As soon as he was off of the train, with his saddle bags still over his shoulder, Heyes went to see Beth at the Leutze clinic. He walked down the crowded sidewalks in the afternoon heat. There had been no safe opportunity to wire Beth, or anyone, that he was coming back early, or that he had had any reason to do so. Heyes clattered up the stairs and almost ran into Jim as he hurried down the hall.

"Joshua!" cried Heyes' former roommate. "You're here! You're safe! Beth got a t-telegraph from C-Cat and she said a bou. . ."

Heyes put his finger to his lips and interrupted Jim sharply, speaking quietly even though the hall of the clinic was empty except for the pair of them, "Keep your voice down, Jim! I'm fine, but I won't be if the wrong person hears you! Thaddeus is fine, too."

Jim clapped his friend on the back, saying "Thank God!"

An office door opened and Beth, having heard her lover's voice, raced out and into Heyes' waiting arms. "Oh honey!" she breathed. Heyes' only answer was a long, deep, passionate kiss.

While the two were in each other's arms, Dr. Leutze appeared. A smile broke out on his face as he saw his former student, safe and sound. Heyes looked up from kissing his sweetheart and smiled to see his mentor looking so very glad to see him. The doctor exclaimed, "Oh, thank God! You've come home!" He reached out and took Heyes' hand.

Heyes smiled around at all of his friends, embarrassed to be so warmly greeted by so many people who cared about him. "Thanks!" he said self-consciously, "It surely is good to be home – and to see you all." Beth took special note – if Heyes had said anything about home before, it had always been in Colorado. That New York, where he had his girl and his other friends, could also be a kind of home for Heyes made Beth happy. She beckoned Heyes, Jim, and the doctor into her office. It was crowded in the little space, but there they could speak more openly.

Heyes told them, "Sorry I didn't have a chance to wire you all that I was coming. That bounty hunter that I guess Cat sent you the telegraph about was back in town and I had to get out fast. Cat didn't dare go to the telegraph office with that guy around, so it's too bad you didn't know that the Kid and I both got away safe. The Kid and I were pretty scared when that bounty hunter with those hounds showed up! The Kid knows about him, and his reputation's not real good. He'll kill an outlaw soon as look at him! We were mighty glad to realize that the man wasn't after us personally. He got two other poor unfortunate outlaws. I'm just glad to be out of there! It was getting way too hot for comfort and I don't mean the weather!"

The doctor spoke for the little group, "We're glad to have you safe, Heyes! I must say that I hope you two get that amnesty soon. We get very anxious about you sometimes."

"Me, too!" admitted Heyes. "Gosh, nobody but us ever cared before!"

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"Hey, Smith!" called Everett Carter down the hall of Columbia University, "Didn't think you'd be back until next week!" When he saw his western friend discretely shaking his head, Carter quieted down. Now that he was more aware of Smith's legal problems, he realized that he needed to be careful or he could make those problems worse. It was only when they got very close together and made sure that no one else was around that Carter dared to ask, much more quietly, "So what brought you back early?"

"Not here," Heyes whispered, looking around cautiously. Since there were no summer classes yet, they were free to go back to Carter's dorm room – the same place where Heyes had first shared his wanted status with his friends that spring. Heyes was just as glad not to meet Neal George or Huxtable or any other friends on the way – this conversation was going to be complex enough with just one person to tell his unsettling news to. Even without knowing the actual name, Ev was starting to know enough to make him squirm. Heyes tried to make sure that his friends thought his past was as just an ordinary sort of crook. He had no desire to share his infamy with them a minute before he had to.

When they got to Carter's Spartan little room, the young man looked uneasily at Smith, and then looked away. The two spoke standing a couple of steps apart, side by side, not looking into each other's eyes. It was the way men so often speak, but in Ev's room they had no bar to lean on as Heyes often had out West. For the Kid and Lom Trevors and so many men that Heyes knew well, what he had to say was routine stuff. For his friend Everett Carter, a graduate math student from Long Island, Heyes guessed that it would be anything but routine.

Heyes waited for his younger friend to take the lead, and he did, asking, "So, Smith – or whatever your name really is – what happened?

"&%^$^ bounty hunter," griped Heyes. "Had hounds. I had to get out of there fast."

"Gosh! Sounds terrifying!" said Carter with a startled gulp. He hadn't really thought about the severe drawbacks of being wanted.

Heyes shrugged and spoke very softly, "Well, I don't take to being tracked with hounds, I'll admit. He was on somebody else's trail, but he would have gone for me fast enough if he'd known I was there. Other than the hounds, it wasn't anything I haven't dealt with a hundred times or more."

"I hope you're exaggerating!" Ev almost laughed.

Heyes shook his head regretfully, "No, 'fraid not. A hundred is probably not too far off the number of time's I've been trailed by bounty hunters, sheriffs, posses."

