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"He didn’t make it" (I don’t mean to sound cold, but I’ surgery"

"No!" Priscilla pounds on my chest, hits me over and over as she screa room "No! You killed him, you son of a bitch! You killed him on purpose!"

"It wasn’t like that, Pris," I try to explain "There were adhesions Massive infection He was already critical We couldn’t stop the bleeding" But she rages on, not caring who hears

"You killed hihly outside

"You killed hi waste of a man!" That’s when I slap her It’s not like I ht about it before my hand moved, but my palm makes a red mark on her cheek

"Pris!" I yell, but it’s too late, she’s already running across the parking lot, careening carelessly, blinded by tears

"Watch the ice, Doc," Jackson, the colored arette on the hospital loading dock I don’t answer, but throwon the seat of my Pontiac and follow Pris’s little roadster out to Locust By the time Ifast

Thirty e over the Jah Perrysville, and pull into the drive of our brick hoiveness, but her car isn’t there It’s already on the bottom of the Jaht differently and have never doubted she drove over the bank on purpose

How long does it take a person to forgive himself? Two lives lost because of my stupidity Maybe you will say I’m too hard on myself, but I was a hard man in those days, and I set my own punishment: death for a double e to kill himself, death while alive, madness

45

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

The turnout for the burials is lad the four of us spent so makeshift benches to seat the next of kin and older folk There were horse-drawn carts and vehicles parked all over the yard

The little Hucknell girls find Dr Blu he sit up front on the benches Only the eldest, Sally, cries, and Isaac puts his arm around her and holds her close

One by one, the coffins are lowered into the graves by the CCCholes and nine dead, because we planned to bury the baby with his father, Alfred Hucknell

Boodean is here and Starvation MarFarland, and Snake and Loonie Tinkshell and a few of the others, even Rusty on his crutches because, as he told h he lost his foot, he wanted to thank Dr Blu his life The new superintendent see

"Ashes to ashes Dust to dust" Reverend Miller says a feords about death and heroes and reads the Scripture I picture the ashes left fro across the land, acres and acres of drifting gray ashes The service closes as Mrs Miller, wearing a long purple gown and a strand of pearls like Eleanor Roosevelt, sings a hymn and we all join in on the chorus "Will the circle be unbroken? By and by, Lord, by and by? There’s a better ho In the sky, Lord, in the sky"

Afterward, everyone gathers at the homemade tables for potato salad and baked beans, apple pie and cold milk and coffee The Hazel Patch faithful are present and Mrs Miller co The Bishop brothers and Cora are here From across the crowd Cora winks ata new blue dress and her hair is done up on her head, like a proper lady The CCC guys sit by themselves, all in uniforo over and join them