JC: Ed Biggers
Part 4: Adjournment
Chapter 21
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

Seated atop his horse, Ed surveyed the canyon taking in the 
geological features of the walls around him. Millions of years of 
geologic history were exposed for all to see. Geologically, his life 
would be represented as a dust speck on the wall of the canyon. It 
was humbling to think about it. Speaking aloud to no one in 
particular, Ed said, "By the Gods and Goddesses, this is 
magnificent."

Nora, still not used to his openness about his feelings, nodded 
solemnly. It was a grand sight, as layer after layer of natural 
history was laid bare for all to see. As her horse moved a little 
under her, she replied, "Yes, it is."

Having forgotten for a moment that he wasn't alone, Ed turned to 
look at Nora. She was settled comfortably on her horse, adapting to 
the slight movements of the horse with natural adjustments that 
were unconscious. He asked, "Getting tired of riding?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "Not really. I can go another hour."

"There's a seep about a half an hour from here. We'll camp there."

She relaxed on the horse, relieved that they would be stopping 
soon. Five hours on horseback could be tough on the body, 
particularly when you weren't used to riding that much. Odds were 
good that her ass would be sore the next morning. At least this 
wasn't the first day of the trip, but nearly the last. Smiling, she said, 
"That would be perfect. I'll admit that I'm worried about my ass 
getting a little sore."

"Sorry about that. I didn't realize that we would take that long to 
get back here." They were about to end a very successful trip. She 
was amazed at how considerate Ed had been over the duration of 
the trip. 

They started riding on through the canyon. It was another four 
hours to the mouth, but they would make that trip tomorrow. She 
watched the canyon floor from habit, a trick she had learned from 
Ed for finding good sites. After a few minutes of riding quietly, she 
said, "I have really enjoyed this trip. It's so nice to get away from it 
all."

"Yes, it is. There are times when I get so fed up with all of my 
responsibilities that I just have to get out here in the desert."

The entire trip had been spent with her avoiding discussions about 
their lives outside of rock hunting. Nora had hired a private 
investigator to check his background. Although she trusted Kim 
and her judgement, it was still a good idea to check up on someone 
that she was going to be alone with in the desert. She had been 
shocked when she learned about Ed and wondered how it was that 
she hadn't known about him. She replied, "I know what you mean. 
You have no idea what it is like to be a public figure. I'm surprised 
that we haven't had a helicopter overhead trying to take pictures of 
us."

Laughing, Ed said, "That's why we are here. This is reservation 
land and the Chief holds absolute control over who comes on the 
land."

Entering the reservation had been quite an experience for Nora. 
She was used to having people fawn all over her, but they had been 
practically indifferent to her presence. The people on the 
reservation had acted like Ed was some sort of holy man and 
treated him with the same kind of respect as they showed the Chief 
and the tribal Medicine Man. A couple had basically fallen all over 
themselves making sure that he was comfortable. Glancing at Ed, 
she asked, "Do they always treat you with that kind of respect?"

"I am a member of the Carter Clan," replied Ed as though that 
explained everything. As far as he was concerned it was 
explanation enough.

It didn't tell her anything. She asked, "What does that mean?"

"John funded the Native American College."

"There was a bit more than that in their treatment of you," she 
countered.

"I am a Druid. The Medicine Men of the tribes recognize us as 
holy men," replied Ed.

It was easy to forget that he was a Druid out here. He was wearing 
blue jeans, western shirt, cowboy boots, and his hat. Sitting on his 
horse, he looked exactly like a cowboy, which made sense since 
her investigation had shown that he used to work as a cowboy. She 
replied, "It seems to me that you've known this particular tribe for 
a while."

"Yes. We have a standing deal that I give them an equal share of 
the stones collected. That's why I have insisted that we take three 
samples of each mineral we find. They like to sell them to the 
tourists at some of the trading post stores on the border of the 
reservation," replied Ed.

"Why don't they mine the stones themselves?"

Ed pulled up his horse and answered, "They don't want to hurt the 
land."

After pulling ahead of him, she pulled up her horse and turned to 
look at him. She asked, "So why do they let you look?"

"I don't hurt the land. A few samples here and there is a far 
different thing than a mine."

