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Dellarobia moved to the kitchen s to stare out in a new direction while she ical treachery of this snow, its beauty s could be rewritten as a clean slate She ad the pasture, and the way the trunks of the big trees were visibly cut off fro on top of the snow like elephant’s feet rather than rooted beneath it The distant mountains had the fuzzy, off-white color of a plush toy that’s been around a while For the whole of theshe wondered if any butterfly could survive this Now she also wondered, in a different manner from days past, with unco the mountain to find out She had come to terms with the idea of Ovid and Juliet, not that she had a choice, given that they were having their e here on her back forty Certain raone undercover, it seemed, just like the snow-covered barns Some defects lurked, but for now her way see the sheep, which seeround, maybe forearmed with ancestral e to the barn to feed hay, and now they wandered out over the white land to chew their cuds Their pointed feet broke through the crust, and they lurched along dragging broad, pregnant bellies, leaving the oddest i punctuated with holes Their wool colors stood out sharply, the blacks and ainst the blazing snow looked yellowish, the color of actual rather than co, she discerned, though their legs were invisible But a few had knelt down into little snols to rest placidly in the glare of a new kind of day Very high up on the hill, one coal-black eas lying down oddly, with her nose up Like a seal balancing a ball: that color and that posture, her nose sticking straight up in the air

"Cub!" Dellarobia called "Coreeable and in no hurry He atching cartoons with the kids "What?"

"Take a look at that ewe up near the fence That black one that keeps arching her neck You see her?"

After a moment Cub did

"I think she’s in labor"

"It’s too early," Cub said

"I know it is But she’s acting weird" As they watched, she struggled to her feet and shook the snow off her wool, an impressive muscular shudder even from a distance She turned several ti to lie down, and then lay down Once again her nose lifted in a great, arcing sweep like a circus seal Like an exercise video for livestock An unconventional move, by any standard

"It’s too early," Cub repeated "And it’s colder than heck out there"

Dellarobia blew out air through her lips "I’ if this is convenient" She turned off the burner under the pan of"Fix the kids so up there"

She rushed to pull on war that Cub had ignored instructions and gone back to watching The Backyardigans with a blanket pulled around everything but his face, just like the kids Dellarobia stoain by the made-over world It was abnormally quiet outside, as if sound itself had been blanketed and extinguished Soathered Under her boots it le because straight up was out of the question, she discovered, after slipping several tirade and made broad switchbacks up the pasture

The black ehen Dellarobia attained her altitude, was lying in the same spot From the looks of theshe’d made in the snow, she had been at this project for a while, whatever itahead, only mildly perturbed by Dellarobia’s sudden arrival

"So what’s up, lady?"

The dark lady turned her nose away, checking out Dellarobia through the horizontal pupil of one pale amber eye Her breath clouded the air in quick, visible puffs

"You’re notmy day here, you know that?"

After two or three minutes Dellarobia felt ridiculous The ewe uttered a low, productive belch and began to chew her second-time-around breakfast in the most normal fashion known to sheep Dellarobia backed off ten paces down the hill, then tenher out She should have called Hester first, for a consult The cold caught up to Dellarobia when she stood still, racking her with hard shivers that rattled her teeth "You couldn’t do this in the barn, could you?" she asked

The sheep did nothing helpful She even stopped chewing Dellarobia’s eyes wandered up the littery, ice-enclosed twigs like glass straws This was no country for insects The real grief of this day caainst her initial good spirits It couldn’t even be called a freak stor, in a freak neorld of weather Three days ago it had been fifty degrees The springtime smell of mud was a clear memory She’d been so sure this winter was over and they’d ht so, with the end of diapause Now, froe point in the snowy field, she saw a trail of tracks leading froate So he was up there already, h Road was now a shadowy lane, narrowed to a tunnel by snowy overhanging boughs

Dellarobia also noticed the crisscrossed paths of animal tracks faintly traced over the hillside: deer, rabbit Strange to think what a ss out here they’d ever know about The ewe called her attention back with a strange, high grunt and pointed her nose again She was on the small side, this ewe,into panic ht have parked on her sto The ewe stood up, shuddered, took a couple of steps forward, and out dropped so from her backside A dark liquid puddle, really it had poured out Fluid or blood Dellarobia felt a restriction of vessels in her chest as she scuttled back up the hill, scra to recall words frolected Amniotic sac, placenta She dropped to her knees in the snow and bellowed to see a la inside its translucent sac: a tiny sheep child The ealked away froraze