"And they've never, ever caught you." Ev sounded openly skeptical.

Heyes laughed briefly, "I didn't say that! Sure I've been caught – too many times. And I've gotten away, one way or another, every time. Sometimes somebody helps out, or an understanding judge takes pity. But jail break is one of the crimes that shows up on my rap sheet. I've gotten pretty good at it."

"Wow! Remind me never to try to lock you in or out of anyplace! So you have a bounty on your head?" Even the usually confident Carter looked shaken.

Heyes nodded, "Yeah. But I'm telling you, Ev, you don't have to worry. I won't hurt you, or anybody! I won't do it!"

"But what about somebody's hurting you?" Ev asked with real concern.

Heyes shrugged again. "Goes with the territory. It happens a lot - even since . . . I went straight." Heyes only just barely stopped himself from saying, as he had so often, "we went straight." He was careful about keeping his partner's existence a secret from his college friends. He was committed to not putting the Kid in any added danger.

"If I was there . . .!" Ev was proud of his prowess with his fists.

Heyes broke in before his friend could say something too stupid, "You'd get out of the way fast – no fist is gonna stop a gun."

Ev Carter stopped and stared for a moment, then asked, in cautious awe, "You've stopped bullets?"

Heyes kept his tone casual, but could see that he was scaring his friend, "Yeah. And fired quite a few, though I don't usually hit anything. But I got to go, Ev. Charlie's got to have heard something by now and he'll be worried."

Truthfully, Heyes had exaggerated his need to talk to Professor Homer as an excuse to escape from an increasingly awkward conversation. But he did go to see his advisor. Homer was, in fact, rather startled when he heard a knock on his office door and opened it to see Hannibal Heyes standing there.

"Heyes!" Homer said before he could stop himself. Then he quickly looked out the door to make sure that he hadn't said that name when anyone was around to hear it who shouldn't. There were a couple of other students in the hall, but they were far enough away that Heyes and his advisor doubted they could have heard the name they shouldn't hear. They hadn't turned around, anyway.

Heyes went in to the sanctuary of Homer's office and sat down, like any other student, in the chair across the desk from Charlie Homer. "Well!" said Homer, "More adventures with bounty hunters, eh?"

Heyes nodded ruefully, "Yeah, Charlie. Not too bad, really – once we realized those hounds were on someone else's trail. How'd you know?"

"Cat wired Beth, and Beth told Leutze, and Leutze told Jim, and Jim came and told me. You've got quite the little network watching out for your affairs here!" Homer chuckled over the long sequence he had just relayed. He could see that it made the reformed outlaw uneasy. "And don't worry – I only told Marie! She'll be glad to know you're safe. How's the Kid?"

"He's safe, too. Without having me around making him obvious, we don't worry so much. As long as he doesn't draw, I don't think anyone would pick him out just by himself. His pretty face doesn't come across in words But that fast draw of his is kinda' distinctive, you got to admit. But the description of my face on those posters has gotten way too exact the last few years. Somebody got much too close. I wonder who it was – who betrayed us." Heyes fell silent at that. It was a troubling but old puzzle that he and the Kid had never succeeded in solving.

Homer changed the subject, "So, this fall you'll be leading a lab section for me! I'm sure you'll do real well at it. You've proven yourself as a teacher with Tom O'Keeffe."

"But it's real different with a whole section of kids, isn't it?," said Heyes sounding uncharacteristically uncertain. "Guess I'll learn as much as they do."

"I hope so!" said Homer. "That is the idea of a teaching assistant, after all. I think you have a gift for teaching – you know that. But even a gifted teacher needs lots practice in real classes. And, of course, I'll be here to answer any questions you have."

"What about how to deal with it if someone shows up to arrest me?" asked Heyes with a direct look into Homer's eyes. "You got any advice on that?"

"No," said his advisor matter-of-factly, "You know more about the legal stuff than I do. But I can help you with the classroom stuff that you'll need – both before your trial and after they find you innocent and let you off so you can teach!"

"I got my fingers crossed on that, Charlie!" said Heyes, "but if anyone's ever figured out how to predict how a jury's gonna act, nobody's ever told me."

Homer looked into his student's worried brown eyes, "It'll be alright, Heyes. I know it will. You just worry about the stuff you can control – in the classroom."

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Heyes came out of a Friday class in graduate calculus with Neal George at his side. "Whew!" said NG, wiping his brow, "Long hours in these summer sessions – 'specially when it's 90 degrees out!"

"Don't mention numbers to me – any numbers!" moaned Heyes mockingly. They both knew how he loved numbers, but even he had had a bit much in these summer classes that were more than twice as long as regular classes during the year.

The evening news boys were crying shrilly on the sidewalk "Wyoming becomes the 44th State! 44th Star on Flag Belongs to Wyoming!"

