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it’s co
Coincidence, he told hiet about it
Gradually he becaain, of the rich aroe of the desk and filled abrew
For acoffee, staring out at the dirty, scudding clouds and at the incessant rain Eventually he lowered his gaze and looked down into the rear yard, instantly recalling the intruder he had seen last evening while he and Carol had been htning-illu eyes; e or hatred Or perhaps it had just been Jasper, the Great Dane, and a trick of light
THUNK!
The sound was so loud and unexpected that Paul ju hadn’t been half empty, he would have spilled coffee all over the carpet
THUNK! THUNK!
It couldn’t be the sa, for it would have continued banging all night Which ht, the old ho down around my ears
THUNK!
The source of the sound was nearby; in fact it was so close that it seeainst the coolglass, peered out to the left, then to the right, trying to see if that pair of shutters was in place As far as he could see, they were both properly anchored Thwzk, thunk-thunk, thunk, thunk
The noise grew softer but settled into a steady, arhyth than the louder blows had been And now it seeh he didn’t want to get up on a ladder and fix a shutter in the rain, that was exactly what had to be done, for he couldn’t get any writing acco to distract hi
He put hison the desk and started out of the roooing to be one of those days, he thought wearily
Then he realized that the shutter had stopped banging theMaybe the wind had wrenched it loose of the house, in which case repairs could wait until the weather improved
He returned to his desk and answered the telephone It was Alfred O’Brian, froency Initially, the conversation ard, and Paul was eratitude: "You saved my life; you really did!" He was equally insistent about repeatedly and quite unnecessarily apologizing for his failure to express that gratitude yesterday, i the incident in his office: "But I was so shaken, stunned, I just wasn’t thinking clearly enough to thank you, which was unforgivable of me" Each time Paul protested at the mention of words like "heroic," and "brave," O’Brian became even more vociferous than before At last, Paul stifled his objections and allowed the et it out of his system; O’Brian was determined to cleanse his conscience in much the same way that he fussed with the minute specks of lint on his suit jacket Finally, however, he seehtlessness, and Paul was relieved when the conversation changed directions
O’Brian had a second reason for calling, and he got straight to it now, as if he, too, was suddenly eies) locate the application forht to his office the previous day "Of course, when that tree crashed through the , it scattered a lot of papers all over the floor A terrible athered thereat ie my secretary, was able to put them in order--except, of course, for your application We can’t find it anywhere I suppose it h one of the broken s I don’t knohy your papers should be the only ones we’ve lost, and of course we ned application before we can present your names to the recommendations committee I’m extremely sorry about this inconvenience, Mr Tracy, I truly am"
"It wasn’t your fault," Paul said "I’ll just stop in
later today and pick up another forht"
"Good," O’Brian said "I’lad to hear that It has to be back into ie needs three full business days to run the required verifications on the information in your application, and that’s just about how
If we miss that session, there’s not another one for teeks"
"I’ll be in to pick up the form before noon," Paul assured hi"
They exchanged goodbyes, and Paul put down the phone
THUNK!
When he heard that sound, he sagged, dispirited
He was going to have to fix a shutter after all And then drive into the city to pick up the new application And then drive home And by the time he did all of that, half the day would be shot, and he wouldn’t have written a single word
THUNK! TRUNK!
"Dammit," he said
Thunk, thunk-thunk, thunk-thunk
It definitely was going to be one of those days
He went downstairs to the hail closet where he kept his raincoat and galoshes
The windshield wipers flogged back and forth, back and forth, with a short, shrill squeak that rit her teeth She hunched forward a bit, over the steering wheel, squinting through the streareasy looking Dirty water raced along the gutters and forrids
At tenrush hour was just over Although the streets were stills too fast to suit Carol, and she hung back a little, watchful and cautious
Two blocks from her office, her caution proved justified, but it still wasn’t enough to avert disaster altogether Without bothering to look for onco blond woman stepped out from between two vans, directly into the path of the VW Rabbit
"Christ!" Carol said, ra her foot down on the brake pedal so hard that she lifted herself up off the seat
The blonde glanced up and froze, wide-eyed
Although the VW wasat only twentyit in time The brakes shrieked The tires bit--but also skidded--on the wet pave
The car hit the blonde and lifted her off the ground, tossed her backwards onto the hood, and then the rear end of the VW began to slide around to the left, into the path of an onco, and the other driver hit his horn as if he thought a sufficient voluically push Carol safely out of his way, and for an instant she was certain they would collide, but the Caddy slid past without scraping,her by only an inch or two--all of this in two or three or four seconds--and at the saht side, the curb side, and the VW ca on its springs as if it were a child’s hobby horse