Jfk Assassination Essays - Single-bullet Theory, Warren Commission

Jfk Assassination Conspiracy or Single-gunman? Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany during World War II, once said, The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. Although this may sound absurd, we can see many examples of this in the world's history. One example would have to be the John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination. For over thirty years the people of the United States were led to believe that a single gunman had shot and killed Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m... However, in this paper, I will dispute the ancient analization of the facts that show a single gunman was involved, and try to show that a conspiracy must have taken place. According to the old facts regarding the case of the JFK assassination, Kennedy was killed by a single gunman. On November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST (Central Standard Time), Kennedy was riding in an open limousine through Dallas, Texas. At this time, Kennedy was shot in the head and neck by a sniper. He was then taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Later, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine, at a nearby theater. By the next morning, Oswald was booked for the murder of President John F. Kennedy. Two days later, Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, while he was being moved from the city to the county jail. At a glance, the above story sounds as if this should be an open-and-shut case. After all, according to the facts above, Oswald must have killed Kennedy. However, you must take a deeper look into this case. Many people who witnessed the murder of John F. Kennedy dispute the facts above, saying that they heard shots from places besides the book depository, and other things that may contradict what is stated above. One of these witnesses, Abraham Zapruder, captured the entire assassination on his Bell and Howell video camera. This movie, cleverly called the Zapruder Film, is the single best piece of visual evidence in this case. In order to more clearly understand the Zapruder Film, it is necessary to break it down into frames. The particular Bell and Howell movie camera that Zapruder was using ran at about twenty frames per second. When using this frame system, you must remember that all shots were actually fired several frames before the number that is assigned to them. For example, the fatal heart wound, called Z313, was probably fired at Z310, since it took 2-3 frames at about twenty frames per second for the bullet to reach the victim. Also, you must remember that sound travels very quickly at an impossible speed. When keeping this in mind, it is expected that witnesses heard the shot at some point after the bullet passed. The following shows a break down of the frames of the Zapruder film: The Presidential limousine first comes into view at frame 133 (the starting point of this timeline.) The first shot at (or just before) Z187 would have passed through both Governor Connally and the President. The second shot, which passed above the limousine at Z284, missed the President and hit the curb near witness James Tague. This caused his minor wound. At Z313, the fatal shot occurs, which blew out major portions of the Presidents brain and skull. - A fourth shot occurred at Z323 (slightly 1/2 second after the fatal wound at Z313). Due to the proximity of this report to the one at Z313, as well as it's more distant origin, most witnesses were unable to hear this shot. Therefore, the above is when the bullets hit either Kennedy or Connally, or passed through the frames of the Zapruder film. Of the one-hundred seventy-eight witnesses at Dealey Plaza, one-hundred thirty- two said that they hear exactly three shots. If Oswald was a single gunman, it would have taken him at least 2. 3 seconds to reload his Mannlicher Carcano rifle. However, the general consensus of the witnesses is that they heard a single shot, followed by silence, with the second and third shots bunched together. For example, Lee Bowers, one of the witnesses, testified, I heard three shots, one, then

friday the 13th pt2 essays

friday the 13th pt2 essays Shane Gladstone Film Criticism Is Friday the 13th Part 2 typical of the slasher movie formula as laid out by Vera Dika? After having read Vera Dikas text Games of Terror (Dika, 1990) and watched the film in question Friday the 13th Part 2 (Steve Miner, US 1980) it was clear to me from the outset that there are parallels to be drawn between the two. Throughout this essay it is my intention to re-evaluate Dikas theories in relation to the chosen text and come to my own natural conclusions as to whether it qualifies as a strong example of the stalker genre or not. I will do this initially by re-reading the text and picking out the sections of it that relate the strongest to scenes in the film, once these have been chosen I will then concentrate on these scenes and texts in particular as examples of my methodology. I have done this by focusing on the typical stalker cliches presented to the viewer in the opening scene and the general use of space and setting throughout the narrative. The discussion of the typical stalker scene, setting, characterisation and plot structure. Friday the 13th Part 2 (Steve Miner, US 1981) opens with a lurking point of view shot of the killer (Jason Voorhees) watching the child of Alice (Adrienne King, heroine of the original movie Friday the 13th (Sean S Cunningham, US 1980) walk home alone in the rain while singing to himself a childrens song. This song (singin in the rain) signifies happiness and innocence, as a counter reaction to the song the soundtrack music playing in the background is dark, atmospheric and chilling. The setting in which they are located is suburban and typically American however the dark and the rain of the weather give the scene an almost gothic feel and the viewer feels that the child is exposed and open to attack. Moving inside the house the next shot depicts Alice laid on her bed in the middle of a nightmar...

Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simons 1963 Romantic Comedy

Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon's 1963 Romantic Comedy Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy written by Neil Simon. It premiered on Broadway in 1963, featuring leading man Robert Redford. The play was a smash hit, running for over 1,500 performances.​​​ The Basic Plot Corie and Paul are newlyweds, fresh from their honeymoon. Corie is still enthralled by her recent sexual awakening and the adventure that comes with youth and marriage. She wants their passionate romantic life to continue at full speed. Paul, however, feels it is time to focus on his burgeoning career as an up-and-coming lawyer. When they dont see eye-to-eye about their apartment, their neighbors, and their sex drive, the new marriage experiences its first patch of rough weather. The Setting Choose a good location for your play, and the rest will write itself. Thats what seems to happen in Barefoot in the Park. The entire play takes place on the fifth floor of a New York apartment building, one without an elevator. In Act One, the walls are bare, the floor is vacant of furniture, and the skylight is broken, allowing it to snow in the middle of their apartment at the most inopportune of moments. Walking up the stairs completely exhausts the characters, granting hilarious, out-of-breath entrances for telephone repairmen, delivery men, and mother-in-laws alike. Corie loves everything about their new, dysfunctional home, even if one must turn the heat off to warm up the place and flush down in order to make the toilet work. Paul, however, does not feel at home, and with the mounting demands of his career, the apartment becomes a catalyst for stress and anxiety. The setting initially creates the conflict between the two lovebirds, but it is the neighbor character who furthers the tension. The Crazy Neighbor Victor Velasco wins the award for the most colorful character in the play, even outdoing the bright, adventuresome Corie. Mr. Velasco prides himself on his eccentricity. He shamelessly sneaks through his neighbors apartments in order to break into his own. He climbs out  five-story windows and travels daringly across the buildings ledges. He loves exotic food and even more exotic conversation. When he meets Corie for the first time, he happily admits to being a dirty old man. Although, he does note that he is only in his fifties and therefore still in that awkward phase. Corie is charmed by him, even going as far as covertly arranging a date between Victor Velasco and her prudish mother. Paul distrusts the neighbor. Velasco represents everything Paul does not want to become: spontaneous, provocative, silly. Of course, those are all traits which Corie values. Neil Simons Women If Neil Simons late wife was anything like Corie, he was a lucky man. Corie embraces life as a series of exciting quests, one more exciting than the next. She is passionate, funny, and optimistic. However, if life becomes dull or tedious, then she shuts down and loses her temper. For the most part, she is the complete opposite of her husband. (Until he learns to compromise and actually walk barefoot in the park... while intoxicated.) In some ways, she is comparable to Julie the deceased wife featured in Simons 1992 Jakes Women. In both comedies, the women are vibrant, youthful, naà ¯ve, and adored by the male leads. Neil Simons first wife, Joan Baim, may have exhibited some of those traits seen in Corie. At the very least, Simon seemed to have been head-over-heels in love with Baim, as indicated in this excellent New York Times article, The Last of the Red Hot Playwrights written by David Richards: The first time I saw Joan she was pitching softball, Simon remembers. I couldnt get a hit off her because I couldnt stop looking at her. By September, writer and counselor were married. In retrospect, it strikes Simon as a period of great innocence, green and summery and gone forever. I noticed one thing almost as soon as Joan and Neil were married, says Joans mother, Helen Baim. It was almost like he drew an invisible circle around the two of them. And nobody went inside that circle. Nobody! A Happy Ending, Of Course What ensues is a light-hearted, predictable final act, in which tensions mount between the newlyweds, culminating with a brief decision to separate (Paul sleeps on the couch for a spell), followed by the realization that both husband and wife should compromise. Its yet another simple (but useful) lesson on moderation. Is Barefoot Funny to Todays Audience? In the sixties and seventies, Neil Simon was the hitmaker of Broadway. Even throughout the eighties and nineties, he was creating plays that were vibrant crowd-pleasers. Plays such as Lost in Yonkers and his autobiographic trilogy pleased the critics as well. Although by todays media-frenzied standards, plays such as Barefoot in the Park may feel like the pilot episode of a slow-paced sitcom; yet there is still a lot to love about his work. When it was written, the play was a comedic look at a modern young couple who learn to live together. Now, enough time has gone by, enough changes in our culture and relationships have occurred, that Barefoot feels like a time capsule, a glimpse into a nostalgic past when the worst thing couples could argue about is a broken skylight, and all conflicts could be resolved simply by making a fool of oneself.

