The Emerald Gladiator..... "WIDE OPEN ROAD" Part 3 (Conclusion)
Green Lantern #8 - August, Year One	by Mike McGee and Russ Anderson

Kyle Rayner knew fear. Hardcore, mind-shattering Fear with a capital F. The kind that gets you institutionalized, drooling and talking to yourself and crawling with a thousand species of tiny imaginary spider. And the weirdest part was....

...It was a fear of flying.

Good thing guys like Superman didn’t have problems like that, right? You know - guys who can, like, fly. Of course - and this is the part that made it especially strange - Kyle was one of those guys, too. And it had never been a problem. It never so much as made him queasy. That was flying with the ring...but even before he’d been Green Lantern, airplanes were no big deal. So why did it bother him now? And if it did bother him....

...Then what in the name of God was he doing at the controls of one?

Not a clue. He also had no idea how it was that he could suddenly fly a plane, either - and not just any plane, but some whacked out Top Gun deal that felt like it could at any moment shudder to pieces all around him.

But there they were: His hands, shaking uncontrollably as they danced over the instruments. Only...where was the ring? And, um, whose hands were those, anyway? They were the hands of a bigger guy, someone older, someone who spent a whole lot more time working out...hands that did not belong to Kyle Rayner...the hands of -

“Hal!” a woman’s voice shouted in his ear. “Jordan, goddammit! That is seven and a half million dollars of experimental aircraft, and you are flying it upside down!”

“I’m experimenting, baby doll,” Kyle said in a voice not his own, the words coming from nowhere. “Be nice and I’ll do the same with you when I bring this big bitch home.”

The woman cackled over the headset. “You’re damn right, unless I castrate you for beating on my airplane like a Tijuana hooker. Your pulse is off the scale. Don’t puke in the mask.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Kyle/not-Kyle said. “The coke has me bleeding bad out my right nostril, though. I dig that you want me nervous for this, but next time, light me up with something injectable, huh?”

“The fear of asphyxiating on your own blood just gives you a little extra edge. You’re a nightmare up there, Hal. For real, this is your most impressive - oh, Judas.”

Kyle/Hal’s heart thundered. “What? What is it?”

“Eight o’clock!” the woman cried. “Eight o’clock, coming up fa-“

And then he saw it - something that glowed green and moved like a cruise missile, just underneath his left wing -

Kyle felt himself screaming, but heard nothing save the impact of that whatever-it-was exploding through the midsection of the jet. The collision threw him free of the plane, and there was a brief sense of freefall...and then that green light rushed out to encompass the entire world....

“Greetings, earthman,” the orange-skinned creature said through its beak. This thing was the first sight Kyle/Hal saw as his eyes fluttered open. Around them were the soft green walls of whatever unearthly vehicle had destroyed the jet; a vehicle that Kyle/Hal was now somehow, impossibly inside.

“What’re you....” Kyle/Hal said. “What in heaven are you doing? Were you trying to kill me, just now?”

The orange thing covered his mouth and coughed wetly. He was dressed in some weird-ass sci-fi getup, a green jumpsuit with some freaky green headlight-looking emblem on the chest. A ring of the same hue glowed on one of his fingers...if you wanted to call them fingers. It was tough to say, the orange guy being an alien and all, but the bloody stuff that oozed out of his beak made it seem like he was probably in pretty bad shape.

“Our collision could not be helped,” he told Kyle/Hal. “I am Tomar-Re, lord of Sector 1407. As you can see, I hover near death. I have come to you, Hal Jordan, because my scans reveal you to be worthy of my ring’s power.”

“Groovy,” Kyle/Hal said, rubbing the back of his head. “What’s it do?”

“I represent the Corps of the Power Ring,” Tomar-Re said. “Our 3600 soldiers are devoted to the destruction of the - “

Kyle/Hal’s fist landed in the center of the alien’s beak, shattering it. Tomar-Re squawked, spurted his weird purple blood all up Kyle/Hal’s arm, and fell dead.

“Whatever,” Kyle/Hal said. He knelt beside the alien and began to work the ring off his cooling hand. “If everybody on your planet talks this much, I hope we find it soon so we can blow it up. Now let’s see what you’ve got for ol’ Hal here....”

