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He opens the door to find a Girl Scout standing there, carrying a carton full of multicolored cookie boxes

"Hi, would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

"Aren’t you a little old to be a Girl Scout?" Lev asks with a sirl says, "you’re never too old, and anyway, I’irls who sell cookies, so you’re right in a sense I’er sister, if you must know So can I coirl is kind of cute, and kind of funny, and Lev does have a weak spot for Sairls "Sure, coot"

She practically waltzes through the door and sets the box down on the dining roo out one of each variety

"Hey, Marcus," Lev calls, "you want some Girl Scout cookies?"

"Sure," his brother calls from the kitchen "Get me the peanut butter"

"Make that two," calls Dan

Lev turns to the girl "Okay, so two of the peanut butter ones, and a box of Samoas"

"Yum-yum!" she says "The Samoas are hteen dollars--are you sure you don’t want any Thin Mints? They’re our bestseller!"

"No thanks" He pulls out his wallet, pretty sure he doesn’t have enough cash, but he wants to check before asking Marcus As he looks through his wallet, the girl has time to look at him

"I know you, don’t I?" she says

Lev suppresses a heavy sigh Here it couy--the clapper! Wow, I’ cookies to the clapper kid!"

"I didn’t clap," Lev tells her flatly, and mercifully finds a twenty in his wallet and hands it to her "Here Thanks for the cookies Keep the change"

But she doesn’t take theto look him over "A clapper who doesn’t clap Kind of defeats the purpose, don’t you think?"

"You should go now" He waves the money at her, but she still won’t take it

"Keep your ift to you"

"No Just take the o"

Her eyes are locked on his now "A clapper who doesn’t clap I ih places People who put their tioes off without a hitch"

Lev suddenly gets a feeling in the pit of his stoht down to China

"They’re very proactive, these organizers, and a clapper who doesn’t coives all of us a bad name"

Then she smiles and holds out her hands wide

"Marcus! Dan!" yells Lev "Get down!"

"Here’s another gift," says the girl "Let ether

Lev leaps over the sofa for cover as her hands connect All it takes is a single clap The explosion blows Lev back against the wall, and the sofa flips on top of hi ti pain in his ears so bad he’s convinced his skull has split open Then, in a fewbehind an intense ringing in his ears, and a clear sense that the world has just ended

Ss and make his eyes tear He forces the sofa off himself, and as he looks across the rooo, now lying in the living room like a shipwreck There is no upstairs now--and there is no roof beyond that, only the cloud-filled sky, while all around hie

Dan, as on his way out into the living rooainst the wall A huge bloodstain in the rough shape of his body marks his impact, and now he lies a lifeless heap on the floor Pastor Dan--theday, the first one to visit him once he was in police custody, the man who had become more of a father to him than his own father--is dead

"No!!"

Lev crawls over the ruins toward Dan’s body, but then sees his brother in the kitchen A bealass breakfast table and eut There’s blood everywhere--but Marcus is still alive He’s conscious, and he shudders as he tries to speak, choking on blood

Lev doesn’t knohat to do, but he knows if he doesn’t clear his head enough to act, his brother will die too

"It’s okay, Marcus, it’s okay," he says, even though it’s not

With all his strength, Lev lifts the bea the beam up with his shoulder, pushes Marcus out of the way, then lets the bea out what little was left of the table with a loud crash Lev reaches into Marcus’s pocket, pulls out a blood-soaked phone and, praying it still works, dials 911

- - -

Lev, covered in soot and ears still ringing, refuses his own a with Marcus and makes such a stink that they let him

His left ear flutters with every sound, like a moth has found its way inside His vision is blurry, and time itself seems to have altered It’s like Lev and Marcus have been thrust into an alternate diure out if he’s here because the girl blew up, or if the girl blew up because he’s here

The para him with God knohat

"L-L-Lev," Marcus says, his eyes struggling to stay open

Lev grabs his hand, sticky and brown fro blood "I’m here"

"Keep hio into shock"

"L-listen to et the words out "Listen to "