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I never thought I’d be happy that Jilo had used Wren to spy on my family, but finally I had the opportunity to learn the truth from a somewhat objective witness I sat back down at her feet "Tell "

TWENTY

Jilo licked her dry lips and readied herself to speak "You know Wren was keeping an eye on yo’ fa that she had repeated herself but not pointing it out

"Well, he the one that told Jilo He saw yo’around this house the day she was s’posed to be getting planted in the ground Said she was goin’ through the place lookin’ for so" Under its own volition, my hand flew up to touch the chain ofh the door "Graotta come see this" He ran back to the porch "Dah the screen door Our eyes locked, and I scraht and brittle body

I let Jilo come under her own stea unusual fro like he was I walked out into the yard after him and followed his eyes to the sky A dark arc, like a rainbow drained of its colors, had stretched across the western horizon In the few ranite to coal

Jilo had found her way to the porch and was leaning out to exa a curtain of dusk, not sothe color, fading it to black and whiteand then all light disappeared, leaving only darkness "You two come up here Get out of the yard" Jilo’s voice quivered "Go on," she commanded e didn’t move Martell stood where he was, entranced, frozen in place like a statue I grabbed his hand, ravel, up the steps, and into the house behind Jilo

We watched through theas the veil against the sky began to close in on us It grew in both proxi up toward each other, encircling us "Gra, fear stripping hi the innocent little boy behind it In spite of oing to be okay," I told hi to Jilo for confir She went frorowing shadow The band of darkness had changed, beco that it had stopped growing and had begun contracting, like a serpent squeezing tighter The world beyond its grasp had ceased to exist for us On its inner edge, the side that grew ever nearer, the last bit of bright blue suan to press down on us, its heaviness palpable, and the ground beneath our feet tre to the surface, the world around us lifted up, for sphere It was like a black hole sucking everything into it

Jilo turned tofor Jilo" Her voice was a dying whisper "She sorry it catching you too," she said, still looking atout and pulling Martell to her I glanced out the s, but nothing was visible beyond thelass, and then the s the pressure All sound stopped as gray seeped in through the walls, draining the already faded flowers of Jilo’s wallpaper to nothing

Walls began to curve around us, and the baseboards warped before our eyes I ran to Jilo and took her and Martell in , he clung to me I didn’t know if it would work I wasn’t even sure a world still existed outside this quivering bubble, but I grabbed theht I closedI knew, I felt the sun on my face and heard the sounds of birds and traffic I openedrip Martell broke away, stuan to wretch Jilo looked atthat went past respect and spoke of wonderment "Bless you, baby," she whispered, and then went and stood beside her grandson, patting her hand on his shoulder to coet hi to the kitchen door

"If yo’ uncle has any of that scotch left, I’d beMartell a final pat I s if not resilient; she was already on theinto the silent house, I sent out a psychic ping to see if it would bounce back to ; no one was home

I went into the library and found sorab a couple of glasses, filling one ater and one halfith the stronger stuff I returned to the garden, al next to the table across fro Martell, who sat slu away fro boredom I handed him his water, which he took silently

"Martell," Jilo said