periility

@@@@@Elizabeth's semidomesticated heron was inside, standing by the net It looked at me with accusing blue eyes "Edgar?" Jack touched my elbow"Okay?" I was not okay, and wouldn't be okay for a long time again I can do this, I thoughtShe does not get to win "I don't like it that you're so paleYou look like you did when you first came here Jack's voice cracked on the last couple of words "I'm fine," I said again, and briefly cupped the back of his neckI realized that, other than shaking his hand, it was probably the only time I had touched him 932 Wireman came out clutching the handles of the picnic basket in both handsHe had three longbilled hats stacked on his headJohn Eastlake's harpoon pistol was tucked under his arm "Flashlight's in the basket," he said"Ditto Deep Woods Off, and three pairs of gardening gloves I found in the shed "Brilliant," I saidBut it's quarter of one, EdgarIf we're going, can we please go?" I looked at the heron on the tennis courtIt stood by the net, as still as a hand on a broken clock, and looked back at me pitilesslyThat was all right; it is, for the most part, a pitiless world vii Now I had memoryIt was no longer in perfect working order, and to this day I sometimes get confused about names and the order in which certain things happened, but every moment of our expedition to the house at the south end of Duma 933 Key remains clear in my mind - like the first movie that ever amazed me or the first painting that ever took my breath away (The Hailstorm, by Thomas Hart Benton)Yet at first I felt cold, divorced from it all, like a slightly jaded patron of the arts looking at a picture in a second-rate museumIt wasn't until Jack found the doll inside the staircase going up to nowhere that I started to realize I was in the picture instead of just looking at