She clambered up and then out of the cabin and saw Reed just as he had been, and she ran next door, screaming for Jeff and Charlie. Jeff came on a dead run. Granny Jane did not frighten easily, and her fear frightened Jeff. When he got to the cabin, Reed stood there, mouth open, tongue slightly out, hands at his sides, twitching like a man who has just been hanged.

“Under there,” Granny screamed. “Mattie. She's under there.”

Jeff grabbed a shovel leaning against the door and began shoveling away dirt from the entrance to the cabin. “Where?” he screamed. “Where the hell is she?”

“Over there. Near the window.”

He scuttled up the fallen roof toward the right side of the cabin and began again, shoveling toward his wife. He jammed the shovel into the debris, thought better of it, and, fearing he would hurt Mattie with the shovel, he fell on his knees and began clawing the dirt behind him, between his legs, like a dog.

He stopped that, took up the shovel again, and tried to push it slowly and carefully into the dirt so as not to cut or crush her if he hit her with the shovel. This way moved the most dirt. He knew that. This was the most effective way, but it felt wrong, seemed to move too slow. It required him to move at a measured pace that did not fit his state of mind. His wife was buried under a ton of dirt, and he was methodically shoveling dirt away from her. It was wrong in some way he couldn't know. He threw the shovel aside once more and fell on his knees, clawing at the dirt with his hands. He screamed for Reed, he screamed for Granny and for Charlie. No one came. And then he saw that they were at his side, Granny and Charlie, not Reed. And they were clawing at the dirt, too. Even little Charlie, just five, but strong and fierce as a Power should be.

And it was Charlie who found her, or found the tiny floral print of her dress under his hands. He cried out, and Jeff and Granny began digging her out, exposing more of the dress with each scoop of dirt. It was a deep hole. Over two feet of the sod roof covered her body, and when they saw that it was her back they were uncovering, they knew but did not slow.

Their hands were raw and bleeding, all of them, even Charlie's, when Jeff was able to get his arms around and under her and to pull her back, her shoulders, and, finally, with a shower of dirt, her head. Then Granny and Charlie went to work on her legs and feet until Jeff was able to pull her free.