She sat there for a moment thinking about what he said. It made 
sense, but she knew that he was opening a mine. Rather than 
pursue the topic further, she turned to look around. She heard Ed 
climb off his horse and turned back to look at him as she asked, 
"What?"

"We're here."

She looked around and noticed the small patch of green plants 
along the canyon wall; a sure sign of a seep, a place where water 
collected under the ground. Digging a small hole there would give 
them access to the water, which they would use to water the 
horses. Ed had been careful to take them from seep to seep as they 
traveled. They were good places to camp as it made watering the 
horses much easier.

She climbed down and felt the muscles in her legs complain. 
Stretching, she said, "I'm going to be stiff tonight."

In a teasing voice, Ed said, "We'll turn you into a bow-legged 
cowgirl before long."

Laughing, she replied, "That would kill my acting career."

Looking over at her, Ed asked, "Is that a bad thing?"

The question shocked her. He was the first one to realize that her 
acting career was the hobby and collecting rocks was her passion. 
She looked over at him and said, "The pay is so good."

"I bet that you spend most of your money leading a lifestyle that 
you detest."

Shocked by his insights, she asked, "Why do you say that?"

Looking at the canyon walls around him, he said, "You are too 
comfortable here to be comfortable surrounded by lots of people."

Stunned, she stared at him in disbelief. In one insightful sentence 
he had laid bare a fundamental truth that she had worked so hard to 
hide in California. She looked down at the ground and said, 
"True."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know. I feel trapped by my job," she answered. She owned 
a house that required her to work to continue the payments. Her 
clothes were expensive, often costing several thousand dollars for a 
single outfit. When you lead a lifestyle intended to impress, you 
hemorrhaged money faster than you could earn it.

"You can always sell your property and move out of that area after 
your next movie," replied Ed. 

"What about everyone that depends on me for a living?"

"Will they get other jobs? Would they stand beside you if your 
career started to fail?"

The question made her think about what she really wanted. Was 
she as trapped as she let people make her think she was? Would 
they stay with her if bad things happened? The answer to that last 
question was that the majority of people that leeched off her would 
be gone in a second. Maybe two people would be upset, but they 
would get on with their lives. She smiled as she looked at Ed and 
realized that his questions were exactly what she had needed to 
hear. Clearly, he wasn't expecting her to answer as he had started 
to unsaddle the horses and set up camp. 

The two went to work establishing a camp. She laid out the 
bedrolls and he set up the latrine. There wasn't any significant 
amount of dead brush with which to build a fire for cooking. They 
could get a reasonable fire for lighting the night, but not to cook. 
After searching far and wide, Ed said, "Cold dinner tonight."

Nora said, "I can make some soup. I have a small can of sterno."

The idea of having a cup of hot soup sounded good to Ed. He 
hadn't thought about packing sterno for cooking in the field. 
Nodding, he replied, "That sounds good."

Dinner was soup, canned fruits, some left over rolls with canned 
deviled ham, and accompanied with tang. It was an odd selection 
of food, but it filled the stomach and was easy to make. It didn't 
take long to eat, so the pair was done with their dinner well before 
sunset. Clean up was a simple affair, both of them shared the duties 
and the job was soon done.

Ed went to work setting up a fire that would burn long and produce 
a constant low level light around the camp. Laying down on their 
individual bedrolls, they watched the sky slowly darken. The 
western horizon was not visible and being in the canyon meant that 
dark arrived early. Nora, rolling over onto her side, asked, "We've 
been camping for four days and tomorrow is the last day. You 
haven't hit on me once throughout the entire trip. Why?"

Glancing over in her direction, Ed replied, "It's not time for that 
yet."

"What do you mean?"

Yawning, Ed answered, "I want to make sure that if we sleep 
together, then it will be for all the right reasons. I want you to 
know why I'm doing it. Right now, you'd think the wrong thing."

"What? I'm not pretty enough for you?" she asked irritated at his 
attitude. She knew that there were lots of men that jerked off to 
pictures of her. 

"You're pretty enough. I'm not all that interested in looks even 
though my wives are three of the most beautiful women in the 
world," replied Ed.

She knew about his inability to lie. Sitting up to face him across 
the fire, she asked, "Don't you want to sleep with me?"

Pursing his lips as he gave careful thought to what he was about to 
say, he finally answered, "More than you can imagine."

"So why don't you?"