Assignment #4 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

#4 - Assignment Example This depends on the manner of the devices orientation. Another reason is because it enables its users to customize the home screens they use with shortcuts for applications and widgets that allow the users display live content like weather contents and emails, on the home screen directly. 5. The changes made to /etc/network/interfaces fail to take effect because some of the components could be missing like the ID, the scheme such as HTTP, and an incomplete host name. Only the path is provided, and is not complete either. 6. A grep c, or grep command file name does allow someone to search multiple files or a single file for lines which contain a pattern. In a case where matches were fund, 0 is the exit status and 2 in a case where errors occurred. 9. (9a) DMZ global is a managed network service which enables secure connectivity between its client’s networks and their clients and business partners. A single pipe infrastructure is implemented between it and its client’s network .this terminates all client’s 3rd parties connections on the secure business exchange of DMZ Global and network infrastructure, doing away with the client’s necessity to maintain a complex onsite security environment. 15. The cron job, 30 22 5 * * prod /home/prod/transfermonfunds, means that, the URL, prod /home/prod/transfermonfunds will be requested by the server in every 30th minute of every 22nd day of the 5th day each

FDI Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

FDI Strategy - Essay Example These trends come with different advantages as well as their fair share of challenges as pressure to belong grows on these corporations and firms regularly. To assist in these changing trends, foreign direct investment guarantees that the corporation is well-situated through mergers, joint ventures, or acquisition of shares. This guarantees their position in the growing market, and a place in their hosts’ market (Peng, 2012). MNE selected (who they are and what they do) Multinational enterprises are taking over the world by storm as they strive and struggle to capture the international market through some of the products and services they offer. One major MNE that is popular in this day and age is probably the McDonald’s fast food chain. This MNE has been around for a particularly long time and is keen on spreading its wings into different regions of the world, so as to capitalize on the changing trends. Changes in the technological and cultural field are making it easier for MNEs to break into emerging markets and take advantage of the growing number of consumers (Peng, 2012). McDonald’s Corporation probably has the largest chain of fast food restaurants around the world. It is situated in almost 119 countries, and has its headquarters in the United States. The corporation sells almost anything that is considered fast food, ranging from soft drinks to desserts for its ever-growing customer base. Sadly, one region that may not boast of having a branch of this corporation is North Korea. Challenges and advantages of FDI for the MNE One of the main advantages of FDI for the MNE is that the host country may be assisted in their quest for improving their infrastructure and projects that boost their economy (Dunning & Lundan, 2008). McDonald’s, in some of the areas that it is situated, can offer them the aid they need in order to be self-sufficient and increase their infrastructure developments. North Korea, as a region that does not boast of having a McDonald’s branch or franchise, may need the services and job opportunities that arise from the corporation’s presence in the region. Moreover, greater competition may arise from all the subsidiaries of the corporation, which may lead to an increase in productivity and gains from all groups participating in the business. Some of the challenges of foreign direct investment for the fast food corporation involve the exploitation of labor in the region. In order to make a mark in the region in which they are situated, corporations are pushed into focu sing on their profits, rather than the positive impact of their presence. Also, the host’s country’s investment policies may be a tremendous challenge to the main corporation (Dunning & Lundan, 2008). If the host region has stringent investment policy measures, it may be next to impossible for the mother corporation to invest in the host country, or even find the right strategies to satisfy their overall organizational performance. Best way for the MNE to minimize foreign exchange risks For MNEs, it is crucial to identify the risks that are posed to its operations. The corporation needs to monitor its financial, portfolio, and structural risks and engage in risk management strategies that may protect the corporation’s investments in the host country. When it comes down to foreign exchange and MNEs, structural risks are the most crucial risks to monitor. This is because mismatches between cash inflows and outflows can cause

A Recipe for Revolution :: miscellaneous

A Recipe for Revolution Today’s world subjects an individual to many different socio-religious-political influences. Out of those individuals come idealized leaders reinforcing their influences. In the increasing complexity of such memes and their interactions clarity and an understanding of evolutionary paths that is favored by nature-one that results in better survival- has become paramount. An assumption can boldly be made that violent or non violent constituents in the practice of such ideals eventually determine the desirable outcome namely the survival and success in the pursuit. As such one begins to wonder what has happened to non-violence of Gandhian heritage. It seems a dead and irrevocable concept in the turbulent waters of today. If one said its no longer applicable, its not without ground. Let us see how an opposition to Gandhian nonviolence can be mounted. It could have only worked against British A finer point is the fact that any means of non-violence protest is sustainable provided the opposition has a moral value not to cross a certain line. Has it been the case where British practiced shoot or execute anybody who may protest by any means, then Gandhi would have been shot lot earlier, perhaps in the train in South Africa, and there would have been no mahatma or success of non violence. Take Hitler for example. Let alone resisting, even if you try to cooperate with German for the demise of Jews, as a Jew you can be sure you will be shot. Where do you put non-violence against such a tyranny? There is no current conflict scenario where non-violence can be applied It won’t be exaggeration to state that â€Å"almost all the current conflict in the world has an armed oppression against unarmed public.† The statement can be substantiated by following two different points. In the most direct sense it means an authority’s aggression towards specific category of people using the unitary powers they hold which eventually fuel and give birth to an armed opposition or say a revolution. Most importantly on the second sense in any such conflicts, revolution or terrorism, just or unjust, it is the innocent people who are victimized the most. It is in this context we must identify the current conflict scenarios as a new era-new era of violence. What is clear is the fact that the nature of the conflicts in the world has significantly shifted. Not long ago, it used to be fighting a foreigner-imperialist for the independence of native land.

