281

The cave was cool and dry in the front.  In the back, it began to get damp with water trickling down the stone wall and flowing away deeper, under and between to places only water could reach, but it only made the place more perfect as the water was drinkable.

It was a slight climb to get in, over tumbled boulders, but those provided shelter, too, especially since trees had rooted among them, their branches meeting to form a shield.  While in the woods, even a fire wouldn't be seen.  Only from further away might fire smoke be spotted, but the exact location would be difficult to pinpoint, and the tree branches helped dissipate a concentrated plume.

Water, shelter, warmth.  The forest itself could provide food, if you knew where to look, or even cultivate.

280

In a very normal town on a very normal street inside a very normal house was a very abnormal bedroom.  The bedroom was the sanctuary of a normally abnormal girl with a very normal name: Charlotte.

279

The sharp tang of cat urine assaulted them halfway up the stairs to the second floor apartment.  On the landing in front of the door, the urine scent was accented with garbage, sitting in loose bags along the wall.  The tenants treated the apartment the same way the landlord did, with disdain, and as a necessary evil.

278

"You'll want to watch out for Jess," the thin young man offered Marta.  "She's different than us."

Marta watched Jess loping away towards the town, heedless of the dangers of entering uncharted territories.  Frontier people weren't keen on newcomers, even those who were passing through, but there Jess went, straight down the middle of the road, streamers fluttering off her pack.  Marta thought Umberto would tell her Jess was born soft or was touched in the head, but she politely asked anyway.  "How's that?"

"She's dying."  Jess' tiny figure, far down the road, waved her broad-brimmed hat back at them, hurrying them to catch up.

"Aren't we all."  Marta twitched the reins, and thought about what it might mean for their future.

277

The search party's voices were ripped apart by the wind and smothered by the icy snow, but still they kept on for hours after dark.  Groups had already returned to the Inn Malcolm to report and defrost by the common room's enormous hearth.  None had good news.  The last group to return was the one lead on past sense by Fulcrum, Hannah's older brother.  Fulcrum had not wanted to return, but with the snows worsening, it was only a matter of time until search parties would be needed for them, and the group pleaded with the grieving brother's common sense.

276

The phone was getting hot against James' ear and he kept glancing at the clock.  This phone call to his mother was supposed to be short.  A quick question, a clear answer, and off to shopping, but these conversations were never short.  James closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe.

"I'm trying to convince your father to sell this place."

James' eyes flicked open.  "What?  Why?  I..."

"What would happen if one or both of us had to go to a nursing home?'

"Nursing home?  You..."

"They make you spend all your money and then the put you on Medicaid.  It would all disappear.  They'd take it all.  Plus, it's so much work for your father.  Ever since he had The Incident, he hasn't been quite right."

"What do you mean?  Is Dad..."

"He forgets things.  Your grandmother, God bless her, was showing symptoms of dementia for years; symptoms I didn't recognize at the time, but they were there."

James rubbed his forehead.  "Are you saying that Dad has demen..."

"He asked me what temperature to set the thermostat for bed, and he knows that."

"Well, that's not..."

"Whenever I mention selling, all I get is silence, anyway.  I'll keep working on him."

275

The Lewis family had lived on Bindle Place for all of Claire's life, plus some years before.  It had undergone many changes since Claire had been brought home twelve years before, but so had she.  She had even grown to complain when a new house was added to the end, eating away at the fields and trees that had been the neighborhood kids' playground.  Not that the kids were quite kids anymore, nor did they play in the fields as they had, though Claire still did.