Laughing at her lack of understanding, Ed said, "Because you don't 
understand why I'm not sleeping with you."

Frustrated, she threw herself back on the bedroll and growled out 
her frustration. This man was infuriating. Laying on the bedroll, 
she looked up at the sky as the stars finally came out. Even in the 
canyon, the number of stars overhead were amazing. It was 
impossible to see this many stars in LA. 

Ed was quiet as he considered his situation. Nora was a beautiful 
woman who believed that all men were interested in her for her 
body. It was a glorious body, but she had a much better mind than 
she allowed others to see. Over the past few days, she had shown 
signs of brilliance, but would quash it when he commented on it. 
He made love to the woman and not her body. She hid behind her 
body and he wasn't going to make love to her until she stopped 
hiding behind it. 

He liked Nora almost as much as he liked Kim. In many ways, she 
was as good of a rock-hunting partner as Kim and in a few ways 
she was better. She didn't feel a need to talk as much as Kim but 
knew how to stay quiet and listen. She was just as enthusiastic 
about finding a good sample as anyone else. That was always an 
advantage in a partnership.

The night sky slowly darkened, but the stars shone brighter. In a 
couple of hours, the moon would reach a height where it could be 
seen from within the canyon. Ed sat up and put a few more little 
branches on the fire. They would slowly burn, giving forth enough 
light to see around the camp. 

Settling back on his bedroll, he continued to look up into the night 
sky. Finally, she said, "How am I supposed to know when you 
would sleep with me without letting me know?"

Knowing that the question would burn within her for a long time, 
Ed replied, "You will know when you have accepted yourself as 
you really are."

She frowned and lay back down on her bedroll. Ed slowly dropped 
off to sleep and didn't hear the questions of frustrations that she 
asked before realizing that he was asleep. Getting up, she 
undressed in the hope that the sight of her naked body in the 
morning would tempt him into relieving her need for physical 
release. Lying down, she fingered herself to an unsatisfying 
orgasm and fell asleep afterwards.

Ed woke in the morning before Nora. That didn't surprise him 
since she tended to wake up well after him. He looked over at her 
and saw that she was sleeping naked atop her bedroll. It was a 
gorgeous body and one that most men would pay every cent they 
had to sleep with. It was a shame that the woman was trapped 
within the body, unable to expose the real person inside.

It took him a little time to build a fire with the small amount of 
wood that remained. It would be just enough to make two servings 
of Greek Coffee. He didn't want to go through her pack to locate 
the sterno as that was her property. Filling a cup with a little water, 
a couple of spoons of fine ground coffee, and some sugar was all 
that was required. Once the fire had consumed the majority 
branches, he set the cup on the few coals that had formed. It wasn't 
much, but it was enough to boil half a cup of coffee. Once the 
coffee was started, Ed sat back and watched Nora as she slept. 
Asleep, the real self, the insecure, focused, and ambitious woman, 
was evident in her body and face. Ed appreciated the chance at 
having a glimpse into the real woman. 

Wandering over to the latrine, Ed took the opportunity to take a 
leak. There are times when the first piss of the day feels so good 
and this was one of those times. Finished with his business, he 
zipped up his pants and headed back to the fire. After using a baby 
wipe to clean his hands, Ed checked out the coffee and found that 
it was ready. Taking a second cup, he poured half of the coffee in 
it. 

Sipping the hot strong coffee, he felt the caffeine kick in and could 
feel his mind starting to clear. Leaning over, he moved the cup 
with the rest of the coffee off all the coals but one. That single coal 
would keep it warm until she woke. Finishing his cup, he rinsed it 
out and went over to water the horses. 

Watering the horses was a simple matter of clearing out the hole 
that he had dug the night before. He took the horses over there 
giving them turns at the hole. As they drank the water, the hole 
slowly refilled. Once they were watered, he feed them some of the 
oats from the pack. While they were eating out of the feedbags, he 
checked their hooves to make sure that there weren't any problems. 
All four horses were in excellent condition.

Returning to the fire, he found Nora watching him with a frown. 
Taking another cup out of the pack, he poured the remaining coffee 
into it and handed it to her. She accepted the cup, but didn't bother 
to say thanks. It only took him a minute to clean the cup in which 
he had brewed the coffee. Reaching into the pack, he pulled out 
two packages of pop tarts and threw one of them to Nora. Still 
naked, she tried posing to get his attention but he was busy trying 
to get the pop tarts open. She had no problem getting hers open; 
she shredded it in frustration.

