分节阅读_79

  han
  usual, but eventually i made it out the d the same release
  when i saw him standing there, a wide smile automatically spreading
  ay face. he smiled iion before launore
  ination.
  his questions were different now, though, not as easily answered. he
  wao know what i missed about home, insistiions of
  anything he wasn't familiar with. we sat in front of charlie's house for
  hours, as the sky darkened and raied around us in a sudden
  deluge.
  i tried to describe impossible thihe st of creosote —
  bitter, slightly resinous, but still pleasant — the high, keening sound
  of the july, the feathery barrehe trees, the very
  size of the sky, extending white-blue from horizon to horizon, barely
  ihe low mountaih purple volic rock. the
  hardest thing to explain as so beautiful to me — to justify a
  beauty that didhe sparse, spihat often
  looked half dead, a beauty that had more to do with the exposed shape of
  the land, with the shallow bowls of valleys between the craggy hills, and
  the way they held on to the sun. i found myself using my hands as i tried
  to describe it to him.
  his quiet, probiioalking freely, f, in the
  dim light of the storm, to be embarrassed for monopolizing the
  versation. finally, when i had fiailing my cluttered room at
  home, he paused instead with aion.
  ”are you finished?” i asked in relief.
  ”not eve your father will be home soon.”
  ”charlie!” i suddenly recalled his existend sighed. i looked out at
  the rain-darkened sky, but it gave nothing away. ”how late is it?” i
  wo loud as i glahe clock. i rised by the time
  — charlie w home now.
  ”it's twilight,” edward murmured, lookiern horizon,
  obscured as it was with clouds. his voice was thoughtful, as if his mind
  were somewhere far away. i stared at him as he gazed u the
  windshield.
  i was still staring when his eyes suddeo mine.
  ”it's the safest time of day for us,” he said, ahe unspoken
  questiohe easiest time. but also the saddest, in a way…
  the end of ahe retur. darkness is so
  predictable, don't you think?” he smiled wistfully.
  ”i like the night. without the dark, we'd ars.” i
  frowhat you see them here much.”
  he laughed, and the mhtened.
  ”charlie will be here ies. so, unless you want to tell him
  that you'll be with me saturday…” he raised one eyebrow.
  ”thanks, but no thanks.” i gathered my b i was stiff from
  sitting still so long. ”so is it my turn tomorrow, then?”
  ”ly not!” his face was teasingly ed. ”i told you i wasn't
  done, didn't i?”
  ”what more is there?”
  ”you'll find out tomorrow.” he reached ay door for me, and
  his sudden proximity seo freations.
  but his hahe handle.
  ”not good,” he muttered.
  ”what is it?” i rised to see that his jaw was ched, his eyes
  disturbed.
  he gla me for a brief sepli,” he said
  glumly.
  he flung the door ope movement, and the
  ged, swiftly away from me.
  the flash of headlights thrht my attention as a dark
  car pulled up to the curb just a few feet away, fag us.
  ”charlie's around the er,” he wararing through the downpour at
  the other vehicle.
  i hopped out at oe my and curiosity. the rain was
  llany jacket.
  i tried to make out the shapes i seat of the other car, but it
  was too dark. i could see edward illumihe glare of the new
  car's headlights; he was still staring ahead, his gaze lo
  something or someone i 't see. his expression was a strange mix of
  frustration and defiance.
  thehe engine, an