. . . pretend he was a big shot and would brag at parties. He'd tell about the time he walked on the moon or the story about wiping out an entire North Vietnam regiment singlehandedly. He'd say that when he was three he was the trapeze star of the Ringling Brothers Circus and how he'd helped the lion tamer catch a tiger that had escaped by offering it a peanut butter sandwich and talking softly. The tiger came up to him and ate the sandwich and then lay down and fell asleep, his great striped head in the boy's lap.

No one believed him.