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Then Uda appeared inon downstairs and beat the rugs or so I’ll try not to scare up too much dust"

Chapter 23

23 The Souls of Beasts

"Hallie, I’"

"Well, I know We all are, more or less" After a lifetime on the e in to melodrama When I put nosis that killed him Sometimes that’s how it happens

"Where is Hallie?"

"Please don’t ask ain We don’t knohere she is Don’t worry about her right now, okay? We can’t do anything"

He looked at ly "You shouldn’t have stood on the slide I defended you on principle, but it was dangerous"

How do people live with loved ones after their ues every day, still expecting order to ee victorious in Doc Ho a monu a dedicated but ill-informed platoon of men who died in a Civil War battle six months after Lee had surrendered at Appomattox That’s exactly who I was-a soldier of the lost cause, still rooting for my father’s recovery Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth one off the Tacrine, his experi; the doctors in Tucson found his liver recked fro always for the dark corners People with this disease can linger on for six or seven years, I’d read, and on average they do But Doc Hoht over this thing made out of crackers and walnuts and apples It looks like one of your concoctions"

"No, thank you"

His bedrooreen walls and a high white ceiling and dormer s across the west side As children, Hallie and I rarely came into this roos that hten children But for two days now I’d been taking care of Doc Homer here, and when I stopped to notice, I found -legged and entitled, and strode around infurniture to suit myself I’d tried to close the blinds, but he wanted theht, so I let it be

I’d been keeping a restless vigil by his bed throughout the late afternoon, watching for signs of a lucidI pulled my chair closer and squeezed his hand hard in an effort to make him pay attention "Pop, I want to talk to you about Mother"

"Her kidneys eak, and we kneas a possibility She had already had one episode of renal failure with the first pregnancy She knew the risk"