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Mrs Carpenter went to church on Sunday while I slept in, still exhausted fro service at a soup kitchen by feeding the homeless, so I had the house to myself all day I folded laundry Did hoarden Cleaned the bathroom The day wasn’t half over, and I was stuck in a house with no TV, no computer, and a bookcase filled estern romance novels older thanto the lazy tick of a clock, and fell asleep

I ju over roaned beneath led to sit My roolow squeezing into h the closed blinds And the room was e clock was my only answer I pulled the purple quilt under my chin and wondered what had woken me--until I heard the hoarse, raspy howl of a hound

"Duke?" I whispered As if they’d heardbloody murder, like there was a fox in the barn And I was the only one here to chase it out

I scrambled up off the cot and jah the shadowy house and out the unlocked front door But when I got out into the long-shadowed evening, I realized --the barn was silent The noise was co from the woods that surrounded Mrs Carpenter’s property

I stood frozen in her driveway, listening Evening wind ruffled throughstopped And then, as if my animal instincts tapped mo The dogs that had attackedto trackand yapping started up again, lots of dogs this ti from all directions The wind had carriedand scratching at the barn doors A light shone on ravel drive I whirled around, certain I was about to be eaten

Mrs Carpenter’s baby-blue truck crawled along the driveway She parked it and shut off the lights

"Maggie Mae, how are you, dear?" she asked, cliravel, the only sound left in the darkening evening "Maggie?"

"We’ve got to get inside," I said,I steered Mrs Carpenter to the front door and bolted it behind us

"Is everything all right?" Mrs Carpenter asked, her eyes wide

"Yeah I mean no--I don’t want you to catch a chill It’s a bit windy out there" I glanced out the front"Have you heard anything fro "But I’ll call the if you’d like Have you had dinner yet? I’m famished"

I shook ht, with Duke and Shash restless in the barn and barking half the night, I passed Monday y daze Students watched ister Only cobwebs filled my brain By lunchti with Yana, I wandered outside to the rear courtyard and sighed, for the sun’s warmth seemed to soak into my skin and make it impossible to keep rass

Like a reptile, I curled up and fell asleep

I mentioned before that I am not usually a deep sleeper But I slept like a rock on that grass It wasn’t until a shadow blocked the sun that I jerked back to consciousness, flingingbreath and feel fangs

"Are you all right, dear?" a white-haireda rake

I slowly easeda nap," I explained, blinking sleep fro class?"

Class? It wasn’t still lunchtime? I looked around the courtyard and felt eh me Beneath one of the farthest trees sat a spectator

"Uroundskeeper I walked toward a shady circle of grass and sat down, then peered toward the farthest tree to see if I had been forgotten He was still staring right at ame

He sat perfectly still in the shade of the tree His skin looked unnaturally white against his h he’d ditched me at prom, it didn’t hurt to look at him Seriously, he was a visual feast Pure eye candy