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The air swirled with smoke and ash Evie climbed out of the trench and fell onto a soldier whose bones shattered into dust It was as if he’d been hollowed out coone, his rin Bloody tears scarred his shriveled, sunken cheeks Evie screaround, where soldiers’ strewn bodies lay like trampled wildflowers The beautiful trees were no lies, but when she turned her head, they were gone Evie called for James, and there he was on the path up ahead, safe! She ran to hi so was happening to his eyes James stretched out his ar flash

Evie woke, biting off the start of a scream The little fan beside her bed whirred, but she was drenched with sweat With treainst the sudden light The unfamiliarity of the new room made her jittery She needed to breathe She climbed onto the rickety fire escape and up to the roof, where it was cool and open Jericho was right--the vieas great from up there Manhattan unfurled before her like a jeweler’s velvet adorned with diamonds The trains still rattled over the tracks, even at this hour The city was as restless as she was On the ledge, a pigeon cooed and pecked at scraps of bread

"You and onna take this town by storm," Evie joked even as she wiped away the tears that blurred the skyline into fractured light "Don’t be a sap, old girl," she scolded "Buck up"

Evie let the wind kiss her cheeks She opened her ar tos would be different There would be shopping, a picture shoith Mabel On Saturday, they could take the subway out to Coney Island, dip their toes in the Atlantic, and ride the Thunderbolt roller coaster In the evening, she’d find a party and dance as if there were no dead brothers or terrible drea to be the berries

Evie brought her ar herself She rubbed her nose on her sleeve and crooned in a soft voice, "The city’s bustle cannot destroy the dreairl and boy I’ll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy"

The train rattled past, startling the pigeon into flight

In the blazing canyons of brick and neon, the city carried on People met and parted, hurried and idled Subways rureen to yellow to red and back again

In Harle room of other cots inside the YMCA and waited on sleep It arm in the room, like the press of sun on the back of his neck when he used to work the cotton fields back in Mississippi He could see that butter-thin sun of linted off the dark car that carried the shadow ht and tried to block out the sound of her parents’ arguing in the other roo up at the ceiling and i that a few floors above, Jericho lay in his bed, also awake, thinking only of her

In the African graveyard, leaves scuttled across long-quiet graves and onto the lawn of the house on the hill The broken angel statue did not feel the cool of the long shadow passing over the yard Its sightless eyes took no notice of the stranger wiping the blood from his hands as he took in the majesty of the starry sky And its deaf ears did not hear the chilling whistle of the tune fro lost to the frantic, yearning jazz of the city

Miss Addie stood at her large baylooking out at the Central Park Reservoir and Belvedere Castle, bathed in the slightly orange glow of theshe had known since childhood

"Tea’s al her at the"Ah Look how the moon hits the Belvedere Beautiful"

"Indeed" Miss Addie put a hand to the glass, as if she could hold the castle in her pale, sister?"

Miss Lillian nodded sole" Miss Addie turned her eyes back to the park, keeping watch over the night until the ainst the early dawn sky and the untouched tea had gone ice-cold in its cup

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Evie’s first week in New York City had proved to be every bit as exciting as she’d hoped In the afternoons, she and Mabel took the El to the las Fairbanks, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin, and one particularly warm day they’d ridden the Culver Avenue Line out to Coney Island There, they dipped their toes in the cold surf of the Atlantic and strolled past the penny arcades and carnival-like a not to notice the calls of the Boardwalk Roed for their attention When Mabel had finished with her schoolwork and Evie with her reco fro on shawl-collar coats trimmed in fur and brimless cloche hats that made them feel like movie stars After, they’d buy freshly roasted peanuts at Chock Full O’Nuts or stop for a sandwich at the Horn & Hardart Auto her food frolass compartment after she’d deposited her coin and pushed the button