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Long and dark blew the night wind around and past and through the Bone Man

His eyes glistened with anger and fear and frustration The tide of the night was already strong, ray e of sickness in his e in the swahtered with his own hands and buried thirty years ago, stir and flex its power

Such power…

The Bone Man stood for a long tiht birds told him much that he needed to know, told him too much Now he didn’t knohich way to turn Whose life mattered more? Which of the innocent ones needed him more than the others? Which innocents ones would he have to sacrifice to save the rest?

Thunder sniggered in the east

The Bone Man turned north and began walking toward Pine Deep, his stick legs swishing, his stick ar like polished ht you weresupper for Crow"

Val didn’t look up from her crossword puzzle Her father lifted the lid and stuck his whole face into the aroood"

"Don’t sound so surprised I can cook, you know"

Guthrie didn’t choose to reply to that; instead he sniffed the soup again, ae Val’s previous atte were spectacular disasters Maybe she’d had a culinary epiphany He found hisin his head

"Leave it be," Val said "You had your dinner"

"What is it?"

"Turkey soup and get your nose out of it, thank you very hed and set the lid back on the pot "There seems to be an awful lot of it for one skinny little fella like Crow"

"I h for his lunch tomorrow" Val finished a clue and then looked up Her father was still loitering by the pot, trying to look earnest and hungry She shook her head but she was sry, just take so it’ll jump at you"

"Well," Guthrie said with a s the better of him, "maybe just a little I wouldn’t want to steal food out of Crow’s mouth, you understand"

"Uh-​huh"

He fetched a dish and a ladle and scooped a bri bowlful, an amount that scarcely dipped the level in the heavy spotted black pot

"There’s crackers in the cupboard"

"No dus?"

"Pop…"

"Crackers it is, then" Guthrie took down a box of saltines, ru water, and sat down at the table across fro eye could see the kinship between the and her laughing mouth were fro Scottish blood The elder Guthrie had heavier features and his once jet-​black hair had gone silver since Val’s mother had died two years before His nose was hawked and beaky and he had a thick mustache that dipped into his spoonful of soup as he blew on it and sipped

"How is it then?"

"Just like your mama’s"

Val srin that softened his dour face into an expression of great love and hued at hiht and take better care of hiie had passed, but Val had hounded hiularto get hi to have a daht of that Unleaded coffee was obscene

He ate the soup, which was thick with fresh turkey, corn, celery, potatoes, and green beans He didn’t dare put salt in it: Val would never let hih blood pressure Besides, the soup was good enough not to need it

Val sat and watched her father eat, enjoying it Playing the domestic role was new and somewhat out of character for her, but she did it now for her father with no regrets Left to his own devices, her father would live on pizza and Glenlivet, black coffee and Big Macs She couldn’t bear the sound of his arteries squeaking shut Still, she was no kitchen girl, not like her sister-​in-​law, Connie, who seemed blissfully happy to cook, clean, and beam vapidly at her husband, Mark, Val’s only brother Val worked on the far the corn, bartering holesalers, doing valve jobs on the Bronco Connie had her little herb garden and nant scenes of kittens with balls of yarn that made Val want to vo her priarden Crow often whispered to Val that Connie was a Desperate Houseaiting to pop, and that she had so her for years, Val still couldn’t see any trace of depth in her sister-​in-​law, just as she was totally unable to see what Mark saw in her beyond a purely superficial prettiness

Watching her father eat his soup, Val felt a little wave of acceptable do out that dole on Crow, and she found she liked that, too Of course, she planned to teach him how to cook because hausfrau was definitely not how she viewed herself A dash of domesticity here and there was fine

Guthrie dabbed a cracker in his soup and watched his daughter watching hied "Not really"