Zoe’s Tale PART II Chapter Thirteen

Two weeks after we landed on Roanoke, Magdy, Enzo, Gretchen and I went for a walk. â€Å"Watch where you land,† Magdy told us. â€Å"There are some big rocks down here.† â€Å"Great,† Gretchen said. She shined her pocket light – acceptable technology, no computer equipment in it, just an old-fashioned LED – at the ground, looking for a place to land, and then hopped down from the edge of the container wall, aiming for her preferred spot. Enzo and I heard the oof as she landed, and then a bit of cursing. â€Å"I told you to watch where you landed,† Magdy said, shining his light on her. â€Å"Shut it, Magdy,† she said. â€Å"We shouldn't even be out here. You're going to get us all in trouble.† â€Å"Yeah, well,† Magdy said. â€Å"Your words would have more moral authority if you weren't actually out here with me.† He flicked his light up off of Gretchen and toward me and Enzo, still up on the container wall. â€Å"You two planning to join us?† â€Å"Will you please stop with the light?† Enzo said. â€Å"The patrol is going to see it.† â€Å"The patrol is on the other side of the container wall,† Magdy said. â€Å"Although if you don't hurry it up, that's not going to be the case for long. So move it.† He flicked the light back and forth quickly in Enzo's face, making an annoying strobe effect. Enzo sighed and slid down off the container wall; I heard the muffled thump a second later. Which left me, feeling suddenly very exposed on the top of the containers that were the defensive perimeter around our little village – and also the frontier beyond which we were not allowed to go at night. â€Å"Come on,† Enzo whispered up to me. He, at least, remembered we weren't supposed to be out and modulated his voice accordingly. â€Å"Jump down. I'll catch you.† â€Å"Are you dumb?† I asked, also in a whispery voice. â€Å"You'll end up with my shoes in your eye sockets.† â€Å"It was a joke,† Enzo said. â€Å"Fine,† I said. â€Å"Don't catch me.† â€Å"Jeez, Zoe,† Magdy said, in a definite nonwhisper. â€Å"Will you jump already?† I hopped off the container wall, down the three meters or so from the top, and tumbled a little when I landed. Enzo flicked his light on me, and offered me a hand up. I took it and squinted up at him as he pulled me up. Then I flicked my own light over to where Magdy was. â€Å"Jerk,† I told him. Magdy shrugged. â€Å"Come on,† he said, and started along the perimeter of the wall toward our destination. A few minutes later we were all flashing our lights into a hole. â€Å"Wow,† Gretchen said. â€Å"We've just broken curfew and risked being accidentally shot by the night guard for this. A hole in the ground. I'm picking our next field trip, Magdy.† Magdy snorted and knelt down into the hole. â€Å"If you actually paid attention to anything, you'd know that this hole has the council in a panic,† Magdy said. â€Å"Something dug this out the other night while the patrol wasn't watching. Something was trying to get in to the colony from out here.† He took his light and moved it up the nearest container until he spotted something. â€Å"Look. There are scratches on the container. Something tried to go over the top, and then when it couldn't it tried to go under.† â€Å"So what you're saying is that we're out here now with a bunch of predators,† I said. â€Å"It doesn't have to be a predator,† Magdy said. â€Å"Maybe it's just something that likes to dig.† I flicked my light back up to the claw marks. â€Å"Yeah, that's a reasonable theory.† â€Å"We couldn't have seen this during the day?† Gretchen asked. â€Å"When we could see the things that can leap out and eat us?† Magdy motioned his light over to me. â€Å"Her mom had her security people around it all day long. They weren't letting anybody else near it. Besides, whatever made this hole is long gone now.† â€Å"I'll remind you that you said that when something tears out your throat,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Relax,† Magdy said. â€Å"I'm prepared. And anyway, this hole is just the opening act. My dad is friends with some of the security folks. One of them told him that just before they closed everything up for the night, they saw a herd of those fanties over in the woods. I say we go look.† â€Å"We should get back,† Enzo said. â€Å"We shouldn't even be out here, Magdy. If they find us out there, we're all going to catch hell. We can see the fanties tomorrow. When the sun is up, and we can actually see them.† â€Å"Tomorrow they'll be awake and foraging,† Magdy said. â€Å"And there's no way we're going to be able to do anything other than look at them through binoculars.† Magdy pointed at me again. â€Å"Let me remind you that her parents have kept us cooped up for two weeks now, waiting to find out if anything might bruise us on this planet.† â€Å"Or kill us,† I said. â€Å"Which would be a problem.