"Oh," said Patty Sue, "what is that?"

She was pointing to the town's namesake, the Aspen Meadow, now a large patch of gold in a green-and-brown quilt of trees about seven miles away. This patchwork of fall color nestled at the base of mountains already blanketed with white. I explained to her that that area was known as the Aspen Meadow Wildlife Preserve. There, I added as we turned onto Main Street, the forest was so thick that during dry spells even hikers were barred entry, for fear of forest fire.

"Arch knows all about the Aspen Meadow," I announced, hoping to invite him out of his silence. "He's done drawings as part of his school work."

"You do?" said Patty Sue as she turned to face him. "You have?"

"Oh, I guess," said Arch in a flat voice. "The Webelos hike in for the last pack meeting of the year," he said. "The woods are real deep. We see a lot of deer and elk and foxes and stuff like that. But to get in you have to go down a long dirt road. Fritz fishes the upper Cottonwood in the summer, and Pomeroy Locraft raises bees." He thought for a moment and then explained to Patty Sue, "I used to help Pom with the hives, last spring when I was studying bees."

"And flowers," I added.

"Did you get stung?" Patty Sue asked. "Did you catch fish?"

"I caught some trout," said Arch. He thought for a minute. "The bees never stung me." I looked at him in the mirror. He was shaking his head at Patty Sue, as if he were twenty and she eleven. He explained, "You learn how to be careful. Pomeroy taught me stuff like wearing white around the bees." Arch sighed. "He taught me a lot."

"This Pomeroy," I said to anticipate Patty Sue's next question, "teaches driver ed over at the high school and does the apiary in the summer. Pomeroy is also recently divorced." I stopped at Main Street's one red light and smiled at my housemate. "A new single person in town can be an interesting part of the landscape, too."

"Oh," said Patty Sue.

"Will Dad be at Ms. Smiley's?" asked Arch.

"Yep," I said, and pushed the van's grinding gears into first. "Vonette and Fritz, too. Plus all the teachers from the schools."

Patty Sue said, "I've never seen a dead person." "Don't worry," I assured her, "we're not going to the church at all. Plus it's not that kind of wake. They'll have the funeral and the interment while we're setting up. All we'll see is live people."

Patty Sue paused and then said suddenly, "I never knew anyone who killed herself."

I did not answer but glanced again at Arch in the rearview mirror. He was looking out the window, but sensed my eyes.

"It's okay, Mom," he said. "You can talk about it."