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Opening the passenger door of the truck, a couple of feet fro place, Sarah said, "You’ll catch your death, Ed"

"You think I’m some delicate violet?" he asked playfully as he opened the driver’s door and got into the truck

"I think you’re a withered old dandelion"

He laughed "You didn’t think so last night"

"Yes, I did But you’re my withered old dandelion, and I don’t want YOU to just bloay on the wind"

One door slammed shut, then the other

Certain that they could not see her, Chrissie pulled back the burlap, exposing her head She pinched her nose and breathed through herin her sinuses subsided

As Ed Eulane started the truck, let the engine idle a e, Chrissie could hear the in the cab at her back She couldn’t , but they still see with each other

Cold rain struck her face, and she i just a narrow opening by which a little fresh air ht reach her If she sneezed while in transit, the sound of the rain and the ruine would cover it

Thinking about the conversation she had overheard in the garage and listening to Mr Eulane laughing now in the cab, Chrissie thought she could trust the du on a show for non-aliens, trying to convince the world that they were still Ed and Sarah Eulane, but not when they were in private When aliens were together without unconverted humans nearby, they probably talked about … well, planets they had sacked, the weather on Mars, the price of flying-saucer fuel, and recipes for serving hus Who knew? But surely they didn’t talk as the Eulanes were talking

On the other hand …

Maybe these aliens had only taken control of Ed and Sarah Eulane during the night, and maybe they were not yet co being human in private so they could pass for human in public Sure as the devil, if Chrissie revealed herself, they’d probably sprout tentacles and lobster pincers from their chests and either eat her alive, without condiments, or freeze-dry her andon their den wall, or pop her brain out of her skull and plug it into their spaceship and use it as a cheap control ht coffeeive your trust only with reluctance and considerable deliberation She decided to stick to her original plan

The fifty-pound, plastic sacks of fertilizer and mulch and snail bait, piled on both sides of her burlap niche, protected her froh reached her to soak the upper layers of tarps She was relatively dry and toasty hen they set out, but soon she was saturated with grass-scented rainwater, cold to the bone

She peeked out repeatedly to deter off the county route onto Ocean Avenue, she peeled back the soggy burlap and crawled out of her hiding place

The wall of the truck cab featured a , so the Eulanes would see her if they turned and looked back Mr Eulane ht even see her in the rearview et to the rear of the truck and be ready to jump off when they passed Our Lady of Mercy

On her hands and knees, sheequipate, she huddled there, head down, shivering and miserable in the rain

They crossed Shasta Way, the first intersection at the edge of town, and headed down through the business district of Ocean Avenue They were only about four blocks from the church

Chrissie was surprised that no people were on the sidewalks and that no cars traveled the streets It was early--she checked her watch, 7:03--but not so early that everyone would still be ho to do with the town’s deserted look; no one was going to be out and about in that mess unless he absolutely had to be

There was another possibility Maybe the aliens had taken over such a large percentage of the people in Moonlight Cove that they no longer felt it necessary to enact the charade of daily life; with complete conquest only hours away, all their efforts were bent on seeking the last of the unpossessed That was too unsettling to think about

When they were one block from Our Lady of Mercy, Chrissie cli over the top, then the other leg, and clung to the outside of the gate with both hands, her feet on the rear buh the rearof the cab, and if they turned her way--or if Mr Eulane glanced at his rearviewto be spotted by a pedestrian ould yell, "Hey, you, hanging on that truck, are you nuts?" But there were no pedestrians, and they reached the next intersection without incident

The brakes squealed as Mr Eulane slowed for the stop sign

As the truck caate

Mr Eulane turned left on the cross street He was heading toward Thomas Jefferson Elementary School on Palomino, a few blocks south, where Mrs Eulane worked and where, on an ordinary Tuesday rade classrooh the dirty streautter, and ran up the steps to the front doors of Our Lady of Mercy A flush of triuainst all odds