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" ‘What the hell!’ he yelled, standing there in the barn door with a bucket of water he was bringing out for the stock He took it all in, the dead horse, the grown men involved in a barnyard brawl, and threw the water all over us

"That’s when I juered out of the yard, and hobbled as fast as I could forat thehed"

"Did you go see so could be broken!" I rise and move toward the kitchen, unable to stand the disorder

Hester groans "You know ’s broken but my spirit The worse part, for me, is the horsethe unnecessary death of the beautiful horse" He wipes his wet eyes "Assholes!"

In the next half hour, I dig through Hester’s dresser to find a clean pair of skivvies and help hieon, his sense of personal order is no better than Ruben’s was The drawers are filled with a tangle of unfolded clothes None of the socks are matched I can hardly tell what’s clean and what’s dirty

With difficulty we re, and Hester lets me wash his upper body, his neck, and his back He can move his left arm, which is black and blue froree with him that it probably isn’t broken

While he bathes below his waist, I run downstairs, tidy the kitchen, and heat a can of Van Ca out of the pantry Then, while he eats, sitting up in a chair, I change his linens Finally he collapses back onto the bed like a steelworker at the end of the day

"So as your plan?" I ask with a s tasks are done; two quart jars of clean drinking water rest on the bedside table and his potty, now shiny white, is nearby

"Plan?"

"Yeah Hoere you going to get by in this state? Were you going to call someone? Dr Blum or Becky Myers?"

"Hell, no Anyway, Bluht call His car went into the ravine along Bluff Creek Reverend Miller was out on a call and found hih Doesn’t want to live like this any his life for al his wife and joining his brother’s practice back in Charlottesville"

I let out nant women in Union County, especially the ones with probleet diverted