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When Orson whined again, I firone," with that ruthless focus on the future that gets raph, I tucked it into rief No despair No self-pity

Anyway, my mother is not entirely dead She lives in ardless of any criht stand accused by others, she is alive in us, alive in the Elephant Man and his freak dog And with all due hu in it We are not the bad guys

As we left the vault, I said "Thank you" to whoever had left the photograph for h I was only assuround, outside the hangar, my bicycle here I’d left it The stars here I’d left thee of Dead Town and toward Moonlight Bay, where the fog--and more--waited for me

FIVE

NEAR DAWN

30

The Nantucket-style house, with dark wood-shingle siding and deep white porches, see an unnoticed tipping of the continent, co to rest here in the California hills above the Pacific Looking ic says it should, sitting toward the front of the one-acre lot, shaded by stone pines, the residence exudes the char family that lives within its walls

All the ere dark, but before long, light would appear in a few of them Rosalina Ramirez would rise early to prepare a lavish breakfast for her son, Manuel, ould soon return fro he wouldn’t be delayed by the extensive paperwork associated with Chief Stevenson’s immolation As he was a better cook than his mother, Manuel would prefer to ave hie bedrooed to her son, a roo birth to Toby

Beyond a deep backyard, shingled to match the house and s flanked by white shutters, stands a sambrel roof Because the property is at the extre trails and the open hills; the original owner had stabled horses in the barn Now the structure is a studio, where Toby Rah the fog, I saw the s glowing Toby often wakes long before dawn and coainst the barn wall and went to the nearestOrson put his forepaws on the sill and stood besideinside

When I pay a visit to watch Toby create, I usually don’t go into the studio The fluorescent ceiling panels are far too bright And because borosilicate glass is worked at terees Fahrenheit, it ee anyone’s eyes, not just hts off, and then we talk for a while

Noearing a pair of goggles with didy table, in front of the Fisher Multi-Flaraceful pear-shaped vase with a long neck, which was still so hot that it was glowing gold and red; noas annealing it

When a piece of glassware is removed suddenly from a hot flame, it will usually cool too quickly, develop stresses--and crack To preserve the itees

The flaen fro table During the annealing process, Toby would feather out the oxygen, gradually reducing the telass molecules time to shift to ers involved in glassblowing, soht it was irresponsible of Manuel to allow his Down’s-afflicted son to practice this technically de art and craft Fiery catastrophes were envisioned, predicted, and awaited with impatience in some quarters

Initially, no one was more opposed to Toby’s dream than Manuel For fifteen years, the barn had served as a studio for Carlass artist As a child, Toby had spent uncounted hours with his uncle Salvador, wearing goggles, watching theKevlaroven While he’d appeared to aze and a witless s directly taught To cope, the intellectually disadvantaged often must have superhuman patience Toby sat day after day, year after year, in his uncle’s studio, watching and slowly learning When Salvador died two years ago, Toby--then only fourteen--asked his father if he ht continue his uncle’s work Manuel had not taken the request seriously, and he’d gently discouraged his son fro before dawn, he found Toby in the studio At the end of the worktable, standing on the fire-resistant Ceralass swans Beside the swans stood a newly formed and annealed vase into which had been introduced a calculated lass litter like stars Manuel knew at once that this piece was equal to the finest vases that Salvador had ever produced; and Toby was at that verypiece of work

The boy had absorbed the technical aspects of glass craft from his uncle, and in spite of his mild retardation, he obviously knew the proper procedures for avoiding injury The enetics was involved, too, for he possessed a striking talent that could not have been learned He wasn’t merely a craftsman but an artist, and not merely an artist but perhaps an idiot savant to whom the inspiration of the artist and the techniques of the craftsman came with the ease of waves to the shore

Gift shops in Moonlight Bay, Calass Toby produced In a few years, he

Sometimes, nature throws a bone to those she raphs with soht flared and billowed fro flame Toby took care to turn the pear-shaped vase so that it was bathed uniformly by the fire

With a thick neck, rounded shoulders, and proportionately short arnome before a watch fire deep in the earth Brow sloped and heavy Bridge of the nose flat Ears set too low on a head slightly too small for his body His soft features and the inner epicanthic folds of his eyes give hih work chair, turning the glass in the flaen floith intuitive precision, face shioggles, Toby did not in any way see diminished by his condition To the contrary, observed in his element, in the act of creation, he appeared exalted

Orson snorted with alarm He dropped his forepaws frohtened into a wary crouch

Turning as well, I saw a shadowy figure crossing the backyard, conized him at once because of the easy way that he carried himself It was Manuel Raht Bay Police Department but now at least temporarily risen by succession to the top post, due to the fiery death of his boss

I put both hands in ht hand around the Glock

Manuel and I were friends I wouldn’t feel coun at him, and I certainly couldn’t shoot him Unless he was not Manuel anymore Unless, like Stevenson, he had becoht or ten feet frolohich pierced the nearby , I could see that Manuel earing his khaki uniforh he stood with his thuun belt, he would be able to draw his weapon at least as quickly as I could pull the Glock froh I kneasn’t

Instead of answeringbeer, tamales, and Jackie Chan movies at this hour"

"I just stopped by to say hello to Toby if he happened to be between jobs"

Manuel’s face, too ith care for his forty years, had a naturally friendly aspect Even in this Halloween light, his s As far as I could see, the only luht froht mask the same transient flickers of animal eyeshine that I’d seen in Lewis Stevenson

Orson was reassured enough to ease out of his crouch But he re rage or electric energy As always, his voice was soft and almost musical "You never did come around to the station after you called"

I considered o with the truth "Yes, I did"

"So when you phoned ht around the corner Who’s the bald guy with the earring?"

Manuel mulled over his answer and followed my lead with some truth of his own "His na How far are you going to carry this?"

"Nowhere"

He was silent, disbelieving