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"I’m not just smooshed," Cub informed Dellarobia "I a Oprah"

Through the frontblinds she saw Dovey’s vintage Mustang slide into the driveway Her double honk set the kids to shouting, "Dovey’s here!" Dellarobia ran to get dressed The kids were ready an hour ago, far keener to meet a blue convertible than any school bus, all keyed up for a wild ride with Aunt Dovey Dellarobia heard the cla to ride with the top down

"Brrr, no way! It’s freaking February the second, you guys," Dovey said "Hey Cub, what happened to you?"

"Same old same old," he said "Vehicular honant ewes today while Dellarobia took the kids shopping with Dovey They were headed for Cleary to check out a huge new secondhand warehouse Dellarobia’s usual haunt was the Second Time Around, a store so tiny it was actually in the owner’s house, but Dovey disliked it on the grounds you were sure to run into people you knew, or their stuff Ad suits lory, the very irl for whom her old boyfriend Damon had duirl, and in fact also divorced her, yet there hung the dress, glistening like a stab wound Cleary seeains, but she had to concede, exchanges could get intimate in Feathertown

Dovey looked jaunty in a suede newsboy cap and y and Stoked, they used to declare this, as if they were their own cable shoo girls dressed and ready for action A worldlier, fes came off as planned Dovey’s convertible, on the other hand, always seemed provisional to Dellarobia, especially with the top closed, flapping as if so important was about to come loose It had no shoulder harnesses in the backseat, only lap belts, so the kids’ car seats fit in a sigoggling way that was probably unsafe The kids of course adored this

"Hey, look!" Preston shouted "A s, like I did to Daddy" Dellarobia was amazed he could see roadkill froh haenially "Sorry, Mr Hog, not much shadow there I never can remember, does his shadow cause there to be more winter, or less?"

Dellarobia considered and dismissed both cause and correlation "Neither," she said "It’s just soh the ho once, curtly, an assent of bobbing curls "There’s going to be exactly sixFebruary the second"

Six weeks The butterflies would have survived to fly away by then, or they would have died His large hope, her job, the whole deal soon departed So, the approach of flood and famine, but mostly she could not see a day past the ripped the door handle as Dovey took the curves a little fast This road was fifteenaround the h intermittent woods and hamlets of mobile homes She was surprised when they passed the infa they’d already crossed the county line Cleary was not that far away, but Dellarobia couldn’t say when she’d been there last It had the college and a lot of restaurants and bars, and ht as well have been located in another state, as far as her ht of it as no distance at all She had roa out of that stupid duplex," Dovey announced

Dovey had been soout of the duplex for nine of the last ten years, while her brother drove her crazy with his never-ending reht that house on Main as a fixer-upper when barely out of high school and extorted an obscene as in the decade since, capitalizing on their desire to leave honed Toet it--the boys were still cra a bedroom to this very day, as men in their twenties Dovey at least had a whole side of the duplex to herself, but still The walls were thin They knew s should

"How’s Felix?" Dellarobia asked

Dovey sighed casually "I need to get Felix over with" Dovey did love life the way Cub watched television "Shoot," she added, "I need to text him His wallet’s been in my kitchen for two days" She reached for her purse, but Dellarobia snatched it away

"No, ma’am, not with my kids in your car ‘Honk if you love Jesus, text while driving if you want to meet up’ "

Dovey actually clairetted having conveyed it She rolled her eyes "So what’s new in the Land o’ Science?"

I have a talent for the endeavor, she thought His words Dellarobia was concealing nothing specific, but felt a capacious welling of things she couldn’t talk about The sensation was physical "Pete left yesterday He packed up a bunch of frozen butterfly sa back to New Mexico"

"Back to the ood doctor? He seeer leash"

"There is a wife, Juliet She exists She’s a bad cook"

"So bad he has to live in a different tiuess people have their reasons," Dellarobia said "But I don’t see it Why be ed "Do I look like Ask Miss Marriage?"

She hadn’t yet told Dovey about Cub’s confession With the kids always around, she hadn’t had a chance to get into the Crystal Estep saga, nor any real zest for the telling She felt e had happened

Dellarobia was surprised by their hasty arrival They pulled into the parking lot of the strip mall and zooine and belligerent driving, right near the sliding front doors The Try It Again Warehouse was big-box-size and a tad dilapidated, with piles of recently dropped-off ite like dunes over the pavereen toilet sat priht between boxes of wadded coats and plastic toys "What is this place," Dellarobia asked, "some charity, like the Salvation Army?"