Kyle/Hal slid the ring on. At once, emerald fire enveloped him. His flight suit vanished, and a costume like the one the alien wore appeared in its place.

“Woo-hoo!” Kyle/Hal whirled into the air. He settled back down to the floor and delivered the alien’s corpse a devastating kick to the crotch, laughing his head off. “Oh, man, imagine all the tail I’m gonna get now! Thanks for kicking the bucket, Tommy! You big pansy...probably wanted to probe me or something....” He scrutinized the ring. “Jeez...I sure hope this thing never runs out of juice....”

Suddenly, a green lantern appeared in the air before him. The flickering light from within played over his wickedly delighted features.

“Rock on!” Seeing its purpose at once, Kyle/Hal plunged the ringed hand into its power source. The energy suffused his every atom. “This is freakin’ amazing! I guess I need...I dunno, some kinda vow...oh, wait, I got it!

“In blackest day
“In brightest night
“No wussy little punk bitches shall escape my sight!
“Let those who think that they can fight
“Beware my anger
“The Power Ring’s might!”

“No...” Kyle said. “Oh, no way, man...oh, this is so not cool....”

“Kyle?” There was a hand on his shoulder, at first just nudging him, then shoving him violently. “Kyle! Wake up!”

“Hah?” Kyle blinked in the darkness. Tomar-Re’s spaceship dissolved around him, but it was several seconds before the hotel room came into focus, and before he recognized the face that loomed over him as that of a very concerned-looking Connor Hawke.

“Are you okay?” Connor asked. “You were saying something about the ring....”

Kyle nodded, wincing. “I did not need that bottle of Beck’s before bedtime. Teach me to drink with you. You’re a bad influence.”

“I had 7-Up.”

“Oh, and I guess you think that means it’s okay to just drink as much as you want.”

“I only had one. I don’t think it’s healthy. The carbonation.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kyle reached behind his head. “God, it’s still dark. What time is it? And what the hell am I laying on?”

Connor reached under Kyle’s head and pulled something out from under him; his head dropped six inches to the pillow.

“Only my quiver,” Connor said, shouldering it. “You know, the one full of pointed arrows. And it’s about six in the morning. New York time, that’s nine AM...you should be fine.”

“Sure,” Kyle said, sitting up. “I’m always up at dawn.” Something twisted in his stomach, and he immediately wanted to lay down again - which he knew meant he’d better not if he knew what was good for him. “You didn’t happen to bring any of that 7-Up back to the room with you, by any chance?”

“Sorry. You look like you could use it, though. That and some coffee. Black coffee. A gallon.”

“No doubt.” Kyle stumbled out of his bed and came within a misstep of falling flat on his face. “Ye gods. Next time you’re at the JLA Watchtower, forget to mention that you saw Green Lantern brutally hungover, okay? I have a hard enough time being taken seriously as it is.”

“No room to talk. They passed me up for Plastic Man.”

“That’s a good point. I’m off to the vending machines. You want anything?”

“Spring water. Apple juice, if they don’t have that.”

“Spring water,” Kyle muttered, trying and failing to smooth his hair back. “Yeah, okay. Don’t trash the room or anything while I’m gone, mister party animal.”

“I’ll try to rein it in. Oh, hey, Kyle?”

Kyle stopped at the door. “Yeah?”

“Don’t you think you should get dressed?”

Kyle looked down. Plaid boxers underneath a powder-blue robe he vaguely remembered finding in the bathroom the other night, topped off with a faded South Park t-shirt for just the right hint of class. Poor, decapitated little Kenny. He knew how the little guy felt.

“Too much effort,” Kyle said, and pushed through the door. “Be right back.”

“Unless you die.”

“Unless I die.”

The door closed behind him. Connor sat down on the edge of his bed, pulled an arrow from his quiver, and began to hone it with his whetstone. Good meditative practice; being on the road left him with less time to center than he liked, and he took every opportunity that presented itself. He got a whole three seconds into it when the phone rang.

He set the arrow in his lap and lifted the receiver. “Hello?”

“Mister Hawke? This is the desk.”

“Ah...hi,” Connor said. If his mother had suddenly decided to cancel his credit, he had a problem. “Is everything all right? I didn’t request a wake-up call.”

“Yes, sir, we know,” the woman on the other end said. “You have a call holding. From a Nathan Hawke?”

