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believe any of this," she said, stifling a yawn.
    "What's the big surprise? New house, new ways."
    "Don't give me that. You're the laziest son of a bitch I know."
    Mark shrugged and turned back to the French toast. "Kaymie coming down?"
    "I think so." This time she couldn't stifle the yawn. She pulled out a kitchen chair with a scrape and slouched down into it. "I hope you don't stay like this," she said as he bustled around her. "I don't think I could stand it."
    "I have a lot of energy today. I want to drive out to the university library and see how good it is. And I should finish those two articles by the end of the week anyway."
    Seth abruptly flew through the back door, banging the screen behind him. He sat down at the table, breathless. "That kid was weird," he announced.
    "What kid?" said Ellen, lifting her head.
    Mark said, "Some guy Seth's age showed up about an hour ago. He was standing on the front lawn, staring at the place." He turned to Seth. "Did he want to play?"
    Seth shook his head. "His brother came and dragged him away." He hesitated for a moment, and then went on. "He said there was something weird about this place. He said there was something strange about Kaymie."
    Ellen and Mark looked at each other. "About Kaymie?" Mark asked. "What do you mean?"
    "I don't know," Seth said. They were weird."
    Kaymie came down the stairs and sat quietly at the table.
    "Look," Ellen said. "Daddy's made breakfast today."
    "Uh oh," said Seth, covering his mouth.
    Mark noticed that Kaymie had a funny look on her face. "Are you okay?" he asked.
    She hesitated before answering. "I'm okay." "You sure? You worried about starting school next week?"
    Kaymie thought of saying something about the noises in the closet, and her dream, but decided against it. "I'm all right, Dad."
    "Well," Mark said, wiping his mouth with a napkin and getting up. "I hate to eat and run but I've got things to do. You guys get to clean up the mess. I'll try to get home early so we can get a bunch of the junk stored away and set up the rooms better. But don't hesitate to start without me."
    "Phooey," said Seth, ducking under the table out of reach.
    Campbell Wood was a typical Hudson River community, and in a lot of ways was just like a turn-of-the-century postcard. There was a bit of timelessness here, with modern trappings. Route 22, which ran through the town, was flanked by two rows of single- and double-story shops—the kind of mom-and-pop establishments that had been all but wiped out by the suburban malls.
    Mark cruised slowly past a pharmacy, a small movie theater with a cheap double bill, a jeweler's with a white-haired old man sitting on a stool in the window, squinting over a watch with a magnifier screwed into his eye, an ice-cream parlor, a dry-goods store, a small grocer's, a Woolworth's. There was, of course, the inevitable McDonald's, but even that was tastefully decorated and fitted into the generally oak-trimmed decor of the street. Mark remembered vaguely his father taking him into that Woolworth's when he was three or four and buying him a set of jacks. I'll have to take Seth in there and see if the same magic works on him, he thought. He passed a few trees at the curb with bright green litter cans beneath them; he went through a single traffic light and by another small cluster of stores; then suddenly there were trees all around and the town was behind him. He climbed a small rise and there was the school where Kaymie would start today—a sprawling affair built in the days when school budgets had still been fat and when everyone had lots of kids.
    The trees closed in again.
    The woods were very thick here. A deep shade, relieved now and then by sharp slivers of sunlight breaking through the branches and late leaves overhead, settled over him. The colors were almost frighteningly beautiful—the leaves were thick with gold, red, and various shades of brown.
    They were falling all around him, and those still attached to the trees