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EXPOSURE

For noe see through a glass, darkly

CORINTHIANS 13:12

One

August 29, 1998

She didn’t knooke her, and no ht, no htmare chased her, she never would

Su of sweat and drenching green The hu in the stea off the pot

Still, she was used to that, to lying on top of summer-moist sheets, with the s open wide to the relentless chorus of cicadas—and the faint hope even a tiny breeze would slither through the sultry

The heat didn’t wake her, nor did the soft ru in the distance Naoiven her a good shake or shouted her name in her ear

She sat straight up in bed, blinking at the dark, hearing nothing but the huh pitch of the cicadas, and the lazy, repetitive hoo of an owl All country su to put that odd little click in her throat

But noake, she felt that heat, like gauze soaked in hot water and wrapped around every inch of her She wished it wereso she could sneak out before anyone was up and cool off in the creek

Chores came first, that was the rule But it was so hot it felt like she’d have to part the air like a curtain just to take a step And it was Saturday (or would be in the ) and sometimes Mama let the rules slide a little on Saturdays—if Daddy was in a good mood

Then she heard that ruhted, she scrambled out of bed to rush to herShe loved storh the trees, the way the sky went spooky, the way lightning slashed and flashed

Andrain and wind and cooler air Maybe

She knelt on the floor, her arms folded on the sill, her eyes on the bit of moon hazed by heat and clouds

Maybe

She wished for it—a girl who’d turn twelve in just two days and still believed in wishes A big stor like pitchforks and thunder like cannon fire

And lots and lots of rain

She closed her eyes, tipped her face up, tried sniffing the air Then, in her Sabrina the Teenage Witch T-shirt, she pillowed her head on her hands and studied the shadows