had changed. When that happened, Ruth wasn't the only person in Haven to wake up with a horrible hangover sort of headache.
Everyone in town, from the oldest to the youngest, woke up feeling the same way as the strong winds blew the tainted air east, sending it out over the ocean, fragmenting it into harmless tatters.
7
Ruth slept until one o'clock Wednesday afternoon. She got up with the lingering remains of her headache, but two Anacin took care of that. By five she felt better than she had for a long time. Her body ached and her muscles were stiff, but these were minor matters compared to the things that had troubled her since the beginning of July, and they could not cut into her sense of well-being at all. Even her fear for David Brown couldn't spoil it completely.
On Main Street, everyone she passed had a peculiar dazed look in his or her eye, as though they had all just awakened from a spell cast by a fairy-tale witch.
Ruth went to her office in the town hall, enjoying the way the wind lifted her hair from her temples, the way the clouds moved across a sky that was a deep, crisp blue: a sky that looked almost autumnal. She saw a couple of kids flying a box kite in the big field behind the grammar school and actually laughed aloud.
But there was no laughing later as she spoke to a small group she quickly gathered - Haven's three selectmen, the town manager, and, of course, Bryant and Marie Brown. Ruth began by apologizing for not having called the state police and wardens before now, or even reporting the boy's disappearance. She had believed, she said, that they would find David quickly, probably the first night, certainly the next day. She knew that was no excuse, but it was why she had allowed it to happen. It had been, she said, the worst mistake she had made in her years as Haven's constable and if David Brown had suffered for it ... she would never forgive herself.
Bryant just nodded, dazed and distant and ill-looking. Marie, however, reached across the table and took her hand.
'You're not to blame yourself,' she said softly. 'There were other circumstances. We all know that.' The others nodded.
I can't hear their minds anymore, Ruth realized suddenly, and her mind responded: Could you ever, Ruth? Really? Or was that a hallucination brought on by your worry over David Brown?
Yes, Yes, I could.
It would be easier to believe it had been a hallucination, but that wasn't the truth. And realizing that, she realized something else: she could still do it. It was like hearing a faint roaring sound in a conch shell, that sound children mistake for the ocean. She had no idea what their thoughts were, but she was still hearing them. Were they hearing her?
ARE YOU STILL THERE? she shouted as loudly as she could.
Marie Brown's hand went to her temple, as if she had felt a sudden stab of pain. Newt Berringer frowned deeply. Hazel McCready, who had been doodling on the pad in front of her, looked up as if Ruth had spoken aloud.
Oh yes, they still hear me.
'Whatever happened, right or wrong, is done now,' Ruth said. 'It's time - and overtime - that I contacted the state police about David. Do I have your approval to take this step?'
Under normal circumstances, it never would have crossed her mind that she should ask them a question like that. After all, they paid her pittance of a salary to answer questions, not ask them.
But things were different in Haven now. Fresh breeze and clear air or not, things were still different in Haven now.
They looked at her, surprised and a little shocked.
Now the voices came back to her clearly: No, Ruth, no ... no outsiders ... we'll take care ... we don't need any outsiders while we 'become' .
shhh ... for your life, Ruth ... shhh ...
Outside, the wind blew a particularly hard gust. rattling the windows of Ruth's office. Adley McKeen looked toward the sound ... they all did. then Adley smiled a puzzled, peculiar little smile. .
'O'course, Ruth,' he said. 'If you think it's time to notify the staties, you got to go ahead. We trust your judgment, don't we?'
The others agreed.
The weather had changed. the wind was blowing, and by Wednesday afternoon, the state police were in charge of the search for David Brown. That night his picture was shown statewide on