Munching on his breakfast, Ed looked around the camp. They 
would be moving out in an hour and still had to clean up the site. 
He wondered how long it would take for Nora to get dressed. He 
chuckled when he glanced up at her and saw the angry look she 
was giving him. Politely, he asked, "Would you like another one?"

"No, I don't want another one."

Nodding his head, he replied, "Okay. I hope that you don't get 
dressed. I'll enjoy watching you ride."

She turned to yell at him, but caught the huge grin on his face. She 
realized how ridiculous the situation was and that it was time for 
her to start acting like a grownup. She went over to her clothes and 
dressed. Breaking camp didn't take much time once they started 
working together. 

A couple of hours hunting for samples passed before their rock 
hunt came to an end. They had to ride to the truck, load the horses 
into the four-horse trailer, and visit with the Chief. As they rode 
out of the canyon, Ed asked, "So are you willing to come out here 
with me again?"

Despite her frustration, Nora had never before had so much fun 
collecting rocks. It was as though he were psychic the way that he 
could find great samples. Previously, she had spent twice as long 
in the field and found only half the variety of samples that she had 
found this trip. She replied, "Of course, I'll go rock hunting with 
you again."

Smiling, he said, "I'm glad."

"Really?" That he would actually be glad that she would go with 
him again surprised her. She wasn't sure how he felt about her. His 
refusal to have sex with her did not make sense to her. Most men 
would have been more than happy to have sex with her.

"Yes, really."

When they reached the truck, they fed and watered the horses 
before leading them into the horse trailer. Getting into the cool air 
of the truck was almost a shock to the system after so many days 
out in the desert. Although it was only an hour drive to the Chief's 
house, their bodies would be used to the cooler temperature by the 
time they arrived there.

The Chief welcomed the pair into his house with a simple wave of 
his hand. They both carried their saddlebags and with care, 
emptied the contents onto the kitchen table. There were sixty-three 
different kinds of rocks with three samples of each kind. Ed pulled 
out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to the 
Chief. After each man lit a cigarette they turned their attention to 
the rocks. Drawing one of the samples, the Chief looked at it and 
set it down on the table in front of him. So far, they had not spoken 
a single word. When Nora didn't move, Ed said, "Take a sample of 
the same kind as Chief Daniels just took."

Nora looked at the sample in front of the Chief and took a sample 
of the same type of rock as the Chief. When she had done that, Ed 
took the remaining sample of that type. Nora sat there waiting for 
the Chief to take another sample. After a minute, Ed said, "Now 
you get to choose the first sample."

The rest of the process of dividing up the samples collected was 
performed quietly, with no one saying a word. Each took a turn 
pulling the first sample. Once the center pile of samples was 
cleared, Ed put out his cigarette in the ashtray, stood up, and shook 
the hand of the Chief. The Chief said, "It is always good to deal 
with an honest man."

"Thank you. I like doing business with you, Chief Daniels."

The Chief turned to Nora and said, "I hope that you are satisfied 
with the samples you collected. Maybe you will come here again 
with Ed."

"I'll be very happy to return here with Ed," replied Nora as she 
looked at the Chief. 

He smiled at her and said, "I enjoyed your last movie, Nora 
Turner."

The Hollywood Movie Star in her came out. Sitting up straighter in 
pride, she replied, "Why thank you, Chief Daniels. I'm quite proud 
of that movie."

Raising an eyebrow, Ed looked at her and shook his head. The 
Chief noticed and said, "She is young. It takes a long time for a 
brave to learn humility."

Nodding at the older man's patience, Ed said, "That comes with 
experience."

Frowning, Nora listened to the exchange between the two men. It 
dawned on her that they were talking about how she craved 
attention and praise for her work. That irritated her. She worked 
hard for everything she had achieved. She was about to say 
something when she realized with whom she was talking. The 
Chief ruled over an entire tribe and had undoubtedly earned their 
respect. Ed was a Druid that had affected so many lives and could 
call world leaders on his cell phone. She asked, "Is it not good to 
take pride in your accomplishments?"

