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Luther nodded at Dellarobia as he kicked a cloud of belly wool fro "Howdy Mrs Turnbow" or "Sweep up!" or both She grabbed the broo pile in the corner of the stall Having removed the unusable portion, Luther flipped over the ewe to shear the rest of her coat all in one piece, fro hih what looked like a series of wrestling moves That forward-bent posture would make ordinary men weep, but he did this all day, and made it look easy
A woawking at Luther Dellarobia gathered up the armload of waste wool and carried it out of Luther’s way, du wooden crate she’d set up for Cordie "Hey baby girl, here you go," she sang, sifting bits of fleece over her daughter like snow She re this hat snow should be: soft and lovely, instead of the cold, wet truth Cordie was thrilled, grasping handfuls of fuzz and tossing them in the air with such force she fell on her botto stall to get the fleece Luther had finished, which she rolled up like a big bathtable Before this day’s end they would pick over so ends left fro out each new fleece on the table and falling on it like worried ani for fleas They threw the waste onto the barn floor, a parti-colored fall accus This was the second shearing of the year Luther also ca to relieve the ewes of their coats that had grown felted and filthy over the winter row in clean This one, the late fall wool crop, gave the payoff Once these fleeces were skirted clean, bagged, and stacked in great piles in the front of the barn, Cub and Bear would crate the mill
She kneould take only minutes for Luther to finish the lamb he’d taken next, ahead of its ray fleece and was careful to keep it separate The wool fro was finer and et an astounding fifty bucks apiece for virgin fleeces on the Internet, selling to hand spinners, and last year recouped the cost of her new computer in one season The larocery chain and would be consu people warm for years
Dellarobia slid back into her place at the skirting table in time to hear the end of one of the world’s unnumbered tales that share the sauilty party was evidently some friend of Crystal’s, but the details were hazy The friend had coe fro around like always, right?" Crystal’s voice rose to a questionwater pistols? So Jazon’s trying to get away froet away frouess? So that’s when Mical sla to wreck my coat! And then wham, boo-hoo She orried about the water on her silk jacket, which she should not have wore to my house, I mean, hello, I have children?"
Dellarobia was accusto train wreck of the past and present tense, but couldn’t quite pick up the thread She looked frohtly overripe ladies whose dyed-black hair was identically parted down the middle by a stripe of white roots
"Slammed what?" she asked, when none present offered to pony it up
"The car door on her hand," Crystal replied tiredly in a descending singsong She seemed weary of the tale, yet told it with such enthusias of it is," Crystal ers But accidents happen The sa there"
"Brenda’s asking Crystal to pay her doctor bills, and Crystal don’t want to," one of the Norwoods explained in a lowered voice, filling in Dellarobia on the plot as if she were a oer who’d slipped in late
"You know Brenda, her and her mother does the Sunday school," said the other One of these Norwoods was married to Peanut and the other was his sister, so how did they look just alike? It was that half-grown-out dye job, a weirdly perht of theht, Crystal," she said "You’re thinking if Mical hadn’t been there, Brenda would have slammed the door on her own hand?"
"Accidents happen," Crystal repeated with aus have got the kids to prove it"
Hester threw Dellarobia a look, still sie The ponytail-yank was i after your own," she said
Dellarobia was indignant Her daughter was perfectly content, throwing herself around in the crate of belly wool like a tiny insane person in a padded cell, and Preston was circling nearbyfast It was Crystal’s pair running wild all over the barn, two freckled, big-for-their-age eleht T-shirts just a little past expired Jazon and Mical What kind of mother misspelled her kids’ na off the loft stairs with es over their shoulders like superhero capes Now they were nowhere in sight, not a good sign Roy, the collie, tended to keep tabs on the kids and noore a long-nosed look of concern
"Preston, come here a minute," Dellarobia called "Where’s your buddies?"
He arrived dras stuck to his forehead and his little wire glasses askew "Outside They wanted to step on poops but Mr Norwood said they couldn’t Look!" Preston in one vigorous hop turned his back to the that over his shoulders he wore a full white fleece for a cape
"You’re going to wreck that fleece," said Hester
He turned back around and said in a cartoon growl, "I’m Wool Man!"