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Dellarobia leaned forward, hands pressed between her knees, strangely dreading whaton the ift To herself in particular, she’d dared to iht have been stolen fro?" she asked "Or just the tourists stopped coirl cried, in obvious distress "The water was coUn diluvio" She looked at her parents, asking several questions, which they answered, but she did not say ht of the landslide in Great Lick that had taken out a section of Highway 60 in September On the news they’d called it a maelstrom, the whole valley filled with boulders andmotion with her hands "A landslide?"

Josefina nodded soberly, her body shrinking into the sofa "Corriirl onto her lap, folding both arms around her protectively The whole family now looked close to tears

"I’m sorry," Dellarobia said

The father spoke quietly in Spanish, and then Josefina said sione?"

"The houses The school The peoples"

"You lost your own house?"

"Yes," the girl said "Everything The mountain And the monarcas also"

"That must have been so terrible"

"Terrible, yes Soht Terrible was a ith s The landslide at Great Lick had taken a stretch of highway and nothing else No school, no lives

"When was this?" she thought to ask "What year?"

The girl asked a question, and the mother replied with a word that sounded nearly like February Josefina repeated, "February"

"Of this past winter? So you reo? So you all ca?"

She nodded "My cousins andti the tobacco," Dellarobia said

"Tabaco," both parents repeated Theelse Hethe conversation to so They’d had a hos of so for day labor She felt abashed for the huge things she didn’t know Mountains collapsing on people Tonight she and Preston would go over to Hester’s and get on the coether

She handed back the folded piece of paper and asked, "Would youdown the name of your town forto tell thehoulish, like voyeurism Which, to be honest, hat the daily news a it when the victi on your sofa