Connor’s jaw dropped. “From a...?”

“Yes, sir, from Nathan Hawke. Should I put it - “

“Put it through, yes, please.”

There was a click on the line as the attendant switched the call over. Then:

“Connor?”

“Grandpa! Is everything okay? How did you --?”

“Called every goddamned hotel in California until one of them told me they had a Connor Hawke, is what I did. I been doing it for a good two hours, too.”

“What? Why? Grandpa, what’s wrong?”

“I got mugged by a monster,” Nathan said. “A big ugly one. He ate one of my cows first. Wasn’t nice about it.”

Connor blinked. “I...I don’t....”

“Boy, I’m gonna ask you a question, and I need you to be straight with me. Your friend, Kyle...he wouldn’t maybe also be the Green Lantern, would he?”

Connor’s breath caught. He whispered, “Jeez, Grandpa...come on, we’re on the phone here....” “It ate a cow, dammit! It was gonna eat me, too, if I didn’t tell it where the Green Lantern was. It seemed awfully insistent that the Green Lantern had been at my house. And the only reason it didn’t eat me was because it said it picked up his scent again - “

From down the hall, Connor heard a scream.

“Gottagograndpaloveyoubye,” Connor sputtered, tossing the receiver over his shoulder to snatch up his bow and bolt for the door.

“Oh, great.”

Kyle stood before the humming Pepsi machine down at the end of the hall. Staring at it. It stared back, firm in its resolve, surrendering nothing. Nothing, at least, until Kyle fed it some cash.

Which he didn’t have.

Because he wasn’t wearing his pants, which contained his wallet. He was wearing a bathrobe. And he felt like a complete moron.

“Behold the wielder of the world’s most powerful weapon,” he said to himself. “The world is so screwed.”

Maybe he really should just go back to bed. God knew he was in no hurry to go meet Carol Ferris...the alcohol binge had supposedly been a reward to himself for his triumph over Jefferson Jacks, but who was he trying to kid, anyway? He’d had, like, a beer when he got back from Warworld. Kyle didn’t drink at all, not usually...hence his present sorry condition.

But anyway. Sure. Go back to the room and pull the covers over his head. Why not? Would Carol Ferris suffer? It wasn’t like she was waiting for him. She’d keep. He could sleep this off, do it tomorrow...the next day...whenever. What was the rush? Eventually, Connor would split, and his mom’s money would go with him, but so what? The ring could make all kinds of green stuff....

“Oh, yeah,” he said, his weary features lighting with the tiniest hint of a wicked grin. Sure, it was slightly wrong, but....

The ring glowed faintly as three small discs appeared in the air, clinking as they dropped into his opposite hand. Quarter-sized discs. Hey, look, they even had spring water. It was meant to be. Kyle went to drop one in the slot....

“You’re Green Lantern.”

Kyle lifted an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder...then looked down. A full two feet beneath his eyesight, a little blonde girl in a pink nightgown was looking up at him, clutching a teddy bear.

Kyle shook his head and smiled. “No, uh...no, honey, I’m not. This is just, um, a ring I bought because I like Green Lantern.”

“Don’t lie,” the little girl said. “You’re a superhero. You’re not supposed to lie. I saw what you did.” She averted her eyes. “You’re not supposed to steal, either.”

The coins evaporated in Kyle’s hand. “No, sweetie. I just, you know, didn’t have any quarters. I was gonna pay it back.”

“Bet you weren’t,” she said, not looking at him. “You smell like beer.”

Kyle sighed. He knelt down before her. “Hey....”

“My brother likes the Flash better than you. He says the Flash is a real superhero because he used to be Kid Flash and stuff, and he had to work hard to get to be the Flash. He says you’re lame. He says that you killed the real Green Lantern because he went crazy and that’s how you got to be Green Lantern.”

Kyle closed his eyes. “Well, that’s not...that’s not exactly what happened. Sometimes...sometimes it’s just really hard to be a superhero, okay? And it got really, really hard for Green Lantern, and that’s why he - “

The little girl rolled her eyes. “See? You don’t even think you’re Green Lantern. Not really. You say it, but you mean somebody else.”

