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The o was now living next to the barn The arrangement seemed unreal to Dellarobia, like so much else that had arrived out of her initial recklessness It had been Cub’s idea to let him park his RV behind their house, near the old sheep shed, and Cub who had rounded up the all-weather extension cord to hook hi Dellarobia wouldn’t have thought to suggest it It wasn’t her place Even after all this time on her in-laws’ land, she felt connected to security by soe extension cord All she’d offered at supper that first night with Ovid Byron, besides the casserole, was a warning about the motel "They call it the Wayside," she joked, "as in, ‘fallen by the’ " He really shouldn’t stay there, when he ca back, he’d told the up, and with their per back a sate the question of what the butterflies were doing on theirquestion," as he’d called it He nor his fieldwork in reht out theThat here he should park his camper, handy to the scene That old barn had electricity, and was unused in winter because Hester liked to oversee the siring and la from the barn near her house Dellarobia was amazed; she’d hardly known her husband to take a ithout first checking in with Bear and Hester, yet he’d thrown out the welcomehim Of course, Cub was inclined to flatten hio speechless one tinized a NASCAR driver on the premises So he was helpless to resist Ovid Byron, a very nice man who could probably charm a snake Educated people had powers
And the nice man now resided in a white, humpbacked camper attached to the body of a Ford truck, a road-worn affair that looked to have hosted more than a few of his life’s events He had his own little hoerator, the works He’d driven it fro helpers, Pete, Mako, and Bonnie by na, it was too late to ask now because she’d pretended to knohat it all meant when they were first introduced Unfortunately she’d been distracted by the muscle definition in Pete’s upper ar-waisted Bonnie was o pants and a fleece vest The students were lodging at the Wayside Dellarobia wondered about the specifics of that arrangeretted the acco another week They were young urban people with advanced degrees They could fend for theht hour up thethe athered around a sort of dinette table inside the RV, doing what, exactly, she didn’t know She’d seen charts of numbers in stacks, and knew they played penny poker because they’d invited her to join them Once she did, after Cordie and Preston were in bed Was a hostess gift necessary, she’d wondered, when invited to a caot a little bit rowdy playing cards, while Ovid sat off to the side tapping industriously at his sli its blue glow into his face Its light e color in the diles of light
She felt guilty about not inviting these people into her house for their after-hours activities, but Ovid wouldn’t hear of disrupting her faed on it, he said This was normal life for field scientists, they all had assured her Ovid see abode The toilet was in a tiny closet that also becahtly closed, a shower The dinette table folded away and the seats pulled together to ood-size bed, with that ht Did he have a wife or family? She was hesitant to ask If he h the holidays, that didn’t bode for much in his faoing away between Christ the caood while She had no idea whether he had people anted hiet out of the Turnbow hair at a fa sound, she realized with a start, was co froarette in the butt-filled flowerpot and dashed in to find Cordie standing up, gripping her toy telephone’s yellow earpiece so the rest of the phone dangled by its cord
"Was that you banging?" Dellarobia asked
"Ma," Cordie replied
Dellarobia was stunned to look up and see Hester in her hallway
"I knocked," Hester declared "Where were you?"
"Just cleaning,some stuff around on the back porch," Dellarobia lied She took a quick inventory of the things Hester would hold against her this : breakfast dishes in the sink, Cordie in just a diaper and shirt She’d tried to get her dressed, but the child had pelted her allwith a hail of no; she felt like a woman stoned for the sin ofme stir-crazy," she said "Come on and sit down, I’ll ht, I’d have a cup, if you don’t care" Hester looked around for a place to hang her dripping raincoat
"It’s not much of a fit day out, is it?" Dellarobia took Hester’s coat frouest
"Reach down your hand frohty waters"
"I was just thinking the same," Dellarobia said, surprised "Those psalms about the wreck of the world People think the Psalms are only about nice stuff"
Hester appeared unihts on the Psal up the coat, tidying up the table Hester was practically a stranger to this house Everything always happened over at Bear and Hester’s: sheep shearing, to, family discussions, wakes This two-bedroo farrew up in, but diht condescend to helping his son disine here, and now Hester of course led her tour groups up the nearby hill But for practical purposes, the corner of their property occupied by their son’s hoo they’d built the house with a bank loan, choosing the floor plan and paint colors the present, when Cub got Dellarobia in trouble, as they put it Plainly, they’d begrudged the bride price ever since