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Show 297 bordering the lawn. He rehearsed openers as he rang the bell, because she would be surprised to see him there by himself. There was no answer. His good angel told him to fly. His good angel told him that the neighbors in all the houses across the street had stopped what they were doing to watch him through the curtains. He shifted his attache case to his right hand and looked at his watch. He set the case down and took his small black appointment book out of his inside coat pocket and consulted a page for the benefit of the neighbors. Then, looking puzzled for the benefit of the neighbors, he picked up his attache case and went around the side of the house, through the staggered row of arbor vitae that marked the lot line, his shoes going squish in the recently-sprinkled ground, and found her, in levis and sweatshirt, kneeling over a wooden tray of small blue flowers next to a rectangle of soil cut into the lawn. She had a trowel in her hand. Lorin cleared his throat and she started. "You scared the life out of me." "I rang the bell," he said. "I didn't think you were home." "I can't hear it when I'm out here. This is the first day it hasn't been too muddy to do anything in the yard. I've never planted flowers before and I don't know if it's too early in the season or what." Lorin didn't know either. "They're nice, though," he said, looking at them, whatever they were. She got up and brushed the mud and debris from her knees. She looked past him at the corner of the house. "I didn't expect to see you two here today," she said. "Where's your friend?" Lorin told her and she put a hand to her mouth. "I thought you'd want to know," he said. "That's hideous," she said, her grin under control. |