WEBVTT

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And so the story starts with
a 15-year-old boy waking,

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and his father is at
his bedroom window.

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And he's been cut in a
fight because he's had

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this altercation on the road.

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I think the only thing
else you need to know

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is he's had the 15-year-old boy
help him carry this body out

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through the woods because he's
too injured to carry the body.

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And that the father is just,
not too long ago, back from war

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and is struggling to assimilate
back into civilian life.

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And I think that's
all you need to know,

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so this is from "Smoke."

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Y'all ready?

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Yes.

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All right here we go.

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"Bright light bloomed as
the tunnel abruptly turned,

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and Vernon crawled
through a narrow chute

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to enter a stalactite cavern.

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The center of the
cathedral roof had

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eroded into a natural and
perfect oval, and blazing sun

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poured through.

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The walls and floors
shown like polished pearl.

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His father sat on a slab of
gray stone, one of three slabs

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amongst all that
wet, glowing calcite.

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And Vernon sat on a
slab and hugged himself.

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The sweat from the climb
had soaked his clothes

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and now gave him a chill.

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I want you to know me as I
am, Vernon, his father said.

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I don't want you to
see me as good no more.

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A man who would kill
someone ain't no good.

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His father leaned against a
damp wall and studied the sky.

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You remember that
long road we took

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to get to the Miller
rigs, that long dirt

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road that went on forever?

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Yes, sir, Vernon said.

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And he remembered driving
an hour on a thin dirt road.

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He remembered nothing but
oil pumps and flat fields

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and a horizon that
didn't buckle.

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Well, another truck came
along that road yesterday.

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Seven years, I ain't never
seen a soul on that road,

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and here comes some shiny truck
like it ain't never been dirty.

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And you know how steep
them ditches are.

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Well, me and Mr. Augusto come
nose-to-nose with our trucks.

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I don't know who
built that road.

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Don't know what
kind of man makes

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a road ain't wide enough
for two trucks to pass.

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Surely weren't Christian,
whoever he was.

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His father ran his good
hand through his hair,

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resting his palm
against his forehead.

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Mr. Augusto weren't backing
up for nobody, he said.

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I ain't never seen
the man in my life,

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and told him he didn't have
no right on that road, how

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it was company land and
how I was the foreman,

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and he should just back
on up before I had him

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put away for trespassing.

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I know you've been
in fights, Vernon.

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I don't keep my head buried
like you might think.

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You know fighting's
a bad thing, right?

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I guess so.

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Well, it is, Vernon,
his father said.

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But when two men don't
agree, well then,

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there's nothing left.

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We could talk in
circles for days

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and them trucks would
still be nose-to-nose.

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And I had that tire
iron just for show.

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And before I knew it, he had
a knife on me and cut me bad.

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And then something
come up in me,

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and I hit Mr. Augusto
acrost his skull.

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He fell like someone
switched him off.

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Weren't but one hit.

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I thought a great deal
about it last night.

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When a fire goes out, there's
a smoldering and a little smoke

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left to trail.

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And this man weren't
snuffed like a fire.

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I switched him off
like a house light.

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And it just don't seem right.

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And Vernon thought
of the homes in town

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with electricity, of
the diner and picture

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show, of how their windows
glowed in the dark night.

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I wonder where he was heading.

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Yeah, I wonder about that
too, his father said.

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I sure been wondering
about a lot of things.

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I wonder if Mr. Augusto
has a wife and children.

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There ain't no
photos in his wallet,

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but ain't none in mine neither.

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His father filled his lungs, and
exhaled, and closed his eyes.

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I wonder if hell
is real, he said.

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You think hell is real?

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It wasn't a question that
Vernon had ever studied.

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I don't know, Pop.

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I've been thinking a great
deal about hell, Vernon.

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I don't want to go there.

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I don't know if it's
a real place or not,

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but a man can't
take his chances.

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You ought to lay on that
bench over there, Pop.

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It's in the sun a little bit.

