Hi all! This story is the result of obsessive essay reading, so if you find it lame and boring it’s the fault of G.K. Chesterton.

Time wise this happens in the middle of Objects in Space. But I’m sure you’re clever enough to figure that out.

SEEMS RIGHT

Yes, Simon wanted to tell the crazed bounty hunter passionately. Yes, yes, yes – it seemed right to him. The universe with all her little quirks and paradoxes seemed perfectly right and just. What was not right was Early.

Of course River was the hardest bounty the man had ever gone after, even if she was the smallest but for one. How could he have thought otherwise? Any fool can figure out that it would be easier to catch an elephant than a mouse. If you’re small, you can run and hide. You can slip through fingers and disappear into dark places. No one ever has to look for anything large, like a chair or a table; only small things, like chopsticks and mugs, get lost.

“What did he do?”

“Who?”

“The midget?”

“Arson,” Early said, shaking his head. “Little man loved fire.”

As what the bounty hunter said sunk in, Simon realized that his first proof was only the logical reason that River was a difficult bounty; there was a metaphysical reason as well. She was innocent.

Early should have realized the moment he saw the warrant, her age, her picture, that in her short life she could not have done anything to excuse such an opulent bounty. If he was really was as proficient a bounty hunter as he claimed to be, he must have noted the discrepancy, the injustice. How could he think that, after hunting criminals for so long, he’d be able to hunt the innocent with equal success? What would posses him to believe that the traps for the guilty could possibly catch the guilt less? He hadn’t factored in loyalty, or sacrifice, or courage, or love. If Early had bothered to think of those things, he would have quickly realized that River would be nigh impossible to catch.

Since he was deconstructing Early’s propositions, he turned his mind to