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We began to get letters back, to the effect that the ation They weren’t form letters, each one was typed by a different secretary, but they all said the saless phrase repeated again and again begins to reseray est son learned to walk I was alone with him when it happened The sun had come out briefly as I walked home from school, and the baby and I were both anxious to be outdoors Es, and I promised to keep an eye out I settled with a book in the courtyard, which was radiant with sudden sunlight The floere beaten down, their bent-over heads bejeweled with dias on sad, rich s

For quite a while now Nicholas had been cruising the peri confidently fro as he had so more than apparent security Today I watched the back of his red overalls with interest as he cruised along a patch of da their leaves He had no idea how little support they offered

He spotted a hubird It buzzed around the red tubes of a potted penstemon that stood by itself in the center of the courtyard His eyes followed the bird as it darted up and down, a high-strung ge time he frowned at the brick path that lay between hio of the wall He took one step and then ravity After two steps the huone, but Nicholas still headed for the air it had occupied, his hands grasping at vapor It was as if an invisible balloon floated above hi fro one toe at a ti on the ball of one foot, and then suddenly the string was cut and down he bumped on his well-padded botto," I told Nicholas "I proets easier The rest of life doesn’t, but this really does"

I stayed out there with my book for the rest of the afternoon, surreptitiously watching as he tried it over and over He was completely undeterred by failure The motivation packed in that small body was a miracle to see I wished I could bottle that passion for accomplishment and squeeze out soh-school students They would move mountains

The Stitch and Bitch Club was noealthy beyond historic measure On the heels of the blockbuster pinata sale came a steady flow of donations from the outside Loulou Campbell, the treasurer, had always kept the club’s funds in a coffee can in the back of the Baptist Grocery where she worked But when the volurew nervous Loulou opened an account at the bank and turned the passbook over to Dona Althea, whose years as a top-notch restaurateur had made her souished in its vault while the wo sent their peacocks out into the world like Noah’s dove over the flood, they waited for the world to inspire their next uise of an art dealer from Tucson His na little man who understood people as well as he understood beauty The spectacular popularity of the Grace pinatas (some had been resold for as e to the source Mr Rideheart was already an expert and he became a connoisseur; before he ever set foot in Grace he could already recognize the works of several individual pinata makers Of particular value were those made by Mrs Nunez, who had been so resourceful with her Compton’s Children’s Encyclopedia He wanted to know this town better

I met him on his third visit, when he came to meet Viola There was no school that day-I believe it was the birthday of a President-and I was staring at clouds Emelina didn’t bother , not even pretend to feel better, which I recognized as a rare act of hu on Ehbor, whose roof was on the sa another brief break in the rain, as if the clouds had called a tihbor Mr Pye was taking advantage of the moment to climb up and inspect his roof

"Got a few leaks," he called out in a friendly way I waved back, unsure of how to answer I watched the top of his engineer’s cap bob down the ladder out of sight, and shortly thereafter, appear again Mr Pye negotiated the ladder with one hand while balancing a sainst his hip Itout of the kiva at Santa Rosalia Pueblo Mr Pye knelt near his chimney pipe and opened the box like a birthday present, carefully lifting out soreen, and shaped like the ace of spades-an exact reen rather than the green of old bronze I re at that roof of antique shingles and assu them to be irreplaceable