11/03/2026 06:42

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I thought about adding that he had somehow gotten hold of myunlisted number, then remembered that Mattie had, too, and decided tokeep my mouth shut on that subject. But I knew something else,knew it as surely as I'd known Mattie had been wearing white shorts whenshe called me on her day off. I looked around andsaw a huge old spruce toppling slowly across the lane, its ragged stumpon fire. I asked Whitmore three times, butby the third I was starting to understand.

He sounded as if he absolutelymeant it. Even the spirits must have to rest sometimes. Noonan--this isn't a scene from one of your books. There were two or three seconds of silence, andthen a jay replied.