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One

BEFORE DAWN, I WOKE IN DARKNESS TO THE RINGING of a tiny bell, the thimble-size bell that I wore on a chain around my neck: three bursts of silvery sound, a brief silence after each I was lying onthree tihto have been produced by such a tiny clapper A third set of three rings followed, and then only silence I waited and wondered until dawn crept down the sky and across the bedroom s

Later thatin early March, when I walked don to buy blue jeans and a few pairs of socks, I uy who had a 45 pistol and a desire to colier as surely as the sun moved from east to west

My naer surprised that I anet

Nineteen o, when I enty, I should have been riddled with bullets in that big-news shopping-mall shoot-out in Pico Mundo, a desert town in California They say that I saved a lot of people in my hometown Yet many died I didn’t I have to live with that

Storirl I loved more than life itself, was one of those who died that day I saved others, but I couldn’t save her I have to live with that, too Living is the price I pay for failing her, a high price thatthat I wake

In the nineteen months since that day of death, I have traveled in search of the o

Currently I rented a quaint, furnished three-bedrooe in a quiet coastal town a couple of hundred miles froainvillea cascaded across half the roof

Annamaria, whom I had known only since late January, occupied one of the bedrooive birth in about atier still

Although she said s that I failed to understand, I believed that she always spoke the truth She was mysterious but not deceptive

We were friends, never para to happen But a charh withcompanion

Theexpedition, Annaht savings time doesn’t start for another five days”

At the bottom of the steps, I turned to look at her She wasn’t a beauty, but she wasn’t plain, either Her clear pale skin appeared to be as se dark eyes, which reflected the sparkling sea, seeray-khaki pants, and a baggy sweater, she was so petite that she ht have been a child dressed in her father’s clothes

Not sure why she hadI’ll be back hours before sunset”

“Darkness doesn’t fall to a predictable schedule Darkness can overwhelm you any time of the day, as you know too well”

She once told h she had said no more and had not identified her would-be murderers, I believed that she was as truthful about this as about all other things

“I’ll stay here if you’re in danger”

“You’re the one in danger, young man Here or there, anywhere, you’re the one perpetually on the cliff’s edge”

She was eighteen, and I was nearly twenty-two, but when she called ht She possessed an air of tiht have lived in any century of recorded history, or in all of them

“Do what you must,” she said, “but come back to us”

Do what you ht use to send a friend off to buy socks

From behind Anna close to hi out at olden retriever named Raphael and a white German shepherd named Boo Only nine years old, Tim had been with us for over one month, after we rescued him from an estate called Roseland, in the sleepy town of Montecito I’ve written about that ordeal in a previous volume of these memoirs We were his only family now Because of his unique history, ould soon need to fabricate an identity into which he could grow in the years to come

My life is as odd as my name

Tim waved at me I waved at Tim

Just before stepping out of the house, I had asked the boy if he wanted to accon smile, Annamaria had said that neither Xerxes nor Leonidas had invited small children to accompany them to Thermopylae

In 480 BC, three hundred Spartans under the command of Leonidas had for a while held at bay two hundred thousand Persians under Xerxes in the battle of Therhtered I failed to see the si expedition and one of the fiercest ements in history

Even though it is always fruitless to seek an explanation fro state for amplification But she had opened the door for me, had waved me out of the kitchen, followedat me as I looked back at her from the bottom of the steps The moment to press her for elucidation seemed to have passed

Anna that, in its radiance, you can al than what you’d find in Pooh Corner—in spite of her references to the slaughter of the Spartans

I said, “The bell rang last night”

“Yes, I know”

I didn’t think she could have

heard it froh two closed doors

Previously she had told ht, ould soon thereafter move on to a new place

She said, “I’ll see you again when the wind blows the water white and black,” and she turned away, retreating into the cottage

Beyond the beach, the sea spread blue to the horizon The day remained still and mild, and the sky was so clear that it seemed I should be able to discern the stars in spite of the sunshine that concealed them

Not mystified but certainly bewildered, I walked north half a e, with a wariness that I hadn’t felt minutes earlier Shaded by ancient California live oaks, the don shopping area was a three-lane street flanked by just six blocks of stores, restaurants, and quaint inns If you wanted a real town, you had to go up the coast to Santa Barbara

I didn’t know that a guy would soon offer to neutera pistol fitted with a sound suppressor I have a psychic gift that occasionally includes a prophetic dream, but when awake, I do not see moments of the future

When I first noticed the truck that pricked my curiosity, I did not realize that a foret a glimpse of the driver

My unrelenting curiosity has gottentrouble It has also saved my butt a lot of times On balance, it’s a plus And it isn’t true that curiosity killed the cat Usually, cats are done in by coyotes or Peterbilts

Anyway, ift, e it

The truck was an eighteen-wheel ProStar+ The cool-looking, aerodynahts was painted red and black with sparkly silver striping The black trailer bore no corporate logo or advertising