“I....” He exhaled. “Yeah, well. That’s kinda true. I want to be good at being Green Lantern, but I don’t feel like I’m that good at it. I mean, I do stuff that makes me feel good sometimes, but....”

The little girl placed her hand over the ring. Kyle met her eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be mean. I can tell you’re good. You just need to practice being Green Lantern a little more, that’s all. My name’s Alex.”

Kyle grinned. “Alex, huh? That’s a nice name. I’m Kyle, but you can’t tell anybody. Not anybody. Okay?”

“Okay, Kyyaaaaaaaahhhhhh!”

Kyle leapt to his feet. It all happened so fast that at first he didn’t know what had just happened at all - and when he did get it, it still didn’t make any sense. The door had exploded, the little girl had been swept off her feet, and now some creature out of hell had a black tentacle around her throat, and it sneered to reveal a thousand shining silver needle teeth and say:

“Greeeeen Lahn-tern! At lasssssst!”

“Dude!” Kyle shouted. The ring flashed to life, and the soiled robe burned away to make room for the uniform of the Green Lantern. He left the floor in a crackling blaze of emerald force that brought him face-to-face with the beast. “Little girl! Down! Now!”

“K-Kyle....” Alex gasped, strangling, tears streaming down her scarlet cheeks. “Help me....”

The Predator leered back. “Ssssssshe isss my dinner! You are dessssssert!”

“Your lame villain lines would just suck if it wasn’t for an innocent life being at stake. Let her go!”

“Ohhhhhhh?” the Predator said. “Annnnnd then?”

“And then? And then I kick your ass, buddy!”

“Heh heh. Yesssss. Thissssss is agreeeeable.”

The Predator’s tentacle unfurled to drop the little girl into the hallway at the monstrosity’s back. Alex clambered to her feet and looked back -

“Kyle?”

He shook his head at her. “Just run, honey.”

The little girl nodded, and dashed away.

The Predator opened his arms, wire cords of alien musculature standing out on his obsidian form. Razored talons shot from their moorings in his fingertips. The tentacles on his back writhed, his scent-catchers opening to reveal tiny, snapping mouths. His face split with a fearsome, vicious grin.

“Ssssssssshall weeeeeee?”

“Let me think about it,” Kyle said. “No.”

A green, mounted machine gun rippled into existence in the space between them. Kyle twisted the crank savagely, bombarding the creature with a thousand shells. The Predator released a startlingly deep roar of agony as the barrage blasted his form into the hallway, his flailing claws pulling down most of the wall with him. Kyle kept shooting until his arm ached and there was stillness from the pile of wreckage before him. He let go of the crank and wiped his brow.

The Predator’s hand burst free of the debris.

Kyle thought: Yeah, all those who didn’t know THAT was gonna happen, say aye....

The Predator pulled himself from the rubble and brushed plaster dust from his smooth, onyx flesh. There wasn’t a scratch on him.

Kyle heard people screaming and running. He hoped they ran fast.

“You disssssssapoint meeeee, Greeeeen Lahn-tern,” the Predator said. “The otherrrr one like you wassss...thirsssssty...for blood. Heeeee would not have dissssapointed meeee.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re pissed at Hal, but he’s dead, so you’re gonna take it out on me. What did he do to you that was so awful, huh? Is he the one who’s responsible for that speech impediment of yours?”

“He wassssss...a sssslayer of men. A warrrr-i-or. Not like - “

WhhhhhstCRACK!

A green shaft of wood whistled down the length of the hallway as if shot from a high-powered rifle - and exploded into a shower of harmless splinters against the side of the Predator’s head.

“Oh, man,” Kyle said.

One of the Predator’s tentacles brushed curiously at the spot where the shaft had struck. Then, slowly, the creature turned his attention in the direction of this new attacker.

“Uh-oh,” Connor said.

“I ssssseeeee,” the Predator hissed, advancing toward Connor. “There isssss one here who sssseeekssss blood...it isssss too bad he isssss so weak....”

“Kylllle!” Connor cried, rooted to the spot. His fingers reflexively pulled at the string of his bow, though he had no shaft at the ready. “I have arrows, Kyle...that’s all, Kyle...I need your help, Kyle....”

“Heh heh heh,” the Predator said. He moved without haste, reaching a clawed hand toward Connor, now only a few feet away. “Sssssssoooooooooo nice....”

