Entry 65. Homecoming

Entry 65. Homecoming

I guess I should have known that Buffalo and I would eventually be together again and that she would accept the path of non-violence. Well, if I must be precise, she accepted that killing is not the path to peace. I never have convinced her on the matter of what she calls a pre-emptive first strike when violence seems inevitable.

John Hemlock was right; we are too much alike not to come to similar conclusions about core values. Our coming together again, however, was not quite as I envisioned.

I expected drama. I even imagined how she would come to the conclusion that war is no solution. She would be caught in some kind of combat that ended with only two survivors, herself and a gravely wounded Earthian soldier. With the heat of battle raging around them, Buffalo would get to know her combatant more personally; perhaps they would save each other’s lives somehow and forge a tentative friendship. It’s easy to kill “an Earthian,” not as easy to kill a friend.

When the other person died, Buffalo would come to understand the toll of war, the stupidity of war, the uselessness of war. Tears would be shed in great quantities as the enormity of what she had done weighed on her conscience.

There was no drama and few tears. One day Buffalo simply ended her combat career and came back. The circumstances were dramatic in a different way than I’d imagined.

Entry 66