EMALINE MCCLOSKEY FINISHED SHELVING THE books in the poetry section of the Sheridan library, placing a copy of The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses exactly where it belonged according to the Dewey Decimal system. She could never see the name of the famed poet Robert Service without recalling the bawdy version of “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” which Jake liked to recite after a drink or two. It was downright filthy and disgusting, but Jake would insist on bellowing it out in mixed company, while the ladies covered their ears and the men roared with laughter. It was a side of him she had never been able to tolerate.

She glanced up at the clock. It was five minutes past three, her favorite time of day. At any moment now, Red would come bursting through the door full of stories about his day in second grade. It was the first of April, a warm, sunny day, so she would go outside with him and sit on a bench where they could talk without disturbing the readers at the long tables inside. Red would drink his milk and eat some of the gingerbread cookies she had made the night before and talk about school while they sat in the spring sunshine. Then they would slip back inside and Red would sit reading children’s books or going over his schoolwork until five o’clock, when she finished work.

Most nights, they would walk home to the little house on South Custer Street which she was renting from Eli Paint for ten dollars a month. On this night, however, they were not walking back to the house. Bobby and Leo were in town looking for birthday presents for Ezra and Eli. When they finished, they were supposed to swing by the library in Leo’s Hudson to drive Emaline and Red out to the ranch for the birthday celebration. Eli and Ezra were turning seventy, although neither man looked a day over fifty, and Juanita was planning a big party.