After glancing at Ed, Chief Daniels answered, "There is the pride 
that you feel and the pride that you announce. The first is good 
while the second is begging for attention. Many young braves feel 
they have to earn a reputation as warriors and will boast of their 
deeds. Other braves perform the same acts and let others sing their 
praise."

Ed added, "It is rare to have a brave that can laugh at himself for 
his failures."

Nodding, the Chief patted Ed on the shoulder and said, "Those are 
the ones who become great leaders."

Nora had listened to the men exchange their views. At first, she 
thought that they didn't know how Hollywood worked. You had to 
promote yourself to get the next job. That meant going to all the 
right parties and telling everyone how good you were. As she 
thought about it, she realized that none of the truly great stars 
attended those same parties. Rather than commenting, she sat there 
quietly listening to them.

The Chief stood and went into the kitchen. After a few minutes, he 
returned with two packages wrapped in aluminum foil and handed 
them to Ed. He said, "Susan made this flat bread for you. Harry 
shot a nice buck and wrapped a roast for you."

Ed accepted the gift and nodded his acceptance. Reaching into his 
backpack, he pulled out a toolkit the size of a credit card. Handing 
it to the Chief, he said, "Make sure that Harry gets this."

Chief Daniels looked at the toolkit and said, "Nice. He will like it."

Reaching into the backpack, Ed brought out a sheet of paper. 
Handing that over, he said, "Marguerite gave me a recipe for duck. 
I think that Susan will like it."

"You are a good man and know the ways of our people, Ed," 
replied the Chief as he set the two gifts on the table. Leading the 
couple to the door, he said, "Give the regards of our tribe to John 
Carter. We have two of our tribe entering law school."

"The tribe grows stronger," replied Ed.

"Yes, it does," replied Chief Daniels.

At the door, the two men shook hands. Ed reached in his pocket 
and pulled out the open pack of cigarettes. He had opened it when 
they had come out and now he handed the pack over to the Chief. 
Nora had watched the entire discussion and transaction with wide 
eyes hardly understanding a single thing the men had said. She 
knew they were speaking English, but it seemed like the topic of 
conversation kept switching with every sentence. Ed led her to the 
truck and said, "We'll go back to the Auction House and drop off 
the horses. Then we can go back to my place and have dinner."

Nora nodded and got in the truck with Ed. Ed drove to the Auction 
House where he kept his horses. Nora did not know that this was 
where Ed used to work. When they reached there, it was late but an 
auction was being held. Two men were herding cattle through the 
auction pens, the auctioneer was giving his patter, and Greg Dow 
was keeping a close eye on things. Greg, the young man that had 
helped them catch the College Serial Killers, noticed their arrival 
and came over to help unload the horses. 

Ed climbed out of his truck and turned to Greg. With a large smile, 
he said, "Greg. You are looking good. This desert air must agree 
with you."

Nora walked around the truck in time to hear Greg answer, "I 
never would have thought of running this kind of business when I 
was in school. I bless the day that I met you."

Noticing the arrival of Nora, Ed said, "Nora Turner, this is Greg 
Dow. Greg, this is Nora Turner. I met Greg when I was writing my 
dissertation."

As Nora and Greg started to talk, Ed went to the horse trailer and 
started leading the horses out. They were more than ready to get 
out of the trailer and into the corral where there was fresh water. It 
only took Ed about ten minutes to take care of the getting the 
horses unloaded. After he put feedbags filled with oats on the 
horses, he started combing his horse. When he was done, he was 
surprised to find Greg and Nora combing two of the other horses. 
Wandering over to the last horse, he started to work on it. After 
five days out in the desert, all four horses looked in better shape 
than when he had picked them up. 

When he finished the last horse, he went over to where Greg and 
Nora were talking. He arrived just in time to hear Greg say, "He 
got stabbed twice."

"Who got stabbed?" asked Ed wondering if there had been some 
kind of incident while he was gone.

"You."

"Oh, yeah," replied Ed realizing what Greg had been telling her. 
He turned to Nora and said, "You should have seen Greg. He was a 
regular hero. Protected his girlfriend and kept an insane woman 
from killing me. Those killers would have kept killing more people 
if he hadn't acted as he did."

