Page 63 (2/2)

"I’m afraid I have some news About Theo"

But the old woman waved this away "Oh," she said, "I know all about that"

Auntie sat across fro her dress on her bony shoulders as she stretched out her legs beneath her, and poured the tea into cups through a strainer It had a thin, yellow color, like urine, and left behind in the strainer sreen and brown, like shed "It’s a long story"

"I ain’t got nothing but tiot ears to hear by Go on now, tea’s ready No point letting it get cold"

Peter took a scalding sip It tasted vaguely like dirt, leaving behind an aftertaste of such bitterness it didn’t even seeed a respectful s On the table at his elboas her book, the one she was alriting in Her memory book, she called it: a fat, hand-stitched volues covered with the tiny print she wrote in, using a crow feather and ho sawdust into pulp and for sheets on squares of oldscreens Peter knew she was hard at hen he saw pages of thison a line behind her house

"How’s the writing going, Auntie?"

"It never ends" She offered a wrinkled s but time on my hands What all that happened The world froht us here in the fire Terrence and Mazie and all those ones All of it, I just write it down as it coure if there weren’t no one to do it but one old lady, then that’s what they’ll get Someday someone ant to knohat happened here, in this place"

"You think so?"

"Peter, I know so" She sipped, s her colorless lips, and frowned at the flavor "I reckon that needs more dandelion than I put in it" She pointed her eyes at Peter again, squinting through her glasses "But you didn’t ask that, did you? What all do I write in there, wasn’t it?"

Her e connections, dipping into the past She spoke often of Terrence, who had ridden with her on the train Sometimes he seemed to be her brother, sometimes her cousin There were others Mazie Chou A boy nairl nah time could be interrupted, at anylucidity

"Have you written about Theo?"

"Theo?"

"My brother"

Auntie’s eyes drifted adown to the station When he co back?"

So, she didn’t know Or perhaps she had si in her mind with other such stories

"I don’t think he’s co back," Peter said "That’s what I ca sorry now," she said "The things you don’t knoould fill a book That’s a joke now, ain’t it? A book Go on now Drink your tea"

Peter decided not to press What good would it do the old wo? He took another sip of the bitter liquid If anything, it actually tasted worse He felt a little burble of nausea

"That the birch bark you feeling For the digestion"

"It’s good, really"

"No it ain’t But it does the trick all right Clean you out like a white tornado"

Peter remembered his other news then "I meant to tell you, Auntie I saw the stars"

At this, the old woo" She quickly touched the back of his hand with the tip of a weathered finger "There’s soood to talk about Tell hts returned to thaton the concrete next to Lish The stars so thick above their faces it was as if he could brush the that had happened years ago, the final minutes of a life he’d left behind

"It’s hard to put into words, Auntie I never knew"

"Well, ain’t that a thing" Her eyes, pointed to the wall behind his head, seeht "I ain’t seen theirl Your father used to co now and tell me all about them I saw them, Auntie, he’d say, and I’d say to hi, Demo? How those stars of mine? And the two of us would have a nice visit about the now" She sipped her tea and returned herso surprised?"

"He did?"

A quick frown of correction; but her eyes, still lit with an inner brightness, see at him "Why you think he wouldn’t?"

"I don’t know," Peter ed And it was true: he didn’t But when Peter tried to ireat De tea with Auntie in her overheated kitchen, talking about the Long Rides-he souess I never realized he told anyone else"