09/02/2026 16:13

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I didn't want to lookdown there into the dark, didn't want to risk the chance that somethingmight start thumping again. The eyesockets of Sara's skull widened as the lye filled the darkhollow where her mind, her prodigious talent, and her laughing soul hadonce resided. It was storming out-side--a vicioussnow-changing-over-to-sleet event that proved to be the last and biggestblast of the winter. There was a brilliant stroke of lightning, and inits glare I saw gray barnboard through the trees.

It was a screamof outrage, anger, grief. The rolltop snapped loose of its slot and hung like a jointedtongue. and I did have to literallycrawl away from the desk and the computer, pulling myself across thedeep-pile rug on my hands and knees. She'll have been dead four years come August.