"Oh crap!" exclaimed Heyes, approaching a paper boy to buy a newspaper and learn the details.

"Huh? What do you have against Wyoming?" ask Neal curiously as his friend unfolded the paper and began to study it.

"Nothing," said, Heyes, looking up. But he knew that he couldn't just leave it there. "Oh, it's just a technicality that this is gonna make harder."

Neal whispered under his breath as they got clear of the crowd of newspaper boys and newspaper buyers, "Amnesty – that's what you mean, isn't it?" Heyes nodded. "There'll probably be a new governor, won't there?" Heyes nodded again.

"Yeah – got to start all over. Again – been quite a few new guys in the last seven years, what with deaths and resignations and presidential elections," signed Heyes. "Every time there's a new man, we got to start over."

"We?" asked Neal.

"I, um, got people in my corner. I can't tell you everything!" Heyes was obviously uncomfortable as they walked down the street and he made sure that no one got close enough to overhear them.

NG nodded. He understood, or tried to, "Well, Good luck!" he said, "How on earth do you ever manage to concentrate on school with all this other stuff going on?"

"It ain't easy!" said Heyes, "But friends are a help." He winked at NG as they parted to head to their respective rooms.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Well, congratulations, fellow grad-student!" said Huxtable to Heyes as they walked down the hall together toward their first classes of the new fall semester.

"You, too, Missouri!" said Heyes. "It's kinda nice to have that standing officially now, isn't it?"

"Yeah," agreed Huxtable, "now the grad students can't tease us in seminars and chase us out of the lounge whenever they feel like it!"

"Nobody chases me if they know what's good for them!" bristled Heyes. Being pushed around by grad students on the basis of seniority had always bothered him – especially since he had been older than almost all of them. And, of course, being chased had for years been a sore point with Heyes – but usually far from the classrooms of New York!

"You tell 'em, Kansas!" grinned Huxtable.

The new semester held a lot more for Heyes than a challenging round of graduate seminars. He met Beth at their favorite little Italian restaurant for dinner to tell her about it. As usual, they sat at sidewalk table where they could speak fairly openly as long as they kept their voices low and watched out for people walking by. Their favorite waiter, Ignacio, brought them spaghetti and a bottle of wine. Then he winked at the lovers and made sure to leave them alone for a while to eat and talk and maybe sneak a little kiss.

"If he knew what we really talk about when he's leaving us alone to smooch. . ." smiled Beth.

"Well, today it's just my first day as a teaching assistant," said Heyes.

"So, how'd it go honey?" asked Beth.

Heyes grinned. "Fine. It's a nice little group of kids. They didn't give me a hard time, though they knew it was my first day. They just had the same questions we always asked about quizzes and grading and class discussion."

"Those classes are usually so full of guys – any girls this time?" asked Beth as she twirled some strands of spaghetti around her fork.

"Yes, three girls," said Heyes as he chased down a meatball that was threatening to escape his plate.

Beth stopped eating to smile at her man, "So, did they appreciate having a very, very handsome lab instructor?"

Heyes actually blushed at that, "Well, if you mean did they giggle a lot, the answer is yes."

"No surprise there!" laughed Beth. "I don't blame them! You're pretty cute, honey! But seriously, you sure have come a long way in a short time. When I think that only five years ago, you couldn't say a word and hadn't even finished seventh grade! And now you're teaching college! You are a walking miracle, darling!"

"It's only assistant teaching," said Heyes modestly, looking down at his plate.

"You're amazing and you know it!" Beth insisted.

Heyes shrugged. "I have learned a lot – specially thanks to you! But I try not to get a big head about it. In the old days, I used to think I was really something. Strutted around the West like I owned the place. Don't know how Jed ever put up with me. Then I came out here and found out how ignorant I was. I thought I was so sophisticated, and I was just the biggest hick there ever was. So now I try to remember that I'm just a little assistant like all the other little assistants. All those PhD students and professors are way, way above me. I have a long way to go to get where I want to go."

Beth looked fondly at her man. He really had learned an awful lot, and not all of it in the classroom or even at the clinic, "Yes, but you're an awful lot closer than you were even a couple of years ago. Still, you're right. It's good to stay modest. I always think your partner's a great example that way. Great as he is – at you know what – he's so quiet and modest. No arrogance, when he sure could be arrogant if he wanted to."

Heyes snorted. "Yeah, mostly you're right. He stays quiet and tries not to attract attention. After all, it could be fatal. But you're never seen him when anyone puts him down or calls him out. He's got his pride, and heaven help the man who steps on it. Jed knows he's the best – or used to be. He's got a pretty fair temper when he's roused. Considering the number of fist fights he used to get in, I don't know how he's kept that pretty face. I sure have washed an awful of blood off it over the years!"

"Really?" This was a side of the Kid that Beth had never seen.