A green radiance appeared just over the alien’s shoulder, then strobed into full view as Kyle flew into the space above the Predator’s head. “Yeah, yeah.”

The Predator’s head whipped ‘round to flash a savage grin. “Ahhhhhh,” he said. “Will you protect thisssss flessh toy, too? Heh heh heh! How carrrring you are, Greeeeen Lahn-tern!”

“This guy?” Kyle asked. The ring blazed brightly, once. “Nah. He can take care of himself. All he needs is the proper equipment.”

Connor looked down in wonder at the strange green arrow of light that had appeared in his hand. Its tip whirled like a diamond drill, and some kind of cable extended beyond its feathered end. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this -- ?”

The Predator looked at Connor and gasped with delight. “Ohhhhhh! Nowwww weeee are fighting!”

Kyle shouted: “I’m gonna say, ‘What is shoot the freakin’ arrow before the monster eats me for a thousand, Mr. Trebek!’”

Connor lifted his chin. “Got it,” he said, and fired.

The luminous arrow caught the Predator directly in the center of his throat. Connor dove underneath the creature’s flashing claws and hugged the carpet, daring to look up only as a hot, syrupy, bright blue liquid splattered his face. The spinning drill-tip of the arrow bored through the skin over the Predator’s voicebox; the Predator’s tentacles grasped hold of it and tried to yank it away, but it would not be stayed from its task. The arrow struck something solid, and shards of radiant green arrowhead flew out of the wound along with splinters of black bone; the creature choked, and its blood splashed out from between its silver needled teeth. More and more of the arrow disappeared into the creature’s body....

“Kyle!” Connor cried. “You’re hurting it, but this thing is not going down! I don’t think we can kill it!”

Kyle kept a close watch on the back of the alien’s neck...waiting for the all-important moment when the arrow emerged from the other side....

“I don’t, either,” Kyle told him. “Remember the end of Alien?”

Connor shook his head, wiping the blood from his eyes. “I never saw - “

Suddenly, the arrow split the skin at the nape of the Predator’s neck, and the shaft shot through, trailing the cable in its wake. Forty feet of it shuttled through the hole in the beast’s throat, then terminated in a two-ton weight the size of a beer can. When the weight landed just under the Predator’s chin, the momentum of the arrow lifted the monstrosity off his feet and, as the arrow’s trajectory shifted of its own volition, the Predator was carried straight through the wall at Kyle’s back.

Kyle and Connor watched it go. There followed a moment of silence.

“Whoa,” Kyle said, rubbing the back of his neck. “That was intense.”

And then he turned and flew off after the creature.

The Predator knew fear.

He did not know the fear of death. Death he understood largely as something that befell others, usually at his whim; his own demise was impossible. Had the Predator wanted to destroy himself, he would not have known how to - and since he knew of no finer killing machine than himself, it obviously could not be done.

But there was something worse than death.

He knew what was coming. He knew it all the way up, ascending through the terran skies, clutching at the weight beneath his chin, failing to dislodge it as his flesh caught fire, and still he ascended. The sudden lack of oxygen as he cracked the atmosphere and entered the void snatched the flames from his unburned back at once, but this did not comfort him. For the arrow continued to fly, and the Predator still could not free himself of it, and he could only watch as the world he’d intended to turn into a killing field grew smaller and smaller, further and further out of reach.

The lightless void of outer space was cold around him, and whispered of endless hunger. The Predator thrashed, insane in his need to escape his snare, though - even if he did - he would still be lost among the stars. At his present rate of travel, the Predator would be launched into the heart of the sun in approximately twenty-four weeks. But he didn’t know that. He knew only that the void had reclaimed him. And, indeed, he could find himself at the core of a star as it went supernova, and still he might not die.

No matter how desperately he desired it.

He looked back...back at the world that was stolen from him....

And saw a human form bathed in emerald light. Smiling. Growing smaller. Waving him goodbye.

The Predator squeezed his silvery eyes closed.

Greeeeeeeen Lahn-tern, he thought. One day...no matter how long it takessss...even if it takes forever...one day, Greeen Lahn-tern.

