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I told hirueso about itto relax "Sorry," I said

"It’s ht it up," he said "I didn’t ain"

I shook my head "That’s fine I’m okay Nobody’s told me much either Honestly, I think it helps The blanks are frustrating" I was looking for a narrative thread to hang frag from 4:30 on had been deleted from my memory bank

He hesitated for a moment and then filled me in on events from his end Ash had left She was on her way to Olive’s to help set up for the party As soon as he heard about the explosion, he pulled some clothes on and he and Ebony ju loaded into the a bundled onto a stretcher, se near the shrubs, covered by a blanket

Bass’s recital of events was flat, like a news report He was calm, his tone impersonal He made no eye contact I stared down the hall where a doctor with a so on a bench The news must have been bad because the woman clutched and unclutched the purse in her lap

I remembered then that I had seen, Bass… one of the faces scrutinizingBy then, shock had set in and I was shiver-ing uncontrollably, in spite of the blankets they’d wrapped me in I didn’t reme to let her any closer to the car-nage The bomb had made tatters of Olive’s flesh Hunks of her body had been blown against the hedges, like clots of snow

I put a hand againstflushed with tears Bass pattednonsense, upset that he’d upset et out of it The e a deep breath "What about Terry’s injuries?"

"Not bad A cut on his forehead Couple of cracked ribs where the blast knocked hie They wanted him in for observation, but he seems okay"

There was activity behind us and the door to Terry’s roo a stainless steel bowl full of soiled bandages She seemed enveloped in aromas of denatured alcohol, tincture of iodine, and the distinctive so in now Doctor said he can leave any tiet a wheelchair for hio down"

Bass went in first I wheeledthe bed table where the nurse had been working Terry was sitting on the edge of the bed, buttoning up his shirt I caught sight of his taped ribs through the loose flaps of his shirt and I looked away His torso was stark white and hairless, his chest narrow and without musculature Illness and injury seem so personal I didn’t want to know the details of his frailty

He looked battered, with a dark track sketched along his forehead where the stitches had been put in One wrist was bandaged, from cuts perhaps, or burns His face was pale, his moustache stark, his dark hair disheveled He seemed shrunken, as if Olive’s death had di in the scene with a cursory glance She hesitated, waiting for the aide to finish The room seemed unbearably crowded I needed fresh air

"I’ll come back in a minute," I murmured I wheeled myself out Ebony followed reen tweed couch, twochairs, an artificial palh her handbag for her ciga-rettes She lit one, sucking in sen She looked totally composed, but it was clear that the hospital atmosphere unsettled her She picked a piece of lint from the lap of her skirt

"I don’t understand any of this," she said harshly "Who’d want to kill Olive? She never did anything"

"Olive wasn’t the target It was Terry The package with the boaze shot up tothere A pale wash of pink appeared in the dead white of her face The hand with the cigarette gave a lurch, alarette ash tu at it

"That’s ridiculous," she snapped "The police said there was nothing left of the package once the boarette out

"Well, there was," I said "Besides which, I saw it Terry’s name was printed on the front, not hers"

"I don’t believe it" A wisp of sarette stub She snatched it up again, work-ing the live e the rearette The strands of raw to-bacco seemed obscene