Chapter 23: After the Rain

Annabel's POV

The rain stopped on the ninth night, a little after dark.

Hank noticed first, because he had been listening to the roof for nine days.

He stood in the kitchen with his head tipped back and said, "Hush."

We all hushed.

Nothing was falling on the tin.

He went out onto the porch, and we followed, and the sky over the hills was black and clean and full of stars.

Maisy cried, and Hank put his arm around her shoulders and looked embarrassed about it.

On the crank radio that evening, the woman in scrubs had read the Dome's roll call.

She was running it now, with a council of nurses and a man from the line.

She said two people in the gap would be handed to the county deputies at first light, the moment the rain let the gate open.

They had spent a night and a day under the tarp with a bucket and a water jug.

Nobody had asked to speak to either of them.

I had listened with a plate of beans in my lap and felt nothing at all.

It surprised me how little there was to feel.

"You're quiet," Jude said on the porch.

"I'm full."

"Of what?"

"I don't know. Not hate, anyway."

He took my hand.

"It's all right to not know," he said. "Come inside. Hank filled the tub."

"Hank filled the tub?"

"He says it's been a long week and he's tired of looking at us."

I laughed, and went in.

The upstairs bathroom had a clawfoot tub, and the water in it was steaming from two big kettles.

A candle burned on the sill.

Hank had set out two towels. He had also, I noticed, removed every item from the shelf over the sink except soap.

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