She would sit and look at it by the hour, and--I told you about it,
Race. I threw it out once, and she woke up and screamed. She shrieked
for hours and hours and she ran out in the dark and dug for it in the
trash pile, where I'd buried it. She went out in the dark, broke all her
fingernails, but she dug it out again." She checked herself, staring at
Joanna, her eyes wide in appeal.
"Well, dear," said Joanna with mild, rebuking kindness, "you needn't be
so upset. I don't think Mickey's so attached to it as all that, and
anyhow I'm not going to throw it away." She patted Juli reassuringly on
the shoulder, then gave Mickey a little shove toward the door and turned
to follow him. "You'll want to talk alone before Race leaves. Good luck,
wherever you're going, Race." She held out her hand forthrightly.
"And don't worry about Juli," she added in an undertone. "We'll take
good care of her."
When I came back to Juli she was standing by the window, looking through
the oddly filtered glass that dimmed the red sun to orange.
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