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Show THE EXTERMINATOR-76 elder bugs. And that one's starting to die. Makes it worse." He clutched her by her shoulders and pointed his hawk nose close to her, his yellow eyes flicking back and forth across her face, damp with emotion. "I've watched that tree for a long time." He moved to his feet with the lightness of a younger man and went down the stairs, leaving her under the shaft of sunlight, her feet curled underneath her legs, her hands white, tangling and untangling in her lap. The next day she pulled the yellowed petticoats and gowns from the steamer trunks and boxes, sorted them and re-sorted them, sometimes according to color, sometimes by how many ruffles they had, sometimes by which were the prettiest, changing the piles as she changed her mind. After awhile she went to the largest trunk in the corner. She had to l i f t off several boxes to open the lid. Then she rummaged deeply inside, tossing clothing, ribbons, war medals, onto he floor, stirring the dust. She found i t , finally, the lace and satin, with pearl buttons. She had been forbidden to play with this one, but today she lifted it out of the trunk and lay it on the four-poster, smoothing i t , feeling the skin-like softeness of the satin, the cat-tongue scrape of the lace. Finally she slipped it on over her head. Some of the button loops were torn, but the lace veil covered up the gap. He didn't come that day, and the flickers let her sleep for a long time. The sound sliced into her dreams, carving them into screaming sections, each one alive and curling away from the pain. She ran to the window, stepping on the veil as she went, not hearing it tear. A yellow truck was outside with a |