He sat hunched over now, looking as if he might be going to throw up. His teeth were chattering, and Ellen thought “shock, of course.”

“Don’t know as I can. Shoulder—it hurts.”

Nick came back, sat down on the stairs in the hall to take off his rubber boots, and said quietly, “The car’s total.” Then he peered in at Joel. “Don’t know how you got out.”

Ellen helped the sore shoulder out of the coat arm carefully.

“Nothing we can do tonight. Take him in to the couch in the parlor, Nick, and I’ll fetch some quilts. Cold in there.”

An hour later the house was dark and silent again. The moon had come out from behind the clouds, and Ellen looked at the path on the floor, filled with anxiety and dismay.

“I’ll get Christina over in the morning,” she thought. “I feel all upset.” Yet at the same time she was curious, as if a strange bird had flown in.

Next morning Cathy stopped by, early for the school bus, and found Joel there in the kitchen eating a corn muffin with bacon and egg. He had on a clean shirt of Nick’s, but he hadn’t yet got his bag out of the smashed car and hadn’t shaved. Ellen introduced them, explained the situation briefly, and poured Cathy a cup of coffee, which she drank standing with her back to the stove.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked Joel, going right to the point.

“Hey, wait a minute.” He grinned. “I’m not awake yet.

“Guess the first thing is to get the car towed away, and report the accident,” Nick said.

“Oh, there’s the bus. Have to run!” Cathy grabbed her satchel and was out of the door without waiting even to say good-by.

“Willard has pretty girls,” Joel said, lighting a cigarette.

“She’s from Boston.”

“What’s she doing here then?”

“Going to school.”

“She’s only fifteen,” Nick said protectively.

Joel absorbed this information, then rubbed his forehead.

“So what am I going to do now?” He took a worn billfold out of his hip pocket and peered into it. “Looks like I have twenty bucks and some change.”

“Maybe you should tell your father what’s happened,” Ellen volunteered.

“Don’t have a father.”

Joel leaned back in his chair so it was tilted and rested rather precariously on the back legs. Nick and Ellen drank coffee in silence. Cathy might ask questions, but this was not their way, not with a stranger.