† Magdy waved this away. â€Å"My point is that if we actually want to see these things – actually get close enough to them that we can get a good look at them – we have to do it now. They're asleep, no one knows we're gone, and we'll be back before anyone misses us.† â€Å"I still think we should go back,† Enzo said. â€Å"Enzo, I know this is taking away from valuable make-out time with your girlfriend,† Magdy said, â€Å"but I thought you might want to explore something other than Zoe's tonsils for once.† Magdy was very lucky he wasn't in arm's reach when he made that comment. Either my arm or Enzo's. â€Å"You're being an ass again, Magdy,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Fine,† Magdy said. â€Å"You guys go back. I'll see you later. I'm going to see me some fanties.† He started toward the woods, waving his pocket light in the grass (or grasslike ground cover) as he walked. I shined my light over to Gretchen. She rolled her eyes in exasperation and started walking after Magdy. After a minute Enzo and I followed. Take an elephant. Make it just a little smaller. Lose the ears. Make its trunk shorter and tentaclly at the end. Stretch out its legs until it almost but not quite seems impossible that they could support the weight. Give it four eyes. And then do other assorted weird things to its body until it's not that it looks like an elephant, it's just that it looks more like an elephant than it looks like anything else you can think of. That's a fantie. In the two weeks we'd been trapped in the colony village, waiting for the â€Å"all clear† to actually begin colonization, the fanties had been spotted several times, either in the woods near the village or just barely in the clearing between the village and the woods. A fantie spotting would bring up a mad rush of children to the colony gate (a gap in the container wall, closed up at night) to look and gawk and wave to the creatures. It would also bring a somewhat more studiously casual wave of us teenagers, because we wanted to see them too, we just didn't want to seem too interested, since that would mess with our credibility with all our new friends. Certainly Magdy never gave any indication of actually caring about the fanties at all. He'd allow himself to be dragged to the gate by Gretchen when a herd passed by, but then he spent most of his time talking to the other guys who were also happy to make it look like they had gotten dragged to the gate. Just goes to show, I suppose. Even the self-consciously cool had a streak of kid in them. There was some argument as to whether the fanties we saw were a local group that lived in the area, or whether we'd seen a number of herds that were just migrating through. I had no idea which theory was right; we'd only been on planet for a couple of weeks. And from a distance, all the fanties looked pretty much the same. And up close, as we quickly discovered, they smelled horrible. â€Å"Does everything on this planet smell like crap?† Gretchen whispered to me as we glanced up at the fanties. They waved back and forth, ever so slightly, as they slept standing on their legs. As if to answer her question, one of the fanties closest to where we were hiding let rip a monumental fart. We gagged and giggled equally. â€Å"Shhhh,† Enzo said. He and Magdy were crouched behind another tall bush a couple of meters over from us, just short of the clearing where the fantie herd had decided to rest for the night. There were about a dozen of them, all sleeping and farting under the stars. Enzo didn't seem to be enjoying the visit very much; I think he was worried about us accidentally waking the fanties. This was not a minor concern; fantie legs looked spindly from a distance but up close it was clear they could trample any one of us without too much of a problem, and there were a dozen fanties here. If we woke them up and they panicked, we could end up being pounded into mincemeat. I think he was also still a little sore about the â€Å"exploring tonsils† comment. Magdy, in his usual less-than-charming way, had been digging at Enzo ever since he and I officially started going out. The taunts rose and fell depending on what Magdy's relationship with Gretchen was at the moment. I was guessing at the moment Gretchen had cut him off. Sometimes I thought I needed a graph or maybe a flow chart to understand how the two of them got along. Another one of the fanties let off an epic load of flatulence. â€Å"If we stay here any longer, I'm going to suffocate,† I whispered to Gretchen. She nodded and motioned me to follow her. We snuck over to where Enzo and Magdy were. â€Å"Can we go now?† Gretchen whispered to Magdy. â€Å"I know you're probably enjoying the smell, but the rest of us are about to lose dinner. And we've been gone long enough that someone might start wondering where we went.† â€Å"In a minute,† Magdy said. â€Å"I want to get closer to one.† â€Å"You're joking,† Gretchen said. â€Å"We've come this far,† Magdy said. â€Å"You really are an idiot sometimes, you know that?