Since the last of the heroin had washed out of his system, his emotions always seemed on the verge of blowing up into a cyclone. The first thing Jonas noticed when he went inside was the pigeons, cooing in their cages. As she brought its flat face close to her own, its mouth yawned wider and its hissing became audible. “When I came in sight of your hut, I grew fearful.
“What is it?” Stanley asked, hurrying down to her. Susan had believed everything Roland said, but this made it true in a personal way, one she could relate directly to her dead father. Susan dreamed of the willow grove—bird and bear and hare and fish—and what woke her wasn’t Sheemie’s return from his necessary but a cold circle of steel pressing into her neck. Not such a depth of slyness from boys who only had to shave once a week.
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