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Robinson was a good doctor, don’t get , that wasn’t the problem He’d trained at Meharry, and we’d hadin the dark on his back porch, sipping his ho about new ery, but Mary Proudfoot died on his operating table before he could perforery The delay in transfer cost the woman her life

What kind of physician does that? And why? Was it laziness? Was it because of her color? Was it because everyone in town knew MacIntosh had lost his fortune and didn’t have a red cent to pay iveness and Robinson’s too

First Snow

Snow, like feathers, falling softly, down and down and down "I hope the installers froh with this snow theytime without a phone before Iback on her pillows She has good days and bad days and I never knohat each will be Lately she’s taken to knitting little things for the new baby, tiny booties, a sweater, and this seeive her hope

"But it would be so nice to know that you had a pedestal phone like Lilly’s on the bedside table" I hold out a blue-and-white-flowered chipped teapot filled with hot water "Raspberry tea?" She nods her head yes We’re eating breakfast up in her room off a wooden tray that I constructedyou alone today Daniel and Blum are out on a call We don’t even knohen they’ll be back What if you need so? Maybe I should quit my job"

"No, Becky You can’t quit You’ve done a lot for us, just"I love the snow"

"So do I I grew up in the north country, Brattleboro, Vermont"

"I was raised in Deerfield, Illinois, near Chicago," Patience offers, and I realize how little we know about each other

Then there’s silence as we both stare out the

The roof of the barn is covered, the lawn, the meadows, the branches of every tree and shrub And the snow is still coainst the white Here and there a golden oak that hasn’t lost its leaves brightens the scene

"So beautiful," Patience whispers "You asked me about my previous births the other day"