† Gretchen said. â€Å"You don't just go walking up to a herd of wild animals and say hello. They'll kill you.† â€Å"They're asleep,† Magdy said. â€Å"They won't be if you walk right into the middle of them,† Gretchen said. â€Å"I'm not that stupid,† Magdy said, his whispered voice becoming louder the more irritated he became. He pointed to the one closest to us. â€Å"I just want to get closer to that one. It's not going to be a problem. Stop worrying.† Before Gretchen could retort Enzo put his hand up to quiet them both. â€Å"Look,† he said, and pointed halfway down the clearing. â€Å"One of them is waking up.† â€Å"Oh, wonderful,† Gretchen said. The fantie in question shook its head and then lifted it, spreading the tentacles on its trunk wide. It waved them back and forth. â€Å"What's it doing?† I asked Enzo. He shrugged. He was no more an expert on fanties than I was. It waved its tentacles some more, in a wider arc, and then it came to me what it was doing. It was smelling something. Something that shouldn't be there. The fantie bellowed, not from its trunk like an elephant, but from its mouth. All the other fanties were instantly awake and bellowing, and beginning to move. I looked over to Gretchen. Oh, crap, I mouthed. She nodded, and looked back over at the fanties. I looked over at Magdy, who had made himself suddenly very small. I don't think he wanted to get any closer now. The fantie closest to us wheeled about and scraped against the bush we were hiding behind. I heard the thud of its foot as the animal maneuvered itself into a new position. I decided it was time to move but my body overruled me, since it wasn't giving me control of my legs. I was frozen in place, squatting behind a bush, waiting for my trampling. Which never came. A second later the fantie was gone, run off in the same direction as the rest of its herd: away from us. Magdy popped up from his crouching position, and listened to the herd rumbling off in the distance. â€Å"All right,† he said. â€Å"What just happened?† â€Å"I thought they smelled us for sure,† I said. â€Å"I thought they'd found us.† â€Å"I told you you were an idiot,† Gretchen said to Magdy. â€Å"If you'd been out there when they woke up, we'd be scooping what was left of you into a bucket.† The two of them started sniping at each other; I turned to look at Enzo, who had turned to face the opposite direction from where the fanties had run. He had his eyes closed but it looked like he was concentrating on something. â€Å"What is it?† I asked. He opened his eyes, looked at me, and then pointed in the direction he was facing. â€Å"The breeze is coming from this direction,† he said. â€Å"Okay,† I said. I wasn't following him. â€Å"Have you ever gone hunting?† Enzo asked. I shook my head. â€Å"We were upwind of the fanties,† he said. â€Å"The wind was blowing our scent away from them.† He pointed to where the first fantie to wake up had been. â€Å"I don't think that fantie would have smelled us at all.† Click. â€Å"Okay,† I said. â€Å"Now I get it.† Enzo turned to Magdy and Gretchen. â€Å"Guys,† he said. â€Å"It's time to leave. Now.† Magdy flashed his pocket light at Enzo and seemed ready to say something sarcastic, then caught the expression on Enzo's face in the pocket light's circle. â€Å"What is it?† â€Å"The fanties didn't run off because of us,† Enzo said. â€Å"I think there's something else out there. Something that hunts the fanties. And I think it's coming this way.† It's a cliche of horror entertainments to have teenagers lost in the woods, imagining they're being chased by something horrible that's right behind them. And now I know why. If you ever want to feel like you're on the verge of total, abject bowel-releasing terror, try making your way a klick or two out of a forest, at night, with the certain feeling you're being hunted. It makes you feel alive, it really does, but not in a way you want to feel alive. Magdy was in the lead, of course, although whether he was leading because he knew the way back or just because he was running fast enough that the rest of us had to chase him was up for debate. Gretchen and I followed, and Enzo took up the rear. Once I slowed down to check on him and he waved me off. â€Å"Stay with Gretchen,† he said. Then I realized that he was intentionally staying behind us so whatever might be following us would have to get through him first. I would have kissed him right then if I hadn't been a quivering mess of adrenaline, desperately running to get home. â€Å"Through here,† Magdy said to us. He pointed at an irregular natural path that I recognized as being the one we used to get into the forest in the first place. I was focusing on getting on that path and then something stepped in behind Gretchen and grabbed me. I screamed. There was a bang, followed by a muffled thump, followed by a shout. Ezno launched himself at what grabbed at me. A second later he was on the forest floor, Dickory's knife at his throat. It took me longer than it should have to recognize who it was holding the knife. â€Å"Dickory!