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Death had begun to ease across the boy’s face "Oh," he said "Oh" Then so see, everyone was crying She got on the ground beside Alicia and touched her elbow "He’s dead, Lish"

Alicia shrugged her violently away "Don’t say that!" She pulled the boy’s limp form to her chest "Caleb, you listen to ht now!"

Peter crouched beside her

"I pro Caleb close "I promised him"

"I know you did" It was all he could think to say "We all know it It’s all right Let go now"

Peter gently freed the body from her arms Caleb’s eyes were closed, his bodythe yellow sneakers-one of the laces had coone For a longThe only sounds were the birds and the wind in the tips of the grass and Alicia’s da

Then, in a sudden burst, Alicia shot to her feet, snatched Jude’s pistol fro on the dirt A furious look was in her eyes The gun was huge, a long-barreled revolver As Olson looked up, squinting at the dark for over him, she reared back and struck hi hiround, cocked the hammer with her thumb, and aimed the barrel at his head

"Goddamn you!"

"Lish-" Peter stepped toward her, his hands raised "He didn’t kill Caleb Put the gun down"

"We saw Jude die! We all saw it!"

A trickle of blood was running from Olson’s nose He made no motion to defend himself or move away "He was familiar"

"Familiar? What does that odda the blood fro one of them"

Alicia’s knuckles hite where she clutched the butt of the revolver Peter knew she was going to fire There see to happen

"Go ahead and shoot if you want" Olson’s face was i to him "It doesn’t matter Babcock will coun to waver, driven by the current of Alicia’s rage "CalebHaven! He never had anyone! I stood for him! I stood for him!"

Alicia howled, a deep anier-but no shot came The haain and again; the gun was empty "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Then she turned to Peter, the useless pistol dropping from her hand, leaned into his chest, and sobbed

In the one Tracks led away into the culvert; Peter didn’t have to look to knohich way he was headed

"Should we go look for hi by the eear

Peter shook his head "I don’t think there’s any point"

They gathered around the place where they had buried Caleb, in the shade of a cottonwood They’d marked the spot with a scrap of metal Michael had popped from the hull and etched with the tip of a screwdriver, then affixed to the trunk of the tree with sheet-metal screws

CALEB JONES

HIGHTOP

ONE OF US

Everyone was there except Arass Beside Peter were Maus and Theo Mausath of pipe; Sara had exa as they didn’t push it Theo had slept straight through the night, awakening at dawn, and now see beside hi in his brother; so had been stolen from him, in that cell In the dream With Babcock

But it was Alicia orried hirave with Michael, a shotgun cradled across her chest, her face still swollen fro tiht, she had said alrieving for Caleb, but Peter knew differently She had loved the boy, and that was a part of it They all had, and Caleb’s absence felt not just strange but wrong, as if a piece of them had been cut away But what Peter sa, as he looked into Alicia’s eyes, was a deeper kind of pain It was not her fault that Caleb was dead, and Peter had told her so Still, she believed she had failed hih Peter couldn’t help but think it ht have helped Perhaps that hy he hadn’t tried harder-tried at all, really-to take Jude’s gun away fro out of habit for his brother to speak, to issue the command that would set the day in motion When he didn’t, Peter hitched up his pack and spoke

"Well," he said, his throat thick, "we should probably get going Use the daylight"

"Forty lumly "What chance do we have on foot?"

A," she said

For a moment no one spoke None of them seemed to knohere to look-at Alances passing around the circle

"She can talk?" Alicia said

Peter stepped gingerly toward her Amy’s face seemed different to him, now that he had heard her voice It was as if she were suddenly present, fully airl stated Her voice was neither a wo in between She spoke flatly, without intonation, as if she were reading the words from a book "There aren’t forty h or cry, he didn’t knohich After everything, for her to speak now!

"A before?"