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Moody looked into my eyes For the first time since we’d met, she didn’t look the least bit feisty or defiant She looked downtrodden Defeated The heartbreak of Hiraer from her

I put ain This time she reached up and patted my hand

“I’ve been going to funerals since I was a baby,” she said “This one is different Ain’t no ‘peaceable joy’ around here”

“What do you mean?”

“We used to burying the old folks,” she said “You know—after they lived a whole life After they randkids But lately, all these funerals for the young ones And Hiram… I mean, Hiram…”

Moody began to cry

“He weren’t nothing but a baby himself,” she said

I felt tears co to my own eyes

“Here” I thrust the pie under her nose “Eat some of this You need to eat”

It was useless advice, I knew, but it hat I re to people at funerals Eat, eat… Now I understood why he’d said it: he just couldn’t think of anything else to say

Moody took the plate from my hand

Chapter 66

MOODY WAS RIGHT No “peaceable joy” came into Abraham Cross’s house that day

The bottle of radually consu but a knuckly bone was left on the plate The pies shrank, shrank soered and finally turned into nightti in the dark

I shook hands with Abrahah the re mourners, out the front door