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"Transient global amnesia," Helen replied She had listened to the phone conversation and following discussion with great interest Helen verydown into other people’s lives andabout there with a pail and a shovel and possibly one of those old-fashioned striped bathing suits with the legs and ar past the last minute But the victims -- that was Foz’s word, notti"

"That sounds dreadful," said Mrs Gansey "Does it get worse?"

Helen doodled on the desk blotter with a two-inch pencil "Apparently not Soet theraines"

"And it’s stress related?" Richard Gansey II broke in Although he didn’t know Adaenuine Adam was his son’s friend, and so he had inherent worth "Dick, do you knohat he ht be stressed about?"

It was clear this was a proble before Gansey returned to Henrietta with Adam

"He just moved out of his parents’ house," Gansey said He had started to say trailer, but he didn’t like to think of what his own parents would do with that visual He thought for a moment and then added, "His father beat him"

"Jesus Christ," his father remarked Then: "Why do they let these people breed?"

Gansey just looked at his father For a longwas said

"Richard," hisnow?" his father asked "With you?"

He couldn’t kno much or why this question s at a rooal? Does he have a car?"

"He’ll be eighteen in a few months And no"

"It would be better if he stayed with you," Richard Gansey II observed

"He won’t He just won’t Ada that looks like a handout He’s paying his oay through school He works three jobs"

The other Gansey faces were approving The family as a whole enjoyed charm and pluck, and this idea of Adam Parrish, self-made man, appealed to them immensely

"But he has to have a car," Mrs Gansey said "That would surely help Can we not give hiet one?"

"He won’t take it"

"Oh, surely if we say --"

"He won’t take it I pro e letters and his father paged through A Brief Encyclopedia of World Pottery and his lobal a everything he possessed into the Suburban and driving away as fast as he could A very small, very selfish voice inside Gansey whispered, What if you left him here, what if you made hiize for once?

Finally, Helen said, "What if I gave hi to donate to that broken-car charity if he doesn’t want it He’d be savingthe tow!"

Gansey frowned "Which crappy car?"

"Obviously I would obtain one," Helen replied, drawing a fifty-eight-foot-yacht on the blotter "And say it was mine"

The older Ganseys adored the idea Mrs Gansey was already on the phone The collective mood had buoyed with the implementation of this plan Gansey felt it would take more than a car to relieve Adam’s stress, but the truth was that he did need a vehicle And if Ada

Gansey couldn’t shake the i, walking Knowing he was forgetting what he was doing, but unable to stop Unable to remember Gansey’s number, even when people did stop to help

I don’t need your wisdo he could do about it

43

Okay, princess," Kavinsky said, presenting a six-pack to Ronan "Shohat you can do"

They were back in the clearing near the fairgrounds It was hazy, shi, dazed in the heat This was a place for more dream math One hundred white Mitsubishis Two dozen fake licenses Two of the Days were irrelevant They marked

time with dreams

The first one had been just a pen Ronan woke in the frosty air-conditioning of the passenger seat, his fingers motionless over a slender plastic pen balanced on his chest As always, he hovered above himself, a paralyzed non-participant in his own life The speaker thuoodnatured, offensive, and Bulgarian Biting flies clung hopefully to the exterior of the windshield Kavinsky wore his white sunglasses, because he ake

"Wow,the pen froers, Kavinsky tried it out on the dashboard There was soard for his own property "What’s this shit, man? Looks like the Declaration of Independence"

Just as in the drea in a dainty cursive, no matter how the user held it Kavinsky quickly bored of its single- with the Bulgarian beat until feeling came back to Ronan’s hands and he was able to knock it away

Ronan thought it wasn’t bad for a dreaarded the pen scornfully

"Watch this" Producing a green pill, he flicked it into his lasses, he pressed his knuckles into one of his eyes, gri Then he was asleep