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."The girls got better and I went back to work in the laundry.I didn't go into town, and so the only women I saw were the wives of the white officers, the other laundresses, and the prostitutes.I really didn't have many friends."VERONICA ROWE (FORMERLY POPPING TREES),WPA INTERVIEW,MARCH 1938*TerryHe could argue that this was either very good luck or very bad, though he had to admit he was more pleased by the news than he thought he should be.He certainly hadn't expected such a small piece of good fortune, but there it was, tangible despite the reality that for the moment it was nothing more than a string of words surfing through space on radio waves.He'd been in his cruiser about thirty seconds--he was barely beyond the parking lot beside the barracks--when the dispatcher radioed him with the news that there had been a B and E at a private residence in Salisbury.He was on his way home, but the night shift was already committed to a car accident on Route 74 and a very messy domestic affair in Starksboro, and since he was on the road and was a shift supervisor, he would need to fill the breach.It didn't sound like a big deal (oh, it would be big to the family who lived there, no doubt about that, but in the greater scheme of things it was hard to get worked up over a stolen CD player and TV set), but it meant that he wouldn't be home for dinner.He'd have to linger over the photographs of the stolen items, do a lot of dusting for prints.He'd need to settle the family down, which would certainly take some time since, after all, a stranger had been in their house and gone through their things, and then there would be plenty of paperwork to fill out.He probably wouldn't get home much before eight.Make that eight-thirty.Maybe even eight forty-five if the family needed some major hand-holding, and he did the right thing and stayed.No, not maybe eight forty-five.Definitely eight forty-five.Who was he kidding? For better or worse, this meant that by the time he walked in his house, the social worker would be gone for the night.A last-minute stay of execution, he thought to himself, though not without a small pang of self-loathing.IT WAS ACTUALLY nine o'clock by the time he got home.Laura and the boy were in the den watching a video Laura had rented for them at some point that day, and they were both dressed for bed.Alfred was lying on the floor in his pajamas and a sweatshirt, and Laura was on the couch in her nightgown and a bathrobe.Her hair was damp, she'd already showered.The cats, he saw, were asleep by the woodstove.He squatted briefly beside Alfred and patted the boy on his shoulder, and then collapsed on the couch beside Laura.He kissed her on her cheek, but she didn't offer him even a trace of a smile.He realized he was in for a pretty chilly night if only because he was so late, and he knew he deserved it.Still, the idea didn't bother him the way it would have once, and as he sat back against the pillows, he tried to understand why.Was it simply because he'd already had sex that day, so he didn't care whether he got lucky or not? No, of course not, he wasn't that driven by hormones and need.At least he hoped he wasn't.But if that wasn't it, then what was it? Was he really falling so completely out of love with this woman he'd married--this woman beside him right now--that he didn't give a damn that she was pissed at him? In some ways, that would actually be considerably worse.The truth was, she'd been pretty cold to him for a couple of days now.He didn't believe Alfred had said anything to her about the conversation they had Monday morning--certainly he hadn't as of Monday night when he spent some time with the boy and made sure that every single canned peach and Twinkie was right back where it belonged--but he couldn't be sure.He turned from the television to look at Laura, aware that he hadn't a clue what they were watching.He saw that Laura was already staring at him, and he tried to read exactly how angry she was by her face.Very, he decided, and he started to speak:You should have seen the mess this nice family had waiting for them when they walked in their house tonight.Mom and two boys, coming straight home from hockey practice.The place was a disaster, it was like a tornado had gone through the living room, he said, hoping sympathy--for him, for the victims--might defuse the ticking bomb inside Laura.Real nice people, he went on.The Danyows.Got a dog from the shelter a couple years ago.You might even remember them if you saw their faces.She nodded.Paul and Emily were here for dinner, she said, her voice so calm it was absolutely impenetrable.Louise, too.Of course.Yeah, I'm real sorry I wasn't here.How come Paul and Emily were? he asked.He wasn't exactly sure why, but the idea that the Heberts had been in this house with Laura disturbed him.He wondered what Paul might have said to her about the run-in he and Alfred had had Monday morning, if anything, and whether the older man might have shared with Laura some inkling of what Terry now knew about the boy.They just dropped by.So I invited them to stay.He smiled.Good, good, he murmured, careful to keep his own voice steady.Then: So how was Louise?She leaned forward on the couch and told Alfred that they didn't want to disturb him so they were going to go in the kitchen to talk--catch up on their days was how she put it--and the boy offered to pause the movie so she wouldn't miss anything.No, you keep watching, she said to him.You can fill me in on what I miss.She rose and Terry stood up to follow her, stepping carefully over the child on the floor.Suddenly he was exhausted, and he decided he wanted to be anywhere in the world that moment but where he was.SHE SAT DOWN at her place at the kitchen table and folded her hands together on the dark wood.He started to sit down beside her, but he realized he would be better off if he remained on his feet--more alert, less vulnerable, in command--and so he opened the refrigerator and got out the container of milk and the makings for a sandwich.He wasn't hungry because he'd grabbed a hamburger and fries at the lone fast-food restaurant in Middlebury after leaving the Danyows, but Laura didn't need to know that
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