Reubidium Rb-86

Friends, may I please introduce George Smith.

George is a Navajo. I met George on my way through his nation's reservation on I-40 in Arizona. Somewhere halfway between Joseph City and Gallop, George had his thumb out on the side of the road.

George is a veteran of Vietnam. He was a Marine. He had to kill many people during those days. He recalled the experience of throwing hand grenades into the tunnels and burrows the Viet Cong would dig. As he told these stories, his language wandered between English and Navajo. I got the impression that once upon a time George's English was much better than it is now.

Since the war, he has lived his life on the reservation. In 1967 he was in love with a German girl named Catherine. But it could not be. It was up to him to raise $500 to bring her to the U.S., and the Marines would not station him in Germany. And so it went.

These days, George likes to drink peppermint schnapps and hunt bigfoot. When he catches them, he kills them with his bare hands and then eats their flesh raw.

George is a good man.