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Every time the phone rang she started. But three days passed with no word from him.
On Thursday morning there was a knock on the door. Caroline hurried to answer hair straightenersit, adjusting the belt of her dress, touching her hair. But it was only a deliveryman, holding a vase full of flowers: dark red and pale pink in a cloud of baby's breath. These were from Al. My thanks for the hospitality, he'd written on the card. Maybe I'll see you on my next run.
Caroline took them inside and arranged them on the coffee table. Agitated, she picked up The Leader, which she hadn't read in days, slipped off the rubber band, and skimmed through the articles, not really taking in any of them. Escalating tensions in Vietnam, social announcements about who had entertained whom the previous week, a page of local women modeling the new spring hats. Caroline was about to throw the paper down when a black-bordered square caught her eye.
Memorial Service
For Our Beloved Daughter
Phoebe Grace Henry
Born and Died March y, 1964
Lexington Presbyterian Church
Friday, March ghd hair straighteners13, 1964, at 9 a.m.
Caroline sat down slowly. She read the words once and then again. She even touched them, as if this would make them clearer somehow, explicable. With the paper still in her hands, she stood up and went to the bedroom. Phoebe slept in her drawer, one pale arm outflung against the blankets. Born and died. Caroline went back into the living room and called her office. Ruby picked up on the first ring.
"I don't suppose you're coming in?" she said. "It's a madhouse here. Everyone in town seems to have the flu." She lowered her voice then. "Did you hear, Caroline? About Dr. Henry and his ba¬bies? 
 They had twins after all. The little boy is fine; he's precious. But the girl, she died at birth. So sad."
"I saw it in the paper." Caroline's jaw, her tongue, felt stiff. "I
wonder if you'd ask Dr. Henry to call me. Tell him it's important. I saw the paper," she repeated. "Tell him that, will you, Ruby?" Then she hung ed hardy discountsup and sat staring out at the sycamore tree and the park¬ing lot beyond.
An hour later he knocked at her door.
"Well," she said, showing him in.
David Henry came in and sat on her sofa, his back hunched, turning his hat in his hand. She sat down in the chair across from him, watching him as if she'd never seen him before.
"Norah put the announcement in," he said. When he looked up she felt a rush of sympathy despite herself, for his forehead was lined, his eyes bloodshot, as if he hadn't slept in days. "She did it without telling me."
"But she thinks her christian louboutinsdaughter died," Caroline said. "That's what you told her?"
He nodded, slowly. "I meant to tell her the truth. But when I opened my mouth, I couldn't say it. At that moment, I thought I was saving her pain."
Caroline thought of her own lies, streaming out one after the other.
"I didn't leave her in Louisville," she said softly. She nodded at the bedroom door. "She's in there. Sleeping."