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Nevertheless, that frightening, irrational thought ca to stop us fro a baby

If the maelstrom in which she lay was not an act of nature, then as it? Was she to believe that the lightning had been sent with the conscious intent of transfor heap of charred flesh? That was a fruitcake notion, for sure

Who could use lightning as if it were a pistol? God? God wasn’t sitting up in Heaven, ai bolts, just to screw up the adoption process for Carol and Paul Tracy The Devil? Blasting away at poor Mr O’Brian from the depths of Hell? That was a looney idea Jesus!

She wasn’t even sure she believed in God, but she knew she definitely did not believe in the Devil

Anotheri stopped

The thunder decreased froht train

There was a stench of ozone

The as still pouring in through the broken s, but apparently with less force than it had exerted acolumns of leaves and papers subsided to the floor, where they lay in piles, fluttering and quivering as if exhausted

So to stop us froh

it were a spurting artery She was an educated woman, dammit She prided herself on her levelheadedness and common sense She couldn’t per, uncharacteristic, utterly superstitious fears

Freaky weather--that was the explanation for the lightning Freaky weather You read about such things in the newspapers every once in a while A half an inch of snow in Beverly Hills An eighty-degree day in thebriefly fro strike of this nitude and intensity was undoubtedly a rare occurrence, it probably had happened before, sometime, somewhere, probably more than once Of course it had Of course

In fact, if you picked up one of those popular books in which the authors compiled all kinds of world records, and if you turned to the chapter on weather, and if you looked for a subsection entitled "Lightning," you wouldstrikes that would put this one to shame Freaky weather That’s what it was That’s all it was Nothing stranger than that, nothing worse

For the tihts of deeists and other such claptrap

In the relative quiet that followed in the wake of the fast-di She pushed up fro sound of ray skirt and green blouse; she wasn’t cut or even scratched She was a bit dazed, however, and for a ly from side to side, as if this were a staterooan to cry hysterically There were shouts of alar for Mr O’Brian No one had yet burst into the office to see what had happened, which htning had stopped, although it seemed to Carol as if a roaned softly

‘Paul?" she said

if there was an answer, it was drowned out by a sudden gust of wind that briefly stirred the papers and leaves again

She recalled the way that branch had whipped across O’Brian’s head, and she shuddered But Paul hadn’t been touched The tree had ot to her feet andover splintered maple branches and an overturned wastebasket

2

THAT Wednesday afternoon, following a lunch of Carilled cheese sandwich, Grace Mitoent into her study and curled up on the sofa to sleep for an hour or so She never napped in the bedrooh she had been taking naps three or four days a week for the past year, she still had not reconciled herself to the fact that she needed a , naps were for children and for old, used-up, burnt-out people She wasn’t in her childhood any h she was old, she certainly wasn’t used up or burnt out Being in bed in the middle of the day made her feel lazy, and she couldn’t abide laziness in anyone, especially not in herself Therefore, she took naps on the study sofa, with her back to the shuttered s, lulled by theof the ile and energetic as she had ever been Her gray un to deteriorate at all; it was only her treacherous body that caused her grief and frustration She had a touch of arthritis in her hands, and when the huh--as it was today--she also suffered fro ache of bursitis in her shoulders Although she did all of the exercises that her doctor reco, she found it increasingly difficult to irl, throughout most of her life, she had been in love with books, and she had been able to read allwithout eyestrain; nowadays, usually after only a couple of hours of reading, her eyes felt grainy and hot She regarded each of her infirainst theh she knew this was a war she was destined to lose

That Wednesday afternoon she took a break from the battle, a brief period of R and R Two minutes after she stretched out on the sofa, she was asleep

Grace did not dreaued by bad dreams But Wednesday afternoon, in the book-lined study, her sleep was continuously disturbed by nightmares Several ti in panic Once, drifting up fro vision, she heard her own voice crying out wordlessly in terror, and she realized she was thrashing on the couch, twisting and torturing her

aching shoulders She tried to co in the drea, reached up with icy, claain, down and down, all the way down into a lightless place where an unnaibbered and muttered and chuckled in a mucous-wet voice

An hour later, when she finally woke up andin the middle of the shadow-shrouded room, several steps away fro to her feet She was shaking, sheathed in sweat

--I’ve got to tell Carol Tracy

--Tell her what?