin. That took doin’, gettin’ the drop on me like that. That took some commitment.

“Drop the .22,” he said, so I lay it down on the grass.

“You don’t want that old .22,” I said. “No recoil to it, so it’s easy for me to handle. But you’ve got two good hands.” He took the knife from my throat and picked up the rifle, and then backed away, keeping the gun aimed at my head. It was the short stocky fella that I’d let go back on the highway, the one whose friend I shot.

“What? You gonna tell me that you know where I can get a better gun?” he said.

“No,” I said. “Go on and shoot me.”

“You gonna say you’ll tell me where there’s some ammo hid away if I don’t kill you?”

“No,” I said.

He was quiet for a minute, thinking. “Well, what have you got to offer me?”

“Nothin’ but that gun, fifteen shells and a canteen of water. Shoot me and take it. I imagine you drove up here and it’s a long walk back to the road, so go on and get it over with so you’ll make it back down there before dark.”

“You were stupid to let me go.” The fella walked around behind me and nudged the back of my head with the barrel, tryin’ to get up his nerve. From the sound of his voice, it wasn’t workin’. “What are you doing up here in the woods?”

“Findin’ out if I was stupid to let you go. Remember when we weren’t afraid of our neighbors? Hell, when we weren’t afraid to have neighbors..? Part of me was thinkin’ that lettin’ you go would bring a little mercy back into the world; a little light. Or maybe I was thinkin’ that it didn’t matter if you came back to kill me because if there’s no mercy left here anymore, then I don’t need to be here anymore either. Maybe I don’t know why I did it. Maybe I need you to show me. So pull the trigger or don’t. Show me.”

He tried to be as quiet as he could, but I heard him leave. He left my .22 propped up against a tree. That much, I have to say, I had not expected.