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"All right I’et to the bottorass and lie down, so the darkness and the slope will hide you"
"You’ll be right behind rass No sense both of us being in the open at the saet help from a friend of mine"
Monkey-quick and confident, the boy descended without incident and hurried across the fire lane When he sprawled in the grass and looked back toward the hospital, his face was a small pale oval
The horizontal s than like steps The thin, pliable soles of Bryce’s slippers tended to slip off the steel, but he reached the bottom safely
In the field, the boy rose to his feet as Bryce arrived "We have to get tohere to see ot to stop her before she leaves there for the hospital"
"They ot to stop her Those people screa It can’t happen to her It just can’t"
"All right We’ll go to your house first But even if I weren’t dressed like this," Bryce said, "we’d be smart not to parade down any main streets"
"I know those trees," Travis said "The other side of thehborhood of Rainbow Falls, at a lower elevation than the rest of the town, streets of drab cottages and old house trailers and unkempt lawns
"Our place is in the Lowers," Travis said "We can get there mostly unseen"
The boy headed downhill toward the pines, and Bryce followed
The grass was halfway to his knees No dew had yet forht bit his bare ankles
Chapter 54
Just before twilight, when Mr Lyss cli the bell at the spooky house at the end of the narrow lane, no one came to the door He used his picks to open the lock
Nummy said, "So noe been jailbreakers once, housebreakers twice, and thieves"
As he opened the door, Mr Lyss said, "We didn’t steal anything yet And I’m the jailbreaker and the housebreaker, not you You’re justinto the house, Mr Lyss said, "Doesn’tthe oldMrs Trudy LaPierre’s food"
"You remember--she tried to hire her husband’s murder and pin it on you?"
"That don’tYou want this door open?"
"Close it," Mr Lyss said "And for your information, I intend to pay for the food"
"That would be nice When is it you’ll pay for it?"
Switching on the lights in the front hall, Mr Lyss said, "When I win the lottery"
"You’re gonna win the lottery?"
"I have the ticket intheroom, Mr Lyss clicked on a lamp A lot of the furniture was flowery, and the wallpaper
"When you win the lottery, is that when you’ll pay back the loan of three fives, ten ones, ten more ones, and three more ones?"
"That’s exactly when," Mr Lyss said as he turned in a circle to admire the room
"What if so Nobody will co rooht his eye was a painting of Jesus riding a horse Jesus was in white robes, as usual, but he wore cowboy boots instead of sandals, and his hat was a halo
"What an a," Mr Lyss said
Nu Of course, Jesus could ride a horse if he wanted to Jesus could do anything
Nu, in another part of the house
"What’s that?" he asked
"What’s what?"
"That creak"
"Old houses creak Nobody’s here"
"Youhome," Nummy said
"Peaches, you remember the mailbox out at the end of the lane, at the street, hoas painted so fancy?"
"I liked the pretty mailbox"
"Part of as on it were the words ‘Saddle up with Jesus’"
"I can’t read nothing," Nuood stories Before she died, Grand my favorites anytime I want"
"You didn’t like it when I took the h it," Mr Lyss said "But I’ve looked through their s when I did"
As they entered the kitchen, Nu, the first time I came here, I saw the mail was addressed to the Reverend and Mrs Kelsey Fortis, which confirht"
"You mean we housebreaked a preacher?"
Mr Lyss opened a door, said, "Cellar," and closed the door He said, "When I ca and read up on the place, with an eye toward learning what passes for social life in this pathetic backwater Bad ood people are up to, so I knohen it’s best to visit them"
"When is it best to visit them?" Nummy asked
"When they’re not home, of course" He opened another door and looked over the shelves in a walk-in pantry "In the local paper I read about the first-Tuesday-of-every-month social that the Reverend Fortis’s church holds at so roadhouse Sorry about that, Peaches"
"That’s good"
"What’s good?"
"Being sorry for the bad word Being sorry, that’s a start"