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Now of course it came down to which house had the childproof electric outlets Dovey lived ten minutes away in a duplex owned by her brother in what passed for suburban Feathertown Thisshe’d helped Dellarobia knock off a pile of year-end tax docuo, plus the deconstruction of the weird Christmas tree, which made the kids whiny No, mine, no, Cordelia shrieked as Dellarobia wrested nickels from her little paws, to discard the hooks She asked Preston to unfold the dollar bills and flatten them for future use, but he was sentimental about Mako’s birds "We have to keep them for next Christmas!" he wailed as Dellarobia pocketed the they’d add up to a carton of cigarettes
"We’ll make more next Christmas," she said
Preston threw himself on the couch "Mako probably won’t even be here"
Dovey asked if soy to both ends of the Christmas season They made no real protest when Dellarobia sent them to their room Cordie made a nest of toys on the floor and Preston sat on his bed attending to The Watch, pressing its buttons and holding it to his ear, an activity that e years, froift froe color photo of a different endangered species for every month Preston could not yet name all the months in order, but had memorized these animals in a day
Dellarobia fetched the next load of laundry from the dryer and dumped it on the bed in her cluttered bedroom, where she and Dovey could hide, out of the kids’ line of sight She turned on the radio to cover their conversation, keeping it low enough she would still hear a slap fight, should one arise Cordie was always the instigator Dellarobia began dis out socks, while Dovey tried to fold tiny flannel shirts whose seaot to tell you, I have a date," Dovey said "You can do ot, like, an earth’s-core setting"
"You’re straightening your hair for souy? Must be love" Dellarobia yanked on a twist of threads that connected two unht he was just the flavor of the edly hot Dellarobia had not met him and doubted she would
"Sca bartender-wait-staff blowout, so other guys will be there too They all worked long shifts last night, so tonight they rage"
New Year’s Eve was the occasion of their long shifts the previous night Dellarobia and Cub had put the kids to bed and split one beer on the couch watching a CMT special while waiting to watch that sparkly ball drop for reasons no one see channels for nearly an hour, which for Cub signaled high roh heels was one of those national talent-search winners they couldn’t have na to work on New Year’s Eve esome Cub had declared that women who hadn’t had children weren’t really sexy, they looked like dresses on a hanger waiting to get a body in the about Cub, you kneasn’t faking a colasses re, with no offense intended All that entered his ht onto cruise control Somewhere between Toby Keith and Kitty Wells they’d both conked out, and a few hours later woke up couch-racked and disoriented, having ed herself and Cub to bed feeling achy and sad, hung over without cause The mood had followed her into this day
It wasn’t that she envied Dovey’s social life Felix was already history, she suspected, certainly no i recreation between herself and Dovey that allowed thele pups "Beauty shop," they used to call this, with increasing irony in high school, but still rising faithfully to the challenge of curling Dellarobia’s arrow-straight hair and straightening Dovey’s ringlets Which, in all honesty, struck Dellarobia as part of the sa march of uselessness that had occurred to her in the dollar store that day, the factory workers and shoppers canceling each other out So much human effort went into alteration of nonessential components Especially for women, it could not be denied
They flipped a coin for the first turn at bat Dellarobia hich meant she sat at the mirrored dresser while Dovey clicked on the hot rollers and went to work She held the metal clips in her mouth and hummed with the radio, classic country, the stuff they’d loved in high school: Patty Loveless on "Long Stretch of Lonesome," Pam Tillis with "All the Good Ones Are Gone" Dellarobia wondered how her favorite ot declared "classic" while she was still under thirty The sight of Dovey with the clips in her mouth made her homesick for her mother, who used to spend afternoons with that sa pattern pieces to a bolt of fabric spread over the dining table The more expensive the fabric, the deeper the quiet and that frown, lest shecut and have to s the expense Dellarobia would pull up a chair and read her library book, A Wrinkle in Ti on the year The oak table had been built by her father, a broad, s after he was gone She missed that too, the table Where was it?
Unlike her mother, Dovey had no stamina for silence After a couple of minutes she spit out the clips and tossed them on the vanity "So what happened to Ovid, Lord of the Dance When’s he co back?"
"Next Tuesday" Dellarobia blushed
Dovey lifted her eyebrows "What hour and what ot butterflies over Mr Butterfly?"
"Dr Butterfly to you"
"Excuse ot him to moonwalk"
"Because you’re a ho I totally saw him first"
"We can share," Dovey said "Like we did with Nate Coyle Remember that?"
"Wow, poor little Nate Was that sixth?"
"Fifth I bet he’s in counseling to this day" With convincing expertise Dovey used a rat-tailed co strand of toh, and spool it down, a process Dellarobia found entertaining to watch without her glasses Gradually her head grew enlarged by the corona of rollers From time to time they heard the thump of Cub’s pipe wrench under the house as hethe pipes with new insulation tape The te close to winter range