09/03/2026 20:21

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I crawled toward them over the squelching, shiftingpallets, the glow of the lantern bobbing back and forth between them,trying not to wonder if that boy was behind me, creeping in pursuit. Twice over the weekend I'd come closeto calling Bonnie Amudson, seeing if maybe I could chase that guy down,put a name on him, and both times I had backed off. I taught myself when I was two. Take it from me, it does.

I opened the medicine cabinet, pawed through it, and found what I waslooking for on the top shelf: the Benadryl Jo had kept around for herragweed allergy. To assume such a thing on a day when the temperaturewas pushing ninety-five degrees would not have been unreasonable. I lay there with the bedside lamp on, looking upat the shadows on the ceiling, almost unable to believe I was in thisplace and this bed. The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they comeuninvited.