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She looks doubtful "A hurricane blew them away? That’s dumb"

"I swear it’s true," I say

"And it didn’t kill the or a curse," I say "But they are both still alive, trying to find their way back to each other"

"What about their mom and dad?" she says

I take her eet you a fresh drink," I say

"Don’t That’s not your job" She pushes the blue button over her night table and says, "Cranberry juice And waffles With syrup And an umbrella toothpick!"

"Please," I add, because I know they’re all rolling their eyes at her, and it really is only a matter of time before someone blows their nose into her napkin

"I liked that story," she says "Is it really true? Do you really know those twins?"

"Yes," I say "And their little house is waiting for them to return It has a broken fire escape and it used to be covered in flowers But that city isn’t like this place The cherow Only their ic touch, and when she died, they all wilted

That was that"

"That was that," she echoes, in agreement

I leave her when it’s time for her ultrasound Gabriel catches my arm in the hallway "Was the story all true?" he says

"Yes," I say

"So how long do you think it’ll be?" he says "Before the next hurricane co to take you hoest fear?" I say

"Yes Tell me"

"That it will be a very windless four years"

It isn’t windless, though By late October we have severe weather patterns In the kitchen there are bets on what category the first hurricane will be Three is most popular Gabriel thinks two, because it is a weird tiree with hi about We don’t have very dramatic weather in Manhattan Whenever the wind is bad, I ask, "Is this a hurricane? Is this?" and the kitchen laughs at me Gabriel assures me I’ll know

The pool water thrashes, and I think it et sucked into the air The trees and bushes convulse Oranges roll as though being kicked along by ghosts There are leaves everywhere, red, and brown-splattered yellow When nobody is around, I gather the leaves into piles and bury myself I breathe in the daain I stay hidden until the wind takes theo with you," I say

One afternoon I return to my bedroom and find that myhas been opened A present Linden left for me to find I test it--it opens and closes I sit on the sill and s clean, and I think of stories my parents told me about their childhood At the turn of the new century, when the world was safe, they had a holiday called Hal-loween They would go out in groups of friends dressed as hideous things and ring doorbells asking for candy

My father’s favorite kind, he said, looked like little traffic cones with yellow tips

Jenna, whoseremains locked, comes to my room and presses her nose to the screen and breathes deeply, traveling to kind memories of her own She tells e would serve hot chocolate She and her two sisters would share a , and they’d all have chocolate mustaches

Cecily’sis also left locked, and when she objects, Linden says the draft will be too ile state," she ile state if I can’t get out of this bed soon" But she does like the attention He sleeps beside herHe feeds her éclairs and rubs her feet When she coughs, there are doctors tripping over thes

But she is healthy She’s strong She’s not Rose And she’s restless On an afternoon when Linden isn’t doting so heavily on her, Jenna and I close Cecily’s bedroorace, but that’s part of the fun And in that fun, I can forget how Jenna became such an adept dancer

"Oh!" Cecily cries, cutting short her cluain, or start bleeding, but she bounces on her heels and says, "It kicked, it kicked!" She grabs our hands and presses theh in response, a terrible wailing alarins to flash fro, and I look out theand notice that the tree with the robin’s nest has fallen over

Our domestics come to hustle us into the basement, with Cecily in tears because she doesn’t want to be in a wheelchair when her legs work just fine Linden isn’t hearing what she’s saying, partly but not entirely due to the alarms, and he holds her hand and says, "You’re safe with me, love"

The elevator opens to the basehn, Jenna, Cecily and our domestics But not Gabriel, and he’s the only one who kno frightened I aine the noise rattling the coldshaken back to life, stitched and rotting and a sickly shade of green I i I’ to escape She’ll bury me alive if that’s what it takes to keep me here by Linden’s side, because he’s the love of her life and she will not let him die alone