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Chapter One

Conn

“They say there’s gonna be about a foot of snow dropping on us Youlow”

“Henry, Conn es the old rab my ?”

“I’ll carry it”

“It looks like you’ve got the fixin’s for a good stew I don’t see any ht a nice buck the other day A ten-pointer?”

“There ain’t no ten-pointers around here,” ister with a piece of jerky stuck in the side of his mouth

“Just because you don’t have any luck doesn’t mean that Conn hasn’t You tell hilasses

Behind Karen’s back, Henry gives lance This is the reason why I don’t come into townwhere you’re going I ruffle the shorn hair on top of my head and search for an answer that makes them both happy “Can’t say that I’ve seen any bucks that size around”

Henry hoots “I told you so”

“That doesn’t mean none exist,” I add hurriedly

“That’s right” Karen thu of flour with a little too much force I wince “Just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they aren’t out there”

“If they did exist, I’d have seen ‘em and since I haven’t and neither has Conn, who lives in the freaking woods, they don’t That’s–what do you call it?”

“It’s not anything,” Karen insists and jams a candy cane toward me “Here Put this on one of your pines I know you aren’t decorating a Christmas tree”