The sun went down in a languid explosion of reds and purples and blacks and oranges, the kind of thing you only ever see on a clear evening when it’s summer in California. Two figures stood at the edge of the tarmac, looking up at it, a small but considerable distance between their bodies that neither was aware of consciously...but intuitively, each sensed the boundary, and did not cross it.

“So,” Carol Ferris said. She didn’t take her eyes off the sunset. “You must be the new guy.”

“Must be,” Kyle nodded. He hadn’t exactly dressed for the occasion, just jeans and a plain black t-shirt, but he had shaved and combed his hair. Had his shades on, too, despite the coming night. He told himself it was because he was still a little punchy, but that wasn’t the truth.

“Planning on hanging around for a while?”

“My friend’s waiting for me at what used to be a place called Zenworld. He wanted to spend a little time with his dad. Cali’s great, but my girl back home has gotta think I’m dead by now. So this is our last night here, I’m afraid.”

Carol smirked. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Yeah, I didn’t think it was.”

“You’re not as cute as John. You seem like you’ve got it all over Guy on personality, though.”

“I get that a lot.” Kyle chewed his lower lip. “What about Hal?”

Carol turned away from the sun to look at him. Her dark hair swept back from her face, and Kyle couldn’t help but stare, just for an instant. Carol’s cheekbones were high and sharp, her lips full and lush and scarlet. Involuntarily, Kyle found himself raising his hand just an inch from his side, for a brief moment wanting to stroke this woman’s soft, pale skin...and it was weird, Carol Ferris had ten years on him at least, but somehow it just would have felt right. She was beautiful, sure, but that wasn’t it. It was like...looking at her...there was something about him that he could tell she just got. Even Donna didn’t get it. But Carol Ferris...she did.

He didn’t do it, of course. As soon as he realized what he was thinking about, Kyle thrust his hand into his pocket; he felt awkward as hell. Carol just smiled.

“Hal’s dead, Kyle. So I’d have to say you at least have him beat on that score.”

Kyle looked at her quizzically. “That...but that...I mean, how can you say that? You and Hal used to be - “

“How can I not say it? I have to remind myself of it, every day. I know what I just said sounds callous, but I assure you, it is not. I’d love for Hal to still be alive. Hal, like...how he was. Before. But he isn’t. And it’s not healthy to let myself think otherwise. Not even for a second, when I’m having a really hard day, and the thought that he’s still alive might make me feel better, if I could make myself believe it just for a little while. So I don’t.”

“But it...it’s my fault.”

She stared at him. “What?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Kyle told her. “I guess...I don’t know, so that I could apologize to you for that. Maybe it was just a totally selfish thing, and what I really want is for you to forgive me for it, but I know that can’t happen. So, you know, if you wanna take a swing at me or whatever, that’s cool, too. Just, like, haul off and flatten me. Whatever you need to do. It’s okay.”

Carol laughed. He jumped.

“Kyle. What in the world are you talking about?”

Kyle sighed. “You know. I know you know. It was me, I was the one who told Hal to take on the Sun-Eater. I didn’t know...God, I didn’t know it was gonna kill him. I didn’t know he was gonna die. If...if I had known that, I - “

“You what?” Carol asked. “Hal died for all of us. It was the last good thing he did. If he hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, and not because you wouldn’t feel guilty, but because all of us would be dead! Hal saved the world, and it was the only thing he could have done that would even have started to make up for....” She twisted her head to the side, placed a hand to her tearing eyes. “Dammit. Oh, goddammit, Hal.”

Kyle’s hand came out of his pocket and, trembling, found her shoulder. “Hey....”

Carol’s blinking, streaming eyes found his own, peering over the frames of his sunglasses. She reached up to her shoulder and closed a hand over his, clenching the fingers tight enough to hurt. The ring glowed between their hands, its light shining through their skin.

“I wouldn’t want you to change anything, Kyle. The forgiveness that you need...it won’t come from me. It can’t. Hal was the hero in death he couldn’t be in life. I miss him so much I want to die, but I’m glad for that. I wouldn’t want anyone to take that noble death from him. I just wish...I want to know...if only....”

She thrust her face against his chest, sobbing like a sad, broken thing, and sank her teeth into his skin and moaned through it, her fist pounding his bicep. Something swelled in Kyle Rayner’s throat, and it was all he could do to just stand there on his shuddering legs and smooth his fingers through the woman’s hair as she wept.