Under the Dome

'Are you sure?' she asked, bending down. 'Both of you?' Before these last few days, Carolyn would have said she had no interest in having children, that what she wanted was a career as a teacher and a writer. Maybe a novelist, although it seemed to her that—v^riting novels was pretty risky; what if you spent all that time, wrote a thousand-pager, and it sucked? Poetry, though… going around the country (maybe on a motorcycle)… doing readings and teaching seminars, free as a bird… that would be cool. Maybe meeting a few interesting men, drinking wine and discussing Sylvia Plath in bed. Alice and Aidan had changed her mind. She had fallen in love with them. She wanted the Dome to break—of course she did—but giving these two back to their mom was going to hurt her heart. She sort of hoped it would hurt theirs a little too. Probably that was mean, but there it was.

'Ade? Is it what you want? Because grownup meetings can be awfully long and boring.'

'I want to go,' Aidan said. 'I want to see all the people.' Then Carolyn understood. It wasn't the discussion of resources and how the town was going to use them as it went forward that interested them; why would it be? Alice was nine and Aidan was five. But wanting to see everybody gathered together, like a great big extended family? That made sense.

'Can you be good? Not squirm and whisper too much?'

'Of course,' Alice said with dignity.

'And will you both pee yourselves dry before we go?'

'Yes,' This time the girl rolled her eyes to show what an annoying stupidnik Caro was being… and Caro sort of loved it.

'Then what I'll do is just pack these sandwiches to go,' Carolyn said. 'And we've got two cans of soda for kids who can be good and use straws. Assuming the kids in question have peed themselves dry before dumping any more liquid down their throats, that is.'

'I use straws like mad,' Aidan said. 'Any Woops?'

'He means Whoopie Pies,' Alice said.

'I know what he means, but there aren't any. I think there might be some graham crackers, though. The kind with cinnamon sugar on them.'

'Cinnamon graham crackers rock,'Aidan said.'I love you, Caro.'

Carolyn smiled. She thought no poem she'd ever read had been so beautiful. Not even the Williams one about the cold plums.

13

Andrea Grinnell descended the stairs slowly but steadily while Julia stared in amazement. Andi had undergone a transformation. Makeup and a comb-out of the frizzy wreck that had been her hair had played a part, but that wasn't all of it. Looking at her, Julia realized how long it had been since she'd seen the town's Third Selectman looking like herself. This evening she was wearing a knockout red dress belted at the waist—it looked like Ann Taylor—and carrying a large fabric bag with a drawstring top.

Even Horace was gawking.

'How do I look?' Andi asked when she reached the bottom of the stairs. 'Like I could fly to the town meeting, if I had a broom?'

'You look great. Twenty years younger.'

'Thanks, hon, but I have a mirror upstairs.'

'If it didn't show you how much better you look, you better try one down here, where the light's better.'

Andi switched her bag to her other arm, as if it were heavy. 'Well. I guess I do. A little, anyway.'

'Are you sure you have strength enough for this?'

'I think so, but if I start to shake and shiver, I'll slip out the side door.' Andi had no intention of slipping away, whether she shook or not.

"What's in the bag?'

Jim Rennie's lunch, Andrea thought. Which I intend to feed him in front of this whole town.

'I always take my knitting to town meeting. Sometimes they're just so slow and dull.'

'I don't think this one will be dull,' Julia said.

'You're coming, aren't you?'

'Oh, I imagine,'Julia said vaguely. She expected to be well away from downtown Chester's Mill before the meeting ended. 'I have a few things to do first. Can you get there on your own?'

Andi gave her a comical Mother, please look. 'Down the street, down the hill, and it's right there. Been doing it for years.'

Julia looked at her watch. It was quarter to six.'Aren't you leaving awfully early?'

'Al will open the doors at six o'clock, if I'm not mistaken, and I want to be sure and get a good seat.'

'As a selectwoman, you should be right up there onstage,' Julia said. 'If it's what you want.'

'No, I don't think so.' Andi switched the bag to her other arm again. Her knitting was inside; so was the VADER file and the.38 her brother Twitch had given her for home protection. She thought it would serve just as well for town protection. A town was like a body, but it had one advantage over the human one; if a town had a bad brain, a transplant could be effected. And maybe it wouldn't come to killing. She prayed it wouldn't.

Julia was looking at her quizzically. Andrea realized she'd drifted off.

'I think I'll just sit with the common folk tonight. But I'll have my say when the time comes. You can count on that.'

14