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In his thirty-four years, he had no slightest experience of the supernatural, nor any interest in it As an architect, he believed in line and light, in fors built to last

As he tore thefrom the tablet and put it aside, however, he could not dis that the talent on display here was not his own

Perhaps this hat psychologists called a flow state, what professional athletes referred to as being in the zone, a moment of transcendence when the mind raises no barriers of self-doubt and therefore allows a talent to be expressed more fully than has ever been possible previously

The problem with that explanation was, he didn’t feel in full control, whereas in a flow state, you were supposed to experience absolute e in the tablet insisted on his attention

Go even closer on the eyes this tiht Go all the way into the eyes

First, he needed a break He put down the pencil-but at once picked it up, without even pausing to stretch and flex his fingers, as if his hand had a will of its own

Al from a distance, he watched himself use the X-acto knife to carve away the wood and point the pencil

After he sharpened a variety of leads, to give them typical points, blunt points, and chisel points, and after he finished each on a block of sandpaper, he put the last pencil and the knife aside

He pushed his chair back froot up, and went to the kitchen sink to splash cold water in his face

As he reached for the faucet handle, he realized that he had a pencil in his right hand

He glanced at the table The pencil that he thought he had left beside the art tablet was not there

Before Amy had called him to assist on the rescue mission, he’d had only an hour’s sleep Weariness explained his current state of mind, these s board beside the sink and stared at it for ait to rise on point and doodle its way back to hi his face in double handfuls of cold water, he dried off with paper towels, yawned, rubbed his beard stubble with one hand, and then stretched luxuriously

He needed caffeine In the refrigerator were cans of Red Bull, which he kept on hand for those design deadlines that sohter

The pencil was not clutched in his right hand when he opened the refrigerator door It was in his left

"Weariness, erator, in front of a Tupperware container full of leftover pesto pasta

After popping the tab on a Red Bull and taking a long s, he closed the fridge without retrieving the pencil He clearly saw it on the shelf in front of the pesto pasta as the door swung shut

When he returned to the table and put down the Red Bull, he realized that the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt contained a pencil

This had to be a different pencil froe It must have been in the pocket since he’d risen from the table to wash his face

He counted the pencils on the table Two should be e But he was short only one

Disbelieving, he returned to the refrigerator The pencil that he had left on the shelf in front of the Tupperware container was no longer there

Now you see it Now you don’t

Sitting at the table again, Brian took the pencil from his shirt pocket With flourishes and a niers rip

He had not consciously intended to play with the pencil in that fashion His fingers appeared to be expressing a ent practice froician

The point touched the paper, and graphite see forth the enig’s far-seeing eye

He gave less thought to what he would draw, then less, then none at all Independent of hiht

On the nape of his neck, the fine hairs rose, but he was neither frightened nor even apprehensive A quiet amazement had overtaken him

As he had half suspected-and no beyond doubt-he could not claim to be the artist here He was as much an instrument as was the pencil that he held The artist remained unknown

Chapter 15

After a few hours of sleep, Amy woke at 7:30, showered, dressed, served three bowls of kibble, and took the kids for a s could have been a test of Amy’s control and balance Fortunately, Nickie see Each ti the poop, Nickie respected a sit-and-stay command as reliably as did Fred and Ethel

The pleasantly warht as a caress, and the feathery fronds of queen paloldens

Having overslept, As in just one hour They lay as li pampered at a spa She spent more time on Nickie than on the other two, but found no ticks

By 9:40, the four of theuna Beach on an adventure

They stopped first to see Dr Sarkissian, one of a network of veterinarians who treated rescue dogs at a discount until they were placed in forever hoave Nickie a full array of inoculations He put her on medication to control fleas, ticks, and heartworm Results of a blood workup would coirl," he predicted "She’s a beauty"

With Nickie, Amy returned to the Expedition, where Fred and Ethel sulked briefly They knew a visit to the vet always included a cookie Besides, they could smell it on their sister’s breath

Renata Hammersmith lived inland, where pockets of horse country still survived the relentless march of southern California suburbs

She dressed so reliably in boots, jeans, and checkered shirts that it was easy for Amy to believe that the woine her in paja, her three-acre property once featured horses grazing in a meadow that served as the front yard

The horses became a luxury when Jerry, Renata’s husband, was disabled His beloved 1967 Ford Mustang was hit head-on by a pickup

Paralyzed from the waist down, Jerry had also lost his spleen, a kidney, and a significant portion of his colon

"But I’m still full of shit," he assured friends

He had not lost his sense of humor

Drunk, unemployed, and uninsured, the driver of the pickup had walked away from the collision with two broken teeth, an abrasion, and no reo, the Hammersains, cut expenses, and hoped to make the money stretch the rest of their lives They were now fifty-two

Because Renata could not look after Jerry and hold a job, she feared having to sell their land one day She had lived alith elbow roohbors a wall away chilled her