“I don’t know. Perhaps I was asleep.”
“Were you hurt?”
“No, I wasn’t hurt. I’ve never been hurt on my travels. But the car was broken, and I had to walk a very long way back to the town. I was very tired.”
Porter did not speak.
“There’s another thing about a traveler’s life,” said Neal. “Perhaps you’ve never thought about it. A traveler goes to a lot of different places, and sometimes there are very bad illnesses among the people in them. He may catch some kind of illness.”
“He can go to a doctor,” said Porter.
“Not always. He may not find a doctor. In many places there are no doctors at all. Here we have doctors in very town. But what happens if a man is ill on mountain? What happens if he’s hurt by an animal in a forest?”
“I never thought of that,” said Porter.
“No, you’ve lived near doctors all your life. But a traveler may fall away from the help of any doctors; then he may die.”
“I’ve always lived in a town,” said Porter.
“You’re a wise man. We can get help in a town and we need all the help that we can get. We live in a very unsafe world. Thousands of people die every day. There have been two great wars in my own life. A man who reaches the age of sixty has done a wonderful thing!”
“You’re sixty now.”
“Yes,” said Neal. “I’m safe now. I’m too old to fight if a war starts. I’m not going to travel any more. I’m going to stay here.”
“You may be ill here,” said Porter.
“A doctor lives on the other side of the street. He’ll take care of me if I’m ill.”
“Nobody’s life is quite safe,” said Porter. “You can’t stay in the house all the time. You’ll have to go out sometimes. If you try cross the street, a car may run over you. It may even kill you.”
“Oh, I’ll take care in the streets!”
“And what are you going to do every day?” asked Porter.
“I’m going to read. I like books, and they’re quite safe. I’ll grow some flowers in the garden. I’ve bought a dog too. He’s in the garden now. His name’s Bonzo. I can take Bonzo for love walks in to the country among the trees and flowers. Noting can hurt me there.”
Porter looked out of the window. “It’s beginning to rain,” he said.
“Yes, it is. I must let Bonzo come in.”
Neal went to the front door and opened it. Bonzo was waiting on the step outside. He was hoping to come into the house out of the rain. As soon as the door opened, the dog ran under Neal’s feel. Neal fell down on the wet step and broke his leg.