"Hey, maybe I'm just a natural," he answers. "Never had any training and just stepped into bein' a cop without even having to pass a test."

That isn't even remotely true and he's sure she knows it. Having been in Vietnam means he's had a lot of training. Too much, he thinks sometimes, too much training just to be out there killing people. He'd hated being there, but a lot of men hadn't and Hopper is still grateful none of those men had been ones he'd known very well at all.

That's not what he wants to think about now, though, and he nods at the ticket booth where they can buy what they need to play the boardwalk games. "C'mon," he says. "Tickets are on me, maybe it'll even out when you have to buy dinner."