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"Well, you’re hardly the first," he said "People alant the full predicament revealed and proven in sixty seconds or less You h," she insisted "Explaining it toI can’t"

"You underestimate yourself You have a talent for this endeavor, Dellarobia I see how you take to it But choose your path carefully For scientists, reality is not optional"

"Are we at least allowed to hope the butterflies willup at the sky "That is not a little hope," he said

She thought of other tinancies, wanted or not It was never real at first She recalled the day of herskin, walking her out of the doctor’s office onto the cru lot Little hu a scar in the asphalt like drops of green blood All these vivid external details suggesting nothing had changed They’d decided to go to the grocery with no more mention, that day, of the end of the world

Suddenly she felt an acute craving for the Diet Coke she knew to be in her purse She dug it out with little trouble, cracked it open, and offered Ovid the first sip, but he held up a hand and shuddered as if she’d offered a bite of dirt "My wife drinks those diet things," he said "Aspartame, or whatever it is It tastes like soap toof the fizzy, tepid liquid, noting that it did as a matter of fact taste a little soapy But caffeinated She pictured an obese wife chugging diet sodas and burning toast in the kitchen "What’s your wife’s naht "So, Pete says I need to hang up those pillowcases indoors, to give the sleepers a chance to wake up I count the ones that crawl up the sides, and keep track of nu the "No This is good, you will like this We give the sleepers one last chance to sink or swiround are actually alive But you have to give theht of Preston’s veterinary book, with its surprising advice on lamb resuscitation "What do we do, butterfly CPR?"

"We pitch them into the air one at a time It’s sink or fly, really Last winter in Mexico we launched them from the balcony of our hotel over a courtyard where people were dining Everyone was cheering for the flyers" His s that happier place Dellarobia wished she had been there with hi herself to the void To be given the same chance

"I will coht," he said "To help with that I don’t suppose you have any balconies at your house"

She raised one eyebrow "Not hardly Do you?"

She should let him speak of his home and his wife, if that’s what he wanted His Juliet She did ask But he merely said, "No balconies"

So that’s hoould be She would go home to make soup that was better than Juliet’s, and return here as queen of this tribe At dusk she and Ovid would cliether to the barn loft They would stand in the open door of the haymow and take these butterflies in hand, one at a time, and toss them into the air Some would crash And some would fly

11

Community Dynamics

Dellarobia’s phone buzzed A text fros: GET RIGHT OR GET LEFT Dellarobia texted back: LTS GO

She was nowhere near ready to go, still in her bathrobe and ratty yellow slippers But Dovey was one of those people who traveled in a medium-size pod of tardiness on which others came to rely Dellarobia poured herself a second cup of coffee and pulled out a kitchen chair to put her feet up In a lifeti people celebrate weekends, she finally sahat all the fuss was about By no ears If her kids wanted to pull everything out of the laundry basket to make a bird’s nest and sit in it, fine Dellarobia could even sit in there with theer called her name exclusively She had an income She’d never before understood how much her life in this little house had felt to her like confine at the toys and dirty dishes rising from every surface was a natural response to inundation To open a hatch and say feltoutside the home took her about fifty yards froh She couldn’t see the dishes in the sink

A steady ruckus rose fros, "Loshe’d learned from Lupe’s little boys ItDellarobia with her first sense of being an outsider to her children’s lives Preston was nownoises, each followed by howls of make-believe pain froh the doorway Cub lay on his back on a blanket outstretched on the living roo an arine, a plastic tractor

"What in the Sa lot," Preston replied "I’"

"Poor Daddy Does your victim need a refill?"

Cub lifted his coffee cup She carried in the coffeepot and kneeled on a corner of the blanket to fill his"Should we call this a blood transfusion?"

"Nah," Preston said "He’s just sht But Cub was good about letting the whole boy out for a run, where Dellarobia would have reined hiet hi therotesque

"Lo mio lo mio!" Cordie’s voice bounced with her fast little steps as she ca a board book, which she pretended to stuff into Cub’s nowleefully, "Dat’s hay!" She dropped the book and ran to fetch another bale