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Look at this ot for you, she says and tilts it in front of his eyes so he can see His eyes focus deep, like he would like to put hie inside that pen

Go on, she says, handing it to him You can keep it It’s a present Who knows, maybe today is your birthday

AT NIGHT they find places to sleep Structures they can barricade, rooftops onto which they can climb They look at the stars, and sheon the different earths going in circles around those different suns Maury falls asleep easily, as though it were his natural state and wakefulness a chore toThese are the tiuitar or a jaw harp She re in the nets in thethe island like it was the peris--a noisy parade of memories that frustrate her because of the way they play themselves out These memories--it feels like she’s back there in the moment, like she has the moment to do over and make different choices than she made But she can’t, because they’re just memories and they’re set down permanent as if they were chiseled in s over and over, and it’s a conde with her head on Maury’s chest The sound of his heartbeat steady where other things are calaht they drive

I sure wish you could read, Maury I mean, have a look at that lake

The road opens up and they are driving along the shore of a shih the trees, she can see the sun scintillating on the rippled surface It widens as they drive and the opposite shore retreats until they can barely see the houses and docks on the other side

Look at the pair of us, she says It sure would help if one of us could read

She looks at hione in the horizon

Hell, she says Who knows? Maybe you can read, you just can’t speak it out loud Either way it don’t do usout there in that lake Getting their enjoyht there, she says I bet it’s got a beautiful name to it too Like Crystal Palace Lake or Lake Sparkle Heaven or soht there would tell us if either of us could decipher it

She sighs

Nope, she says You and ot taught a few songs when I was little--and lucky for you I’ettin ready to let go

Take ame!

Take me out of the crowd!

Buy o back!

So it’s hoot, hoot, hoot for the hoe!

If you don’t care, it’s a shame!

Cause it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out

Of the old ball gaas station until they find one where the pu her nostrils

On a narroo-lane road, they encounter a station wagon going in the opposite direction A hand from the driver’s aves them down and the two cars pull up next to each other in the road, their noses inverted Temple keeps a hand on her pistol and rolls down herIt’s an older er irl The girl looks at her over the tops of the seats, her thumb in her mouth and a sooty-faced doll choked under her arh Baton Rouge to Slidell--heard there was a redoubt there, and it was getting tough where they were coirl’s eyes, sleepy and hypnotic, meet Temple’s and for acloser to Te his voice You have any shotgun aot a handful of shells left

What kind? Teot’s twenty

Oh

Hey, your girl like bingberries?

She’s never had any

Here, says Teh theFresh picked a couple days ago

We sure do appreciate it, the otten very much to cherish