“Aw, not the fuckin’ fac . . .” Raf groaned before I put out his voice with mine.

“Raymond’s here,” I said.

Raymond made signals at me. “No, no, I don’t want to talk to him,” the signals said.

There was nothing from Raf’s end for a bit. “Pru with him?” he said, finally.

“No. Evidently that’s over.”

“So he’s with you,” Raf said.

“Since the storm, yeah. He came up and he’s been with me,” I said.

Now Raf sighed. He said, “Well, you needn’t think of it as a storm, Paige. More as a kind of winter carnival. Every goddamn dream-come-true. We need to fuckin’ talk! So how is the old singing cowboy? Diggin’ in those spurs?”

“Don’t you dare,” I said. “Where have you been?”

“I’d have to hire a detective to tell me for the first part of where I’ve been, but I think some Mexico was involved, and I either got elected to office in this little town or I was detained in their jail.”

“If I were betting, I know where I’d put my money.”

“All I remember is a courthouse. And then I was exported, probably. And anyway, ever after, I’ve been hanging with Mario.”

“Mario!”

“Yeah. He who bounced you on his knee?”

“A lie,” I said.

“No, it’s true, you can ask him. I like his place. We could live in Providence. You ever thought about moving there?”

I said, “The faculty club about five and leave your suggestions with the triplets.”

Raymond broke in. “What suggestions?” he asked me. “Is he giving you trouble?”

“I heard that,” Raf said on the phone.

By noontime, most of the emergency guests were gone. The rock band had left, Raymond told me; left in a group, and not in theory but in fact.

“Aw, and I never got to know them,” I said.

Walt Barber, the Cape Head policeman, showed up along with a young highway patrolman. Walt looked pasty, red- eyed. He hadn’t shaved in a while. “I’ll take tea, coffee, Coke, anything with zip,” he said.

The patrolman said, “We’re lucky. Everything’s melting. The armory’s about emptied out. We can run whosever left down there. We got supplies for them. Roads to Wasnascawa are clear.”

“Good work, boys,” Dottie said.

“Nobody’s slept,” Walt Barber said. “I wish I could’ve been here last night. Appears you had like a New Year’s Eve party.”

“Not too bad,” Dottie said.

“You won’t get paid back for it, though.”

“I know,” she said.

Walt Barber said, “You can try. But you know the condition of the Cape Head coffers.” He stood erect and turned out his empty trouser pockets.

“I know that,” Dottie said.

He nodded, bit down a yawn. “Phew, I’m an old fucking guy.”

“Watch that mouth,” Dottie told him.

The patrolman said, “I’ve heard such words before, ma’am, believe me.”