Nora realized that Ed had just deflected all discussion about his 
role in the incident and gave credit to Greg. It was at that time, that 
she realized that Greg hadn't mentioned his role in the events. She 
thought about the words of the Chief and realized that these men 
didn't boast about themselves, but let others do it for them. Greg 
changed the subject and said, "I'm still learning to ride, but those 
cowboys over there keep giving me the meanest orneriest horses in 
the entire county. Yesterday, I got on one and kicked it like you're 
supposed to and the damn thing took off running. I was left sitting 
on thin air watching the ass end of that horse disappear."

Ed and Nora laughed at the description of riding the horse. Ed said, 
"Let me guess. They gave you Nevada's race horse to ride."

"Yep. Took the men three hours to chase down that animal," 
answered Greg as he laughed. 

Ed knew that Greg could actually ride pretty well. The men in the 
yard were just playing jokes on him and he was letting them do it. 
Each of those men knew that in a pinch they could count on Greg 
to do the right thing by them. Ed asked, "So when are you going to 
show them how well you can really ride?"

"Aw, they know," replied Greg with a crooked smile. He had 
worked to earn their respect and suffered all of the new guy pranks 
when he first started. Nevada and Ed had warned him what to 
expect and how he could earn the respect of the men that would 
work for him. 

Finished with the horses, Ed said his farewells to Greg and went 
over to the truck. Nora followed after him and got into the 
passenger seat. As Ed was pulling out of the auction house, she 
said, "Seems that you have helped a few people around here."

"I've helped a few. Most people credit me with far more than I 
actually have done," replied Ed. Ed was telling the truth as he 
knew it.

Nora said, "I noticed that when Greg was talking about you, that 
you changed the subject to Greg. He then changed the subject to a 
joke about himself."

Glancing over at Nora, Ed nodded and said, "Greg is a good kid. 
He's turned into quite a manager. Those men that work for him will 
walk through fire to help him out of a jam."

What was it that the Chief had said? He was proud of his 
accomplishments to himself, but didn't beg for attention. He could 
laugh at himself and that would make him a great leader. That had 
described Greg and now Ed was saying that Greg was a real leader 
for the men that worked for him. She caught Ed looking at her and 
realized that he had a good idea what she was thinking. 

They pulled into the driveway to the house and were flagged down 
by Bob who was waiting for them in the driveway. Concerned that 
something bad might have happened to one of the wives or one of 
the kids, Ed pulled over immediately and rolled down his window. 
Bob stepped over to the open window and said, "I'll park that and 
bring your stuff into the house. You guys are probably pretty tired. 
George has a guestroom set up for Nora and Marguerite has a 
snack for you to eat until dinnertime. Ling has returned to the 
house."

"Thanks," replied Ed, relieved that there was nothing wrong at 
home. Picking up the two foil-wrapped packages, Ed got out of the 
truck while Nora got out the other side. They both stretched to get 
their muscles moving again and then went into the house. George 
was waiting for them and took Nora up to a guestroom. Ed 
wandered into the kitchen and found Marguerite reading a 
cookbook while Shauna was cooking. He dropped the two 
packages in front on Marguerite and said, "A venison roast and 
some Indian Flat Bread."

Smiling up at Ed, Marguerite asked, "Did you give away the duck 
recipe?"

"Yes, I did," answered Ed with a grin knowing that Marguerite 
would be happy that he had given the recipe to someone that would 
actually try it. 

"We'll have this tomorrow for lunch, it that's okay."

"No problem," replied Ed.

Excusing himself, he went to his room to shower and change 
clothes. It took him about twenty minutes to accomplish both tasks. 
Rather than wear his jeans, he just threw on his robe so that he 
could take a swim once Nora had gone to bed. Once he was clean 
and dressed, he felt a million times better. Then it was time for him 
to search for Nora and guide her through the house.

Stepping out of his room, he was met by an amused Ling. She 
looked at him for a minute and then said, "She's as pretty as Cathy 
described."

"Who?" asked Ed as he looked over his wife. He was happy that 
she was home and looked forward to an evening alone with her.

"Nora Turner, the movie star," answered Ling.

"Oh, yeah. She's okay," replied Ed. Leaning over, he kissed Ling 
and then said, "You are so much prettier than her."

Ling blossomed under his compliment. She asked, "So did you 
sleep with her?"

"No."

"No?"

"Practically drove her crazy because I wouldn't."

Ling was silent for a half a second and then said, "I bet you are 
horny as hell."

"That's an understatement."