really?
you mean it?
you don't sound like one hundred percent absolutely sure.
i'm so happy, daddy.
just the way dolores gets so excited about bringing the kids to check out the animals. it's like the biggest thing in her life.
hi, mr. ansel. hi, jessica, mason.
was it good?
okay.
the pied piper of hamelin. by famous hanover city; the river weser, deep and wide, washes its wall on the southern side; a pleasanter spot you never spied; but, when begins my ditty.
it's like a song.
rats! they fought the dogs and killed the cats, and bit the babies in the cradles, and ate the cheeses out of vats. and licked the soup from the cook's own ladles, split open the kegs of salted sprats, made nests inside men's sunday hats, and even spoiled the women's chats, by drowning their speaking with shrieking and squeaking in fifty different sharps and flats.
yes.
don't you usually like to sit at the back? to wave at your dad?
okay.
what, mason?
that's right.
because. he wanted to them to be punished.
yes.
no. not mean. just. very angry.
should i keep reading?
are you sure?
it just seems. kind of weird.
i don't know.
no. i mean, i remember mrs. ansel wearing some of this stuff, but. i don't feel funny about that. i really liked her.
what do you mean 'outgrown it'?
oh. right.
goodnight, mr. ansel.
nothing.
mrs. ansel's clothing.
once more he stept into the street, and to his lips again laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane; and ere he blew three notes such sweet soft notes as yet musician's cunning never gave the enraptured air - there was a rustling, seemed like a bustling of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling, small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
when, lo, as they reached the mountain-side, a wondrous portal opened wide, as if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; and the piper advanced and the children followed, and when all were in to the very last, the door in the mountain-side shut fast.
did i say, all? no! one was lame, and could not dance the whole of the way; and in after years, if you would blame his sadness, he was used to say,- 'it's dull in the town since my
everything was strange and new.
c'mon, sean. sit next to me.
they say i'm lucky because i can't remember the accident.
it's an incredible relief to be leaving the hospital. i'm so sick of looking at my doctor, listening to frankenstein ask me stupid questions about what i was feeling.
he thought it was cute when i called him frankenstein. it wasn't. i feel like his monster.
what happened to summer?
and winter?
how was it?
good thing i was in florida.
the ramp?
very slick.
it's okay.
the door needs a lock.
you better. and you can sleep in my new bed with me too.
that's too high. i'll never reach it.
what boys?
it's interesting.
i feel like a princess.
is this mine?
from you?
who's mr. stephens?
you and mom have a lawyer?
my lawyer? why do i need a lawyer?
no. what's this lawyer business?
but you didn't lose me.
i can't walk anymore.
what about insurance? doesn't insurance pay for these things?
how will he do that?
that's the first thing i heard about you. that you were a smart man.
you're good at that. good at getting people to believe you could do something for them. something they could never do for themselves.
i don't like thinking about the accident. i don't even remember it happening. besides, it just makes people feel sorry for me, and.
you can only feel lucky that you didn't die for so long. then you start to feel. unlucky.
yes. like bear and the ansel twins and sean and.
it's the truth.
what do you want me to do for you, mr. stephens?
i won't lie.
the truth is that it was an accident, and no one's to blame.
you seem very sure about that.
no matter what i'm asked, i'll tell the truth.
dolores.
why?
at that moment, i hated my parents - daddy for what he knew and had done,
and even mom for what she didn't know and hadn't done. you told me it wasn't going to be easy. but as i sat there, staring at daddy, i knew it was going to be the easiest thing in my life.
c'mon, sean, sit next to me.
for he led us, he said, to a joyous land, joining the town and just at hand, where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew, and flowers put forth a fairer hue, and everything was strange and new.
nothing.
as opposed to this t.v.?
besides, i'd like to see billy.
that wasn't true. i didn't want to be seen by anyone whose kids had been killed by the accident. especially not billy ansel.
actually, now that i think about it, i'd just as soon stay in my room.
i remembered all the times i had tucked jessica and mason into bed. how they loved to have me read to them before they slept. there was nothing for me to say to billy, except i'm sorry. i'm sorry that your children died when my parent's children didn't.
no.
great.
i mean i'm a wheelchair girl now. it's hard to pretend i'm a beautiful rock star. not like you used to tell me. remember, daddy? all the people that were going to discover me? where are they now?
he couldn't look at me. but i looked at him. right at him. his secret was mine now. we used to share it. but not anymore. now, i owned it completely.
great.
before, everything had been so confusing. i never knew who was to blame. but now i know. he's just a thief, a sneaky thief who had robbed his daughter. robbed me of. whatever it was that my sister still had and i didn't. and then the accident robbed me of my body.
the last time i was in the community hall was for the big christmas party almost a year ago. it hadn't changed.
yes.
about eight-thirty in the morning.
no. i was alone. my sister jenny was sick and stayed home that day.
like what? i mean, i don't remember a lot.
yes.
my usual place. on the right side. the first seat.
until the accident? no. yes, there was.
it was when sean walker got on. he was crying and didn't want to leave his mother. mason ansel was sitting beside me. i asked him to move, so i could quiet sean down. when the bus started up, a car came around
no, she hadn't even started to move the bus. it was the car's fault.
no.
yes.
as i'm talking, i'm remembering more about it.
yes.
there was a brown dog that ran across the road up there, right by the dump, and dolores slowed down not to hit him, and he ran into the woods. and then dolores drove on and turned onto the marlowe road, as usual. i remember that. i'm remembering it pretty clearly.
yes.
it was snowing.
before the actual accident?
i was scared.
yes, i understand.
dolores was driving too fast.
the speedometer. and it was downhill there.
yes. i looked. i remember clearly now. it seemed we were going too fast down the hill. i was scared.
seventy-two miles an hour.
positive.
i told you i was positive. the speedometer was large and easy to see from where i was.
yes.
no.
i was scared. and there wasn't time.
no. because the bus went off the road. and crashed.
yes. i do now. now that i'm telling it.
i remember the bus swerved, it just suddenly swerved to the right, and it hit the guardrail and the snowbank on the side of the road, and then it went over the embankment there, and everyone was screaming and everything. and that's all. i guess i was unconscious after that. that's all. then i was in the hospital.
daddy was leaning forward in his chair, his mouth half open, as if he wanted to say something. like what, daddy? like 'what about my money?'
let's go, daddy.
daddy took a long time. i guess he wanted to have a few words with you. he must have tried to tell you that i was lying. then you would tell daddy that it didn't matter if i was lying or not, the lawsuit is dead.
everyone's lawsuit is dead. forget it. tell the others to forget it. it's over. right now, sam, the thing you've got to worry about is why she lied. a kid who'd do that to her own father is not normal, sam.
but daddy knows who lied. he knows who the liar is. he knows who's normal.
i hope he lets us keep the computer.
i'd like an ice cream.
daddy, can we come to the fair?
how about sunday night? that's always the best time.
what's going to happen to dolores?
will the police do anything to her?
she'll move away.
someplace where no one knows her. someplace strange and new.
as you see each other, almost two years later, i wonder if you realize something.
i wonder if you realize that all of us - dolores, me, the children who survived, the children who didn't - that we're all citizens of a different town now.
a town of people living in the sweet hereafter.
whether others defend us, protect us, love us or hate us - they do it to meet their own needs, not ours.
this is what i learned. this is what i found out.