Chapter 24: All Day

The whole table looked at Drew.

He put down his fork and wiped his mouth with a napkin, taking his time about it.

"Through supper, sir," he said.

My father considered that.

"That's tonight."

"Yes, sir."

"And tomorrow's breakfast?"

"I'd like to be at that too."

"There's a roof that wants looking at," my father said. "On the garage."

"I can look at it."

"It might take a day."

"Then it takes a day."

My mother set the waffle platter down very gently, and Joy bent over her coffee with her shoulders shaking.

My father nodded once and went back to his plate.

After breakfast Drew went up on the garage roof with a ladder and a flashlight and a heavy hammer.

I sat on the porch steps with a mug and watched him.

Around noon, the power went out.

It went with a small hard click, and the refrigerator shuddered into silence and the furnace stopped.

My mother called from the kitchen that it was the transformer on the corner again, and the whole street would be down till dark.

Drew came down the ladder for lunch, and we ate cold chicken sandwiches on the porch.

The sun was out, thin and bright.

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