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"I would never cheat on you," Cub said, exhaling spasmodically, close to tears

"I know you wouldn’t, Cub You’re a good man Better than I deserve"

"Don’t say that," he said, running his thuainst the inside corners of both eyes They had arrived at the gate between pasture and backyard With effort she avoided looking at the shell-like casing of the trailer hunched between their house and the barn Everything was close together here, the house and driveway crowded into a corner of the farm that had been carved out of the pasture, back when Bear and Hester built the house Like the wedding and the house itself, it was a hurry-up kind of fence They’d used metal T-posts and cheap wire that still looked provisional after these ht it was She’d always despised that webbed wire crossing the view from her bedroomBut it was after all just a fence, whose full perimeter she had walked and repaired The house stood outside of it, belonging instead to the open road frontage it faced Cub lifted the gate, and she passed ahead of hi of the chain he latched behind her

Pete banged loudly at the kitchen door early Monday, startling Dellarobia and the kids, to let her know the as up on the mountain that day Dr Byron was already there, Pete was headed up now, and she was to follow as soon as she was free He asked her to bring pillowcases After bafflement over the pillowcases, her first emotion was relief It would be easier to face hiht of her spy’s conscience Dr Byron in the woods would be intent on the butterflies and possibly up a tree Only secondly did she think to worry on the butterflies’ behalf The sky had cleared overnight, and the gust of cold air that rushed in at the door’s brief opening lingered unkindly in the kitchen It must have been worry that sent the men up the mountain at this hour

The kids were still in their paja breakfast Cordie had a cold that had kept herDellarobia ached to turn up the heat, but, thinking of the electric bill, did not Preston would catch the bus at seven forty-five, Cub would be dropping off Cordelia at Lupe’s apartment on his way to work, and the house would stand eet everyone dressed and ready in the next forty minutes was beyond coallop around the kitchen always got the job done

Pillowcases? Did Petepillows as well? There was no end to their ingenuity in applying household ite her for clothespins or coat hangers or kitchen sponges for their various contraptions She had revised her notion of them as spendthrifts as she watched them improvise and make do Even Gatorade had its use in the lab, as fuel for captive butterflies that had to be kept alive for some experiment But pillows? She held at bay a vision of twisted bedsheets and Ovid Byron’s body, though her erator door with her hip Cordie’s hair looked like a golden haystack, but the child was in a rare co a grip on a plaid stuffed bear that dangled froh chair tray in button-eyed desperation That was Cordie; fro, a toy or blanket or any ponytail that swung into reach Preston was

Or just a Preston thing Right noas ignoring his cereal and poring over his sheep book, one of several Cub had borrowed froencies after they brought the ewes over She wished Cub had chosen soiant veterinaryin the barnyard Poor little guy, he hefted this concrete block of a book fro Cub’s twin admonishments that he couldn’t read, and that people would call hiistered both as i book And pictures were abundant He’d easily found the chapter on laether with twined limbs, nose-to-nose or nose-to-tail, made her think of a sex manual

Cordelia’s attentive eye followed her brother’s "Goggies," she pronounced

"It’s not dogs," Preston corrected "They’re baby lae cheese, her makeshift breakfast, and Preston looked up at her with his eyes full of questions "Why are they taking a nap in a dog bed?" he asked

She carefully did not laugh, and told him the oval shape was the womb The pictures were supposed to sho the lambs looked inside theto be born, like when Cordie was in ravely They both looked at Cordelia, her face spackled with crea variations of the saet to eat, big guy Two et dressed The school bus waits for nointo the text, his interest redoubled by the latest revelation His earnest expression and level brow o far Maybe he’d be a vet, far for them around here Or even the kind of vet that looks after elephants in zoos For all her worry about his lack of advantages, Preston would be like Ovid Byron Already he seemed set apart by a devotion to his own pursuits that was brave and unconfor People were so rarely like that, despite universally stated intentions Most were like herself and Dovey, the one-ti plans to fly out of here Her boldness had been confined to such tiny quarters, it counted for about as much as mouse turds in a cookie jar Until recently, when the lid blew off, and the whole world could peer in at Dellarobia, and what do you know, she was a mouse But here sat her lionhearted son Maybe it wasn’t a decision, but so strike

"Ma anxious

"Lethe hadn’t co baffled her: thea lah the air She studied the caption "Resuscitation," she said "He’s bringing it back to life"