Tinker and Blue Read Free Page B

trigonometry,” he had argued, trying to protect his friend from the pitfalls of high school that included math, science and French. But Tinker, who planned eventually to join his mechanic mentor, Charlie, in Charlie’s dream of inventing an engine that ran on oxygen, understood abstractly that a knowledge of math would be beneficial. He persevered and passed, much to Blue’s dismay, and they graduated together.
    What had set Blue reflecting on his front-page intelligence of the Vietnam war was his conversations with the hippies they picked up, which always found their way back the war. Blue, without a lot of support from Tinker, tried to reason with them about what was at stake if the Communists won the war.
    â€œWe have this guy back home, eh, Farmer. He’s not a farmer, though. He’s a horse trader, but, to quote the other fellow, they call him Farmer because he planted so many seeds in Cape Breton he’s going to have more descendants than Abraham. Well, Farmer was in the Second World War with the Cape Breton Highlanders and he told me if it wasn’t for our soldiers we’d all be Nazis. I talked to him about Vietnam because he was wounded in Casino and everything so he knows all about war. Farmer said the Commies are just as bad as the Nazis, and there’s billions of them in China. In Korea, eh, the Chinese sent more soldiers than the Allies had bullets. They just kept piling up like yellow snow, Farmer said. He wasn’t there but he talked to guys who were. We beat them in Korea, so now they’re trying to sneak through Vietnam. If they come across the Pacific and the Russians come over the North Pole, which is the big plan, Farmer says, then the world won’t be safe for capitalism.”
    The rides weren’t long enough for him to convert anybody with the logic of what he had learned in Modern World Problems and from Farmer, who had taught Blue much of what he understood about the world.
    â€œI bet if it was Canada over there in Vietnam you and I would be full of medals by now, not hiding in a haystack of hair, eh?”
    Tinker’s thoughts rose slowly out of the deepening silence imposed on him from the heat and the weird menagerie they had been accumulating and discharging over the miles.
    â€œWhat if they really are burning babies over there, Blue? Everybody says—”
    â€œHold her right there, buddy! They have a word for that in Modern World Problems. Propaganda! The Communists are geniuses at it. They spread lies and make people believe them. Do you think our side would do anything like that? Even if some crazy soldier wanted to, do you think the President of the United States would let him? He’s the frigging President of the United States, for God’s sake. He’s even more important than the Prime Minister.”
    â€œBut everybody we talked to—”
    â€œEverybody we talked to was a frigging hippie, Tinker! Think! Except for waitresses, we haven’t talked to a real human being since we crossed the border.... Oh, oh! Look! Let’s pick those two up.”

4
    Two hippies were standing with heavy packs piled between them on the side of the road on a straight stretch of highway that allowed Tinker and Blue to study them as they approached.
    â€œI can’t be sure, but they might be two girls,” Blue said with excitement as Tinker glided the Plymouth to the shoulder.
    One of the hikers ran over to the open window on Blue’s side of the Plymouth.
    â€œHi!” she said, a warm smile spreading across the most beautiful face Blue had ever seen. “We’re going to Colorado. Can you help us?”
    A garbled sound that passed for “sure” forced its way through Blue’s lips.
    â€œGreat!” she said, running back to get her friend and their gear.
    â€œIs Colorado on our route?” Tinker asked as Blue watched her easy gait take her back to their roadside camp.
    â€œIt is now, even if we