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just laughed. She said what Jared had started you couldn’t annul.” She sniffed. “Well, I got it annulled anyhow.”
    “And you think she’s responsible for poisoning Jared? We can sure find out, Momma Gerber. That’s a police job, and if you suspect her…”
    Momma Gerber shook her head slowly, mouth pinched. “No. The words just popped out of my mouth before I thought. It was all a tempest in a teapot, even back then, what? Almost thirty years ago! A couple of days after he went off with her, Jared came back and told me the girl had run away from him. He didn’t seem too broken up. Her mother went off looking for her, and I haven’t seen either one of them since. It’s just when I saw Jared there, so pale…the words just popped out.”
    “I’m not really following this,” Dora said. “Who exactly are we talking about?”
    The older woman looked momentarily confused. “I’m talking about the mother of the girl Jared married.”
    “Wasn’t she Mrs. Dionne?”
    “She and her girl were some kind of cousins who came to town that summer to visit the Dionnes. And all the boys in the neighborhood, including Jared, started trailing after the girl like dogs after a bitch in heat! And the Dionne boys told Jared to stay away from her, and I guess that made Jared mad, so he took her off and married her. Anyhow, the whole thing, fire and all, was over in a few weeks. That’s water over the dam, long gone, but I wanted to apologize.”
    Dora wasn’t ready to discuss the fact she was leaving Jared, so she contented herself with saying, “Thanks, Momma Gerber. I do appreciate your clarifying that.”
    She had the day free. Jared was out of intensive care. She dithered for a while until Polly asked her why she was so antsy.
    “I’m going to go tell Jared I’m leaving.”
    “While he’s in the hospital?”
    She’d been thinking about it. Somehow she didn’t like the idea of telling him later, after he was home, after they were alone in the house. “Yes,” she blurted. “While he’s there.”
    Polly asked, “You want me to come with you?”
    Dora almost said yes, then decided against it. It wasn’t Polly’s problem.
    Jared was alone in the room, propped up, staring at the wall. His eyes swiveled toward her when she came in, then went back to the wall, as though he were watching the denouement of some compelling television drama. She pulled the straight chair away from the wall and sat on it, waiting. Eventually he would get tired of ignoring her. If he didn’t, she could always start making annoying sounds in her throat.
    “Where’ve you been?” he asked at last, letting his eyes swivel in her direction once more.
    “At your place, Jared. And at work.”
    “You haven’t been here.”
    “Your mother’s been here. And I’ve called, every day, to see how you’re doing.”
    “I don’t like the food.”
    “Hospital food is usually pretty bad,” she admitted. “Do you need anything from your place?”
    He made a face without saying anything.
    “I came today to tell you something,” she began. He showed no interest. “I’m getting a divorce.”
    His eyes swiveled again. His head actually turned. “What do you mean, divorce? You can’t do that. I’ve given you no reason.”
    “Well, Jared, people don’t need specific reasons these days. It’s enough if you just aren’t happy, and you know, I’m not.”
    “Well, if you’re not happy, that’s your own fault,” he challenged her. “It’s got nothing to do with me.”
    She blinked slowly, turtlelike, pulling her psychological shell around her ears. Oil, not nitro, she reminded herself. “Well, you’re probably right, Jared. My happiness has nothing to do with you. And that being the case,we ought not to be married. The fact is I want a home of my own, but your home is so much yours, I don’t feel like I belong there.”
    No response.
    “You don’t really have room for some other person in your life, Jared. All you need is a