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"I don’t think he believes that"

She slowed the car to turn onto a residential street "It’s reallyHe’s been alone so long"

Soon, they pulled up to the house "Well, here we are," Rachel announced in a chipper voice She had put the vehicle in park though she’d left the engine running, just as Wolgast had done "It was a pleasure to finallyout"

"Why don’t you come with me? I know he’d like to see you"

"Oh, no," said Rachel "It’s nice of you to ask, but that’s not how this works, I’ainst the rules"

"What rules?"

"Justthe rules"

A to do but climb out of the car By the open door she turned to look at Rachel, aiting with her hands on the wheel The air was thick and war everywhere with their bright, chaoticup

"Tell hi about him, won’t you? Tell him Rachel sends her love"

"I don’t understand why you can’t coaze over the dashboard, toward the house It see, her eyes, which had clouded with a sudden grief, pausing at each of its many s Tears appeared at the corners of her eyes

"I can’t, you see, because it wouldn’t make any sense"

"Why wouldn’t it make sense?"

"Because, Amy," she said, "I’ in the flowerbeds, working in the dirt A wheelbarroas positioned nearby; piles of darkthe beds At her approach he rose to his feet, reloves

"Miss A to work on the lawn, but I reckon that’ll keep" He waved his hat toward the patio, where glasses of tea awaited "Come and sit a spell"

They took their places at the table A the sunlight warrass and flowers filled her senses

"Thought you’d be more comfortable this way," Carter said "The two of us can have a ti and such Make the days pass"

"You knew he’d be there, didn’t you?"

Carter"Didn’t send hiast just had his way No talking him out of it when he set his mind on it"

"But how come the others didn’t knoho he was? They couldn’t have They would have killed him"

Carter shook his head "Their kind never could read me, one way or the other You could say we been out of touch awhile It’s a tay street, and I ain’t sent nothing back their way since the beginning Shut my mind to all of them" Carter hitched up in his chair and returned the cloth to his back pocket "You done right, Miss A, I know that"

She was suddenly thirsty; the tea felt cool and sweet going down and left a bright, le his hat in a gentle motion to push a breeze over his face

"And Zero?"

"I expect there’s ti for us This here’s personal now He’s surely the worst of ’eot one Zero Bridge we cross e come to it"

"And until then, here we stay"

Carter nodded in his patient way "Yes’ of ould coarden before," Amy said "Would you teach me?"

"Always lots to be done Reckon I could use the help Mower’s fussy, though"

"I’ you could, now," he said with a smile "I reckon that’s the case"

Amy remembered her promise "Rachel told me to send her love"

"Did she, noas just thinkin’ on her How she look to you?"

"Beautiful, really I’d never really had a chance to see her clearly before But sad, too She was looking at the house, like there was so she wanted"

Carter seeht you knew"

Amy shook her head

"Haley and the little one Woman can’t see or touch ’em, where she is It’s her babies she’s always dreamin’ on It’s the most awful ache to her"

A her children behind "Will she ever see theain?"

"I expect she hen she ready It’s her own self she has to forgive, for leaving them like she did"

His words sees of for; the leaves had begun to fall

"She not the only one, Miss Amy Some folks can’t find a way on they own For so in the o Them’s the ones that love too hard"

In the pool, the body of Rachel Wood had completed its slow ascent to float upon the surface A to her Every day I cut the lawn, she thought Every day she rise

"You got to go to him," said Carter "Show him the way"

"I just " She felt his eyes on her face "I don’t kno"

He reached over the table and cupped her chin, lifting it upward "I know you, Miss Amy It’s like you been inside me all ht But Wolgast’s just a ive him back"

Tears trembled in her throat "But ill I do without him?"