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This was the truth, dead center I reht cracker boxes I stared at the freshly laundered pink sweater lying with outstretched arht about how small Hallie had been at one ti an ancient-looking picture book, but there was a roaring inI believe it was the physical rief But you learn in these situations that all griefs are bearable Loyd was standing on one side of ht fall or just cease to exist, the pressure of their shoulders held me there
I could hear people’s words, but my vision was jarred by showers of blue sparks Or the world went out of focus And at other times I could see but couldn’t hear Dona Althea clumped forith her cane and set down a miniature, perfectly made peacock pinata It perched there on the pile of childhood things, its s and its tail feathers perfectly trimmed It was an exquisite piece of art that could have allery, but it was for Hallie I tried to listen to what she was saying She said, "I irls, for your cumpleanos when you were ten"
To my surprise, this was also true I remembered every toy, every birthday party, each one of these fifty es of my childhood, ready to make whatever contribution was needed at the time
"Gracias, Abuelita," I said softly to Dona Althea as she clumped away
She didn’t look at me, but she heard me say it and she didn’t deny that she was reat white braid nodded a little No hugs or confessions of love We were all a little stiff, I understood that Fae just because you’ve learned the naht this bouquet of zinnias because every spring Hallie helpedmy zinnia bed" She laid down the hohan, too"
"You did?"
She looked at ht after your uess you’d reh ti a little more steady on my feet I folded in the corners and drew it all up into a bundle againstHallie and I had ever done ith us there in the Do we’d been I was now
"Thank you," I said, to everybody
I turned my back and headed alone with my bundle up the Old Pony Road to Doc Homer’s house
Chapter 27
HOMERO
27 Human Remains
There are women in every room of this house, he thinks: Mrs Quintana upstairs, and now there is Codi, standing in the kitchen with her baby Her arhs her down like soht makes him want to turn away He thinks, This is the fossil record of our lives
"I’ to bury this Do you want to help rief on her face is fresh as pollen
"You already buried it"
"No, no, no!" she screams, and slams the screen door behind her He follows her down the path but she doesn’t go down to the riverbed this tiht around the house into the backyard When he catches up, a little breathless, she is standing with her boots on the ground like rooted stalks Standing beside the old plot where Hallie used to grow a garden A few old artichoke bushes have gone thistly and wild around its perioes to the tool shed to retrieve a shovel She coround It hasn’t been disturbed for ood place?" he asks
Without speaking, she steps on the shovel and its tip bites into the sandy soil again and again, lifting, digging, and lifting out a deep, square hole
"You ain someday When this house is yours"
The shovel stops suddenly "Did you know I’
"I told Loyd about the baby Yesterday I took him down there to the riverbed where you showed ave me some pills, didn’t you? You really did want to help" She looks up at the sky, using gravity and the small, twin dams of her eyelids to hold in tears "So Loyd knows about that now He’s sad I didn’t think about that part-that he would be sad I was thinking the baby was just mine"