† I yelled. â€Å"Stop!† Dickory paused. â€Å"Let him go,† I said. â€Å"He's no danger to me.† Dickory removed the knife and stepped away from Enzo. Enzo scrambled away from Dickory, and away from me. â€Å"Hickory?† I called. â€Å"Is everything all right?† From ahead, I heard Hickory's voice. â€Å"Your friend had a handgun. I have disarmed him.† â€Å"He's choking me!† Magdy said. â€Å"If Hickory wanted to choke you, you wouldn't be able to talk,† I yelled back. â€Å"Let him go, Hickory.† â€Å"I am keeping his handgun,† Hickory said. There was a rustle in the darkness as Magdy picked himself up. â€Å"Fine,† I said. Now that we stopped moving, it was like someone pulled a stopper, and all the adrenaline in my body was falling out from the bottom of my feet. I crouched down to keep from falling over. â€Å"No, not fine,† Magdy said. I saw him emerge out of the gloom, stalking toward me. Dickory interposed itself between me and Magdy. Magdy's stalking came to a quick halt. â€Å"That's my dad's gun. If he finds it missing, I'm dead.† â€Å"What were you doing with the gun in the first place?† Gretchen asked. She had also come back to where I was standing, Hickory following behind her. â€Å"I told you I was prepared,† Magdy said, and then turned to me. â€Å"You need to tell your bodyguards that they need to be more careful.† He pointed at Hickory. â€Å"I almost took off that one's head.† â€Å"Hickory?† I said. â€Å"I was not in any serious danger,† Hickory said, blandly. His attention seemed elsewhere. â€Å"I want my gun back,† Magdy said. I think he was trying for threatening; he failed when his voice cracked. â€Å"Hickory will give you your dad's gun back when we get back to the village,† I said. I felt a fatigue headache coming on. â€Å"Now,† Magdy said. â€Å"For God's sake, Magdy,† I snapped. I was suddenly very tired, and angry. â€Å"Will you please just shut up about your damn gun. You're lucky you didn't kill one of us with it. And you're lucky you didn't hit one of them† – I waved at Dickory and then Hickory – â€Å"because then you would be dead, and the rest of us would have to explain how it happened. So just shut up about the stupid gun. Shut up and let's go home.† Magdy stared at me, then stomped off into the gloom, toward the village. Enzo gave me a strange look and then followed his friend. â€Å"Perfect,† I said, and squeezed my temples with my hands. The monster headache I was on the verge of had arrived, and it was a magnificent specimen. â€Å"We should return to the village,† Hickory said to me. â€Å"You think?† I said, and then stood up and stomped off, away from it and Dickory, back to the village. Gretchen, suddenly left with my two bodyguards for company, was not far behind me. â€Å"I don't want one word of what happened tonight to get back to John and Jane,† I said to Hickory, as it, Dickory and I stood in the common area of the village. At this time of night there were only a couple of other people who were loitering there, and they quickly disappeared when Hickory and Dickory showed up. Two weeks had not been enough time for people to get used to them. We had the common area to ourselves. â€Å"As you say,† Hickory said. â€Å"Thank you,† I said, and started walking away from them again, toward the tent I shared with my parents. â€Å"You should not have been in the woods,† Hickory said. That stopped me. I turned around to face Hickory. â€Å"Excuse me?† I said. â€Å"You should not have been in the woods,† Hickory said. â€Å"Not without our protection.† â€Å"We had protection,† I said, and some part of my brain didn't believe those words had actually come out of my mouth. â€Å"Your protection was a handgun wielded by someone who did not know how to use it,† Hickory said. â€Å"The bullet he fired went into the ground less than thirty centimeters from him. He almost shot himself in the foot. I disarmed him because he was a threat to himself, not to me.† â€Å"I'll be sure to tell him that,† I said. â€Å"But it doesn't matter. I don't need your permission, Hickory, to do what I please. You and Dickory aren't my parents. And your treaty doesn't say you can tell me what to do.† â€Å"You are free to do as you will,† Hickory said. â€Å"But you took an unnecessary risk to yourself, both by going into the forest and by not informing us of your intent.† â€Å"That didn't stop you from coming in after me,† I said. It came out like an accusation, because I was in an accusatory mood. â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"So you took it on yourself to follow me around when I didn't give you permission to do so,† I said. â€Å"Yes,† Hickory said. â€Å"Don't do that again,† I said. â€Å"I know privacy is an alien concept to you, but sometimes I don't want you around. Can you understand that? You† – I pointed at Dickory – â€Å"nearly cut my boyfriend's throat tonight. I know you don't like him, but that's a little much.