Asher doesn’t respond. He concentrates on the small bones in his son’s wrist.

“Let me see her.”

Asher lets go of Justin and follows him into the house. And there is Bell, looking like a queen lying there asleep. There is a stillness in the room that exists only where the dead lie. Asher recalls it from his own mother’s death, from the many death beds he attended as a pastor. Justin leans over and kisses Bell on the cheek. Asher can smell the flowers Bell always wore in her hair, she wore them so long that she started to smell like them even when the flowers weren’t there.

Then he hears Justin whisper: “Olivia Bougainvillea Iguana.”

Justin turns to leave but Asher folds himself down and takes hold of him.

Justin buries his face against Asher’s chest. Evona caps her hand over Justin’s head. Asher thinks about when he was the pastor and at the end of the service people would go to the altar and he’d anoint their heads with oil. The congregation would gather around the person who needed praying for and they’d lay hands on the person’s head and pray out loud in shivering sentences.

“Shady knew before anybody,” Justin says, and he is off again, running outside to find the dog. Outside, Asher and Evona see Justin’s legs sticking out from under the house as he squeezes under. They don’t have time for this. They have to go, Asher knows. Evona will take care of Shady. “Justin!” he yells, too loudly, angry now. They have to go. “Come on, right now!”

Asher gets down on his hands and knees, peering back into the darkness and Justin is sliding on his belly to the dog, who is lying back there in the shadows of the farthest corner, curled up right under Bell’s bedroom.

“Come on, little buddy,” Justin says, clucking his tongue. “I’m here now. It’s okay, Shady-boy.”

The dog blinks at him. As if saying, No, it’s not alright. Not by a long shot. Bell’s gone. She’s gone, and she ain’t coming back.

Justin scooches toward Shady, ignoring Asher’s pleas, and there’s no way Asher can get back there. Justin manages to get his head and chest back past the two front rooms but beyond that he can’t do it. Shady is watching Justin as if he is very, very concerned.

“Justin, please!” Asher pleads.

And Shady recognizes the urgency and moves forward.

“That’s it, buddy,” Justin soothes. “Come on, come on out.”

Shady crawls toward him and Justin eases backward, urging the dog forward until they are all out on the yard. Shady spoons against Justin, their breath rising and falling at the same time in exhaustion. They lie there only a few seconds, but it seems much longer.