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Waitwhat? "Your wife lived here? And you lived right next door?"

"We were two people who didn’t kno to live closely with another, so we came up with a solution It worked until she wanted to asted I couldn’t i my married life without Jesse in ain, why?"

He shrugged "It sounds i and still loved each other If I said the day was cloudy, she’d say it was sunny If I wanted to paint the living rooe, she wanted blue I wanted children, and"

"She didn’t"

"No Our differences were nearly irreconcilable I loved her h, and I was certain she loved me with the same fervor My heart shattered when she s behind, and the rest of this house es in that metal box and buried it in the backyard There wasn’t a fence then She called once, about fifteen years ago, and wondered if we could get together to talk I told her about the buried wedding dress and set ure out where it was, I would talk to her She hung up on me"

"I would have, too You’re kind of a jerk, Bill" I’d never called Mr Eckhardt by his first name either He rolled with it

"She hurt ood life even with the pain That’s what strong people do"

I thought for a arden? You thought I wasn’t being strong?"

"In a way, yes"

"With all due respect, Bill, even though I’m still not sure if you deserve any, I don’t think you’ve lived a good life without her Definitely not as a strong person"

"I disagree," he said

"You’ve been a hty You’ve never once invited us over, even though we extended invitations until we got tired of hearing you say no You didn’t even offer an excuse I see those biddies fro by to discuss whatever evil ae bylaws, but other than that? No one walks up to your door unless he’s delivering theI tried it, and it doesn’t work Jesse’s dead Acting like I a hirily

"It is" Like Petra’s, my wisdom was hard-won, but I didn’t kno to explain that to Bill His misery was hard-won, too

He tossed the onions into the oiled pan with ht," I said "It takes a strong arden," he said "It was s"

"I’ at this stage in e?"

I paused and took in this hardheaded, heartbrokenIt’s not too late"

He didn’t fightonce again We ether and let it bubble I found a couple of boxes of spaghetti in the pantry, and he wordlessly filled the pot ater and salted it Petra and Trey stopped bringing tomatoes in at soures standing in the garden, talking

"The rest of the tomatoes are ruined," Bill said He set the pot to boil and sat down heavily in a kitchen chair "Who would do such a thing?"

Yes, who? I’d been so distracted by the events of the evening that I hadn’t been able to analyze the situation With Trey and Bill off the suspect list, who else would commit such an act of violence?

"I don’t know," I said

"Asa sense that I’m in the minority You don’t have any enemies, do you?"

"I didn’t think so"