Page 108 (1/1)

"Mom!" Preston howled The bus had appeared over the hill She sent hi down the bus if necessary But the butterfly lovers achieved liftoff, taking their business up into the big maple She retreated to the shoulder

"Okay, buddy" She stood a few paces fronity "Make sure you learn stuff today"

"I will," he vowed, awaiting the driver’s signal before he charged across the road to climb aboard Dellarobia always found the blaze of alternate-flashing school-bus lights a little surreal, co darkness The hiss of released brakes gave way to the throaty diesel gru her du’s several surprises

She shoved her hands in her coat pockets and tried to move her mind into the day If this was the end of diapause for the e Ovid would be keen to do dissections, or if more sacrifice was unbearable, to palpate live fe She felt ione today She didn’t have a phone number, except the one from which he’d first called her back in December, presumably from his house in New Mexico No way could she call there Very early thisshe’d heard his vehicle pull out, for parts unknown He’d only said he would be gone all day Soiven the way the Ovid-and-Tina video had gone viral On Thursday Dovey had texted hourly updates on the number of views: hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands Whatever qualms people had about scientists, they were thrilled to watch one rip into an ice-queen newscaster of sorined when he finally watched it himself, and Dellarobia felt for him; she knew that awful exposure But he at least had put his turn at faood use He’d been truthful The first of his words Dovey had captured were "This is what science looks like," and that’s what she tagged the post She said it caled "science"

Dellarobia reentered her house feeling guilty without cause as sheto work in your pajaone soed her to take the day off too, she had put indidn’t excite her She hung up her coat in the hallway and came into the kitchen Cub had just unsnapped Cordelia’s terry-cloth bib and iping the oat to Lupe’s, then?" The plane of his brow lifted in surprise

Dellarobia filled and refilled her coffeea few times with hot water fro always got so chilled by the bus wait, it would spoil a second cup if she didn’t war whether I should go in anyway There’s still stuff to do in the lab, without hi Cordelia’s cheeks and nose while she tried to smack his hand Eventually they called a truce, and he lifted her out of the high chair "Well, I’ down the sleeves of his flannel shirt and brushing oatot a load of stuff she wants me to haul over to the church for the towncoffee and leaned back against the counter "You knohat? I’ve got a bunch of Preston’s outgrown pants I could give them" The town ministry was a free food pantry for Feathertown’s needy, now expanding to offer clothing and winter coats, child sizes needed especially For those who found themselves even below the Second Ti away?" she asked

Cub shrugged, a gesture identical to the one his son had offered her ten uess But she wants me to take my truck to haul over that old chifforobe upstairs They’re needing places to hang up all the coats"

Dellarobia was still trying on the prospect of being a donor She always took the kids’ clothes back for the ht about it, she couldn’t recall having given anything away, ever Not for charity, per se "You iant wardrobe in your old roo’s a beast"

"Well, Mother decided it needs to go to the o with you to help," Dellarobia offered unexpectedly She and Cub had things to talk about

Cub laughed "A lot of help you’ll be,a chifforobe"

"Brains instead of brawn, okay? I’ll open doors and stuff We can leave Cordie with Hester for a couple of hours, they’ll both live Just give ot dressed and efficiently culled the kids’ drawers, where the outgrown itein of two to one Within thirty s of donations and descended on Hester without warning, Cordelia and her toy bag in tow Hester was in her living roorossed in winding skeins andto be no help with this endeavor, it was plain to see, but Hester resigned herself, sending the parents upstairs to size up the chifforobe and carry down the boxes she’d packed Dellarobia followed Cub’s slow climb up to the room that had contained his boyhood and, for its first few ed, which hardly surprised Dellarobia Nothing about it was ever altered even to accoht into it She quaked at the barren fa, the ancient comic book collection, the two unopened bottles of Coca-Cola that were so Cub’s football trophies ran along the bookshelf, a string of solden men all frozen in the saround She knew their look was deceptive; the little athletes were not really bronze but sohtless plastic

"I wonder if Hester’s even changed the sheets since we moved out," she said The bedspread was the saenerous, considering all the quilts that were folded away elsewhere in the house But it hat they got That was the weirdest part of living here as a : this bedspread, this room, supper at seven Cub’s parents in the adjacent roo out "Oh, man Remember this bed?"