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"What?"
"You"
"Me and what"
"Whatever happened two Fridays ago With your telephone guy"
"Nothing happened I told you that Over and out"
"But you were like, Category Five obsessed How’s that just over?"
She had told Dovey the outlines of her affair, after the torh in her throat she felt she would choke And if Dovey had seen reason to judge, she didn’t say so The better part of friendship ue over the prospect of self-e fortune, in several varieties including the man kind, and seemed to understand the appetite for self-destruction What stumped her noas the return of sensible behavior Dellarobia could see the perspective Of the two events, the latter did seem further outside the standard script
"If I had a reasonable explanation, you would hear it, Dovey This is all I can tell you: it wasn’thappened I was blind, but now I see"
"Now you’re talking crazy Is this soious?"
Dellarobia was at pain to answer In twenty years she’d sheltered nothing froular words for this When you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you When you walk through the fire, the flames will not set you ablaze That was the book of Isaiah "It’s not religious," she said
"I know you," Dovey said "And I don’t get this"
"Me either"
"Okay, but we’re not done"
"Okay, go back to work, bye I hear the rescue squad"
The shearing crew s up She could hear the the muck off their barn boots Dellarobia knew she should look alive so Hester wouldn’t call her Lazy Daisy, but the weight of her baby’s sweet sleeping body kept her immobile on the couch The collies rushed in and circled the toy-strewn living roo the wrecked Indian ca feet on the stairs sounded like a waterfall in reverse
From her horizontal position she watched Bear lean over Luther in an intireement over payment due Surely Bear wouldn’t push it too far Sheep far crossed off Luther’s list for so to short the head count when they wrote his check As the only shearer in the county, Luther’s skills probably put hi dealer out there Dellarobia and Cub had actually changed the date of their hastily planned wedding when it turned out to be the day Luther had put the Turnbows on his calendar for shearing She’d argued with Hester about it, and still to this day felt hu the wedding from October to Nove that nificant That was over a decade ago, and even then Luther was the last shearer standing Youngerto drive solanced around for Cub, but he hadn’t come in Hester had probably left hi up at the kitchen sink, and Crystal was nowhere to be seen, probably off so to have another horrible child and dump that one on Dellarobia too No word of thanks would be forthcoently and settled Cordie in the sofa cushions, warning Preston to keep the roughhousing away froe of a CD to press down cornerwise on Legos and make the for acknowledge of reason
"You’re welcoo see if my husband needs any help" All four woawk at her, as if her life had becory," she added "If y’all are about to feed yourselves, you ht think of theer than she’d expected, the long dusk of winterti low in their throats, e they pined to chase down and take apart The wind banged the doors of thebehind the house where Bear had his raveyard Dellarobia had never even entered that shop, knowing it would o place where her own father built furniture Even this fleeting thought, the shop doors banging, socked her with athe cannonball tops of bedposts he’d spooled out of ith his lathes
She drew a very squashed pack of cigarettes fro that if soht have taken the hard not to smoke around the kids Just a couple of sneaks, one of theone upstairs to hide Jazon’s shoe, and that was it, in over six hours In truth, Hester’s reproach the other day had left its iy head clear as she picked her way across the round and entered the fluffy storhts blazed and it looked as if it had snowed indoors She found the broom exactly where she’d left it, beside the leaf rake and boxes of trash bags If Cub was cleaning up, he was doing it without y Where was he? When she opened herthat squeakyout And that he would answer in a child’s voice She was not born into this fa position, but they had no excuse for treating Cub as they did How could a man a up waste wool? Dellarobia doubted she’d have umption either, if she’d been raised by a mother like Hester The woman ran all horses with the same whip She’d even aimed sonored her, exactly as he ignored Bear’s posturing Maybe that vibrating metal cylinder next to Luther’s skull drowned out the whole fa like that
"Cub?" she called, and heard a faint reply Animal or husband, she couldn’t say She peered into the paddocks one after another, all e stall was knee-deep in belly wool, so Crystal irl after about ten seconds Lucky her, she could defect without getting court-martialed Dellarobia called Cub’s name repeatedly and heard an answer each ti from overhead She cli on his back across a row of hay bales This time of year the mow should have been packed like a suitcase, filled side to side and top to bottom, but the cavernous loft wasbecause three consecutive rainless days were needed for cutting, raking, and baling a hay crop All the faraht flush: soot rained on, and lost Others waited, and also lost