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"Old enough," I said "Today’s my birthday I’m thirty-three"

"Well, happy birthday I hope I didn’t interrupt a celebration"

"Not at all"

"I’m forty-seven , but I’iven California standards"

"Have you been ill?"

"Let’s put it this way… I haven’t been well My husband and I s This was his parents’ house When his father died, Clyde undertook his o"

II hoped was appropriate

"The point is, we didn’t need to move here, but Clyde insisted Never mind my objections He was raised in Santa Teresa and he was determined to come back"

"I take it you weren’t enthusiastic"

She flashed a look at me "I don’t like it here I never did We used to come for visits, maybe twice a year I have an aversion to the sea I always found the town oppressive There’s an aura about it that I find very dark Everybody’s so smitten with the beauty of it I don’t like the attitude of self-congratulation and I don’t like all the green I was born and raised in the desert, which is what I prefer My health has deteriorated since the day we arrived, though the doctors can’t see, of course I suspect he thinks this is a for on my part, but it’s not It’s dread I wake up everyanxiety Soht onabout panic attacks?"

"That’s what the doctor keeps calling it," she said

Ito lead She seehts

"What do you know about the Slabs?" she asked abruptly

"The Slabs?"