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They endured an aard silence, and then Danny said, "I haven’t had lunch yet, and I’ to slip down to the coffee shop for a half hour or so"

When Danny left, Thelry, is he? He just kneanted a girl-to-girl talk" Laura s on one side of the bed and said, "If I hop up here and sit beside you, I won’t shake up your insides, will I? You won’t suddenly bleed all over me, will you, Shane?" "I’ll try not to"

Thelh hospital bed She took one of Laura’s hands in both of hers "Listen, I read Shadrach, and it’s daood It’s what all writers try to do and seldoh, cynical, hard-nosed broad Listen, I’m serious about the book It’s brilliant And I saw Bovine Bowmaine in there, and Taist Different names but I saw them You’ve captured theht it all back, times when chills ran up and down o for a walk in the sun And there were tihed like a loon"

Laura ached in every th to lean away from the pillows and put her arms around her friend She just said, "I love you, Thelma"

"The Eel wasn’t there, of course"

"I’ him for another book"

"And h I’m the most colorful character you’ve ever known!"

"I’ you for a book all your own," Laura said

"Youon now but the one after it"

"Listen, Shane, you better eous, or I’ll sue your ass off You hear me?"

"I hear you"

Theloing to put Ruthie in it too"

They were silent a while, just holding hands

Unshed tears clouded Laura’s vision, but she saw that Thel back tears too "Don’t It’ll streak all that elaborate punk eye makeup"

Thelma raised one of her feet "Are these boots freaky or what? Black leather, pointy toes, stud-ringed heels Makes me look like a damned dominatrix, doesn’t it?"

"When you walked in, the first thing I wondered was how hed and sniffed hard to clear her nose "Shane, listen and listen good This talent of yours is maybe more precious than you think You’re able to capture people’s lives on the page, and when the people are gone, the page is still there, the life is still there You can put feelings on the page, and anyone, anywhere, can pick up that book and feel those sas, you can touch the heart, you can remind us what it ly bent on forgetting That’s a talent and a reason to live that’s more than most people ever have Sowell, I kno much you want to have a familythree or four kids, you’ve saidso I kno bad you ot Danny and Christopher and this a talent, and that’s so very much to have"

Laura’s voice was unsteady "SometimesI’ family becausethen it’s less likely they’ll all be taken away fro to be taken away from you"

"With just Danny and little Chrisjust two of the will happen"

"Then I’d be alone"

"Nothing will happen," Thel always seems to happen That’s life"

Thelma slid farther onto the bed, stretched out beside Laura, and put her head against Laura’s shoulder "When you said it was a hard birthand the way you look, so paleI was scared I have friends in LA, sure, but all of them are show-biz types You’re the only real person I’h we don’t see each other that ht have nearly "

"But I didn’t"

"Might’ve, though" Thelhed sourly "Hell, Shane, once an orphan, always an orphan, huh?"

Laura held her and stroked her hair

Shortly after Chris’s first birthday, Laura delivered The Golden Edge It was published ten months later, and by the boy’s second birthday, the book was number one on the Tied Laura’s book incoence, caution, and brilliance that within a few years, in spite of the savage bite of income taxes, they would be not just rich-they were already rich by most standards-but seriously rich She didn’t knohat she thought about that She had never expected to be rich When she considered her enviable circuiven the want ofmuch one way or the other about the money The security that money provided elcome; it inspired confidence But they had no plans to h they could have afforded an estate The ave it little thought Life was not money; life was Danny and Chris and, to a lesser extent, her books