Heyes chuckled, "Lord, yes! Remember, it's not long ago he used to be the most famous gunman west of the Mississippi! And thank goodness he was, or my mouth would've gotten me killed a long time ago." Heyes saw alarm in Beth's face and suddenly stopped talking. He looked around to see Ignacio standing all too close behind him. Heyes had been so careful during this dinner, until just the wrong moment when the waiter had showed up. Had he heard the wrong thing? Would he do something about it?

The waiter's face showed nothing but expectation of a promptly paid bill and a nice tip, but Heyes and Beth left soon after that. And they looked behind them to see if there was any sign of Ignacio leaving the restaurant. "I don't think he heard, Heyes," said Beth, "but I can't be sure." Heyes sighed. Sometimes his existence seemed to balance on the edge of a knife – and a sharp knife at that.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Two days later, Heyes was back in charge of his math lab. He was helping his little group with the first homework of the semester. "So what do we do on this problem, Mr. Smith?" asked the prettiest blonde girl.

"Just solve for the . . ." and suddenly Heyes' aphasia was back. He locked up on the next word. He couldn't say it. He couldn't think it. The word was gone. He was starting to forget everything that he had been going to say. A tense, silent second went by and another and another. Heyes started to sweat. Finally he started over, "You solve for X." Then the word he had been unable to say came back to him – it was "variable" – a word he would be using dozens of times in every class.

Somehow, Heyes got through the next problem, and the next. But his usual casual, engaging manner in class was gone and he couldn't get it back as anxiety stalked him. No witty remarks came to him, no jokes, and no imaginative examples to illustrate how to use the problems. It was a grim struggle to get to the end of the class as he kept dreading locking up on another word. Every student knew that something was bothering Mr. Smith, but none of them could possibly have known what it was.

Immediately after class, Heyes went to find his advisor in his office. He was sweating freely by the time he knocked on the familiar door. When Charlie Homer saw Heyes' face, he knew that something was terribly wrong. "What is it, Joshua? Come in and tell me about it!"

Heyes just stopped and breathed for a few seconds before he could talk at all. "Charlie, the aphasia is back! I locked up in lab. There was a word I couldn't say. I mean it was gone like I'd never known it. I didn't know what to do. I was panicking and the kids knew it. I didn't say anything about it – just went on. When I could. Then, a minute later, the word was back and I was fine. But I lost it, Charlie. I was nervous the rest of class. I wasn't teaching well – just barely making it. Charlie, what do I do? What if it happens again?"

Home stared at his desperate student in shock and confusion. He had no idea what to tell Heyes, but he tried to figure it out as he went. "Well, if you go in all panicked and upset like that, it just might. You've got to relax, Heyes! You're been working so hard! You were working late last night, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I was," Heyes admitted, "Past midnight. But I have work to do, Charlie! Lots of it! You know that."

Professor Homer nodded, and ran a hand through his grey hair, "I know, but you can't work if you don't get your sleep and you get all tired and panicked. Take the night off, Heyes. Go have a good time, or just read some fiction or something. Alright?"

"Well, if you really think it's . . . important, I'll try," said Heyes, "I'll try anything – to stop that from happening again. It was like having a gun to my head. Or maybe worse. I know what to do with a gun to my head. I didn't have a clue what to do just now."

"Yeah, I do think it's important," said Homer firmly, "And then go see Dr. Leutze. That's an order, Heyes. I'm just guessing at what you can do – he'll know a lot more than I do."

"He does," said the ex-outlaw, "but just talking to you makes me feel better. But tell me one thing – if it happens again – should I tell them what it is?"

Homer stopped and thought about that for a moment. "Only you can know the mood and character of your own class, Heyes. If you think they'd be sympathetic rather than using it as an excuse to go after the weakness, then you might think of telling them. And remember – you're brilliant at math and you're a brilliant teacher. Anything else is just a momentary aberration. Alright?"

"Forget brilliant! I'll settle for being able to teach at all!" said Heyes in frustration.

Heyes walked home slowly, with his hands in his pockets, mulling over his situation. He imagined that Professor Homer was right. He needed to get more sleep, and to relax some. There was no doubting that his aphasia bothered him more when he was tired and upset. But what was more tiring and upsetting than an aphasia flare up in front of his new students, who were still getting their first impressions of him?

So Heyes decided to go by his favorite book store to look for a nice novel he could lose himself in for a while. As he got to Parker's Bookshop, the tired lab assistant found several people gathered outside the store looking at something in the shop window. When he could get close enough, he saw what it was. It was a pile of copies of a new book with a poster advertising it. The poster had a picture of a blonde cowboy and a dark haired cowboy with guns drawn, firing at an approaching sheriff.

Heyes' mouth opened and shut. He was fighting the urge to yell obscenities at the top of his lungs. The title of the book everyone seemed to want was The Adventures of Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes.