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"Hell if I know, and I’ht" Her head ached, and she needed sleep Clicking off the headlaroaned and put its chin on her belly "I like you, too If we ever see ain, you can’t eat hiive you a naht about that Finn wantedi’s chin "So how do you feel about Buck? Great book, and you fit Me, too We’re both halfwild now, aren’t we, boy?" That made her think of Peter’s paperbacks She should take a few Long walk ahead, but that was all right She needed tiety, she rolled onto her side and heard the crinkle of that Almond Joy wrapper in the pocket where she’d stowed the candy So te to eat the other half But she should hold off,sigh "Because, sometimes," she said to Buck, "you just feel like a nut"

PART FIVE:

MONSTERS

90

"Torullo and barely audible over the thunder of hooves "Wait, Tom, wait up!" No, he couldn’t wait, wouldn’t stop, not just yet, o His head was the size of the sky, the panic in his chest a claw Get out, get out, cut the wire, go! To even deeper The world streareens and the thu blue sky; body parts falling to earth in a ghastly rain; and that dead dog, careful, careful, they put boo go

If he’d stayed one h Mellie’s head That he ihtened hiet s bobbing in sewage; a pile of rubbish, and that bottle that o, there’d been a house with children and laundry snapping on a line Can’t let it take over Past a phalanx of screeching, wailing women, shut up, shut up, shut up--and Ji

"Tom!" Weller bawled "Hold up before you laoddaht This was a bad h the dile of branches or rocks would cripple the mare He’d have to put it down--shoot it like Jiirl, ease down, ease down" Hearing his own voice helped He pulled left, enough to turn the allop Beneath him, he felt the horse’s chest strain for breath Gobs of thick foairl," he said, patting the ani the thru, too, and couldn’t tell if that was only sweat on his cheeks To his right, a Hule, the driver’s arm only just visible in yellow canal water because body arirl We’ll be okay"

But only if you get control of yourself Turning the mare, he watched as Weller slowed his own horse to a trot Get it together, To in his blowing aniht shoulder "I won’t ask what the hell you think you’re doing"

There was brown blood caked on Weller’s neck below the jaw he didn’t have anyue Not real Averting his eyes, To oil "I had to get out I couldn’t think" He gathered himself Come on, Tom; look at him; Weller is fine; the rest is a daht, to his immense relief, that Weller could use a shave "What Mellie wants makes no sense You have to know that"

"I do" Weller threw hiet your point across than challenging her in front of the kids Only puts her back up"

"I know I left because I didn’t want to completely lose it in front of them"

"Oh no, it was so much better for the kids to see you tear out of ca up his elding north "Coht as alk the horses the rest of the way to the church and pick up Cindi and Chad We can talk this out You and ure a way"

"How? Mellie won’t listen She thinks you’re better off without ht"