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Show Moon - 218 and run until her heart lurched and cried for mercy. Then she'd throw off her clothes and leap into the lake, pull herself deep into the water. When she finally came back to herself, her mother was awake, peering above the afghan like a bird, the bones in her face vivid and lovely, her eyes larger than they used to be. "Hello, dear," she said. "Come sit by me. Let's talk." Joy kissed her mother's forehead, pulled up a stool, and sat. As soon as she had done all this, her mother was asleep again. The boys arrived soon after. Their hair hung past their shoulders, beautifully wavy, which seemed unfair to Joy, who'd longed for more than stick-straight hair. Bandanas were tied around their foreheads. They wore Indian cotton shirts, scuffed sandals and looked, Joy thought, interesting and intelligent like the students from her days in the Village. She'd let her own hair grow long, but she thought she was a little too old to have that special look of her brothers, that careless freedom. The boys gazed down at their sleeping mother. Dad got himself a beer. The four of them went out and sat on the porch. "Alice will be coming next week," Joy said to her brothers. "None too soon," said her father. He glared at her as if this were her fault. "The lottery drawing is next week," said Lee. "Lottery?" said Joy. She thought of little piles of stones. "For the draft," Lee said. "We'll go to Canada if we have to," said Caleb. His father shrugged, said nothing. He seemed to be looking past them, at the lake perhaps, or the mountains, which were settling into the dark serious green of late summer. |