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Show in my father's house/ 40 I shook my head. I'd rather sleep with Danny and listen to his scarey stories than crowd into bed with Aunt Helga and Deanna, who bristled if I so much as turned over. I raced past the cubbyhole and settled on the bed, staring out the window and listening to my brothers as they worked in the barn. Then the night grew still except for a yelping dog and the cries of a peacock in Cheaseman's private aviary across the highway. I blew on the cold pane and drew on it. The moon glinted on the dry, frosty grass that sprouted at the window-edges. Suddenly, Danny was on the bed beside me, tickling me until I screamed. Then he smudged off the foggy window with his sleeve while I tried to get my breath. "See that star up there? That's the North Star, the one seamen use to find their way home. And you know who lives there?" His voice full of whispery magic. I shook my head. Danny let silence pool around us. "The City of Enoch," he finally said in a superior voice. My father said we must love each other no matter what, but sometimes it was hard with Danny. Like when he laughed about my ducks. Like now. Even if he was a boy and almost nine, he didn't need to act like he knew everything. "You don't know what the City of Enoch is, do you?" he said, grinning. "They only tell the men. Someday you'll have to find out from your husband." Only the men! Another cheat in a day full of them! |