The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan

in a boat and set them on the windowsill. On each stem there were small green buds, and day by day they changed. Lighter strips showing, growing wider, the green folds pushing apart so slowly. Two were like that, maybe three, though the others stayed tightly closed. We had to leave before I could see them completely open, but I suppose it might not have happened at all. The first flowers turning brown and limp around the edge of their petals. We took the mug but left the posy lying in a little puddle on the sill.
    The package was gone from the outside chair and when I opened the door the house was silent, no sound of my mother’s humming, not even the ticking clock. She had been mixing her cake when I left and there was a smell in the air, as if it had burned in the stove, and I wondered how I could have been gone so long. I started down the hall to find her, but my father called me from the top of the stair. I had the music in my hand, black notes dancing, and I held it out buthe kept his hands behind his back, asked me to bring it up to him. The third stair cracked, like it always did, as I climbed toward my father. He stood very still, his hands behind his back, and I thought of the game he used to play with Rachel, wondered if it was finally my turn to guess which hand held the surprise
.

Gun
    S & W 32 D.A. 3½ INCH BARREL
    New Model. Nickeled and Rubber stock. 5 Shot.
    Weighs 13 oz., of elegant design and finest workmanship throughout.
    Extra plating and Engraved handle, gives very fine “grip.”  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  $8.00
    DIRECTIONS FOR USE.
Half cock the arm;
raise the barrel catch to its full height and tip the barrel forward as far as it will go. Place the charges in the chambers and return the barrel to its place, being sure to have the barrel catch down, when the arm is ready for use.
    While Carrying the Pistol Fully Charged
, allow the hammer to rest in the
safety catch
. After the first discharge, allow thehammer to rest on the
exploded cartridge
until the next discharge, and so on until all are fired. Do not let your thumb slip off the hammer.

Forgiveness—1889
    So here hath been dawning
    Another blue day;
    Think, wilt thou let it
    Slip useless away?
    —Thomas Carlyle
    THE PAIN NUDGES her awake, boring into her right eye, and in the dark she reaches for the drops, the bottle rocking on the nightstand, and lies back, thinking,
There now. There now
. Thinking that perhaps her mother will have to take the school again, and that will mean another wasted day, long tales about her courtship, her slender ankles. The children will twitch in their chairs, waiting. Waiting until she comes to the part about the storm at sea and the sailor who was washed overboard, the look on his face.
On this day
, Alice thinks, as the warmth moves through her,
on this day there should be no more dwelling on death
.
    She slides back into sleep and dreams a memory, as she often has these past long months. The tap on the front door and Mr. Heath on the step, the bright autumn day behind him. She asks if there is a problem with the music Lilian collected and he says no, says that everything is fine. Nothing unusual in his face, nothing in his voice gives any hint. He says that he’s sorry to interrupt,that he needs Rachel at home, just for a little while. Down the hall the children’s clear voices are chanting:
Seven eights are fifty-six, eight eights are …
    She asks him in but Mr. Heath says that he will wait where he is, says something about the clear sky. In the dream her feet are slow and heavy as she moves down the hall to the schoolroom, tells Rachel that her father has come for her, that it’s just for a moment, and she can leave her things where they are. The dream Rachel wears a white dress, although in life Alice knows it was a faded blue. She moves down the hall toward the dark shape in the doorway and Alice turns back to the others. Through the schoolroom window she sees