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I woke up the next o to sleep after what I saw? The ih I was pretty sure physics wasn’tsuit, I knew that what he did defied the laws of… everything Nature Science Man Did thatwe knew about the world around us was a lie?

My mind spun with all the possibilities With all the ied myself into the shower, I tried not to think of it

I failed

Since I’d run home without Reyes’s, I had no jacket to walk to work in As withwas the answer I pulled on a T-shirt, then a button-down, then a thin sweater, and to top off est, bulkiest sweater in led into it

If this didn’t do the trick, nothing would

I grabbed ood-bye to the crew, and stepped out into a world of glittering ice And there onfrom a hook that had once held a wind chiht it to htly around h to leave his jacket

With breath visible, I hurried down the steps, al it on the last one, then crunched across my yard and to the café

Mable peeked out her screen door and waved at , Mable!"

She seereeting as a device to get lanced around, then walked up her steps

"Is everything okay?" I asked her

She nodded, then gestured fora azines sat on every available surface Plastic bins of iterandkid or that cousin lined the walls And a collection of old dolls sat in a glass hutch that hadn’t been dusted in probably twelve years She wasn’t gross, just cluttered And a little dusty

I waited for her to put in her teeth, then questioned her with a quirked brow

"Laryngitis," she whispered, a slight wheeze to her voice

"Oh, I’m sorry"

She waved off my concern "Doesn’t hurt a bit I just had to tell you the latest Have you met Jeremiah Kubrick? He’s Dixie’s ex-father-in-law Lives down the street near the Denton house?"

"Sorry," I said with a shrug I had no idea what the Denton house was

"Well, ere texting this " – I sed back– "and he likes to keep an eye on the neighborhood Has a telescope and everything Anyway, he said he saw soht"

I let ht before But you weren’t hoet a look at who it was?" I asked froether

"Sure did That Jeffries boy The one who became a cop"

I knew it He must’ve made more than one key "I’avewhack "That boy has leaned a little off center since the day his ht him into the world Force must’ve been desperate to hire the likes of hi me" I had started to leave when the deeper i"He was just seeing if you were ho around in your skivvies"