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"Want a sniffi"

The snuffbox, open to its mound of yelloder, was suddenly up below Matthew&039;s nose He stepped back a pace, still with Mrs Sutch&039;s pleasure on his h, you bitches!" Opal called to her friends as the girls e innards of the laundry house She took two sniffs up the snoot and sneezed with hurricanious violence Then she hooked an ar, and crowed, "I&039;ve gotas if he were made out of spit and straw

Matthew let hi with a jaunty step "What do you want to seei"

"What&039;s worth seeingi"

She gave hilanced back to gauge if her co, and when she saw they&039;d returned to their labors she released his arm "Not much worth seein&039;, &039;round here at least," she confided She looked him over froh to be puttin&039; arandfather and I don&039;t think Mrs Lovejoy would care to hear your description of Paradise"

"This ain&039;t my idea of Paradise!" she scoffed, her nose wrinkled up so hard Matthew thought theout "Hell, no!" She suddenly seemed to catch her own imprudence Her cheeks reddened and she widened the distance between theo blab about ets in&039; on to my job by the curl of an ass-hair"

"I won&039;t blab," said Mattheas finding the girl to be a sparkling conversationalist Just what he needed, in fact

"Might have to go packanyways, cause of this here whuffie-dust" Opal held up the snuffbox, which was fashioned of cheap birch bark and looked like an ite post "Mizz Lovejoy&039;s already been on , she was sure to toss ini"

"That&039;s as drivin&039; the wagon What she calls hio this way" She pointed out a path leading off the main drive into the woods Matthew had had his fill of forest travel, but he went in the direction she indicated He waited a uised as a stateht Mrs Lovejoy told me all the workers here were female"

"They are Well, all the ones who live on the prein lives somewhere else He comes in to do fix-up work You know, patchin&039; roofs and paintin&039; walls and such and diggin&039; the graves, he does that too"

"Oh," Matthew said

"Matter of fact," Opal said, "here&039;s the graveyard"

They came out of the woods to face a ceht-iron fence Everything was neat and orderly, the weeds kept at bay and the small wooden crosses lined up in rows Matthew counted forty-nine of theh or not for five years of business, considering the ages and conditions of her guests He doubted if any of them were too very robust when they arrived, and they went down from there

"Be another one in here after dark," Opal said "TheFord passed late last night She was a pretty good old lady, never caused h"

"after darki" Matthew paused to lean against the fence His sense of curiosity, still tingling fro, received a further pinch "Why do you put it that wayi"

She shrugged "ain&039;t no other way to put it You coht That&039;s how it&039;s done here"

"Isn&039;t there a funerali"

"There&039;s a service, if that&039;s what you mean after the doctor looks &039;em over and pronounces &039;em dead, the preacher says soht over yonder" Shethat Matthew could see through the trees "Everybody who&039;s able and wants to come can pay their finals The coffin lies in the church all day Then, after dark, Noggin takes the listen, why are you wantin&039; to know about this so muchi"

"I&039;d like to knohat to expect," Matthew said evenly, "when randfather&039;s time comes"

"Oh &039;Course as I was sayin&039;, then " She stopped and shook her head "Maybe Mizz Lovejoy ought to be the one tellin&039; you I&039;ht" Matthew decided to pull back, so as not to scare all the conversation out of her "Where to nexti"

They walked along the path past the cemetery and the church itself a road went by the church that Matthew thought must connect to thesohtly doard toward a s were in view

"Those are where they live The guests, I ht is for the men, the one on the left for the woarden Then way over there the smaller one is where we live It&039;s not ot our own rooot soht, but I ain&039;t prancin&039; in pigshit, and I told her just the same"

"Good for you," Matthew said "What&039;s thati" He pointed toward a low-slung structure beyond the workers&039; house that looked to be all panes of glass, shining in the sun "a greenhousei" He recalled Mrs Lovejoy ht," Opal said "Grows her hot plants in there"

"Her hot plantsi"

"Her peppers Mizz Lovejoy&039;s got a craze for &039;eo in there without your eyes start leakin&039; and your skin get all itchy at least I can&039;t"

"She has a second businessi" Matthew asked

"What second businessi"

"Well shea little of that goes a long way"

"You&039;d be wrong," Opal told hiuests Grinds &039;eives &039;eht"

Matthened "For what earthly reasoni"

"Makes the blood flow, is what she says Keeps everything workin&039; I don&039;t know, ask her all I know is, you ought to see souests-eatin&039; their suppers and moanin&039; with the tears runnin&039; down their faces It&039;s just awful" and then she put her hand up to her h before it cairl, Opal," Matthew said, but he was fighting to keep a straight face too because he could envision the scene she had described That h, and he also brought his hand up to cover his et there, Opal turned and kissed hi herself upon him She pressed her lips upon his with desperate need, and Matthew thought peppers were cool coered back, but she had hold of hio Her ripped his buttocks and Matthew thought he was going to be thron and ravished under the trees But after all, this was Paradise

"Co to hio in the woods, don&039;t ood place Cooing to peel his breeches right off "You don&039;t know," she said as she pulled at hi "Old people everywhere, and sick, and dyin&039; right there in front of you, come on, darlin&039;, come on just let me-"

"Opal," he said

"-have a little bit, a little bit of warm, that&039;s all I&039;ht her chin and looked into her dazed blue eyes and saas not about him at all, no it was not; it was about the place, with its white paint and blue tris that hid the dark side of Paradise It was about the wrinkled flesh and the spottings of age and the old women who talked about old dead loves and the old men whose adventures had dwindled down to the size of a chaht and the frost on the pane, and the way a day could be so slow and yet so quick, and how the ood oldFord had ended in a strengthless gasp Matthe the truth of this place, and Opal knew it as well; it here you were put to be forgotten

"-askin&039;," she finished, and suddenly the tears bloomed up and blurred the blue and she looked at him as if she&039;d been struck

She backed away Matthew thought she was going to turn and run, but she stopped at a distance and stood staring at the ground as if searching for so she&039;d lost

"I " she started, and then went silent again She rubbed herto rub her mouth until it bled "I&039; her position When she lifted her gaze to his again, she was full of fla to have to say you advanced on"If it coently

"I ain&039;t a bad person," she went on "I mean, I&039;ve had my share of scrapes, but I ain&039;t bad Exactly"

"I need your help," he told her

She was silent an expression of incomprehension flickered across her face Now she did look as if she o," Matthew said "Just listen"

So close to running so close

"Mrs Lovejoy may be in some trouble" Matthew kept his voice low, but he was also very aware of their surroundings, that no one-especially thethe path unheard

Opal regarded hiarded the rattlesnake beneath his tricorn "Who are youi"

"I&039; to ask the questions Has there been a male visitor here lately for Mrs Lovejoyi Say in the past five daysi"