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They were dressed in blindingly colorful, flowing affairs, and though everyone sang a song of jubilation, unfettered and altogether unhinged, Amara couldn’t help but be disturbed by the sharp divide bethat the day was and what it looked like

She and Quint arrived well ahead of schedule to scope out the area and ensure that Frederik hadn’t planned or planted anything near the agreed-upondown at the ever-growing crowd below Before long,toward the large fire that had been built there below the cliff

The wet driftwood that was tossed onto the burning pile created adriven toward A in off the ocean Amara moved back and away fronal, because the ration only quickened from there

As the lee frorow greater Several of the large skulls that had been paraded through the streets earlier found their way to the gathering, and kept watch over the revelers from their massive poles propped around the central fire

As that lined the s spots on both sides On the near side, it was bordered by a thicket of spindly trees and rangy weeds, a ht glow of the moon overhead

Judging by the condition of the place, it made sense that Frederik would want tosince rusted over, the three-spot parking lot overgroeeds and crisscrossed with grass breaking out through the deep fissures in the concrete Widely spaced, low-level streetlights circled the lot, casting everything in a weak, yellow hue

“So about all this, Quint Maybe it’s …” Amara motioned out toward the city and the sea “… you know It’s so for my son, possibly my son’s life, on the Day of the Dead Frederik always did have a sick sense of hu was off limits I really kno to pick them”

Quint paced slowly behind the rail, back and forth, back and forth “I knohat youlike that My problems were a lot more predictable A feomen ere interested in social status and the rest mostly interested in my money No one cared about me as a person Who I was All those interviews, all those specials done about me, the articles and books, they were about someone else, certainly not me, no matter what the titles said”

“I think it’s called I beside Aot rich quick, probably quicker than I should have, to be honest I made some stupid decisions early on, all of which ell-documented in the tabloids I’e on the internet Er — rando rich Bands and movie stars don’t count That’s a whole different culture, trust me”

“For what it’s worth,” Afor others As for me, a lot of the tiirl anted to save the people randerian, and I always kind ofout there andexperience Soht were norrew up and realized that no one else was half-practicing folk ic”

“Folk ic?”

“I’ll explain another time” A fond smile crossed her face as she rocked slowly “And, of course, the food That’s where I learned about cassava, you know I loved it, but it was a very occasional treat Even with all the preparation in the world, I guess you can never be certain anything is safe enough for your baby girl, or your grandbaby in this case, even if you’ve prepared it yourself They were right to be cautious I found out about that a lot later when I started getting into agriculture It was my first science project I don’t even rerow A carrot ot a little participation ribbon and all, but I didn’t let it discourage rows toine”

Around in front of her

“I’ll have to check it out e get home If I’m

going to be part of your life in any substantial way, I should probably get to know the faht?”