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You oughtn't stay in the
shade with those wounds.

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I've been thinking
about Jesus too.

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I figured Jesus wouldn't have
got nowhere if he was always

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backing down a road.

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Even Jesus had to stand
and take his licks.

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And that man stabbed
you, Vernon said.

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He might have killed you

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Oh, he's got a name.

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Don't call him 'that
man,' his father said,

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and opened his eyes and rose
and walked to the dry bench

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in the sun.

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Mr. Augusto surely weren't
going to back down,

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but he weren't no
different than me.

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He laid back on the bench and
covered his eyes with his arm.

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Vernon.

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Yes, sir.

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You know why I
believe there's a God?

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No, sir.

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I feel a powerful
tenderness for Mr. Augusto.

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That don't make no
sense otherwise.

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A man who would come after me.

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A man I don't know from Adam.

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Yet, I'm still
very sorry for him.

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If you wrong someone and
still want to do good by him,

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I believe that tenderness
is God up in you.

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I feel more tenderness for
Mr. Nory Augusto than any man

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alive.

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I believe God is full up in me.

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Well, maybe the devil was in
you when you did it, then.

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Oh, I don't know, he said.

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What's better anyway, Vernon?

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To have the devil in me
or to have it be me alone?

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Aw, you ain't a bad man, Pop.

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His father shook his head.

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We are what we do.

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Aw, you ain't bad.

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I believe in that.

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Now, Vernon, his father
said, don't be confused.

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I'm about as bad as they come.

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Now just go on and bring
Mr. Augusto in here.

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I need to lay still
and be quiet a while.

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But Mr. Augusto would
have killed you.

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Yeah, then he'd be the bad
man, his father said quietly.

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Now leave me be a while, Vernon.

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Gather wood for a fire.

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We'll need lots of wood.

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And Vernon studied his
father in the milky light,

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searching for
something in his face

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or the way he held his body that
was evidence of the good man he

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knew as a child.

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If God didn't want
Mr. Augusto dead,

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why'd he let Pop kill him?

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And what, with all the
killing in the world,

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did one more man really matter?

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And Vernon crossed
the room, and crawled

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from the shimmering cavern.

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Maybe awful things is
how God speaks to us,

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Vernon thought, trudging
up the lightless tunnel.

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Maybe folks don't trust
in good things no more.

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Maybe awful things is all God's
got to remind us he's alive.

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And Vernon pushed on
toward the light of day.

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He stepped out onto the
ledge and into the heat.

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And it felt like leaving the
theater after the matinee had

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shown a sad film, and
the glare of sunshine

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after the darkness far
too real to suffer.

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From the ledge, Vernon
could see for miles.

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Knobs of red buds, poplars,
and dogwoods, and the sky

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was slashed with smoke.

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The woods below had
been slapped by drought

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but were still generally green.

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And in the heart
of this green was

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a circle of
bare-branched hickory,

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leafless, as they
might look in winter.

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Vernon climbed
carefully down the cliff

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and began gathering wood.

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His eyes were parched knots
and his stomach churned,

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and soon he was inside the
circle of barren hickory

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he'd seen from the cliff.

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The dirt was stark and crabbed.

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The trees with the color of
ashes and limbs like bones

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stretched into each other.

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The air smelled of
fire, and Vernon

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noticed threads of smoke
leap from the flayed bark

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of several trunks.

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And he stared at the
sky, at heat waves

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rippling from the tips
of black branches.

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And then Vernon squeezed
a bundle of sticks on his

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shoulder and ambled off
again through the forest,

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singing what words he could
recall from "Heigh-Ho Little

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Dogies."

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He took his time gathering
more wood as he went and soon

00:09:35.140 --> 00:09:38.260 align:middle line:90%
was back at the honeycomb rock.

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And then he stopped
singing, and tied the bundle

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and began to climb, the
song gone in the rocks

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so hot he had to
spit on his palms

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to keep them from burning."

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