† â€Å"Dickory would not have harmed Enzo,† Hickory said. â€Å"Enzo doesn't know that,† I said, and turned back to Dickory. â€Å"And what if he had gotten in a good hit on you? You might have hurt him just to keep him down. I don't need this kind of protection. And I don't want it.† Hickory and Dickory stood there silently, soaking up my anger. After a couple of seconds, I got bored with this. â€Å"Well?† I said. â€Å"You were running out of the forest when you came by us,† Hickory said. â€Å"Yeah? So?† I said. â€Å"We thought we might be being chased by something. Something spooked the fanties we were watching and Enzo thought it might have been a predator or something. It was a false alarm. There was nothing behind us or else it would have caught up with us when you two leaped out of nowhere and scared the crap out of all of us.† â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"No? You didn't scare the crap out of us?† I said. â€Å"I beg to differ.† â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"You were being followed.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† I said. â€Å"There was nothing behind us.† â€Å"They were in the trees,† Hickory said. â€Å"They were pacing you from above. Moving ahead of you. We heard them before we heard you.† I felt weak. â€Å"Them?† I said. â€Å"It is why we took you as soon as we heard you coming,† Hickory said. â€Å"To protect you.† â€Å"What were they?† I asked. â€Å"We don't know,† Hickory said. â€Å"We did not have the time to make any good observation. And we believe your friend's gunshot scared them off.† â€Å"So it wasn't necessarily something hunting us,† I said. â€Å"It could have been anything.† â€Å"Perhaps,† Hickory said, in that studiously neutral way it had when it didn't want to disagree with me. â€Å"Whatever they were, they were moving along with you and your group.† â€Å"Guys, I'm tired,† I said, because I didn't want to think about any of this anymore, and if I did think about it anymore – about the idea that some pack of creatures was following us in the trees – I might have a collapse right there in the common area. â€Å"Can we have this conversation tomorrow?† â€Å"As you wish, Zoe,† Hickory said. â€Å"Thank you,† I said, and started shuffling off toward my cot. â€Å"And remember what I said about not telling my parents.† â€Å"We will not tell your parents,† Hickory said. â€Å"And remember what I said about not following me,† I said. They said nothing to this. I waved at them tiredly and went off to sleep. I found Enzo outside his family's tent the next morning, reading a book. â€Å"Wow, a real book,† I said. â€Å"Who did you kill to get that?† â€Å"I borrowed it from one of the Mennonite kids,† he said. He showed the spine to me. â€Å"Huckleberry Finn. You heard of it?† â€Å"You're asking a girl from a planet named Huckleberry if she's heard of Huckleberry Finn,† I said. I hoped the incredulous tone of my voice would convey amusement. Apparently not. â€Å"Sorry,† he said. â€Å"I didn't make the connection.† He flipped the book open to where he had been reading. â€Å"Listen,† I said. â€Å"I wanted to thank you. For what you did last night.† Enzo looked up over his book. â€Å"I didn't do anything last night.† â€Å"You stayed behind Gretchen and me,† I said. â€Å"You put yourself between us and whatever was following us. I just wanted you to know I appreciated it.† Enzo shrugged. â€Å"Not that there was anything following us after all,† he said. I thought about telling him about what Hickory told me, but kept it in. â€Å"And when something did come out at you, it was ahead of me. So I wasn't much help, actually.† â€Å"Yeah, about that,† I said. â€Å"I wanted to apologize for that. For the thing with Dickory.† I didn't really know how to put that. I figured saying Sorry for when my alien bodyguard very nearly took your head off with a knife wouldn't really go over well. â€Å"Don't worry about it,† Enzo said. â€Å"I do worry about it,† I said. â€Å"Don't,† Enzo said. â€Å"Your bodyguard did its job.† For a second it seemed like Enzo would say something more, but then he cocked his head and looked at me like he was waiting for me to wrap up whatever it was I was doing, so he could get back to his very important book. It suddenly occurred to me that Enzo hadn't written me any poetry since we landed on Roanoke. â€Å"Well, okay then,† I said, lamely. â€Å"I guess I'll see you a little later, then.† â€Å"Sounds good,† Enzo said, and then gave me a friendly wave and put his nose into Huck Finn's business. I walked back to my tent and found Babar inside and went over to him and gave him a hug. â€Å"Congratulate me, Babar,† I said. â€Å"I think I just had my first fight with my boyfriend.† Babar licked my face. That made it a little better. But not much.